Remnants of packages and magazines still lay at some of the doorsteps, unopened and long forgotten. At least the animals got some use out of them. Window panes hung perilously from their hinges and here and there drapes had been flung out by the wind.
Porthcawl, once a major festival town and home to an amazing night lift had been forsaken and left to rot alone. An eerie silence had taken over and was only interrupted by the cracking of wood in the wind and the occasional bird who had made its home in one of the many collapsed roofs.
In a strange sense of irony it was the library that was full of sounds now. Scattered pages of books, scratched wood and broken computers had become the home and playground of a huge community of cats.
Were it not for the animals that had made their home in many of the buildings this town would’ve surely been a far more unsettling sight. But not all was lost. In a way the legacy of this town lived on through the animals that lived here now, the spirit was still alive albeit in a different manner.
Most doors still stood sturdy in their frames. They were a little dirty, but if you only focused on the doors you’d expect people to come out as if nothing had changed. Dry rot, vines and other undesired vegetation had taken the place of paint on most buildings and created their own kind of decoration.
Garthram, once home to thousands of families and counting had become a forgotten relic of the past. The sounds of insects, winds and creaking wood of trees which were once drowned out by the sounds of cars and people had returned as the dominant sounds once more.
The clock-tower was somehow still rich with sounds, but it wasn’t its bells and gears as those had stopped working a long time ago. It was a flock of crows that had made this once great pillar their new home.
You couldn’t help but feel lost in this town now, even if you knew exactly where you were. It was a lonely place with only distant memories of what once was. But even when all the buildings are finally taken by nature there was at least the knowledge that the animals wouldn’t have to leave and could continue their lives in peace.
