There in the light I saw him. His dark hair melded with the shadows, but his bright clothing made him stand out. The bright colours making him distinct amongst the darkness in which he existed. His gaze was distant, unfocused, and I knew that he was looking past me in the way that he looked past everybody. There was not a soul that impressed itself upon those eyes, I doubted that there was ever a sight that managed to fill those hungry blue eyes of his. His shoulders slumped, showing the desperate weakness that he lived with at all times. Pale skin covered his body, it made him look sick all the time, fitting that the body should reflect the mind so accurately. He looked thin, emaciated even, and but I could tell that it was a product of something other than malnutrition, he wasn't starving. There was no hunger lingering about him. There was only an absence of a vital something. Without which, he was functionally dead to the world. A nihilistic apathy showed itself in the way that he moved; this was a man who did not care for the world around him, or for himself.

And then I blinked. Ripples in the water disturbed my reflection, and for a moment I imagined myself smiling. It seemed fake to me. The boy who stared back at me was not one to smile. He was a shell.
I knew that all too well.
But for a moment I could hope. As unrealistic as it was, I could pretend that the boy had not forgotten to smile.
For if I could still smile, then maybe I was not dead.

The water glimmered with the light of the evening sun.
And the corpse of the young man smiled, hopefully.

For one more day, I could escape the jaws of Death.