Flexing my hand I could only blame it on myself that the hand feels like it is now. When the manager called yesterday for some help with the night shift, I didn't think it meant that it would be me who had to close for the night.
Closing for the night isn't the worst thing if it wasn't for the big spill of beans right before closing time, didn't help that Darren had cleaning duty which meant I had to go over it again after he left.
And the pain that I was feeling now probably could have been avoided if I took the normal route to the bus stop. Instead, I decided that taking a shortcut through a dark alleyway was the better decision, probably shouldn't have braced with only one hand either.
"Still got here five minutes earlier than usual at least" I grumbled.
Sitting in my seat I took a second look at my hand. The hand looked normal which still confused me. I definitely felt something pierce the skin or it was at least painful enough to feel like it. Flexing it again still felt painful, but at least not to the same degree as last time.
"The doctor will have to until tomorrow, I'm way too exhausted to go through a MedBot procedure this late."
The bus didn't take long reaching my destination with me being distracted by the pain. The pain has gone from feeling like being pinned with needles to it just being slightly warmer than usual.
But when I got off the bus the heat I felt had transformed more into a burning feeling. I might have to go see a doctor if the hand was going to be this weird. The burning sensation had started spreading up to the elbow by the time I reached my apartment complex and past the shoulder when I started going up to my apartment. When I was on the way to bed with my entire body feeling like it was actually on fire, I was considering that going through the MedBot procedure wouldn't be that bad compared to this.
That was how far my thought process went before I collapsed onto the bed and settled into a deep sleep.
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I woke up a few hours later fully rested and feeling like I had injected caffeine into my veins with how energetic I felt. I felt like I could do anything or at the very least I had to do something. I just needed to get some breakfast to start the day, but on the way to the fridge, I noticed something weird that caught my attention and moved towards the window.
"The moon is still out? I feel like I slept a whole week..." I said before continuing in a curious voice. "Maybe I did sleep a whole week?"
I went back to the bedroom to check the phone which, fortunately, wasn't telling me that I had slept for a week.
* 01:13 *
23.04.2042
"At least I haven't slept for a week, but I slept for only an hour. I guess it was a really good nap then but it's too late to go outside. What to do?"
Thinking back on it, there was really no reason for me to think that I slept that long. I would have woken up in the hospital if I slept that long or maybe dead. One doesn't feel this energetic after a nap like that.
Going away from those morbid thoughts I still had to find something to do. In this day and age, you could find tons of things to do inside your own home but I was looking for something that I hadn't done before.
Looking around the apartment there were a few things I could do. Play a game, watch a movie or read a book. But these activities didn't feel good enough since I had to either use the time to find one or would require me to use my mind more than my body.
I was about to give up and at least try to sleep again when I spotted a box I remembered having put away. Taking the box down for me to read the title written in big fancy letters; Artisto! Beginner kit for any aspiring artist.
"I forgot I had this."
The box was meant to be a gift to a cousin but his interest suddenly changed from artist to chef and I had to buy a cookbook for beginners for him instead. Unfortunately, I tried to be strategic at the time and buy the gift months in advance, getting it cheap, but it was too late to return it by the time I found out. The box has been sitting on that shelf for months now gathering dust but now is a good a time as any to see how good the kit is.
Opening it, I took a good look at the content and it's what one would expect for a beginner kit. A canvas, paint, pencils, clay and a book filled with examples. Looking at them I decided to take the clay and the book. The clay seemed like the easier choice and I always thought of myself as good with my hands. Time to test it out.
The book was filled with examples from simple cups to more advanced sculptures. I ended up with a cup as the first thing that I would make.
Picking up the clay I could feel that it's a bit tough, but malleable and started on the foundation of the cup. The work is a bit frustrating getting it to look like an actual cup, but I could feel some of that energy that I had been feeling since waking up lessening. Not by much though, only from wanting to join a triathlon to running a marathon.
It wasn't long before I made a cup one could at least drink from that I was already turning the page to the next project. And the next one, and the next and the next.
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I woke up a second time in a very different place than the first time.
First thing was that I woke up on the floor of my living room, reeking of sweat and the room sensors having apparently turned off the lights. I was feeling both dehydrated and starving. The second thing is that the entire room seemed to be filled with strange objects that one could just see thanks to the moonlight shining in from the windows.
Getting up to both make the lights turn on again and register the strange scene around me. When the lights turned on again one could finally see what the strange objects were and making me remember what I was doing before I most likely fell asleep out of exhaustion.
Everywhere I looked one could only see strange sculptures and pottery, some he remembers pretty well, while others I had no clue when they were made. It looked like I went through the entire book from the simple cups and bowls to at least making an attempt at the more advanced sculptures. One could only call it an attempt with how some of them looked, some of the statues appeared to be missing a few limbs or have a few more. One of them was using a fork as a limb. Was there really that much clay in the box. There were a few that looked a lot shinier than something made of clay should be.
I was about to look at some of the more shinier ones when my stomach finally made a complaint big enough to take my attention away from the chaos in front of me. Trying to find some food would have to be prioritized and then I could figure out this mess later
Making my way to the kitchen one had to maneuver carefully around the sculptures, with my body hungry and tired as it was, making it more difficult than it usually is. Finally making it to the kitchen, I chose to just heat some leftovers instead of bothering to make food. Finding some leftovers from yesterdays dinner and putting it in the microwave. Waiting for the beep gives me the first sense of normalcy since I tripped in that alleyway and makes one think that I can figure out why my body can't decide on what extreme it wan to be on. Why does it go from exhausted to filled with energy and back again in just a few hours
My thoughts don't go further than that before the entire place goes dark once more, with the food not even lukewarm.
Or maybe my problems are just starting.