“Sweet dreams are made of this. Who am I to disagree?—” Static came through the store’s radio as the song suddenly came to an end, replaced by a prerecorded message. “Attention GoodMart shoppers, the store will be closing in thirty minutes. Please bring all final purchases to the front for checkout. Thank you!—” A peppy woman announced. The message ended and the song returned. “Some of them want to abuse you, and some of them want to be abused!”

For the most part, I ignored both the song and the message. Which wasn’t hard to do considering I’d listened to them both almost every day for the last eight months. Instead, I focused my attention on the jar of grape jam sitting on the shelf in front of me. It was clearly expired, looking around the outside jar I noticed its expiration date was the 29th of December- almost five months ago. Not only that, but someone had opened the jar and left it sitting out for God only knows how long, causing a thick clump of black mold to form around the rim.

I felt bad for the grapes that went into making this jar of jam. Instead of being eaten and useful to someone, here it sits alone and unwanted.

In some ways, I felt a kinship with this jar. After all, I was also an unwanted waste of space- destined to rot in some forgotten corner of this store.

“Ardnt!”

I looked away from jar after hearing my last name being barked like battle cry. I only knew one person who spoke my name as if it were the cause of every bad thing that’d happened in their life.

David Herschel; center store manager of GoodMart, and my boss.

I spotted David standing at the end of the aisle with a mop in one hand and a bucket in the other. David was the exact opposite of me; where I had short black hair, he had long blonde hair that was pulled into a ponytail. Where I was tall and lanky, he was short and stocky. Still built like the football player was before a bad tackle ruined his right knee, and his chances of a college scholarship.

For some reason, David hated me. It was like every breath I took was an insult to his mother, or something. And at least once a day, he made a point of calling me out in front of the cashiers.

I’m sure the fact that most of them were pretty twentysomething year old girls had nothing to do with it.

“I asked you to mop the bathrooms twenty minutes ago, Ardnt!” He threw the mop down, causing a plume of water to explode the bucket. “Pull your head out of your ass and get back to work, you don’t get paid to stand around with your thumb up your ass! Clean up this mess while you’re at it!” He turned his back on me and stomped towards the registers.

I let out a tired sigh. I’d just finished mopping the bathrooms… Truth be told, David probably knew that. In fact, that was probably the same mop and bucket I used the first time, they were probably still wet, too.

I picked up the mop and touched the end with my left hand. Yeah, it was still wet. I looked towards the registers, and spotted David leaning suggestively into one girl’s personal space.

She giggled at something he said and placed her hand on his bicep.

I rolled my eyes at their byplay. 

I mopped up the water David had practically poured onto the aisle, then headed for the bathrooms. I thought about marching over and dumping what was left of the water on David’s head— but I knew I’d never actually go through with it.

I kept my eyes directed at the floor and avoided looking at the registers as I walked.

I stepped into the small corridor that led to the bathrooms and shoved open the door to the men’s bathroom. My left foot slid across the wet floor as I stepped inside and cursed under my breath as I was forced to catch myself on the sink.

I pulled myself up and growled under my breath. The mop clattered to the ground and what was left of the water in the bucket was now all over the floor.

I crouched with one hand bracing against the sink and dropped my head until it rested against my knees.

This is exactly the kind of bullshit I expect from David. This was why he didn’t bring over a full bucket of water for me to work with. He had already dumped some of it out on the floor, no doubt hoping I would fall and hurt myself.

I stood up and pulled my phone out of my pocket.

It was a few years old now and spotted with multiple long cracks across the screen. The redundant updates caused it to operate slower than I’d like, but I didn’t have a thousand dollars to upgrade to a newer model, so I was stuck with it.

I opened one of the idle game apps I had downloaded and started repeatedly tapping on the screen. The pixelated hero reacted to my tapping and swung his tiny sword faster and faster, cutting through hordes of monsters as the seconds passed.

I played for a while; until my annoyance had mostly subsided and I was ready to get back to work. I picked up my mop and started pushing the water towards the train in the center of the floor.

Once I was done, I picked up the bucket and the mop and left the bathroom. I knocked on the door to the women’s bathroom, waited fifteen seconds, then pushed open the door and poked my head inside. I didn’t see anyone inside, and the floor was, for the most part, still clean.

The store had a policy that said male employees were not allowed to enter female restrooms under any circumstances. That being the case, one of the female cashiers were supposed to clean this bathroom just as I had done men’s. But I doubted David had actually told any of them to do it.

I stepped inside and headed over to the sink. I filled my bucketful with water and then got to work. It took longer this time, but I was still done within fifteen minutes.

I poured my dirty mop water down the drain, picked up my stuff, then stepped out of the bathroom… Only to bump right into Demi Duncan; five feet ten inches of curvaceous blonde, and hands down one of my favorite people to work at GoodMart. I didn’t think Demi was a natural blonde, parts of her hair were too dark for that, but she made it work. Then again, I was almost positive Demi could make almost anything work.

She was the type of woman men and women alike would, and had, fought over. But as far as I knew, she never showed interest in anyone, at least not in the romantic sense.

But when you look as good as she does, and you’re as charming she is, you don’t have to show interest in someone, to get them to fall for you.

Demi’s sea-green eyes locked onto mine, she smiled, and I thought I was going to die. My chest grew tighter and I found it difficult to breathe. I turned my head to the side and blew out a lungful of air to ‘reset’ myself.

I nodded to her and tried to step aside so she could enter, but she shook her head.

“I thought I’d come help you with the women’s bathroom, but—” she peeked around me. “I guess you didn’t need any help, after all?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “It’s fine. Thanks anyways.”

“Why were you going clean the bathroom, anyway? Wasn’t Crystal the one scheduled to clean the bathroom today?” She asked. She folded her arms beneath her breasts, which only served to emphasize why people had given her the nickname ‘DD’.

I forced myself not to look, choosing to focus on her face, instead; or more specifically, on her beautiful green eyes.

 I shrugged again. I stepped around her and started walking, she followed me by half a step.

She shook her head and sighed. “Luca, you need to stop letting David bully you. Stand up for yourself for a change, and I guarantee you, good things will follow.” She got a sly grin on her face and she winked at me. “Besides, confidence is attractive.”

She turned and walked down the cereal aisle with a particular sway to her hips, and I couldn’t help looking.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Get an eyeful?” I jumped at the sound of David’s voice and turned to seeing him leaning against the wall beside me. His eyes slid off of me and locked onto Demi’s backside, a lecherous grin spread across his face and it took everything I had not to smack him with the bucket.

He pushed off the wall and moved next to me. Wrapping his arm around my shoulders, he pulled me down to his height and brought his lips up to my ear. “Stay away from her. A loser like you needs to stick with other losers and leave girls like that to real man.” He squeezed my shoulder hard enough to make me flinch. “If I see you talking to her again, I’ll send a note to HR and have you fired for sexual harassment.” He increased the strength in his grip one more time and lightly shook me. “Understand?”

I nodded my head.

“Good. Now, get your ass over to the chemical aisle. Some kid had an accident over there and knocked a bottle of bleach onto the floor.” He let go of me and walked away, making a point to walk down the same aisle Demi had.

I tightened my grip on the handle of the bucket and grit my teeth. I felt tightness in my chest again, this time from anger. I reached into my pocket and pulled out an inhaler; it was red with a white cap on the end. I briefly shook it, then took two hits off of it before shoving it back into my pocket.

I practically stomped over to the chemical aisle. The moment I stepped around the corner, I had to cover my nose with my shirt. The smell of bleach was so strong it made me lightheaded, but I knew if I didn’t clean it up, I’d never hear the end of it.

I let out a small growl of annoyance, then headed off to find one of the safety carts. They usually had everything needed to clean up something like bleach, the problem was finding one.

I backtracked down the aisle and headed for the doors leading into the back room.

“Oh my god!” I paused with my hand on the door and looked towards the front of the store.

Was- was that someone screaming?

“He’s got a gun!”

I felt my eyes widen. I dropped the mop and bucket and started running. After only ten seconds, I was breathing like I’d ran a full marathon, but I arrived at the front of the store and ducked behind an endcap holding about a hundred one-gallon containers of water.

I peeked around my cover and spotted a trio of men in dark suits demanding that everyone lay on their stomachs with their hands behind their backs.

I was deeper into the store than they were, seeing as they’d taking hostages around the registers, so while I had a good view of them they couldn’t see me from this angle… At least I hoped not.

My only experience with guns was playing call of duty on the PlayStation, so I wasn’t the best at identifying weapons. But I’d remembered seeing glocks in the game, and the pistols they were carrying looked similar.

I pulled out my phone and dialed 911. A loud screech from my phone speaker pierced my eardrum, surprising me enough that I dropped it. It clattered on the floor and the trio of men turned in my direction.

I cursed under my breath, then slid backwards until I was hopefully out of their line of sight.

“No, please—” I heard what sounded like a loud popping noise, then a thud as something fell to the ground. I peeked around the corner and saw Demi laying on the ground; I could only see her head, but her eyes were open, and she was staring at me. A red liquid pooled around her head and neck, dying her beautiful blonde hair crimson.

I felt like someone had hit me in the chest with a sledgehammer. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. All I could do was stare at Demi’s unmoving form.

Someone grabbed my wrist and pulled me away from the endcap. My chest seized up and I froze like a deer in headlights. Something was shoved into my mouth and I felt the familiar sensation of powder hitting the back of my throat, followed by the hiss of an inhaler.

“Breathe, Luca.” A woman said. Another puff from the inhaler hit the back of my throat, then it was pulled out of my mouth.

My eyes fluttered as the medicine kicked in and I turned— my mouth dropped open at the woman crouching next to me; shorter than me by about five inches, the woman looked to be around my age; perhaps a few years younger or older, it was hard to tell. She had one of those faces that made it seem like she could either still be in high school or a college student.

Wavy reddish black hair hung down to her chin, and still gray eyes peeked out from beneath her bangs to stare at me. I noticed a light dusting of freckles on her nose and cheeks, but that didn’t detract from her beauty, if anything, they emphasized it.

It took me a few seconds to even realize she was wearing clothes, but when I did, they were all I could focus on. She wore a black, skintight bodysuit that was thick in some places, and very thin in others. I guessed that the thicker portions of the suit were meant to serve as protection, from what I didn’t know because it didn’t look like they can protect her from anything. Aside from maybe a scraped knee.

Maybe that was the idea, because I knew that if she walked in front of me while wearing that thing, I wouldn’t be able to shoot her.

“You done ogling?” She asked tersely. “We have about ten seconds before they realize you are over here, and they start shooting. We need to go.”

“What- but-” She put one hand at the back of my head and the other over my mouth.

“Questions are for later. We need to leave.” Her eyes slid off of me to someplace over my shoulder. “Dammit.” She removed the hand covering my mouth and reached behind her back. She pulled me past her body and told me to go.

I spun around to see what she’d seen and saw the gun in her hand; it was a big revolver with a long barrel and oddly large cylinder that stuck out on either side of the gun.

There was a flash of light, and then an impossibly loud bang as she fired. The bullet slammed into the cinderblock wall behind the trio of men and a can sized hole appeared.

I heard my coworker scream in fear and surprise, but the trio of men didn’t even flinch. Instead, they returned fire; bullets flew towards us, striking the endcap and bursting several of the water containers.

“Run!” She yelled.

To my own surprise, I did what she said without thinking. I started running so fast that I felt like a cartoon character for a few seconds, my feet sliding across the ground without actually moving me forward. That only lasted for second though and then I was gone, racing towards the rear of the store, and more importantly, towards the fire escape.

By the time I reached the end of the thirty-foot aisle, I felt like I was going to die. My lungs felt like they were being squeezed, saliva built up in my mouth, and my gut burned. But I knew if I stopped running, I would die.

Something slammed into my back and me and my unknown assailant rolled across the floor. A tiny hand grabbed my shirt and dragged me behind a wall in time to avoid a hail of bullets.

“That exit’s blocked. Find another one.” The woman told me.

“There’s one in the back room.”

She gave me a ‘get on with’ motion, while she pointed her gun around the corner and fired off a couple of bullets.

I doubled back on myself, then made a sharp left turn into the meat department. The cool, refrigerated air was refreshing but gone too quickly. I passed through the set of double doors on the other side of meat department and found myself in the back room. Taking a right, and then immediately turning left, I arrived at a fire escape that I knew let out into an alley behind the building and pressed in the handle. A series of high-pitched whines made my eardrums hurt, but they were a safety precaution built into the door to prevent people from accidentally setting off the fire alarm. After a few seconds I felt the door click and I could push the door open.

I stumbled out of the door at a dead sprint, practically jumping over the four steps and landing on the asphalt below. I spun around and saw the woman was right behind me, pointing her gun towards the door.

I didn’t need to see anything else. I just started running.

I reached the end of the alleyway in a few seconds and had to stop before I plowed into the crowd of pedestrians blocking the sidewalk.

They barely paid any attention to me.

I looked around, spotting the high-rises and skyscrapers of Midtown New York in the distance, I immediately started running towards them.

“Wait, not that way!” I heard the woman yell.

The crowd started screaming, presumably after seeing her big ass gun.

I didn’t stop, in fact, I doubled down. I didn’t know this woman from Eve, and while I appreciated her saving my life, I didn’t know why.

I was a nobody, so why would she go through all the trouble to save me?

I ran for as long as I could, but eventually I couldn’t do it anymore. Each breath was a searing pain that made me want to throw up. I ducked into an alley and cursed when I saw that it was a dead-end.

“You idiot.” I was tackled from behind and slammed into the wall. “Shut up.” She hissed, the moment I opened my mouth to respond. The woman put her hand over my mouth and forced my head flat against the wall.

She tilted her head as if she was listening to something.

She grabbed me by the collar of my shirt and pulled me deeper into the alley. She shoved me behind a dumpster and crouched in front of me. “Wait here.” She whispered. Turning around, she peeked around the corner of the dumpster, this inadvertently put her ass close to my face. I scrambled away from her, pressing my back into the wall.

The woman had a nice ass, I’d give her that. But I wasn’t going to risk getting shot because I accidentally touched it.

After a few seconds, the woman pointed her gun down the alley and started firing. Bullets flew back, forcing her to duck behind the dumpster or risk getting shot.

The woman returned fire several times over the next minute or so, then her revolver clicked empty. She cursed, returned it to the large holster she had strapped to her lower back, then pulled a small pistol out of a holster on her left thigh, which I hadn’t noticed before.

“I’m sorry things had to turn out this way.” She said, and I believe that she meant it. She said it with such sincerity, the moment the gun barrel was placed against my forehead, I didn’t believe it was real.

“I can’t escape while protecting you, as you are. This is the only way.” She used her thumb to pull back the hammer.

“Wait, please—” I pleaded. I honestly couldn’t believe this, but after all this, she was going to be the reason I died.

“My name is Claire; I have a feeling that we’ll meet again.” Her fingers tightened on the trigger and then there was a sudden flash of light.

“Hey, wake the hell up.”

I opened my eyes and took a moment to blink the sleep away.

There was a twenty-year-old Asian American woman standing over me. She had black hair that had been cropped short two weeks ago, after telling me that it was too hot to keep her hair long.

The woman’s name was Nancy, and she’s the woman I’ve been dating since high school.

“Yeah?”

“You told me you’d let me borrow the car, remember? I have that thing with my sister this afternoon.”

“Right, yeah, take it. Keys are on the dresser.”

“Thanks.” She muttered. She walked over my dresser, took the keys, and left without another word.

I let out a protracted sigh and stretched my arms over my head.

Was that a dream?

“It felt so real, though.”

Didn’t it?

My half-awake brain ground to a halt as I realized that I hadn’t been thinking that.

The hell’s going on.

“That’s exactly what I want to know. Here’s a better question, why are you in my body?