Chapter 1 - Ordinary Days

Ordinary days are fine. Cycles of endless repetitions are normal. Somethings don’t change no matter however much you wish for.

“Hi. How are you today? Did you find everything you need?”, I muttered with a plastered smile in my face. My hands continued moving items through the scanner occasionally looking up the monitor to see if it rang correctly. Sometimes life sucks

“I am good. Yes”, came a reply.

Not even a how are you? Like I care lady, I thought in my mind and continued with my process.

“Its 25.12. Would you like to donate to children charity for hunger?”, some fucking bullshit software writer thought it was a good idea to ask people to donate food while they were buying food. Good job morons.

“Not today”, came a curt reply. She paid for her groceries and moved promptly without waiting for a receipt. I stood there like a dofus waving her receipt in air. Awkward.

I get that nowadays people think not getting a receipt will help prevent deforestation or global warming or some shit like that. It doesn’t really. While a couple of “developed” countries may opt some new stuff to delay our planet’s inevitable doom, other “developing” or “underdeveloped” countries don’t. Considering the number advantage these developing countries have over developed countries, I would say Earth is pretty fucked.

The next customer brings me back from my daze and I continue my cycle, “Hi. How are you today? Did you find everything you need?”

If I was one of those top minds, I would automate my job. Its simple, Display “Welcome”. Proceed to “Scan”. Then “pay”. That’s it. I wonder why the general populace can be so lazy to even go to the self pay counters. Are we too progressive as humanity or just too lazy to do the simplest of tasks. Well, another thing for a restless mind to worry about.

After doing 5 hours of mindless work, my shift ends and I go to the employees lounge to relax and wait for my friend Alvin and Camille to finish their work.

My name is Barry Allen and I am the fastest man alive. Just kidding. I am not the flash. Not even close. I am Barry Allen and I work in a grocery chain store “Foods Organic”. My dad must have loved the flash comics so much that he wanted me to have the name. My first name is Allen though. Very confusing, I know. But hey, it’s my name and I tell you how to call me. I may not be physically fast but I do have an extremely hyper active brain. It also makes me an insomniac and an introvert. Hey, I am not complaining. I got my best buddies Alvin and Camille. My school principal used to call us, Alvin and the chipmunks since we are like three squirrels or whatever. Not really a fan of chipmunks. Speaking of chipmunks are they squirrels? Do they really speak and sing? Damn it. Now I got another fucking thought. Like I said, I have a super active brain that constantly derails me from having a normal conversation.

When I was younger, my father made me take the IQ test and it came up with your-son-is-uber-gifted score. I suddenly became this ‘gifted’ kid who got every teacher’s praise and earned every mom’s scorn. My childhood was least to say, Grey. Get it? You know, the opposite of colorful. May be colorless, but that just doesn’t look right. Black seems racist and politically incorrect too. So, just go with quasi-color? This is my fucking life, I will use whatever color I feel like, shut up brain.

Alvin was the first guy to approach me. Well, he and I were the only two kids who got bullied for no reason whatsoever. No, that’s not true. I got bullied because I was smart and couldn’t keep smart remarks to myself. Alvin got bullied because, well he is alvin. So, we just became best bullied buddies. After an year or so in junior school, Camille became close to us. I don’t know why she became our friend though. Never asked her. She just fit right between us. Alvin was the quirky kid, trying stupid stuff and getting us into trouble. Camille was the voice of reason. I was, well quiet. Oh, Now I see it. Alvin is troublemaker, Camille could be simon, I am theodore? hence our names ‘alvin and the chipmunks’? Still don’t get it. Fucking be quiet brain.

As I was saying, we three have been together from the age of 10. That’s 7 golden years now. Alvin wanted the three of us to have an awesome vacation before our last school term. So here we are. Working cash registers, cleaning aisles and talking to ourselves. That talking to oneself part is mostly me. I don’t really believe it’s just the vacation. Alvin wanted to celebrate camille’s birthday and possibly propose his feelings for her. I have always thought those two got together really well with their constant bickering and swearing. It kept my mind focused and not wander too much.

“Hey Allen, whats up? How did the register ringing go? Hello mam, *Beep*, did you find everything you need? *Beep* that’d be 20 dollars. Would you like this wrapped in plastic? *Beep*”, laughing hysterically and making vulgar gestures with his hands, Alvin entered the lounge followed by Camille who was trying her best to shut him up. I don’t get it, how is that hilarious? Why would there be a beep after ‘that’d be 20 dollars’. That’s just stupid. For the love of god, shut it brain.

I am not a psychopath who goes around murdering people and wrapping them in plastic. I am just an average kid with a split personality. May be. I don’t know. I haven’t murdered anyone yet or wrapped anyone in plastic. Besides, psychopaths don’t have emotions. But I do. Thought for another time. I learned that I am the only guy, possibly there are others, that keeps talking to his brain or inner voice or whatever and says that shit to others. It got me into lot of trouble with Kidd. A stupid name for a school bully. Shouldn’t have said that to his face though. I learned to control my anger and keep my emotions in check after taking up some self defense classes. Not really, I just understood I am different and mimic people like how they don’t express their true thoughts and put up false facades. The self defense classes were helpful too. Should have seen Kidd’s dumb look when he got face palmed by me. Hilarious, I know.

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“Oh, nothing. Same shit different day”, nice reference from dreamcatcher, I respond ignoring my brain.

“Camille says we should hit the arcade before going home. Are you in?” [Alvin]

“I never said that. All I said was, my mom would be late and we could go somewhere and return before 8”, camille said pouting like a child elbowing alvin while alvin pretending that it actually hurts. Gosh they are so adorable sometimes. Sometimes!

“Sure. I want to check out a book from the library though. You guys go first. I will join you guys soon”

“Book this, book that. All the time. Man, where is your love for adventure? Let’s go beat that ‘bbbb’ for setting high score in ‘donkey-kong’. I can’t have ‘alvs’ to be the second best” [Alvin]

Wow. He is such a cry baby for losing “Alright, then wait outside the library for like 2 mins. I will just return the book and join you guys”. I really have to return this book on theology. I have no fucking clue why I got this. I am not religious. I do not like religious fanatics. I neither believe in god nor in a heaven/hell concept. I am more like an agnostic. I just have to feed my insomniac brain some bull shit and tire myself to sleep every night for a couple of hours. If you don’t sleep, the body functions will seize and you will eventually die. There are quite few recorded cases of death from insomnia. Sometimes my brain just agrees with me, possibly because it wants to live.

“Whatever you say professor. I will get us something to munch on while we wait. Camille with me?” [Alvin]

“Yeah. I’ll keep an eye on this idiot before he does something stupid”, Camille rolled her eyes in frustration, “again!” [Camille]

We walked joking about our day and enjoying our fleeting moments of youth. I quietly listened and only interjected when needed so as to not interrupt alvin-camille duo. We reached the library in what seemed like 5 minutes. The library is state-of-art. It has automatic readers, shelving robots and even automated voice assistant. Awesome. Yet, you can’t automate a grocery bagger!

I entered the library watching the two run across the road to get some ice cream. Libraries always give this eerie feeling because very few people use books anymore and it is usually deserted at this hour. Everything is available online and no one really wants to be alone in a library. Perfect environment for me. It helps me calm my mind. With nothing to distract, I feel like I can control my brain, nah, not possible, may be somewhat. I promptly returned my book and quickly climbed to the second floor to check out my next to-read books. No harm keeping Alvin waiting. Camille is with him. I am not a sentimental person, but I am pretty sure the digital clock read 6:59 when i entered and it has yet to change to 7:00. And I have been here for more than a minute.

God damn stupid brain, noticing minute details. Now I feel super scared. Is it the clock that’s faulty or have I finally become loopy? I quickly grab my cell phone to check the time and see how the others are doing. The entire library suddenly becomes dark and all blood drains from my face.

Did ALL of the lights go off at the same time? Cursing my batshit luck, I grabbed my cellphone and heard some noise behind one of those large book shelves. I quickly hid behind a bookshelf and stuck my head out slowly trying to sneak a peek.

By the way, don’t try this at home unless you have a strong heart. Slowly my eyes are drawn to something dark moving in the shadows.

Is that a person? That’s the ugliest mother fucking person I have ever seen. My heart races and my brain quickly comes up with an acceptable solution. I think the best option is to hide here and not make a single noise. Turn the phone to silent first, then message camille. She is the responsible one. Cover the screen or the light will give your position away. Move under one of those reading tables if you can. Take the heaviest book you can and stay still. My body did exactly as my brain ordered. Are you fucking serious? Why the fuck did the cell phone turn off? I just fucking charged it in the lounge. Something very weird is happening and I am right in the middle of it. Fuck, fuck. Calm your breathing. Okay, take a quick peek at that thing and check for exits.

My stomach churns in fear. I gather all my courage to take a look at my hunter and quickly notice a couple of things. That thing is definitely not human. It looks like something alien, possibly a fantasy world character. It has a small shiny thing in its hand, possibly a weapon and might be hiding something more. It could also be a cell phone, but not likely. It moved slowly wary of its surroundings, possibly checking for threats. Definitely not friendly. The time still is 6:59, time has stopped or delayed for some reason. The automated robots are not moving either. There are 2 exits, both of which are past that thing. I could jump from this floor, likely breaking my ankle leaving me incapacitated. Any strange sounds will tip it off and the situation could get worse. If I don’t do something in the next couple of minutes, alvin and camille may come to check for me and possibly be in danger. Surely Alvin wouldn’t want to enter a library, so it’s mostly camille that will be in danger. Not an acceptable situation. Think. It could be someone like me. Alone in the dark, moving carefully to not stumble upon anything and using their cell phone for lighting their way. However, my instincts and brain both screamed that’s not the case.

I run a couple of scenarios in my brain and simulate a decent outcome either me incapacitating that thing or escaping. I have no idea how strong that thing is or if my idea would work, but it’s the best idea I can come up with. No amount of self defense prepares you for this! Reinforcing myself, I go over my plan. I distract it by throwing my cell phone. The alien thing hides itself behind the bookshelf observing the noise in which case, quickly push the bookshelf to trap it. If it goes to investigate that noise ambush it. Once it is down, whack it with a big ass book. Possibly an encyclopedia of some sort. Get the encyclopedia for ‘s’ that’s gotta be the thickest. The gist is, First, distraction. Second, ambush. Third, the finisher. If nothing works, just take the distraction and run towards exit shielding myself with the thickest book. Wow, sounds super easy. I keep my wandering thoughts together and make move to throw my cell phone close to that thing, but enough for me to either use the distraction for ambush or escape. Sure enough ‘the monster’, let’s just call it that, hides behind the bookshelf it was close to. Distraction success. I push the bookshelf as quiet as I can and sure enough it creates a domino effect and traps the monster between two bookshelves making all the books fall from their respective shelves. Thats gotta hurt that motherfucker. Ambush success

I took strides, also being wary of my surrounds and moved as close as I can to the monster and couldn’t believe myself that it was down. It looked like it was bleeding and may already have died.

Then a terrifying thought hits me, however good I am, it is highly improbable for a simple plan to work out this good. May be all of this in my head. May be I saw a poor guy in the dark and killed that sucker in fear. Did I just murder someone? For all i know, this could be alvin trying to scare the shit out of me. If it was, I swear to god, ALVIN…

I sense something breathing down my neck and a chill runs through my spine. Oh god, please let it be alvin… Me and my fucking existential crisis… Why can’t today be the same fucking ordinary day?