Aiden

  "Tomorrow, it finally happens." I looked in the mirror and told myself this again and again. I was finally going to get what I've been working for my whole life, and yet I am talking to the mirror trying to hype myself up. "Come on Aiden, you are giving your first sermon tomorrow!" I smiled and pumped my fists but even that felt hollow to me. I was happy of course because this was a success for me but I didn't feel the exhilaration I thought I should. I wasn't even nervous, not because of confidence. I honestly believed that I wasn't nervous because failure didn't scare me. I didn't know anything else and didn't have the job skills others had when they were 24, but the thought of losing this dream wasn't bothering me for some reason.

  I walked around my room and stood in front of my closet looking at the collection of tailored suites that were recently purchased for me. Even picking the suite didn't seem important, and I had taken over an hour trying to pick one that excited me before I finally chose a navy blue one. I collected my pajamas from the other side of the small room I called a closet and laid them out over my bed with a new pair of loafer slippers set on the floor in front of them. I sat down and pondered for a few more minutes. I was the son of Joseph and Mary. Perfect names for a husband and wife preacher team, and I still believe part of the reason for the national success of "Joseph and Mary's Deliverance" was the internet sermon turned streaming network sermon service they started. Three days a week they go into a house of prayer that resembled an indoor sports stadium more than a classic church. When I graduated high school, for my graduation present they broke ground on a second building, next to theirs. This was where I would preach. It was going to be the overflow, mostly kids and teenagers dragged out by their parents. This would allow a more adult sermon for them, while I could connect better to the youth.

  I grew up knowing what my future would be. I was good-looking, dirty blonde hair kept short and neat with an effortlessly fit physique. I stood just shy of six feet and had a square jaw and dark blue eyes. My looks helped me a lot in making friends. I was taught to connect with people more and be charming and well-spoken which made me a pretty charismatic person overall. Despite all of this I sat in my room alone and couldn't think of one person not connected to my parents I could call to discuss my dilemma.

  I slowly made my way from my chair into my bathroom and turned on the shower. This was at least something I could do. I undressed and climbed in, letting the hot water wash over me and start to clear my mind. I stood there and leaned back closing my eyes, enjoying the warmth and the steam-filled air. I opened my mouth same as I had done since I was a kid and let the water fill it and overflow down my cheeks. I was standing there like this when suddenly I could see the veins appear from my eyelids causing my eyes to snap open into the bright white light. "Oh God, I am sorry for my thoughts!" I cried out as the feel of the water faded away along with the rest of the world.

Heidi

  "These little shits! Broke the damn jump house again; Shit!" I was not happy as I crawled across the dark and damp ground looking for the leak. In my mind, I laughed as I imagined hearing the record scratch and "Woah see that chick right there. At rock bottom? I bet you're wondering how I got here." voiceover would start. I always hate when my mind does this because it starts the worst montage in the history of montages.

  There I am, in grade school getting in trouble yet again for "daydreaming" because I'm twirling my hair or absentmindedly tapping my pencil on the desk trying to find a rhythm. My parents hated getting calls about this and I knew I was going to have to drink some nasty concoction some D&D nut brewed up trying to play modern-day alchemist, and then be surrounded by crystals to "realign my mental energies."

When I turned 14 I had enough of this and ran away. I had made up some mumbo jumbo about the natural world "Helping to realign my center and how adulthood would blah, blah, blah. I was out of there. It was rough and for the first few years, there were many times I was sure I was done for, and almost went home. Then when I was 18 I snuck into a fair in some Podunk mid-western town to try to scavenge for some leftover or forgotten food.

  I was caught by one of the food vendors and taken to the manager of the traveling carnival company. When he learned I was 18, he took pity on me and helped me fill out paperwork to start working. Now it's 4 years later and I am in some hot shit-hole of a town in the middle of July in Florida; sweating my ass off crawling in sticky and wet grass looking for a hole in a jump house.

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  I had just found the hole and let some of the air blast me to cool me down when all of a sudden I was blinded by a light. Not in a fun musical way either, but in a world-eliminating sense. Pretty sure I was in the process of dying. Now the whole montage and life flashing before your eyes really made sense to me. I really hate kids!

Dax

  I stood up, brushed the sweat out of my face, and pushed my hair back. "Screw this, man. It's too damn hot out!"

  "Gotta get it done, looks like rain this weekend, and the concrete needs to be set before that," John answered as he brushed some of the dirt off his legs. "At least we are done with the digging now though."

A sigh escaped my lips with a defeated laugh. "I'll start mixing the concrete, you make sure we are ready to pour." I could give orders, even though I wasn't the boss because I had seniority. I have always been average; my looks, physique, brains, and ambition; but I found construction the summer after I graduated from high school, and I stuck with it.

  I never wanted to do manual labor, but, I knew my grades weren't going to get me anything more than community college, and if I managed to pick a degree and stagger my way through earning it, I would have been in debt, and still an average candidate for a job. I wasn't motivated to do more, and what I found in construction, worked. For 10 years I have been working this job, breaking my back 5 days a week, to sit around on the weekends in my apartment playing games and reading books because I didn't even have the motivation for that. I wasn't depressed, but, I was apathetic and disinterested.

  I was shoveling gravel into the cement mixer when a blinding light appeared around me. Well, makes sense, I finally am special, getting struck by lightning while on the job. Struck by lightning, on a clear sunny bright day, without a cloud in the sky.

Janet

  "...And that is how you organize the condiments easily in your fridge. Don't forget to subscribe to Janet's Planet and turn on notifications for weekly tips on how to organize your planet." I finished the video finally. It may have taken me a dozen tries and I may have reorganized the fridge between each shoot but I got it done. I grabbed a tea pod and dropped it into the coffee maker. I really needed to mellow out because this has been a hell of a week.

  My week started with my girlfriend leaving me because she couldn't handle my nagging about putting things where they belonged. I don't think I nagged, but I will admit that I did remind her a lot. A few days after this someone sent me a video compilation of organizing hacks. This wouldn't normally bother me except this was full of ideas I never thought of. I simply had to find out if they would work and spent the next two days playing with all the hacks before accepting that it was camera tricks. With the wasted time I had to rush out my next video and organizing tip so I went to the fridge. I realized when I started to take notes on how to show and explain what to do with the food that I needed to go shopping. It took me an hour to make a list of what to get because I wanted to make sure everything would work well with the planned video.

  I grabbed my cup and blew across the top watching the wisps of steam roll off. "MMMM...Chamomile" I say to myself and take a sip. I set the cup down on the side of my large soaking tub and turned on the water. A nice hot bath with candles and a cup of tea is exactly what the doctor ordered for stress like this. That's what I believe anyways, which is good because I use it every day to calm down the ever-present stress I feel.

  "I am a Virgo after all," I mumble as I pick out some night clothes and bring them to the shelf I had installed just for clothes in the bathroom. "I can't help that I'm a perfectionist." I laughed to myself as I caught sight of the Virgo tattoo that wrapped around my wrist. I turn off the water and drop in some essential oil and let the chamomile smell intensify. I set up candles around the tub and my worst nightmare happened. I couldn't find my matches. That doesn't seem so bad except for the fact that I have a place for everything and I make sure everything is always in its place. I silently cursed Pam for messing my things up as I searched the house for the matches. I felt my heart begin to race while I looked everywhere.

  Ten minutes. It took me ten minutes to find my matches. Ten minutes of heart-racing anxiety about my organization failing me. I took a few deep breaths and struck a match. Four candles to light. I get the first two lit and strike a second match. The third candle is lit, I lower the match to light the third and then my world turned blinding white. It was so beautiful until I felt the flame from the match burn the tip of my finger. "Ouch! God DammmMMM" I sucked on my finger as the world finished dissolving around me.