Prologue

*Beep* *Beep* *Beep* *Beep*

The sound of my alarm resounded in my mind. 

Another day… Guess I should get ready… 

I pulled the sheets off and stared at the ceiling unmoving. I lay there for a few minutes in the dark before deciding it was time to get moving. I pulled myself up on the edge of my bed and stared at my feet. I slapped my hand around on the side table in search of my phone. 

*Click* 

I turned the screen and was temporarily blinded by the light. My vision finally coming back to me, I checked my notifications. 

Nothing as usual… Maybe I’ll just leave it here today, no one ever talks to me anyway. 

Stretching out my arms and popping my back, I stood up and walked across my tiny apartment to start the shower. Gripping the cold metal knob, I turned on the hot water and looked up at the shower head as the water began to flow. 

I moved over to the mirror while I waited for steam to start rolling out of the shower. My cold brown eyes stared back at me… judging me…

My apartment has some of the cheapest rent in town but the utilities suck.

I pulled back my long curly main I call my hair and let out a long breath.

What am I doing with my life… 

With the shower still running I made my way to the kitchen to find something to eat. I stoped to stare at the calendar hanging on the fridge. 

December 7th, my mother’s birthday. 

I haven’t seen anyone in my family for nearly eight years now, but I always tried to remember to call my mother on her birthday. With a heavy sigh I opened the fridge and turned the milk carton over to see the date. 

Three days expired… maybe I’ll stop somewhere and get something on the way to work instead of cereal today. 

Putting the carton back, I closed the fridge and stared at the picture on the calendar. The kitten on the picture was hanging off a tiny branch with the text ‘Hang in there!’ printed across the bottom of the image. 

I’ll try little buddy… I’ll try…

I walked to the bathroom back to check the water only to find it still chilly. With a huff, I walked back to my bed and picked up my phone. I pulled up the contact labeled ‘Mom’ and tried  to decide to call or text her. 

It’s only 6:34… I don’t think she usually wakes up until nine or ten these days. Guess I’ll set a reminder to call her at lunch.

I turn back towards the bathroom to finally see the mirror start to fog over. I stood up and threw my phone over my shoulder. it bounced a couple times of the mattress before settling.

Guess I better make it a quick one today if I’m going to stop somewhere to get something to eat. 

I stepped into the blazing shower and inhaled the steam. I finally felt like I was waking up as the scalding water began rolling down my face. Reaching for the shampoo, I notice that it’s nearly empty. I flipped the bottle upside down to try to get one more use out of it. 

I grabbed  the bar of soap and lathered my wash cloth before i started to scrub. Dragging the cloth across my stomach I looked down, staring at my bulging gut. 

Damn I need to start going to the gym… guess walking to work hasn’t really been helping me that much. 

After I rinsed myself off, I try the shampoo again. There wasn’t even enough to fill my palm. 

Shit! Guess I need to stop by the store on the way home. 

I lathered up my hair and let the water rinse the suds out at the same time. I looked down at the the drain and watched the bubbles circling the grate.

Huh… kinda like me… spiraling down the drain…

Turning the water off, I faced toward the shower head to watch the last drops fall while I started patting at the wall in search for a towel. Finally finding it I burry my face in the rough fabric only to be met with the faint smell of mildew. Powering through the smell, I continues to dry myself off.

My unshaven face was noticeable as I pulled the towel over the dough spots. it clung like velcro in some places. After throughly drying my hair I finally stepped out of the shower. The sound of water droplets kitting the tile floor made my eye twitch.

I hurried to the out of the bathroom to get over carpet and make the noise go away. I took three steps across my room and entered the closet. I looked at my extremely limited options.

Three pairs of faded black pants. Two black jackets, one had a small tear at the seam where the shoulder met the torso. Five pairs of white shirts. Two of them had a slight discoloring under the armpits, so they were set aside.

I hate dressing formal, but its easier this way… 

I slid a pair of plain white boxers on and proceeded to put the rest of my attire on over it. I looked down to the lone pair of worn leather shoes and slid them on without socks. All the pairs were ripped in the toes and annoyed me, so I don’t wear them anymore. 

I walked out of the closet and stared at the phone sitting on the bed. I sighed as I walked over to pick it up. 

“Guess I have to bring it with me to call Mom later.” 

My voice was raspy so I cleared my throat as I reach for the small device and shove it in my pocket. I grabbed my keys and wallet off the small stack of cardboard boxes next to the door. Looking around my apartment, trying to think of anything I forgot, I opened the door and took a step into the sunshine. 

The bright light greeted me by temporarily causing me to go blind. I reached a hand up and covered my eyes. 

Too damn bright.. Need sunglasses…try to remember tonight when you go to get milk and shampoo.

I made my way down the stairs and started down the sidewalk. I always walked to work. I sold my car a few years ago to help pay for rent and the formal wear required at the office I work at. The company was a newer one, just founded two years ago, and is brimming with fresh out of college youth that haven’t seen the pain of the every day grind yet. 

I hate them all. I don’t even know what the hell they did at work. 

Everyone just came up to me smiling and handing over massive stacks of papers to go through, saying something like 

“I haven’t seen this format yet, do you mind? I know you will get it done faster than I can haha.” 

Then they would always walk back over to the break room and laughter would pour out before the door closed.  I shuttered thinking about another days work.

The smell of coffee filled my nose breaking my focus on hating my coworkers. 

Guess I’ll stop by here today. Been a long time since I’ve had a good cup of coffee and a doughnut or two. 

Walking into the building, I heard a small bell ring behind me and the lady behind the bar looked over. 

“Good Morning! What can I do for you today?”

I was surprised that no one else was in the shop yet. It was already 7:20, so people should be lined up.

“Uhh, hi. Sorry I’ve never been here so I’m not really sure what to order” 

I scratched the back of my head and smiled at her. 

Damn she’s young. Wonder if she is still in High school.

She smiled back at me, tilting her head to the side and looking up at the menu.

“We have latte’s, regular coffee, and several kinds of pastries.” 

The fucks a latte? 

“Uhh… what exactly is a latte?

Sorry, I’ve only drank coffee black.” 

Feeling a little embarrassed for my lack of knowledge about coffee I looked towards the menu.

She kept smiling at me making me feel like I had just said something really stupid. 

“A latte is steamed milk with espresso shots and your choice of sweetener.” 

I felt a little better about myself and decided that she wasn’t poking fun at me.

“Ok I guess I’ll try a latte with no sugar and a couple strawberry glazed doughnuts then.”

After saying that I noticed that there were no doughnuts on display. 

Damn… now she really will think I’m an idiot.

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She gestured toward the pastry case. 

“I’m sorry sir we don’t have doughnuts here, but if you want something with strawberries then you could try our strawberry turnovers.”

I thought about the turnovers for a few seconds contemplating if they could even compare to the glory that is a strawberry glazed doughnut. 

“Yeah that sounds fine. I’ll take 2 of those and the latte.”

She smiled and grabbed a bag for the turnovers. 

“What size latte would you like sir?”

Sir? I’m only 28… Maybe she really is still in high school… That or I look really old to her…

“Whatever the medium is. I know it has some kind of dance name for it.”

Dance… Did I really just say dance? Maybe she didn’t notice…

She walked back to the fridge and grabbed a carton of milk with a tinkly laugh.  

“Alright sir, that will be $14.57.”

$14.57?!? Christ I could have eaten dinner for 3 days with that.

“Ok do you take cards here” 

Of course they take cards here! It’s 2018 everyone takes cards these days!

With the same laugh from before, she pointed toward the card reader. 

“Yes we take cards. You can go ahead and swipe or use the chip reader if you have one.”

Chip reader right… Does this ask for a pin when I use the chip on credit? I cant remember… 

Being more cautious now I was keeping my mouth shut before I embarrassed myself again. Sliding the chip in with fingers crossed I waited. 

*Ding* 

Yes!! I was getting worried there. Would have been bad if I couldn’t even pay for it after she started making it.

Walking back in front of me with a cheery smile, she handed me the drink and the bag. 

“Here you go sir! Hope you like the turnovers. They are freshly made every morning.” 

I took the bag and drink in hand, and couldn’t help but smile back at her.

“Thanks, I’m sure they will be great.” 

I took a sip of the latte. 

“Wow this is great!” 

Maybe it is worth the cost after all. 

Steppingthrough the door I weeded my way through a hoard of customers pouring in. 

Damn I got here at the right time. Feel kinda bad for the poor girl though. There is no way I would want to deal with 20 people that haven’t had their coffee yet. 

Reaching in the bag and grabbing a turnover I clicked my tongue. The turnovers were smaller than the display. 

Was hoping that she would give me a few more… Oh well. hopefully they taste decent… 

Popping one in my mouth I sighed, the turnovers were not very good. 

Finally the office was in sight. I raised the cup up to my mouth and someone bumped into my arm. The lid crumpled and the remainder latte spilled all over my jacket. 

“Hey watch where you are going asshole!”

The man just kept walking and threw his arm up in the air as if to dismiss me.

Anger boiling up in me, I started to walk toward the man and noticed a hand grabbing my shoulder. 

“Leon. You ok?” 

Ashley… Of course it’s her… 

“Yeah I’m fine. That guy just bumped into me and made me spill my latte on myself.”

My anger began to ebb as I heard her voice. 

“Okay. You looked really upset. I thought you might do something crazy.” 

Ashley is a tiny girl with bright green eyes and crimson hair going all the way down her back. I’ve had my eye on her since she stared last week. She never talked to anyone besides Chuck and myself. 

Chuck is my dick head boss. He just sat in his office all day browsing Facebook and watching Netflix. He doesn’t get in trouble for it because he connected to his personal hotspot on his phone for internet instead of using the connection at work.

Turning back to face Ashley I smiled and checked my watch. 

“Shouldn’t we head into work? We only have about 5 minutes.”

“Hold up! I think I might have something to clean up your jacket.” 

She reached into her purse and pulled out a handful of napkins.

”Here you go!”

She held the napkins out to me. I accepted them and stared back at her a little confused.

Looks like she just went to a fast food joint and pulled a fistful out of the dispenser and shoved them into her purse. 

“Thanks… Why exactly do you have so many napkins on you?” 

Her cheeks shifted to a faint shade of pink and she looked away. 

“Don’t… Don’t worry about it…” 

Goddamn she’s cute. 

Feeling a little bad for asking and considerably thankful for seeing her blush, I started trying to brush the liquid off my jacket. 

“Not like that! You’ll only make it worse! Here, give me the napkins.”

She looked at me with a very annoyed expression on her face and her arm outreached to retrieve the napkins. Placing the bundle of napkins in her hand, I looked down at her.

“You have to dab it like this”

She unbuttoned my jacket and split the napkins so she has some on either side of the fabric. I shifted my gaze quickly away.

I don’t want it to look like I’m was trying to look down her blouse while she’s so close to me. 

She turned back up to me with a bright smile.

“There! Good as new! Can’t really do anything about the coffee smell though, unless you want to smell like my perfume all day.”

I looked into her glowing green eyes and smiled.

“I can’t see that being a bad thing.” 

Her cheeks went from a flushed pink to a burning crimson.

“I’m sorry, I…” 

She interrupted me by thrusting a perfume bottle into my chest and storming off toward the building.

God, if you’re up there… Thank you for this gracious gift you have given me this day.

I looked over the bottle and noticed it was in french. Most of the words were worn off but I pick up ‘Baccarat Rouge 540’ on the right hand side. With a shrug, I pulled the cap off and sprit a couple bursts in front of me to walk through. 

I’m sure it smells great but I don’t want it to be too strong. She might think I’m some kind of freak if I put too much on. 

The smell overtook me. 

This has to be some high quality shit! Why would she be carrying around something like this? 

Enjoying the intoxicating scent, I stood a few inches taller. I finally made my way into the building.

On the way to the elevator the receptionist said something, but I couldn’t hear anything over the extreme bliss I was in from the perfume. I didn’t even remember hitting the button on the elevator, but I was already on the twenty second floor. 

The doors swung open and I walked toward my desk. The only good thing about my job was the view. I sat in a far corner so I had windows on either side of me. Not to mention, Ashley’s desk was only one cubical over. So, I guess that made two good things about my job.  

Arriving at my desk I sat down and rolled over to see if Ashley was settled in yet. She wasn’t there. Hearing footsteps behind me, I turned around a little too quick, thinking it might be her, and was instantly faced with disappointment. It was Rob.

He slapped his hands on my shoulders. 

“Hey Leon, hows it going? 

He is probably only here to give me more of his work… 

“What do you want Rob I’m very busy.” 

“Oh, nothing. Just saw you looking a little chipper today, so I thought I’d come see whats up.” 

He let me go and moved to lean back on the edge of my cubical.

Whats up is that you make me do all your work while you go and flirt with all the female coworkers on this floor in the break room every day! 

“Nothing is ‘up’. Just had a bad morning and something good happened right before I came in today.”

“Ohhhh? What might that be? Wait let me guess…” 

Rob put on a cheeky grin and rubbed his hands together. 

Here is comes… 

“Was it something to do with Ashley? I’ve seen you staring her way a bit lately. Also, you smell like her… Did she give you a hug or something?”

Rob bent over and inhaled loudly over my shoulder. 

Turning back to the computer I hit the power button and tried to look unfazed by his harassment. 

“If you don’t stop smelling me I’ll go get Chuck and tell him I’ve been doing your work for the past 3 months.”

Rob stepped back and threw his hands up.

“Awe come on man, you know I just like messing with you.”

Bullshit you just like pretend like I’m your friend to push off all your work on me.

“Alright, Alright. Where is it?” 

Looking back at me with a cocky smile he picked up a three inch thick stack of papers from the top of the cubical and shook it at me. 

“You’re joking right? You are bringing me a full weeks work on Friday? No. How about half? You can probably handle that much right?” 

I looked back up at him with concern. I didn’t want to ruin this day with overtime if I could help it. 

Laughing hysterically, Rob just dropped the whole stack on my desk with an audible thunk and walked off to the break room. 

Why am I not surprised… 8:05 and he is already taking a break… Been at work for five minutes and this is already looking like a slog. 

Sinking a little deeper in to my chair, I leaned back and put my hands behind my head inhaling deeply and closed my eyes. 

“Why do you let him do that?” 

Ashley was apparently back now. I smiled and looked over to her. 

“It doesn’t really bother me that much. It just makes my numbers higher. I put the work in my name for three quarters of it and only give him credit for an eighth.” 

She tilted her head and looked a little confused. 

“Eighth? Then where does the other eighth go?”

Leaning in close to her I whispered. 

“I put them in your name of course.”

She turned back to face away from me with a huff and put on a faint blush. 

God… I am now a believer… thank you for this bountiful blessing… 

I fell back in my chair and let out a bellowing laugh. 

“Hahaha, I’m sorry.” 

Reaching into my pocket I pulled out the perfume bottle and placed it on her desk. She snatched it up before it even left my hand.

“That important to you huh? I couldn’t help but notice that it appears old.” 

She turned back to me with her eyebrows low and her cheeks flushed.

“Not that I’m saying I didn’t appreciate it. Just that it looks… carried? It appears to be very important to you.” 

Raising her brows and sitting back in her chair she sighed. 

“It was my grandmothers. She gave it to me before she passed. Not that I really remember her well. She was gone before I was five years old… I just remember her being a very… bright… and when I look at this perfume it makes me feel happy.” 

Wow… wasn’t expecting all that.

“Oh… well it smells very nice.” 

Not really knowing what to say I turned back to my desk to notice my PC was finally booted. I let out a sigh and loaded up my news feed.

“Glad you like it…” 

I turned back over to her. She was tucking the bottle back into her purse and searching furiously for something. 

I let her be and faced my PC to look at the news. The first headline read. 

“Nukes have been launched from Russia.” 

Panic rising, I clicked on the article and started to read. It was posted only twenty minutes ago.

*Gasp* 

Ashley was standing and staring out the window. Tears began to stream down her face. Before I could say anything to her, the sound of people running back to the elevators filled my ears. 

Standing up and turning to look out the window myself, I see what appeared to be a second sun. My jaw dropped when I felt the ground shake beneath my feet. I heard a loud crash and saw Rob throw his chair out the window. Immediately after the chair was out of sight, he made a swan dive after it. Several other people, without thinking, dove out behind him. 

In horror I walked over to the window and looked down. There were countless bodies littering the streets. The blood was already starting to pool at the gutter. Holding in my vomit I turned back and looked over to Ashley. She was nowhere to be found.

Heart beating pounding in my chest, I stood up and ran for the elevators. To my dismay… I found Ashley running full sprint from the elevators to the window Rob had just leaped out of. 

Reaching out my hand I screamed. 

“Nooo!”  

Missing her by inches I fell to the ground. Despair filled me. I quickly rolled over to look out the window.  The only thing I saw was her crimson hair flick in the wind for a moment… then nothing… 

Tears started to well up in my eyes. 

Why God?… Today was actually going to be a good day… 

Heart much heavier,I stood up and walked over to the elevators she had just ran from. I found her bottle of perfume on the floor, along with the remainder of her purse spilled around it. I picked up the bottle and my heart crawled into my throat. 

With the tears dripping from my face I put the bottle in my pocket and turned to face the windows. There was a colossal mushroom cloud in the distance and a wall of dust rapidly approaching. 

There’s no point… I doubt I’d even make it to the ground floor…

Deciding to take my own life instead of being swallowed in flame and ash, I started to sprint. When I reached the edge of the window and jumped with all my might. 

The explosion should reach me any second now… 

Looking back towards the ground I felt like I was hallucinating. A screen started to flicker into existence couple feet in front of me. When it appeared time seemed to slow dramatically. 

About 3 floors from the ground the screen appeared staying constant. Time halted completely. There was only one word on the screen and a prompt .

RESTART? Y/N 

Restart? Restart what? 

I pulled up my hand and tried to touch the screen. My hand passed right through it. 

“Great! So I am just seeing shit!” 

The screen flicked and had new text.

JUST SEEING SHIT?

When the screen flicked time resumed for half a second the ground came a few feet closer. 

“Alright, Alright I’m sorry. Put the prompt back up. I think I know my answer…” 

‘RESTART Y/N’ popped back up and I moved a few feet closer to the ground.

Looking past the screen I saw Ashley’s disoriented body on the sidewalk seemingly broken in every direction. Blood was half way across the street now. 

When I saw her face covered in blood and her broken body, hot tears began to fall again. The knot in my throat steadily grew. I moved my finger towards the screen and tapped the ‘Y’ icon. 

Nothingness… Everywhere… I was sitting in my office chair, but beyond that there was nothing but the void around me. Standing up I felt around for anything. 

The second I stood up, the chair beneath me vanished and then there truly was nothing, just the black expanse. 

It’s strange that I can see my hands when there’s no light anywhere. 

I reached down to feel the ground. My hands passed right through. 

It’s as if only the ground beneath my feet is there… wonder what happens if I take a step… 

I gathered my courage and took a step… Nothing happened… 

Sighing heavily in relief I started to think. 

That screen responded when I talked before right? 

“Hey!” 

YES? 

The screen appeared in front of me again.  

Ok… guess I do have to talk to… it? What should I say? 

“Are you God?” 

GOD? HAHA NO. I HAVE BEEN WATCHING OVER YOU THOUGH. 

That’s a lot more information than I was expecting. 

“If you aren’t God then what or who are you?”

LETS NOT DISCUSS THIS NOW. YOU HAVE A CHOICE TO MAKE. 

“What do you mean by a choice? I already made a choice to restart right?” 

THIS IS SOMETHING A LITTLE DIFFERENT.

“Alright, *sigh* you have my attention.” 

Two words and a tab popped up on the screen. I tap the tab and a list spewed out falling endlessly into the abyss below my feet. I looked back up to the words on the top of the screen. 

SELECT WORLD.