Lexi raised her arms over her head and stretched. She was sitting at her computer, the light coming from the screen lighting up her bedroom. She yawned and looked at her phone, 4.57AM. Her shift at the hotel starts in one hour. She lost track of time trying to complete a quest line. It's not the first time she's pulled an all nighter gaming. She hit enter and typed out a quick goodbye to her party members, teleported her character to the nearest town and logged off. She took a quick shower, and changed into her uniform. Grabbed an energy drink out of the fridge, grumbled to herself about forgetting to make any lunch to bring to work. She ran down the stairs of her apartment complex. 25 minutes left, will she be late? She hated being late, she tried her hardest to never be late. She jumped onto her moped and started the engine. Whizzing past the early morning traffic she smiled to herself just like many mornings before, she sure was glad she didn't get a car. She didn't need one anyway, her groceries were delivered, and she didn’t enjoy shopping in person anyway. She made it to work with some time to spare, 4 minutes wasn't much. Lexi parked in the employee parking lot section, got onto the elevator and made her way up, towards the clock-in machine. After the customary hellos were exchanged between her and a few other staff members she passed on her way. 

She took her cart, made sure it was fully stocked with the necessary cleaning supplies, extra clean towels, checked the work schedule she found that she has tomorrow and the day after off. She grinned to herself exhausted as she was Lexi took the elevator to the 8th floor. Today she is responsible for floors 8 to 6. She didn’t mind her job as a cleaning lady. The hotel job fitted her well, she got to work alone and not be constantly bothered by chatty coworkers. She made her way room by room. Thinking about what she will do with her two days off, the time flew by fast. The work was reparative and she liked that. Around lunch she was called down to one of the conference rooms where her coworkers had been waiting to surprise her with a cake. Today Lexi turned 30, she forgot all about it since she tried her hardest not to think about aging in general. She stood in stunned silence looking at the scene of hotel staff. She knew her coworkers saw her as that quiet weirdo loner. She heard a few of them talk about her just a few days ago in the parking lot. Her coworkers were led by the manager and organized this surprise for her. Glen the manager wanted her to celebrate this milestone. He had a crush on her and they were guild mates. She didn't know that though, he has kept it a secret. The cake was a caramel ice cream cake and her favorite flavor which made her confused but happy she hadn’t had a cake for her birthday since her last birthday at the foster home when she turned 18. Glen gave her the rest of the day off, this was a tradition among the hotel staff apparently. She was tired and gladly left after thanking everyone for the surprise. She left before anyone could see her eyes fill with tears. She took the elevator to the basement parking level. Maybe these people weren’t that bad, she thought. They celebrated her birthday after all. She has worked here for three years but this was the first time they did that. Something didn’t add up for her, but she was too tired to think about it. The cake had given her some energy and she used it to drive back home. Once back in her apartment she collapsed into her bed and was out like the two candles on the cake 3 and 0. 

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

She woke to a dark apartment to the sound of her phone's alarm. The label read “Wed. MD”. The Wednesday midnight dungeon, her guild was going to try and take on the new dungeon they discovered that only spawns well on Wednesdays at midnight. She logged on and selected her character. TheALT. She found the name ironic since the elven assassin was her main and only character in this game. The game loaded and she found that GLane had told the entire guild it was her birthday. She had over 70 unread mail messages. She started going through them. Gifts of in-game skins, gold, VIP coupons, a couple of mounts and even a few tips on getting some skills that can only be gotten by completing some bizarre quests. As she read the messages, she replied to each one sending a thank you. By the time she had read half she was late to the dungeon and the entrance was closed. She frowned, last Wednesday she managed to get an amazing sword for her assassin. She was hoping to get a second one since her character was a dual weapon specialist and the swords had an extra feature if equipped as a pair. Well might as well read the rest of the PMs. Right after she finished the doorbell rang. She wasn't expecting anyone. She went to the door and looked out the peephole. It was a fast food delivery guy. She told him that he was at the wrong place, she hadn’t ordered anything. In response he told her that he had a birthday delivery for Lexi. She opened the door and took the food. When she asked who ordered it, the guy didn’t know he just had a special instruction about the broken elevator and that this was a birthday delivery for Lexi. He even showed her the printed instructions on the receipt. She thanked him. And rushed away from him, the smell was intoxicating. Back at her computer she opened the food. Chicken wings. Her favorite kind too. Okay this was getting really weird, she couldn't think of anyone who knew where she lived. Not her actual address, the city sure, many of her guildmates knew the city she was from and her work would know too. Her emergency concat was her foster dad, they would talk a few times a year, but she hadn't told him her new address. She ate the wings with vigor. The screen flashed with a notification of a new PM from GLane. There was no message, just a few emojis: a heart, a cake and a chicken drumstick. She immediately relaxed, she seemed to recall giving GLane her address due to a bet and the loser had to buy the other a pizza. She wrote a thank you back and that she is loving the wings. Just as she hit send, she finished off the last wing. Full and content she went to throw out the trash, she knew that if she didn't do it now she would start hoarding trash at her desk again and she’s been so good about it lately. The bin in the kitchen was full, so she decided to take all the trash out. She made her way down the stairs savoring the hot feeling in her mouth. This birthday was actually pretty good. She was approaching the 3rd floor when the trash bag caught onto a disconnected part of the railing and ripped open. She stepped on the spilled trash and slipped. Her body hit the stairs first, her spine then her head. If the lights on this section of the stairs weren’t already broken, Lexi's vision would have gone dark and fuzzy. Instead she just felt dizzy. In the darkness she couldn’t move, the pain was fading away fast and the dizziness turned to sleepiness. Her last thought before she slipped into unconsciousness was that she needed more sleep, now that she's 30, all nighters might be a bad idea and she was glad she had the next two days off.