I am working in my bakery, this used to be a good running lunchroom. This is not just any old bakery, it is one of the best bakeries in my country. Tourists come from all over the place. I have named my business after myself, Steve’s bakery. I worked hard to get and keep everything running, there are plenty of places for people to be seated while they are eating their lunch. Currently, I am selling bread to a customer that visits every day to buy fresh bread.
I know I am a man with a bitter attitude, despite many people knowing me as a loving man with a golden heart. Time has turned my heart to stone, I have made many mistakes in my life, and I am only nearing my thirties. My skin has an unusual pale tint, as if someone fucked up my skin tone accidentally, or on purpose. However, I never deemed myself worthy of having a golden heart, I always felt the darkness of my past haunting me, as if it were much deeper than I could even imagine. As if there is a deep secret hidden within me.
It is one of the reasons that I always wear comfortable clothing, despite being the boss of this place and having enough money to buy expensive brand clothes. Today I am wearing gray sweatpants with a wide shirt with a popular retro gaming logo. To make things even worse, I am also wearing yellow crocs, I can’t help it, they are so comfortable. I could feel the wind breeze through the bakery as I looked at a glass to see my reflection.
Blonde, long hair clumsily hangs over my dirty, worried face, clear silver eyes set dreadfully within my sockets, not to mention my thick eyebrows. My face just reminded me of my bad luck. My large wild beard, oh, wait, are those pizza crumbs? Never mind that, my wild beard covered a considerable part of my face, I smiled and whispered at myself, “hello handsome.” Even if all of my hair is unkempt.
The customer left satisfied with his order, I should have been happy with how things were going, having my own successful business, lots of money and a woman that I pay daily. I could have turned my bakery into a worldwide chain. However, I wanted to keep it simple, I have not been happy for a long time. The lunchroom became mine when I turned nineteen, my foster father went into early retirement and I, along with my wife, took over. My wife has, since then, passed away. I learned the ropes of being a baker from a very young age.
It already started when I was only a few weeks in my dad's care. For some reason, I had a superb memory, and I still remember the woman with green hair dropping me off when I was a baby. Not just that, I can remember the exact details of her face. When I took over the lunchroom, I took a loan from the bank, the goal of my loaned money? To repurpose the lunchroom into a bakery, but my foster father insisted that I was making a mistake when I used the money this way.
Even as I became filthy rich, he still said it was a mistake. Instead of proud, my foster father was angry, he even threatened to disown me, Steve, his son. We had such a great relationship, that when I turned eleven, they surprised me with the wonderful news that they would officially adopt me. Our relationship faltered quickly after I had repurposed the lunchroom, that was not even the worst part of my short life, I also lost my wife in a tragic accident.
I quickly stopped my train of thought when I was thinking about what happened to her, I put my focus back on the door, to see if a new customer would come in. It did not take long at all, he passed the wooden tables with nice teak chairs that had comfy pillows to sit on.
I greeted him and asked what he would like to buy while not even really looking at him. The customer got startled by my empty stare, but he got out that he wanted some cinnamon rolls and scones, that startled reaction happens more often than I would like to admit.
The customer spoke up, “This is all that I need.” While I started to scan the items, the customer suddenly asked me something else, “Why do you have silver eyes?”
I stared right into the eyes of the customer as if I were staring into his soul. Struggling to get an answer out, I mumbled first before I answered, after a long pause I managed to get my answer out. “I was born with these eyes,” not wanting to go deeper into the question. After the pleasantries, The customer quickly left after our short conversation.
Maybe I scared him away, people fear that which they cannot understand, it is a common reaction. Nonetheless, More customers came and bought drinks to go along with their food, I saw some of them take place on the nice teak chairs. Another welcome feature is the gaming section that I had created with my wife. A whole corner with all kinds of consoles where people can eat their lunch while trying out the newest games.
It seemed like an eternity, but I finally finished another monotone day. I made the regular checks and closed up after all my employees had left, I went to my private parking space, I have an astonishing self-driving car! Proudly, I looked at my car, “you might be the best thing that money can buy me or perhaps, it might be Abby.” The car is small and red, I made sure that it got a paint job of a paladin fighting a shadow dragon. One day, that will be me!
Maybe it could only be in my VR world, at least there I am a savior. How awesome would it be to save the world? Lost in my thoughts, I finally headed towards my car, ready to go home. As I was walking to my car, I suddenly felt fear overcome me, I looked around me and in my blind spot, I saw something that resembled a man in shadow form.
It felt as if he were trying to kill me with his glare, It felt as if I was going insane, that could not be real. “Whoever you are, come on out here and face me like a man.”
To my surprise, the shadow man answered, “Not yet, Steve.”
I quickly dismissed what happened and resumed walking to my car, I entered my address into the GPS, and the car started to drive home, away from the freaky incident. As the car did all the work for me, I looked at the scenery passing by, just a plain boring old city next to a lovely park, I thought about my darkness, my past, my wife. Quickly I shook off those thoughts, and before I knew it, my car arrived at my home. I looked around as I stepped out of the car that had parked before my home.
I felt the moonlight on my skin as I looked into the night, “I am sorry, If only I had been stronger.” With a deep sigh, I tried to shake off whatever happened and went to my home. There is nothing special for me here, just a place to rest and disappear into a gaming world.
As I was standing in front of my humongous house, I chuckled as I started thinking about the house. From the outside, this house looks stylish. It has been built with walnut wood and my house has gray brick decorations. Tall, rectangular windows allow enough light to enter the home and have been added to the house in a fairly symmetrical pattern. The house is equipped with a large kitchen and three large bathrooms, it also has a huge living room, seven bedrooms, a modest dining area and a big garage. The building is shaped like a circle, it reminded me of a donut. When my wife and I bought this house, it felt like a perfect idea.
The house is partially surrounded by two garden on both sides. The second floor is the same size as the first, but part of it hangs over the edge of the floor below, creating an overhang on one side and a balcony on the other. The roof is low and triangular and is covered with flat roof tiles. Two small chimneys poke out the center of the roof. There are no windows on the roof. The house itself is surrounded by a modest garden, covered mostly in grass, a few flower patches and with a small pond. Luckily, I have people to keep this all neat and clean. Money, it might not bring me happiness, but it does make my pathetic life easy to trudge through.
I thought about a happy memory of Haley when my life was better. I pictured her in front of me red, long hair hanging over a fresh, lively face. Clear golden eyes, set wickedly within her sockets. Her petite curves were perfect as she always wore fancy dresses and robes. Even before we bought this mansion. Her golden eyes matched mine perfectly. I can still hear her voice when we were contemplating buying this house.
I can still hear her happy shriek in my mind, she loved to shriek. Vigorously, I shook my head and I brought myself back to the present, not wanting to dwell in the past for too long, I feared that other memories would rear their head. I knew those memories would not be pleasant. Before those memories came to me, I entered my home and ignored most of the rooms and headed straight for the kitchen.
Stolen story; please report.
It is huge, I bought all the necessary and unnecessary appliances that you could think of, I do not know what some of them do. And they would have been full of dust if the maid would not come here every day to clean my house. I was hungry after my day of work and I went to the fridge, I saw the half-eaten pizza that I was looking for, it had insane amounts of cheese upon it. “That is just the way that I like my pizza,” I looked with a sad face at the cooking island, I always loved to cook, but I have not cooked a meal since Haley died.
Unless you count reheating old pizza. Even considering preparing a meal without her just felt wrong. I walked over to a counter across the fridge where a stick man was standing with knifes in it. I took one and went to the bedroom.
As I looked at my bed, I smiled, “Hey sweetie!” A woman smiled at me. She has brown, greasy hair that is braided. As she swept her hair aside, she reveals a round, friendly face, expressive hazel eyes, set low within her sockets.
She started to talk, “Hey Steve, thank you for letting me stay at your house again.”
“Yeah, no worries, Abby. I see you have been reading my books on Greek gods?”
She moved the book upwards to reveal her busty curvaceous sensual breasts, she lay naked on my bed. Abby sat up and pointed at an illustrated picture of a god.
I smiled as I saw she pointed at Zeus, “Yeah, they are fascinating. I have always been fascinated by the gods, like I feel a connection with them. Let me finish my pizza, then we can play video games together, and, of course, what I paid you for. My life might suck, and I don’t give a shit if I die tomorrow, but if there is something that I do like about my life, it is that I have enough money to see you every day.”
Abby laughed, “Oh, believe me, if I did not like you for real, I would be gone already, just boot up the gaming console. I have been reading all day, waiting for you.”
As I started booting up the console, while finishing my pizza, I checked out my setup. My gaming setup is ridiculous. There are six monitors with the best gaming computers my money could afford, next to that is a television that people normally only would dream about. All of my favorite consoles are connected to this television. I looked with joy at my virtual reality headset, it is my only escape from my horrible life.
Then I looked at Abby, perhaps, not my only escape. I booted up a game and gave Abby a controller, we played a simple action role-playing game in co-op mode. Abby is a pretty good gamer, and she does have my back in games. This is the way to escape my depressing life. A man with no plan, just throwing money around on silly games, and women.
We gamed for hours upon hours. Then I looked at Abby, “I think we should turn in for the night.” We saved our video game, and then I kissed Abby, “now, let’s see if you are worthy of my money.”
She giggled, “Of course I am, you filthy rich man, I am your gold digger.”
“Good, you can have all my damn money when I die, I don’t give a shit about money. I am going to do, naughty things to you, so, shut up, Abby.”
I woke up in a cold sweat somewhere in the middle of the night and mumbled out loud, “Not again.” Sleep is something that never came easy to me. Despite Abby still in a deep slumber next to me, I felt alone. She is my friend, but I also think she is just here for my money. And, if she keeps giving her time to me, then I will keep giving her a shitload of money.
I chuckled, she once told me her mom got angry at her, how could a woman of her age have that much money? A woman who does not work? At that thought, I started to think about my foster parents. I had not spoken to my foster father since I had repurposed the lunchroom, to my surprise, he did not even show up at Haley’s funeral. He did not even send any flowers or a card. The last time I spoke to him, he told me that I needed help, and that was before Haley passed away.
“My mental health is fine,” I mumbled to myself, probably not convincing anyone. Suddenly, I felt that same feeling as when I was done working the other day, I looked around me and in the corner, I saw him, the shadow man. “What do you want from me?” I saw a grin on his face form, and then he was gone, just like that.
Abby woke up and grabbed me tight, “Just go back to sleep, my gold man, it was just a nightmare.” She yawned and put her head on my shoulder. Despite Abby trying to comfort me, I could not fall asleep, but, I did rest my eyes for a little while.
It seemed like only a few minutes passed without the sweet embrace of sleep before I heard my alarm clock. It has a nice and familiar ring to it, I slammed down on the alarm clock with my fist. I am tired of my life, All I have left is my bakery, yes, yes, I also have a lot of money, and a lot of it is being spent on games, and Abby. I always wondered if I stopped giving her money, if she would stick with me or just run for the hills. Then I sat up, drenched in sweat. Abby is still snoring, she usually sleeps in. I decided to just go to the kitchen and get another pizza slice since I had eaten the last of the pizza last night. No wait, Abby stole that pizza slice.
I looked at my calendar, another day at work, I sighed. “First some breakfast, pizza time!” I slogged myself to the kitchen and opened the fridge, out of nowhere, something rammed me in my face. I was completely surprised, and I looked around for the assailant, it came out of the damn fridge. It seemed to be a shadow arm, it grabbed my shirt and ripped my shirt apart as it threw me against the wall.
I felt bruises appear all over my body, I even felt that I’m bleeding somewhere, I felt the ominous glow from the shadow arm come closer, I felt it grip around my neck, squeezing the life out of me. I tried to fight back, but then I thought about my miserable life. The life I wanted is not something I could achieve anymore without my Haley. I would rather not live anymore. I decided that this thing, if it is even real, it could take me to the afterlife. My struggling stopped as I accepted my fate, I felt the shadow arm grip tighter on my neck when my struggling stopped.
All I thought at that moment was, it will not be long, then I can join you Haley, I even felt a faint smile while I closed my eyes. It is okay for me to die for no reason, who would care anyway? Abby? No, she is just here for my money. Paul? No, he just worked for me. What other people do I know? No other names seemed to come to my mind, and then I closed my eyes.
Suddenly, a warm light bathed over me, just as I thought it was over. Is this finally the end of my life? Would I join Haley, I felt something in me awake, it felt like boiling rage, did I see a light? I am not certain. Thinking the light was the place where I needed to go to meet Haley, I followed it.
To my surprise, I found myself in a park. I saw a woman sitting on a bench, she looked like Haley, but I could not be sure. I tried to get closer to the woman, but all I could see was her back, where her long red hair flowed in the wind. Information came to my mind, a woman named Alice? She seems to be important, but for what? Energy beamed from within her, but she felt, alone. I could see she was feeding the pigeons. My vision snapped back to the shadow arm strangling me.
Without hesitation, I started to struggle again, I opened my eyes, I looked around for a way to fight back, the stick man! With gritted teeth, I tried to grab the knife, but it seemed to be impossible to reach. My life force started to leave me when I suddenly heard a squelching sound.
Abby looked at me as she stabbed the shadow arm a few more times. It finally let me go, and I grabbed my throat.
She looked at me, “Are you okay, Steve?”
My throat felt sore, thus, I nodded. With a hoarse voice, I managed to speak up, “The fridge, the shadow arm came out of the fridge.”
Abby helped me up, the shadow arm tried to hit Abby, I gently pushed her aside, that is the moment I realized, she meant a lot to me, I would catch a bullet for the damn woman. The shadow arm smashed into the wall. Abby ran over to the fridge and opened it, we both stared at a weird purple portal.
Quickly, I ran over to the fridge and stood in front of it and gathered my voice. “Hey shadow fucker, come get some!” The arm flew towards me and I dodged aside. Abby closed the fridge door as the shadow arm vanished through the portal.
She gasped and looked at me, “What in god’s name was that?”
“I don’t know, Abby, it just came out of the damn fridge when I wanted to grab some pizza. It almost killed me, I wanted it to kill me.”
Abby hugged me, “You silly fool, I know you do not give a shit about your life. You just pay me money, but I swear to you Steve, even if you would not give me money, I would stick around.”
I chuckled, “I still don’t believe that, but, thanks for the save Abby, without you, I would have been dead, even before all of this, I should go to work, despite what just happened.”
Abby sighed, “Steve, please be careful, I do not know if that thing is coming back for you.”
I put my hand on her shoulder. “Look, Abby, I have your phone number, if I need you, I will call you.”
Abby nodded and kissed me, “I don’t want you to die, Steve.”
“Thank you, Abby, something strange happened to me when I almost died. I feel as if something inside of me, awoke, I feel, awakened.”