Day 1, the first day, three days before the flying head

Mine was a boring life up until this day when I showed up for work and met the Devil.

…

I was walking and humming.

“What should I do,

De dum dum do

Where should I go,

I don’t know.”

Whenever I’m bored I find myself silently singing this song that’s stuck in my head.

It was finally my day off from my part-time job, so I headed to the library to borrow some new old games for my console.

“I hope Luna’s working at the library today…”

I got a text from my elder brother.

“whaddup bro. can you please respond? i just found the perfect new position at my company where you won’t even have to do any—”

I deleted the message.

“Oh yeah… “

My brother’s text reminded me to text the drug dealer. I sent him a message then put the phone away. He usually took a couple of hours to write back.

While walking, I spotted two of the creatures playing atop a cable box. I walked over to them because I was bored.

On the box, there was an empty beer bottle. The first creature was hanging from the box upside down and was faceless and smaller than the bottle.

The second creature, which was about the size of a small ball and also faceless, was flying around the box.

Ever since I was born, I see about 1-3 of these creatures every week. All of them are the size of or smaller than a basketball. Some have wings and can fly, but most are wingless and walk or crawl.

They all have individual shapes and sizes and I’ve never seen two alike.

Though what they all have in common is that they’re faceless and harmless and just move around aimlessly, though sometimes they are in groups. The biggest group I’ve seen of these creatures was four together.

And sometimes I see some trapped in buildings and guide them out if I have nothing better to do.

I haven’t bothered experimenting on them, so there’s a lot of details about them I don’t know.

I’m not sure if they can see or feel because they have no faces. I assume they can at least perceive their environment better than an automatic vacuum cleaner, because I sometimes, though rarely, like today, see them hanging around in groups.

They are also very clumsy and I’ve seen them bump into people and things many times.

I’m the only one who can perceive these creatures.

When I was a child, I used to tell people about them but no one believed me and I was tired of being called a schizophrenic, so I stopped talking about them and pretended to not see them.

At first, I thought I was just crazy. But eventually I figured out that these creatures actually exist physically, but for some reason, I’m the only one who can perceive them.

Sometimes I see them bump into people and those people physically react to getting hit and looking around confused. Also, I can touch the creatures and they react physically to me.

But besides this abnormal perception, everything about my life is utterly boring. And even nowadays I find these creatures boring as well. I’ve never met one who showed any signs of intelligence or could speak.

While I was absentmindedly staring at them, the flying creature flew into the beer bottle. The bottle hit the ground and smashed into pieces before my feet.

The sound and image of the beer bottle shattering shocked me back to the present. An intense deja vu came over me. And it gave me a small headache.

“What the hell?” I closed my eyes and scratched my head. Then I continued walking.

I bumped into someone.

“Ups, sorry!” I said.

I looked down in front of me.

There was a girl staring into my eyes, her body right in my personal space. She had completely black hair and pure yellow irises. I thought she looked very pretty. I don’t know why, but her presence made me feel warm and happy.

She was staring at me expressionlessly. I had never seen such beautiful yellow irises before.

“Please help me,” she said in a monotone voice. Her voice was very feminine.

“Huh?” the question caught me off guard. “Ehm, yeah sure, what do you need help with?”

She paused for a moment. Though her face was expressionless, I could tell she was confused. Then it looked like she had a realization.

“Oh, never mind.”

She then put her right pointing finger in front of me. I instinctively mirrored her behaviour and pointed my right pointing finger out as well in front of hers.

She grabbed onto it.

My hand was cold and hers warm, and I noticed my hand was about twice as big as hers.

“Close your eyes, and keep them closed.“

I don’t know why, but I did as she told me to. I didn’t feel weirded out or apprehensive in any way. I still just felt warm and happy.

I closed my eyes.

I felt wetness and warmth at the end of my finger.

I opened my eyes and saw she was sucking on it.

“Ehm…”

Without stopping sucking, she gestured to me to close my eyes.

“Ehm… okay.”

I closed my eyes.

Right then I worried how this looked if people passed by.

She put about half my finger in her mouth. Just before I was about to open my eyes again, I felt a hard squeeze down below.

“Hey!”

I jumped back and opened my eyes.

She was gone.

“What the…?”

I looked around.

She couldn’t have just disappeared…

There was no one else on the street but me. I kept looking around trying to spot where she went. I even ran over to the different alleys and ways out, but I couldn’t find her.

“Did that really just happen?”

I looked down at my finger. It still felt wet and I could see her drool on it.

Because of the warmth and happiness she left in me, and because of my loneliness and boredom, I felt a weird desire. I put my drool-covered finger into my mouth.

“Vanilla?”

I was confused.

“What the hell just happened…” I stood there for two minutes.

I shook my head.

“Oh yeah, the library.”

…

When I entered the library, I spotted Luna at the desk dealing with some old people. I made eye contact with her and she nodded hello to me and I waved hello back, then I went to the DVDs section to check for new games.

While I was at the section, I saw that the library had also started stocking Intendo Flip games.

God I wish I could afford a Flip.

“Always the same…”

While I was flipping through games, I saw that no new ones had come on the shelves. There were a couple of games at the library I’ve been eyeing and hoping would come in stock. I kept flipping through the shelves.

Almost all of the games the library has are a couple of years old, and if you want the best of those games, you have to reserve them online, which I’m too lazy to do. Else you have to hope that one comes in stock before it’s reserved or taken by someone else.

Of course, I want the newest games and not these crappy old ones the library has, but beggars can’t be choosers. And on the flip side sometimes you find gems by being forced to play through these older titles.

This sucks… If I ever win the lottery I’m buying every new release on my wish list… every game on Shopcool, every cool thing in the game store… and a VR-headset. And a big ass gaming laptop. And a bigger TV, one of those that curves! And, of course, the new gaming console. And the Intendo Flip, why not. And the Heat Check when it comes out. And eating Chinese buffet every day. And filling my fridge with those expensive ready-made meals from Lømeks!

I couldn’t find any of the games I wanted.

“Heh… this sucks.”

I picked three games at random even though they looked boring.

While I was picking up the games, I felt like I’d forgotten something at home.

I looked over at Luna and saw she wasn’t alone yet so I wandered around the library for a bit.

All of the books there looked old and boring. And the atmosphere of the library always makes me depressed and reminds me of my shitty school days.

“Why do I even come here to the library, this place sucks…“

I went back to the reception area and saw Luna was alone and smiling at me.

Yes, finally!

“Hello hello,” I said.

“Hello Ticker! how are you?” Luna said while smiling brightly. I like how cheerful she always is.

“Fine, you know the usual… Wait no! You won’t believe what just happened, holy shit!”

“What? Tell me!”

“Ehm… Nah you wouldn’t believe me anyway.”

“No way! Don’t leave me hanging like that!”

“Meh, might tell you some other time. Pretty sure you won’t believe me anyway, it was pretty absurd.”

“Wow, you’re such an asshole,” she said.

“I sure am. Anyway, just came by to get these games,” I said and showed her the DVDs. She took them and scanned them for me then put them in a plastic bag and gave them back to me.

“Did you remember to return the old ones?”

Oh shit! That’s what I forgot!

“Sorry! I forgot. I’ll bring them tomorrow.”

When I said this, she smiled.

“That’s good, I’ll be here tomorrow from ten to fifteen… Also, when are you gonna start borrowing some books instead of games all the time?”

“Eh, never. Why would I bother when everything’s free online? I only read light novels anyway, everything else’s boring.”

I heard a text ring from my phone but ignored it.

She pouted and said: “It’s not called free, it’s called illegally pirating. Also, it’s better for your eyes to read paper instead of a screen.”

“Tell that to the trees you’re killing…” Not that I care about trees. I was just too broke to buy and too lazy to read paper books. Turning pages is annoying.

“Why do you borrow so many games anyway? You’re almost here every other day,” Luna said.

I hesitated. I didn’t want to tell her I only came to peek at her and hope for a conversation.

“Well, I get bored of something quickly. I find most games boring in the beginning and stop playing them, and if I find them interesting, I’ll only play them for a few hours before I get bored.”

“Maybe you have ADHD or something— Oh my god! Dude! I’m so scared! Did you hear about the shooting? Some drug dealer was murdered in front of that kebab place. I’m really afraid of going home alone after work today…”

“Yeah it’s really scary. I hope they catch him”

I did not hope they caught him. I didn’t want to be out of drugs. And I get my stuff from the drug dealer who killed the other drug dealer.

I heard a text ring from my phone again.

Speak of the devil…

I checked my phone. He texted he was free now and for me to come over. I texted him back.

“Well, gotta go,“ I said.

I felt like I shouldn’t overstay. I always feel people don’t want to be around me.

“Huh, okay…” she said and pouted a little.

When I said I was leaving she looked sad? Maybe I could have stayed a little longer? Not like I was doing anything important anyway.

“W-Well see you tomorrow! I’ll be here from ten to fifteen dealing with old people, hehe.” Luna said.

“Yeah, bye-bye.”

While going through the exit I turned around and she was still smiling at me and I waved goodbye and she waved back.

Such a cute girl. I really wanna see her nipples. Holy shit it was hard to keep my eyes up and not peek at her huge boobs!

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

…

I knocked on the door to the apartment. From behind the door, I could hear someone moving in a panic.

“Who the fuck is it!” said the drug dealer.

I was sure he was looking at me through the peephole, but paranoid drug dealers are paranoid. Especially right after they’ve killed someone.

“Hello hello, it’s Ticker.”

“What are you holding?!” he said.

“Oh, just a plastic bag with three games from the library.“

I heard a lot of key and clicking sounds. The door opened. From behind it appeared a short man with big muscles.

“Ayy, what’s up bro!” he said in a cheerful voice.

He poked his head outside the door and looked around with his right hand behind his back. Then he sighed in relief.

We did a bro-fist and he let me in. He slammed the door and used its many bolts and chains to lock it.

“Nothing much, finally my day off.”

“For real? That’s good. How’s my sister doing?“

“Good, good,” I said. I made sure to not mention how Fatdiva was being creepy around her and kept touching her awkwardly and making perverted comments. Since his reaction to this and the changes it would make to my life would be annoying to deal with.

He went back to the door and double-checked all the locks and looked through the peephole again.

Then he came back.

Without saying anything, the drug dealer gave me a big smile and turned around.

While his back was turned I could see the pistol tugged into his pants.

He grabbed a large suitcase and opened it on the floor.

Then my eyes looked at what was inside.

Beautiful! Magnificent!

“I’ve got all the drugs in the world that you need,” he said.

“I love you baby!“ I said.

You name it, he has it. And he never cuts it, at least not for me. He told me he gets all his stuff from the Darknet, buys it in bulk for a discount, then sells it in units and profits from the difference.

“I think I’ll just go with shrooms today. The ones that taste less shitty than the others,” I said.

“Oh, just like your bro—” he tried cut himself off but let his tongue slip. There was an awkward pause.

“… How’s he doing? Is he good?”

My phone started ringing but I turned it off without looking.

“Ehm…” I could see him hesitate, “… Well financially he’s doing great! He’s my biggest client, he and his buddies all come over in expensive suits and buy me out all the time. I keep having to reorder shipments.”

“…” There was an awkward pause again. Then I heard my phone ring again.

“Who the fuck’s calling me!“

I checked my phone.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me!”

“What’s wrong?“ he said.

“Same shit, different day. I gotta run, how much?”

“350 kroner for one.”

I gave him the cash.

He put two batches inside my plastic bag.

“I’ll give another on the house bro.”

“No, you don’t have to do that,” I said.

“No, on the house, for a friend whose day just got shitty ha-ha,” he said and smiled. I put on a smile and laughed back.

“Ha-ha, thanks, bro.”

In no way did I think of him as a friend. Not that I have a single friend anyway.

We went back to the exit. He spent a minute looking through the peephole. Then he unlocked the door.

I went out.

“Yeah, thanks bro, see ya! Remember, as always, don’t tell my brother I was here, okay?” I said.

“Of course bro, don’t worry,” he said.

He slammed the door and used its many bolts and chains to lock it.

On the way to hell, I found myself walking past the spot where I’d met the mysterious girl who tasted like vanilla.

I saw that the two creatures were still hanging around the same spot by the cable box.

I looked at them and said, “Lucky bastards, don’t have to pay for food and rent.”

No response.

“Sorry I seem angrier than earlier. It’s just that my shitty boss— it’s just that Fatdiva just ruined my day.” Whenever I say ‘my boss’ I feel like a slave and it makes my blood boil.

I sighed.

I tried getting my mind off things and just stared at the creatures for a minute.

Now that I think about it, since they’re faceless they shouldn’t need food. And I’ve never seen one sleeping too. Maybe they don’t need to rest and eat?

I looked down and saw the smashed glass from earlier. It reminded me of those beautiful yellow irises.

I sighed.

“I hope I see her again…“

I closed my eyes and scratched my head. Then I turned around and hoped I’d bump into her.

I opened my eyes. A stranger passed by me pretended he didn’t just see me acting weird.

I sighed again and started walking.

I nodded goodbye to the two creatures and said, “See you later.”

I was pretty sure I would never see those two creatures again. All of them just wander from place to place aimlessly and it’s very unlikely they’ll visit the same place twice.

I kept walking and was now across the street from Hell.

I stopped and sighed deeply.

“Why am I still working this shitty job? I should just swallow my pride and accept my big brother’s charity…”

I looked inside the plastic bag full of games and drugs.

“At least I have something to look forward to after work,” I said to myself.

“Hey! Ticker! The fuck are you doing! Hurry up! Your shift started half an hour ago!”

While I was regretting my life choices, I heard short, fat, ugly, and balding Fatdiva scream at me in a high-pitched voice from across the street.

A thought crossed my mind…

I wouldn’t mind if a car killed him in an accident.

This is the side-effect of people doing bad things to you. For example, making you come in for work on your day off, a lot of times, like today.

“Here we go again,” I mumbled to myself as I slowly crossed the street.

…

There are some choices in life you look back on where you had no idea that time and place and the roll of a dice by fate was happening. If I had simply chosen not to show up for work that day, which was more likely than it was unlikely, I would still be living a boring, uneventful life, until the day I die.

…

I entered the gloomy windowless stuffy yellow restaurant kitchen and started my shift.

I work part-time making pizzas.

This restaurant is probably the most boring place on earth.

And I don’t even have anyone to talk while making pizzas. I work with two old, boring, ugly refugees who can’t even speak the language.

I’m the youngest one at work, 20 years old. When I think about it, I’m the youngest person in my life I know, not that I know many.

The town I live in is a small ugly one where old, ugly people go to die and waste their money at overpriced restaurants where the pizzas taste bad because the owner doesn’t want to buy good ingredients and loves cutting corners if it makes him a little money.

While I was bored and making pizzas, I heard a feminine voice from behind me say: “Here you go, Ticker!”

I turned around and saw a cute girl holding a glass of water filled to the brim with ice.

Thank god she’s working today! Now work will suck less.

“Thanks, Maggie,” I said. I didn’t even ask for it but it’s routine by now.

Maggie is the prettiest girl I know. She is the only part of work I like and probably the reason I haven’t quit -- alongside the need for money.

“Dude, you won’t believe what happened to me today!” I said.

“Wait, what? What happened!”

“Mhmmm, nah you’ll just say I’m lying if I tell you…”

“No way, I promise I won’t,” she said.

“Meh, might tell you some other day…” I said.

“God you’re such a tease!“

I’m the tease?!

The sad truth is I know I’ll never get to see her nipples or push her face into the pillow.

“You know,” she said teasingly, “I was thinking again about that movie you told me about. We have to watch it someday!”

This was maybe the sixth time she’s mentioned the movie and wanting to watch it with me. Yet whenever I write her or talk to her in person and try to set up the date, she makes some kind of excuse. I’ve stopped bothering asking her.

I just looked at her and didn’t respond. I was tired of her.

“Oh my god! Ticker!” she said and got closer and touched my arms, “I’m so scared!“

This sounds familiar…

“Why?” I asked.

“Oh my god! Didn’t you hear? There was at the kebab place under where I live! I’m so scared! And you know how afraid I am of walking home at night alone…”

Ughh… let’s try, why not?

“Want me to walk you home tonight when our shifts are done?”

“Ahhh, you’re so sweet! But no thank you! I’ll be fine, you’re so nice.”

Fuck you, bitch!

“But I really am worried…” she said.

“Yeah it’s so scary, I really hope they catch him,” I said.

Maggie is the drug dealer’s sister.

“Stop disturbing her Ticker!”

Like a small snake slithering in the grass, Fatdiva appeared from out of nowhere to yell at me.

“I told you to stop talking to Maggie,“ Fatdiva said and put his hands on her shoulders. I could see her face getting creeped out but she didn’t move away.

“Come on baby, I need your help with something,” Fatdiva said and put his hand behind Maggie’s lower back while walking away with her.

On the way out, I could see the sweat stains on the back of Fatdiva’s shirt and Maggie inoffensively distancing herself from his hand.

I sighed deeply.

“Why am I still working this shitty job?”

…

Hours passed making pizzas in boredom.

I found myself humming during the misery:

“What should I do,

De dum dum do

Where should I go,

I don’t know.”

I sighed.

From behind I heard the refugee worker click his tongue.

“Yeah fuck off you grateful piece of war-torn shit.”

He said something back in the same tone in a language which I didn’t understand then walked away.

“Why am I still working this shitty job? I should just swallow my pride and accept my brother’s charity…”

I looked at my phone. I opened it and got ready to write a message to my brother.

I can’t keep doing this. Let me just write him back and live a normal boring life…

That’s when it happened.

Just as I was about to write the message, from the corner of my eye, I saw a girl with her back turned against me.

“Huh?”

I looked at her.

When I look at those creatures, I always get this vague ‘not-from-here’ feeling. When I looked at this girl, I got the same feeling, which I had never gotten from a person.

The first thing I noticed was her amazing ass and figure. Then her red-brown neck-length hair. She was about 165 cm.

Below she was wearing black boots and tight black jeans which looked like they were about to tear because of her perfect figure.

Up top, she was wearing a red-pink cotton-shirt. She had the back of her hair up in a ponytail so I could see her graceful neck.

Only lastly, after staring at her ass and hips again, did I notice she had a big bag on her shoulder full of big plastic cola-bottles that were filled with something that didn’t look like cola.

I wasn’t sure because her back was turned but it looked like she was eating one of my pizzas.

“Ehm, excuse me?” I said.

No response.

“Hello hello, excuse me?”

She turned her head while keeping her back turned as if she heard me but didn’t think it was directed towards her.

I could see she had taken one bite of the pizza, then put it down. She took a wet napkin from her pocket and gracefully spit out what she was chewing. She then, contradicting how gracefully she spit out the food, threw away the wet napkin randomly without looking where it landed.

I then heard her talk to herself:

“Gross. I picked this place at random, but it appears I’ll be doing some charity for this boring city. Ugh… I’m heading back to Copenhagen and never exploring small cities like Vejle again. God this was boring.”

She then reached for her bag.

“Ehm, why are you eating that pizza?”

In the blink of an eye, too fast for me to notice she had even moved, she turned around and was now face to face with me. I almost jumped back in shock.

Big, yellow irises were staring into my eyes. She was right in my personal space.

I felt an intense deja vu for the second time today.

I looked at her face.

During the information overload, I remembered the other girl who sucked my finger.

This is the hottest girl I will ever have met in my life.

I saw clear white skin. Perfect naturally red lips. And a small cute nose. Her bangs covered her eyebrows some places in different lengths and on the sides covering her ears her hair reached down to her neck.

I looked down, her shirt was unbuttoned a little so I saw her clavicle and smooth skin. And that she wasn’t wearing a bra.

Then I saw two not too big not too small, perfect breasts pressing out against her shirt, with her nipples poking through the fabric. Then I looked up and we made eye contact again.

She looked like she was sizing me up, with her face relaxed. But I could sense in her eyes that she was shocked and confused.

Again, in the blink of an eye or less, her right pointing finger was now out in front of her. She slowly moved it closer and closer to my chest, while her entire hand was shaking.

She touched me very lightly. She kept looking at me, trying to see if I registered her touch. When her finger touched me, I heard her mumble, “eeww.”

I looked at her, confused.

Then she withdrew her hand in an instant I couldn’t see.

She took out a wet napkin from her pocket and gracefully cleaned her finger where she’d touched me and tossed the tissue on the ground without looking to see where it landed.

“Ehm… Hello?“ I said.

She was still just looking at me with those pure yellow irises.

Devilish beauty.

She opened her mouth and exhaled. Because she was in my personal space and her face was so close to mine, I could smell her breath.

Sugar?

She then said in the sexiest voice I have heard in my life:

“Why can you see me?” The corners of her lips then went up in a small, creepy smile. I wasn’t sure if she wanted to hug me or murder me.

“Ehm, what do you mean?”

She paused and didn’t respond. She then studied my eyes.

“But it’s not just your eyes, you appear to feel me as well, and hear me, so your entire perception is abnormal…”

She kept looking at me. Then she stopped and smiled.

“Anyway, this is great! If I had to spend the remaining fifteen years like this I would have died from boredom!”

What the hell is happening…

Then Maggie came to pick up the pizza I’d made for a customer.

“Eeew Ticker! Why’d you take a bite from it?”

“Wait, what?” I said.

“Ticker? That’s a weird name…” the girl said.

I looked at Maggie then looked at the girl in front of me.

“She did it, it wasn’t me,” I said.

“What?” Maggie looked confused.

Why isn’t she looking at the girl in front of me?

“Hmph. My nickname’s ‘Devil’ back in Hell, but the name’s Lidima, thank you very much,” the girl said.

I looked at Maggie again.

“Okay, Lidima’s her name,” I said and gestured to Lidima.

Maggie was still looking at me, confused.

Lidima then laughed.

“Ticker, you’re the only one in this world who can perceive demons,” she said.

I took a moment to think about what she just said.

Maggie went up to me and touched my arm and said, “Hey Ticker, are you fine? You’re acting weird…“

“Ehm… yeah I just feel a little sick like I have to throw up. I gotta go now.”

“Are you sure? Fatdiva’s gonna be mad but I’ll tell him.”

“As if I give a shit,” I said and left.

I walked quickly to the exit. Then I walked back and grabbed my stuff and the plastic bag with games and drugs and walked to the exit again.

When I went outside I saw that Lidima was following me.

“Not even gonna open the door for me and say ‘Ladies first’?”

The Devil keeps following me around.

“So where to now?“ she said.

“What? Why are you following me!”

Not like I was against having the hottest girl alive follow me, but I was a little stressed from what just happened and appearing schizophrenic to Maggie.

“I’ve been bored out of my mind not being able to talk to anyone for five years, and now you think I’m just gonna let my only source of entertainment leave? As I said, you’re stuck with me for the remainder of my sentence.”

“Your sentence? Wait, what?”

While we were walking she looked at the bag on her shoulder.

“Oh forgot about this…“ she said and tossed it randomly. She looked at what I was holding.

“What’ve you got in the bag?”

“Just drugs and games,” I said.

“Yes! Great!“ she said.

We walked a little more.

I only lived two minutes away from work so I could already see my building.

“Ehm, this is where I live…” I said and stopped in front of the building entrance.

“Ugly building,” she said.

Is she serious about not leaving me? What’s even happening right now... Oh, but wait! I just got an idea! Why didn’t I think of this!

“If you don’t have a place for tonight you can sleep over, I don’t mind,” I said.

“Are you deaf? I just said I’m not leaving you.“

I felt blood rushing down into my pants.

“Okay then, ladies first!” I said and opened the door for her.

We took the staircase up to the first floor.

Holy shit! Maybe I’ll get to fuck her! God I wanna touch those tits and put her nipples in my mouth!

I could now hear my phone blowing up. I checked and Fatdiva was calling and texting. I turned off my phone.

“So, you said you were a demon? So those small faceless creatures I sometimes see are demons as well?“ I asked her.

“Hmph! Don’t compare a real demon to a lesser demon, idiot!”

She said that almost screaming.

Quiet down the neighbours might hear you! Oh wait…

We were now at the door of my small and cramped one-bedroom apartment.

“Ladies first,” I said and opened it for her.

“Eeew this place is disgusting,” she said as she took off her shoes and entered. I followed her from behind.

She went into the kitchen and I threw the plastic bag onto my bed and out of habit turned on the TV and gaming console.

“How can you live like this,” she said and was already cleaning the kitchen. I peeked at her ass.

She opened my fridge and checked out all the microwaveable foods and milk and rice and white bread.

She looked around the apartment.

“Why are you using a big suitcase as a closet?” she asked me.

“Too much work to buy one. And I hate owning useless stuff. I wanna be able to move with no help.”

She then looked at the mattress I used as a bed. Then she continued cleaning. I kept staring at her ass.

“So, wanna come over here and play? We can do shrooms later…”

This piqued her interest. She stopped cleaning and got closer and watched the TV.

“I have seen human games around but never bothered playing them… are they any fun?”

“Yeah, totally. Come sit here and I’ll show you how to play,” I said.

With no hesitation, she casually sat down right next to me on the bed. Our thighs were almost touching. I felt more blood rushing down into my pants.

I turned on the game I almost always play and played a little and showed her how to play.

“Oh, this is interesting,” she said while she was using the controller.

“I’m curious, you said something about being sentenced?”

“Oh yeah, as punishment for breaking the soul-contract I was sentenced to twenty years in this boring world.”

Punished you for what?

I was almost about to ask her, but I honestly didn’t care at the time I was too focused on her sexiness and sniffing her.

Again, she smells like sugar…

I felt my feet were touching something. I looked down and saw a bunch of old games.

“Oh shit, these are the ones I forgot to return!”

I emptied the plastic bag and put the old games in, then got up and walked to the entrance and hung the bag on the door handle. Then I sat down next to Lidima a little closer than before.

She was focused on the game.

I put my arm behind her without touching.

“What’s with the bag?“ Lidima asked.

“Oh, they’re some old games I have to return tomorrow at the library,” I said.

“What? Why do you borrow games?” she asked, while still focused on the TV.

“Ehm, well I need to save money. Also, there’s this cute librarian I like…”

“Oh!” Lidima turned her head for a moment. It seemed I’d gotten her interest, “how far are you in seducing her?”

“Oh, well… not really. I’m not really that good with girls. I can’t understand them...”

“Well, well. Lemme help you out tomorrow then!” she said with a smile, then turned her head again and stopped talking and focused on the game.

“Eh, okay? Thanks for the help,” I said.

Some more time passed with her focused on the game.

I didn’t know what else to say, so I got up and microwaved some food for us. Then got back to the bed with the plates.

“Food’s ready,“ I said.

Lidima didn’t react.

I looked at the TV.

She was playing an online multiplayer first-person shooter. The only game I owned because my brother gave it to me years ago back when he gave me this gaming console. And she was absolutely dominating the game.

“Holy shit!” I said as I watched her play.

I saw her take no damage and use advanced strategies and an impossible reaction time.

I got an idea.

“Quick suggestion: If you lower the quality of the screen you get a faster frame rate,” I said.

“What does that mean?”

“Ehm… it’s faster if I show you. Pun intended.”

I then lowered the quality.

“Try now,” I said.

She started playing.

“Whoa, it’s way faster now!”

She had only played the game for one hour but she was now winning matches dying zero times and getting fifty to a hundred kills per match.

I was pretty sure by this point she was the best player in the world.

After the last match ended, she tossed the controller to me.

“I’m booooored!” she said

And that’s that I guess.

“Oh, I made some food,” I said and pointed to her unfinished plate on the bed.

“Oh! Yayyyy!” she said and started eating the cheap microwave food, “This is delicious!“

“Yeah, and it’s cheap relative to its quality. For only 30 kr a piece you can get these amazing ready-made meals at Lømeks. Though I try not to buy too many or it gets really expensive.

The cost of food is a problem for me. I’m 185 cm and need to eat a lot, so I spend more money on food than rent, which doesn’t help if you’re a poor part-timer.”

“Huh, is that so…”

I don’t know how she lived up until now, but I could tell the being a wage-slave experience is one she never had.

While she was eating I opened up the shrooms.

“Smells so bad. And I even got the less smelly ones,” I said.

Lidima looked at the shrooms. Her face grimaced at how ugly it looked.

“Wait here for a minute…” I said.

Lidima continued eating her meal.

I went over to the kitchen and crushed up the shrooms and mixed them with lots of sugar and sour candy.

When I came back to the bed she was done eating her meal.

“This should mask the taste. Ladies first.”

We each ate half of the mixture.

“The sugar reminds me of you,” I said.

“What?” Lidima said.

“I mean, you smell like sugar,” I said.

“Wait, what! You can smell me? But that doesn’t mean you just have abnormal perception, it means your cells can interact with soul-EM and—”

I got closer to her to sniff her.

“Don’t fucking touch me!”

My heart almost stopped. I moved away from her.

“Oh, eh, sorry… The shrooms should hit in a bit,” I said.

“Ughhh… What was I saying? I’m so booooreed,“ Lidima said.

“Wanna watch tv?”

“Yeah, sure.”

I used my gaming console to turn on a streaming app. I put on a sci-fi show about a crazy scientist grandfather and his grandson.

After how she yelled, I felt awkward. But that feeling was soon washed away when I got high.

I couldn’t stop laughing. I looked at my hands. All the colours and shapes were alive. I could feel my sense of logic and self getting switched off.

I looked at Lidima.

“Whoa, this is cool,” she said and looked around. Then she looked at my face.

”Your face is weird, ha-ha!”

My face probably looked more reptilian from the psilocybin.

“Now you look more like the dumb insects you humans are!”

In an instant, her right pointing finger was in front of my face. She moved it closer and caressed my nose.

There came a crashing sound from the TV and with lightning speed she turned her head and jumped back.

“It’s just the TV,” I said.

“Yeah, I know,” she said.

I was expecting she would gracefully wash her finger with the wet napkin after touching me, but the drugs were distracting her from her usual behaviour.

I felt dizzy and laid down on the bed.

“You’re really cool Lidima. I think I love you. Maybe this is a dream and you won’t be here tomorrow when I wake up, but I hope not.”

Then a wet whisper blew into my ear.

“I’m not leaving you for fifteen years, Ticker…”

When she said that, my chest felt warm and all my worries dissolved.

I yawned. I was sleepy.

I could hear Lidima getting up from the bed and walking around the room as I closed my eyes and my mind drifted away.