It was another regular and awful day in your life. Your feet ached to the point where you could barely feel them from another grueling 11-hour shift at a 24/7 diner. It was located in a sketchy part of town that was infamous for its high crime rates. During your shift, you had to put up with loud drunkards as they slurred their orders, leers from the regulars as they try to 'subtly' implied for 'other services' when you were off the clock, and constantly on edge for a fight to break out at any moment.
You groaned as you opened the door to your dingy apartment. It was far from what anyone would consider 'home sweet home', with only cheap furniture that broke down even under the slightest of weights, the permanent and faint smell of mildew and mothballs in the air, and a few flimsy posters to cover up the cracks that spiderwebbed up the walls. No matter how much you tried to clean it up, the place would almost immediately revert to a filthy hellhole followed by a rat or mold infestation a few days later. You winced as you heard your neighbors, a couple that was made up two junkies, above you screamed over who would get the last of their heroin.
You shook your head as you took off your leather jacket and ran a hand through your straggled hair. You glanced at the microwave's clock that read 12:45 AM in a bright sickly green and flipped the light switch next to you. The light bulb flickered for a moment before it illuminated the living room in a harsh, bland cool white: making the space look all the more depressing and lifeless. Sitting on your scratched table, was a large pile of half-finished schoolwork that seemed to sneer at you, reminding you that they were due within only a few days.
Suppressing the groan in your throat, you dropped your bag and rushed to finish your assignments. The textbooks' words swam in your tired eyes and through your exhaustion, you could barely focus on the paper in front of you. Your hand shook as you wrote notes, making your handwriting illegible to even yourself. Throughout the long early morning hours, you fought against your exhaustion as you tried to finish the last of your workload, knowing that at best you would get a barely passing grade when you turned them in to your professors.
As you finished your final assignment, you noticed a black journal with gold stars on the cover sitting in the corner of the table. It was your writing journal, one that you haven't touched in well over a month and left all alone to be forgotten. The ideas, plotting, and excerpts of stories that will never be told.
With a cry, you threw your head in your hands and groaned. Tears started to roll down your face as you violently trembled.
It was like this almost everyday for the last several months. You sacrificed your hobbies social life just to work long hours at your dead-end job with no other source of income. You had to up with seedy customers, horrible co-workers, your witch of a boss, and the occasional fight. All while trying to keep a neutral face only to barely make enough money to afford this hellhole that was also populated with the same kinds of people you put up at work and constantly staring down dropping out of college in the eye. But worst of all, you had to put aside your dreams of becoming published just to scarcely keep your head above. Month after month, more of your mental fortitude was starting to wear down and you wondered if all of your effort was worth it if all you could do was barely get by in every aspect of your life.
"I don't want to put up with this anymore!" You choked out. "I'll give up anything just so my life to be a little bit better!"
You slumped down into the table, barely registering the impact. Your eyes blurred from tears and exhaustion, turning the world around you in a swirling fog of colors and shapes. You succumbed to your fatigue and closed your eyes as you slowly drifted away into a dreamless sleep.
---
A year later....
Your fortune has completely reversed. Instead of being barely scraping by no matter how hard you've struggled, you were now enjoying the complete opposite. Now you were living in a decent apartment in a nice part of town that was within walking distance of college, your grades only consisted of strong As and Bs, and you had landed the paid internship of your dreams at a major publishing house as you learned the ins-and-outs of the trade. It was as if you were living in a fairytale.
At first, you didn't think too much of it. After all, anything was better than barely getting by and living in a mold and rat infested apartment that you could barely afford and struggling to keep up with class while working long hours for less than minimum wage. But as the initial shock and joy wore off, you were starting to get the inkling that something wasn't quite right about this sudden change. You don't remember doing anything to improve your living conditions. You didn't fill out any applications to the internship, you didn't find more time to dedicate for studying, nor made a payment towards the new apartment.
It was just that one day you got a phone call with an editor at the publishing house, asking if you would like an internship with them and you accepted. The next day, you turned in your two-week notice to your former boss and quickly scrounged up enough money to move out into a better apartment despite working shorter hours now.
Oh well, life has its random chances like that. You shrugged it off, yet that feeling of unease still remained in the back of your mind.
Yellow sunlight streamed through the gaps in your blinds and into your eyes. With a groan, you turned on your side and felt paper underneath your fingertips. You jolted upwards to a strange note on your nightstand that read: Your debt is due by the end of today.
You ripped the note off of the nightstand, flipping it both sides to see if there was anything else on it. Be it a signature or anything else, but after reading it all over again on both sides, you found nothing else.
You looked at the calendar hanging on your wall to see that in bright red marker, you had circled today with the words: RENT DUE written in red ink as well.
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"Guess I wrote this last night as a reminder," you shook your head as you rubbed the sleep from your eyes before starting your day.
---
The day flew by in a blur without anymore notes regarding debts nor any other unusual activity. As you were going editing the document your boss assigned you, Anya, a fellow intern gently knocked on your cubicle wall.
"Hey what's up?" You turned around.
"I'm gonna head out, can you close up the office when you leave?" She asked and undid the tight bun in her hair.
"Yeah. I'm gonna be here for like one or two more hours," you nodded.
"Great. Have a good one."
"You too."
When she was out of view, you leaned out of your chair to see the window on the far end of the hall. The sun was beginning to sink into the horizon: turning the sky into shades of purples, oranges, and pinks as elongated shadows were cast across the ground.
"It's starting to get late. I better finish this up soon," you muttered to yourself and brushed a strand of (H/C) behind your ear. As you typed in your notes regarding an awkward phrasing in the document, you heard a muffled bang! coming from the end of the hallway.
"Anya?" You called out, "I thought you clocked out already."
Silence.
It's probably the custodial staff then. You disregarded and sat back down, trying to get back to your train of thought. Just as you were about finish up another comment regarding your edit, another and louder bang! echoed outside. Annoyed, you got out of your seat and stepped out of your cubicle.
"Some of us are still here working, can you please try to keep it down?" You asked, trying keep the growing annoyance out of your voice.
Once again, silence.
"I hope they heard me this time," you grumbled and went back to editing.
Not a minute has passed when a third bang! startled you out of your seat. You clenched your eyes in annoyance and shot out of your seat.
"I swear I'm going to flip," you growled and stormed over a few more feet into the hallway.
"Listen! Some of us are trying to get some work done! Can you please keep it down?"
You were replied with an overwhelming deafening silence. For several seconds you stood there, before turning around. Before you could get five steps in, the florescent light above you went off, plunging the office space into darkness for a few seconds followed by a quiet laughter coming from somewhere in the distance.
W-what the hell?
You swallowed thickly and called out again: "Listen Anya, or whoever is out there, this little prank of yours isn't funny. I'm trying to get my work done, so stop distracting me and leave me alone!"
Once more you were met again with an uncomfortable silence, the only thing you could hear was the slow and steady pounding of your heart. You shook your head and went back to your desk. As you finished the last of your edits the sound of someone whispering came from the end of the hallway.
Sucking in a deep breath, you saved your work, emailed it to your boss, and logged off. You put on your leather jacket and grabbed your weathered leather messenger bag. You stormed over to the end of the hallway and looked out to see nothing. However, you rolled your eyes and took a step out into the main corridor.
"The gig's up already," your voice was heavy with annoyance. "Your stupid prank to scare me isn't working. Now leave me alone."
The whispering laughter became louder and distorted. High-pitched and mechanical yet childish as well. The lights above you flickered violently and you yelped as they went out, leaving you in an abyss of black.
You stood still in shock at what had happened. Your pounding heart drummed in your ears as you looked at the black outlines of cubicles and desks that surrounded you, looking for who or what was the source of this. You stiffened as you heard the distant sound of footsteps heading towards your direction.
Panic took over and you ran towards the exit. In the darkness, the hallways seemed longer and twisted violently. Sweat rolled down your face as the footsteps came closer.
Just gotta find an exit! Come on! Where is it!?
You screamed as something crashed in front of you-- blocking your path. Nearly tripping over yourself, you took a sharp right. The hallways stretched on for far longer than you remembered. Each second felt like an eternity as you ran faster through the dark and narrow corridors. Your lungs felt like you had swallowed pins and your knees threatened to give out from exhaustion.
God no! Come on! Where's that exit!?
The footsteps drew near in all directions alongside that horrible, chittering laughter. You spun around wildly like a marionette. In a split second, you rushed down the hall and into the nearest room. You slammed the door shut. Even in the darkness, you knew that you were in the bathroom due to the glinting coming from the mirror on the left. As quietly as possible, you went over to the last stall and locked it. You huddled yourself in the corner and held your breath.
The footsteps came towards the bathroom. You heard the door groan open as your stalker walked inside, their shoes clacking against the tiles like bones. You dared not to breathe as they came closer and opened each stall slowly. You felt tears starting to form in your eyes, realizing that had sealed your doom.
No, no, no! Please no!
As they opened the last stall before yours, they turned around and left the bathroom. You stood still for several minutes in shock.
D-did they not see this stall? Is this an ambush?
You slowly got out of your position and quietly approached the stall's door. You stood still for several seconds, waiting and listening for any more footsteps. You unlocked the door and quietly walked towards the bathroom door. As your hand reached for the handle, you felt a hand on your shoulder.
The world around you started to twist and fracture. The dark bathroom turned into a blur of blacks as the laughter surrounded you. You collapsed onto the ground as your vision started to slowly fade.
The last thing you heard before you blacked out was:
"It's time to repay your debt."
(originally posted on: https://www.quotev.com/story/14607383/The-Game)