Charlie was no different from anybody else, he got up every day and went to work. He lived in a shabby apartment in a shabby part of town where all of the other service workers in his district lived. He had been designated a service worker when he had aged out of foster care, as most orphaned children were. Everyone was designated a job when they reached the legal age. It’s how the world works. You came of age, and the council of overseers would designate what job sector you would work in for the rest of your life. This is how everyone’s future was decided. Everything was decided by your designation, from your social status to where you are allowed to live.
It’s said some untold years ago that people used to have to apply for jobs, and that someone may hold a dozen or more different jobs throughout their lifetime. According to historians, people always changing jobs and looking for something else to do created a massive economic phenomenon they called ‘unemployment’. Charlie was doubtful that there were ever people who just didn't have jobs. Even if that was true, it was no longer the case. With the implementation of mandatory designation several hundred years ago, people always had work. There was no such thing as unemployment. Now people were born, either went to school or were raised in a foster facility, and then were designated. That is simply how life was and the people of the world were happier for it. Well, everyone but Charlie it seemed.
Even when he was a little boy in the foster system, Charlie had wanted to be someone important. Someone who was capable of changing the world, like an inventor or a movie star. But personal interests don’t matter. What you want to do, and what you will do have no guaranteed relation to one another. This had always bothered Charlie, and as a child he had often gotten in trouble for asking the adults why things were that way. “That is the way things are”, adults would say as they brushed off his questions. It wasn’t until he was older that he started to realize that other people truly didn’t have an issue with their placement in life. Even though service workers, like the foster facility workers who raised him, were considered less important than someone like an engineer, or a doctor, they seemed totally accepting of the way things are. It never seemed to bother them that someone else had more privileges than they did simply because of the job they were designated. Once he realized he was seemingly alone in his feelings, Charlie began to keep those thoughts and feelings to himself.
“Hey! Charlie, my man!”, an excited Daren greeted Charlie as he walked through the door at Big Burger.
He smiled at Daren as he donned his nametag and hat, “What’s up dude! Did you see the news this morning?”
Charlie and Daren were service workers. They had grown up together in the same foster facility and were best friends. It was a stroke of pure luck that they had been designated to the same place. If Charlie was being honest, having Daren with him every day at Big Burger was the only way he had been able to stand the monotony without losing his sanity.
“Yeah man, I saw. I can’t believe how many people have been disappearing lately. It’s like they are just vanishing off the face of the earth. I think it’s super weird that it’s always multiple people too. Let’s just be glad that it’s happening on the other side of town from us,” Daren replied, wearing his usual smile.
“That’s true, at least it’s far away from us. I wonder though, where could almost a hundred people have just disappeared to? I’ve read several conspiracies online that all of the people who disappeared didn’t have any friends or family, so the authorities aren’t searching that hard to find them.” Charlie added, “Do you think it has anything to do with the new re-designation the council of overseers implemented?”
“Nah,” Daren said, “there’s no way the overseers could be involved in some sort of conspiracy to abduct people. I mean, what the heck would they do with a bunch of abducted people? That's crazy talk.” Charlie had to admit Daren had a point, and wild conspiracies were really just that. Wild conspiracies.
Changing the topic slightly, Daren asked, “What do you think will happen to the people that are selected for re-designation? I think they are going to get put into new jobs the overseers have created, to make our lives even better for us.”
Charlie was not so sure. “Maybe so,” he responded, “ it will definitely be interesting to see how many people are chosen to re-designate. It will be even more interesting to see, out of the people selected, how many actually choose to go through with it. Especially considering you are running just as much risk of losing status as you are to gain it. Some people may be at even more risk of losing status. Not that I have much more status to lose.” Charlie mumbled the last bit under his breath.
A bell over the door chimed as a customer entered the restaurant as Charlie took his station at the register, an easy practiced smile on his face. Even with his misgivings, Charlie couldn’t deny that he was well suited for his placement in the service class. He was taller than most, with curly dark hair and piercing blue eyes. The proportions of his face were what some would call perfect, though he always thought his jawline was too severe. Those features along with an easy smile made him someone that people naturally gravitated towards.
“Welcome to Big Burger, home of the biggest burgers, may I take your order?” Charlie recited automatically. The man entering the door looked up as he closed his umbrella, it was raining quite hard now.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
“Oh, yes thank you,” the man responded, standing fully as he approached the counter. His eyes flickered over Charlie and Daren, “I am absolutely famished.” His voice held a tone that made Charlie uncomfortable, though he didn’t know why.
He cleared his thoughts and continued smiling back at the man, “Of course sir, would you be interested in today's special? We are offering a free large fry with every combo order of a Big Burger and a large drink. Currently, that combo is only $3.79.” The man looked intently at Charlie for several long seconds before he seemed to remember where he was.
The man mumbled something to himself before he smiled at Charlie, “That sounds wonderful, thank you. I will take three of those, all to-go please. Just the one drink though, if you don’t mind. You two may have the others if you like.”
Charlie thought that was very nice of the man, and he and Daren got started on his order right away. They quickly had it bagged up and ready to go. Once paid, the man took his food and headed back out into the rain. Headed off to wherever he was required. The rest of the evening went along like any other night, with customers coming and going like the tides, Charlie and Daren enjoying the casual bustle of another busy night’s work with their best friend.
The lock clicked as the boy finished closing Big Burger and Alcion watched as he turned and began walking down the street—presumably to his residence, now that he had completed another meaningless day spent toiling for meaningless money. The simpleminded acceptance of the mundane that humans had never ceased to amaze him. Though he too had technically once been human, the very thought filled him with disgust. For nearly 37 years Alcion had been a member of the immortal class that ran this world, this elaborate cattle farm, where the humans lived and toiled for a sense of fulfillment. Though it was really just prisoners running their own prison. From his perch on the roof Alcion watched as the boy walked along the sidewalk, avoiding puddles of water from the earlier rain as he went. He was not sure what it was about the boy that had caught his attention. Initially Alcion had gone into the restaurant where humans purchased food to scout out a couple of meals himself. After all this was a new hunting ground for him and he wanted to get an understanding of what was on the local menu. The boy didn’t have the trait from what Alcion could sense. If he had, then the boy would have been selected during his designation and converted. But something about this boy bothered Alcion.
Oblivious to the potential danger he was in, Charlie continued on his walk home from another day at work.
A shiver ran down Charlie’s spine. He would have sworn someone was watching him, just out of eyesight. But no matter how hard he tried, casually looking about, there was not a soul to be seen on the empty street. Seeing nothing to confirm it, he pushed the uneasy feeling to the back of his mind. Instead he focused on the clean fresh smells, short lived though they were, that the heavy rain had brought to the city. It was convenient for Charlie that he lived so close to his workplace. His apartment was just a few blocks away, down a back alley beside an old grocery store. It was not a nice place, but it was good enough and there were never any real issues with the neighbors. Like himself, everyone who lived in this building was a service worker in the area. This meant that, like most hard working people, they were all simply too tired when they were home to put up much of a ruckus or get into trouble.
The lock stuck for a moment as Charlie jiggled the door handle. It finally clicked and he pushed his way into his apartment. The scent of neglected dishes and forgotten laundry quickly assaulted his nose, removing all traces of the pleasurable post-rain scent he had enjoyed on his walk home. He really needed to clean up around here. It was as he had this thought that he noticed the envelope on the floor. Getting mail was not unusual, everyone at his building had their mail delivered through a slot in the door. What was unusual was the stark, unblemished white of this envelope. It was a crisp, uncrumpled piece of white paper that could never have been delivered through the postal system, at least not in that pristine condition. This meant someone had to have hand delivered it to his door. Why would he be getting a hand delivered letter? Charlie had plenty of friends and social acquaintances, he was quite the social butterfly when he wasn’t at work. But there was nobody he could think of that would go through all of the trouble to hand deliver something like this.
Charlie carried the letter with him and sat on his sofa amongst the various dirty clothes piled there. There was no return address, not even his name. The front of the envelope just had one word written across it in an impeccable cursive script: ‘Open’. He wasn’t sure why but the prospect of opening the letter made Charlie incredibly tense. It was like he was handling a bomb that could go off at any moment. Eventually though, his curiosity beat back his sense of tension and he slid his fingers behind the flap of the envelope, carefully peeling it open. Inside was a piece of what had to be very expensive stationary. It was thick well-made paper, with an unusual crest of some kind embossed into the letterhead. On the stationary was a letter written in the same artful hand as the front of the envelope. It read:
“We are pleased to announce that you have been invited from among your peers to participate in re-designation, if you so desire. In order to proceed, there are a few things that must be done. First, you must bring this letter with you when coming to the Hall of Oversight. Second, for your safety, you must bring a chaperone as the new examination is far more in depth and has left some people feeling unwell. Know that you have been selected due to your potential, and we recommend you do not waste this opportunity.”
That was all the letter said. Charlie didn’t know what to think.
Who was this mysterious person, and why did they seem to think they knew him? What did they mean he had potential?
It wasn’t like Charlie was secretly some wealthy person’s child or destined to be an overseer. But somehow deep down, Charlie had always felt like he deserved more than his designation. What he had been assigned to do had never been enough for what he believed he could do. Sure he was an orphan who was raised in foster care, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t someone who always wanted more from the world, from his lot in life. And this unknown person was telling Charlie exactly what he had known his whole life, he really was someone with the potential to do more. A smile came over his face as Charlie started to imagine what his new life would be like.