Borislav had thought he had already met his share of troubles for the day, but it seemed like whenever he had finished dealing with one issue, another put itself in his way. The peace he had searched for, away from the world of eccentric superheroes and creatures, was in fact nothing but a mirage. First, he was seeing a Blobfish-Man as his neighbor, and now he was having a mysterious dog that banged against his bathroom's door while pleading. His attempt at escaping HeroKorp was a failure, at least to this point. The strangeness and shady deals of the company kept being rubbed in his nose, even in Janisbure.
He stared at the door, devoid of any hope. It appeared that whatever was in there was jumping on the knob and trying to break free that way, but the door itself was locked. "Do I want to deal with this?" he murmured to himself, unsure of whether to listen to his saviour instinct. Despite being allergic to dogs, and having an extreme fear of them since he got bitten by one at age six ( Yes, even superheroes get assaulted by dogs, and have allergies. ), he felt extremely compelled to help out this weeping soul. His empathy was tingled a bit more every time the canine made a sound.
What the dog was doing there, or why it was in the building in the first place didn't really matter to him at this moment. Neither did he ask himself who locked him up in the bathroom or why. He simply had to save him, and so he deduced which key unlocked the bathroom, before putting it in the lock and freeing the beast. As the door unsealed, all noises ceased. Borislav carefully opened the door and took a peek inside. The light was scarce, coming only from the doorway. A grey beast with the straight, muscular body of a pitbull and the frowning head of a bulldog stared right back at him. A glancing duel followed as Borislav gulped silently while the dog began salivating on the bathroom floor. It built up to the moment when in a feat of rage, the Pit-Bull-Dog charged towards the small opening, growling heavily. By reflex, Borislav closed the door in time, pushing his legs against it to resist the muscular beats that slapped onto it. The key still being in the lock, Borislav soon could rest as the animal was back to being trapped.
He recollected himself and wondered what to do; he would have to get the dog out sooner or later...it was in his bathroom after all. Maybe he could ask Blobby for help? Not a good idea, he's the last person he wanted to interact with. Maybe he should call Fabius instead? He was also the last person he'd ask help from, but at the same time, he was also the first. Lifting his cellphone from his pocket, he touched the cracked screen to dial Fabius' contact, hoping the number hadn't changed. Fortunately, it rang.
As the call was picked up, he heard Fabius' voice as gamepad noises and loud shooter sounds beeped in the background. "Uh, what's up Mando? I'm kind of on a date right now, so you know, be brief." Borislav wanted to let him know he wasn't fooled, but at the same time was more preoccupied with his own problems, and so he went straight to the point. "Fabius, why is there a gigantic fucking dog locked in the bathroom?", he asked, as the dog kept banging on the door. "Ohhhh! So that's where he was! Yeah, so, there's this dog that kind of chills around there, so don't mind him. I've never seen him but I've heard he's not dangerous. You really scared of a dog, my guy?" the man on a 'date' replied, as Borislav sighed, "First of, why is there a dog there? Also I'm pretty sure his breed is illegal AND I'm not scared, it's simply not my job to get rid of him. It was yours."
Waiting for his killstreak to stop, Fabius simply "hmm"ed, before informing the tenant; "You know the old lady who used to own the flat right? Well the dog was hers. She died, but it refuses to leave and nobody called the animal pound, so. B-Man asked me if he could drown it but you were just about to come around and thought you might wanna do something with it or whatever, you're super into dogs after all. If you don't want to take care of it you can just tell B-Man to have his fun."
Hence Borislav was imposed to choose by Fabius; either muster up the courage to let the dog out, or be a coward and let his psychopathic neighbor drown it. He ended the call abruptly, tired of Fabius' manipulativeness. The second option would save him a lot of work, but it wouldn't leave him at peace at all. He would always remember the animal he condemned to die in brutal circumstances, seeing its frowning face salivating blood in the mirror everytime he would look at his reflection. "Hey-y, dog-go. I'm gonna let-t you out alright?" he said softly, as he put one hand on the knob and another on the key. The banging stopped. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and prayed to every god in existence that he wouldn't have to turn Doggo into ashes.
The Jingle of the door unlocking once again, Borislav carefully opening the door, this time wide open. Doggo stepped out of the darkness, getting awfully close as Borislav took a few steps back. It kept salivating, and growling. It seemed as if it was following the strange human who opened the door, but in fact it stopped moving upon reaching the entrance to Borislav's nest. It turned its head towards the door, got on two legs and gave scratches on the door knob, trying to open it. Realizing it was locked, it looked at Borislav and started growling more heavily, eventually barking.
Its demand was pretty clear; it wanted to get in. Borislav wished that he could have just thrown it the key but he wasn't stupid enough to expect the dog to unlock the door itself. Jumping on a knob is one thing, cracking locks is another. He complied with his assaillant's request, getting closer to it, never breaking eye contact. Once the door was unlocked, Doggo didn't wait for any human push, it just charged again onto the knob and then slapped the door with one paw, before running inside. Borislav stood still, careful not to make the dog angry. He was however, dispensed from any further task as the door was closed right in front of him. Trying to reopen it, he was met with barks and growls and simply resigned himself for the time being; "Okay then." he murmured.
Being locked outside his own home by a dog was not a great conclusion to his problem, it wasn't a conclusion at all. At some point he would need to get back in. However the event did push him to get down the stairs and out of the building; into Wallow Street, so that he wouldn't dry up to death.
Outside, he admired the sheer ugliness of the town as he searched for a store. He went to the left of the building and walked for a dozen minutes under the scorching sun; finding nothing of interest. He could have asked a stranger for a direction, but it was unthinkable to him. He always felt as if he was a trashcan infesting the whole pavement; an untouchable outcast that everyone would rather see walking on road and get crushed by a bus. Each chatter, each giggle, he heard felt like they were about him. Two women giggling as they shared anecdotes, to him, were laughing at how bad he looked or how strange his vibes were. Completely unrelated bits of conversation would sound to him as insults, as knives planted in his back.
He didn't realize that he was the only one judging people on these pavements; labelling them simpletons and snakes while not knowing anything about them or the context of their discussions. In any case, he wouldn't want to bother anyone around to ask for directions, thinking that he would ruin their day by his mere appearance in their life. He wandered around using the sight of the Vayner Avenue to orient himself, and having gone full circle, he found himself back on Wallow Street. He saw his home and right next to it, on its right...A convenience store. It was there, almost glued to the housing brick, from the very beginning.
Borislav had mixed feelings about the store being right next to his starting point. On the upside, he would never have to walk far to get his food, on the other hand he felt like a complete idiot for not seeing it right away. He crossed the street and soon found himself in front of the cubic grey structure on which a neon outlining "Afli-'s Convenie--e St-re" was stamped. Its outside appearance was nearly as much as an insult to art as was that of Borislav's shelter, however on the inside everything was cleaner than a cloud and all the shelves were filled with mouth-watering packages. Borislav could already see it from the two giant windows that displayed the store's inner beauty to passers-by, as well as from the glass door that he had to pass through.
Once inside he found what he was looking for fairly easily; a lot of water bottles and a bunch of noodles as well as instant soup packages. He also grabbed some chips while he was at it, chuckling at the brands all being very obvious copycats of foreign products. Using his superhuman strength, he carried all of that in his arms to the check out, looking fairly ridiculous. Dropping his items one by one, he kept his eyes down till he was done. Upon looking up, he immediately retracted his glance back to the counter. He had seen the most terrifying social being for him; a woman. But not an old woman, no, it was worse. It was an attractive lady in the same age bracket as him. She had crescent eyes that would ensnare the stiffest man, the lips of the goddess of love and beautiful spots on her fair skin who would deserve a word other than 'freckles', as it would not at all give justice to their beauty. It put him off.
"Hello" a squeaky little voice uttered, leaving the young man even more awkward than he already was. "He-" is all he said, still looking down as her lean hand grabbed each item and scanned them. Yes, that's all he said. "He-". The final syllable of 'Hello' just wouldn't come out. She smiled. He didn't see it. He felt as if this moment was never gonna end, that he'd be forever trapped in this embarrassment. "Do you need a bag?" she asked, he simply moved his head from right to left and left to right. "Are you sure?" she chuckled, seeing that he had taken two whole packs of water and much more. He moved his head again. "It'll cost you 200 Pals"
He reached for his wallet, snatching his credit card out. The checking out went along without trouble. The encounter ended at one point, with the cashier telling him "Bye", she was met with no response from him as he piled up his groceries in his arms, to the point where the noddle packages placed at the top obstructed his sight. He couldn't look down any longer, and so saw a final glimpse of the weirded out jewel seated behind the counter.
Luckily for him his stupid decision not to pack up his items was attenuated by having to only walk 5 feet to reach the building. Climbing up the stairs however, was more of an hassle. Nothing compared to dealing with getting back in his home, though. When he reached the doorway to his crib, he put down his groceries before unlocking the door once again, hoping that Doggo wasn't behind it. God felt generous. No creature was sitted in front of the door when he opened it.
He tried his best to stay quiet as he moved in his provisions to the kitchen counter, constantly looking behind him to avoid bad surprises. He took one pack of water with him to his room, closing the door behind. As he tore it open he heard a growl; straight from his bed. Looking over his shoulder, he saw Doggo with one eye open, laying on his bed. His heart skipped, but nothing happened. The animal took notice of him, yet was too flaked-out to care. Borislav sighed, relieved.