A ghostly white creature scraped its dark rubber hands around the corner... the wind wisped, a wine glass cried across the floor and smoke rose. But he stayed silent...
3:48 PM. In a bright office, the workers are working at a snails pace. Potted plants dot the edges of walls and a refreshing scent of vanilla permeated the air. The lights were dim but light from the sun entering through scratched windows lit the office.
A parched man coughed loudly into his arm as he frantically reached out for his water bottle.
A bakery stood closely on the other side of the road to the office. The bakery's always filled with conversation and people looking for breakfast. They were fans of freshly baked melon bread in particular, so business never went silent.
"Have you finished those documents I gave you?" A man with short black hair, wearing a tight two piece suit calmly turned his chair around with a half eaten melon bread in his hand and a bottle of water in the other. "Uh... I should have them in my bag somewhere..."she rummaged through her bag "oh, here they are."
A brown haired and hazel eyed young woman stood infront of the man. She wore a brown leather denim jacket with a slim black t-shirt underneath. The documents nearly slipped from her hand, before she lowered him the small stack of paper.
"Thank you..." he placed the bread and bottle on his desk before taking the documents and turning to her again. "Do people like ripped jeans nowadays?" He crossed his arms before looking down at the part where her jeans were ripped. "I guess, it makes my knees feel better to be exposed?" She shrugged.
Other workers in the office were never as diligent as the man who did most of their work. They'd continue to chat about recent events and minor things, whilst he'd be squinting his eyes at a bright computer screen.
"The vending machines should be restocked today, remember that new drink I was telling you about yesterday?" The person he was speaking to opened their phone and enlarged a picture. "Yeah! This one. It's really good you know!"
Back at the diligent man's table, the young woman started walking away. But the man reached out his arm in her direction and pulled the wrist of her jacket. "Do you want to go for a drink later? The others are going too."
"I'll see if I can make it." She walked away and the man turned to his computer, only to see a large amount of emails sent to him. "Eh... just my luck." He sighed whilst cracking his knuckles then groaned and stretched. "I have to work faster today or else I might not make it instead."
When she exited the office, a pair of brothers walked out of an elevator while discussing something. They run into the young woman and she nearly trips but the men catch her.
"Are you o-"
"I'm alright, " she quickly responded as she was lifted up and regained balance on her feet. She looked up at his head, "Yoshida have you always been this tall?" She asked. "Same as usual, sure you didn't get a few inches shaved off your top instead?" He smugly mocked her in a nonchalant tone.
To which the young woman began walking away.
"Hey, we're having an outing later, you wanna come?" Yoshida half-heartedly yells behind her. "I'm kind of busy but I should be able to make it today!" She loudly yelled back in return.
"You remember where it was?" The question raised caused the young woman to backtrack to Yoshida, she took out her phone and began examining the screen, "uh... if I remember correctly shouldn't it be somewhere around here? I forgot."
Yoshida snorted and pointed to a location twelve blocks away from the office on her phone. "Thank you, it's quite close..." she mumbled as she continued past them. "You really need to talk to the younger workers more." Yoshida crossed his arms. "I just can't really talk to them well..." Yoshida's little brother replied.
He patted his little brother on the shoulder. "Then you need to stop worrying. As their senior in both age and work, they'll be the ones more careful around you than you are around them."
"Really?" He shrugged off what his brother had said.
An old employee of the office walked up to the young woman who was holding a yellow sticky note in her palm. "Hey, the manager called for you. She needs someone to help with something. I would've gone but I'm busy, so could you go instead?" The young woman quickly nodded and rushed to the manager's office. 'This could be my chance to make a good impression!'
Upon arriving at the door of the office, she stood infront of the room before a voice told her to enter. "What do you need me to do ma'am?" The manager gently kicked back her chair and stood. "Sit at that desk over there." She pointed to an aged wooden table.
"I need these folders to be organized in two hours, you're a new hire so I thought I'd put you to work, I need to leave for a board meeting now so you'll be by yourself here. Don't touch anything on my desk alright? Also, don't call me ma'am. Byeee..." she shut the door whilst slowly waving her right hand.
The young woman sat down at the desk and inspected beneath the table. "It's quite messy and dirty... I think I'll do a little more than just organizing and clean this desk as well." She mumbled. "I have to surprise the manager with my good work."
Meanwhile, the man from earlier kept getting more and more emails regarding work related issues. He was known to be an expert at his job and a good problem solver so most employees in the same office went to him for help.
"This is too much even for me, I'm actually going to be late again. Wait, can't they do most of this themselves?!" He loudly sighed and rested his head against the wall behind him; resisting the urge to bang it against the wall.
5:23 PM. Most workers began returning home.
8:51 PM. Several hours later, nothing of note happened and night fell. The last of the workers started leaving the office one after another. "I have to go to the party now, see you tomorrow." A decently tall man was the 2nd last to exit the office "oh, alright. See you tomorrow."
There was only one person left inside, "I should take a break, didn't someone say this morning that the vending machines were being restocked today?" He roughly rubbed his eyes and yawned.
The young woman who nearly fell asleep in the manager's office had just finished organizing and cleaning the desk. "That was a lot harder than I thought..." she relaxed her body and sighed but her whole body was struck with a sense of tiredness.
"How long has it been? Ms. Manager told me to finish in two hours," she looked out the window to see the dark yet bright city outside; her mouth gaped in shock, "its been four hours?!" She felt her consciousness slipping.
"Never again, cleaning is scary... the dark corners of perpetual agony... the slimy land amidst shallow grey waters..." she shrieked when she accidentally touched her bag which was on the floor, mistaking it for a person.
She breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh... it's just my bag..." after she finished organizing and cleaning she opened her phone. "The place is in this area... oh right, I wrote a note earlier, where is it now..." she rummaged through her now unorganized bag.
After she imprinted the location in her mind. She exited the manager's office and saw that the lights in the hallways were mostly turned off, "strange... it wasn't like this yesterday, was it?" She continued down the hall nonchalantly and once she reached the front door...
Footsteps approached behind her, she felt her heart thumping. Her eyes widened, with her hand on the handle of the door she heard the footsteps stop dead behind her. "He-" it made a noise.
She quickly opened the door and dashed outside. She turned around but saw nothing, the lights that were previously on were suddenly off. "W-w-what's going o-on..." she shivered. An arm peeked around the corner, making her shriek.
"Huh? Did something happen?" The decently tall man that had just turned off most of the lights in the building peeked around the corner infront of her and she breathed relief. "Just, a cockroach. Yeah, just a cockroach..." she slammed her hand onto her chest and turned away from the tall man. She breathed yet another sigh of relief.
The man who had just returned from his break with a plastic bottle of the newest drink in his hand opened the office door and saw another person asleep at their desk. "Suiko? Good to see I'm not the only one I guess..." he tiredly sighed and made sure all the files on Suiko's computer were saved before he shut it off and pulled a blanket from under his desk over the exhausted man.
He sat down at his table and pulled the chair in before stretching again and continuing his overtime work when a pair of men then enter the office as well and see him alone at his table, "are you going to be late?" They ask.
"Yeah... I don't think I'll be going again today, there's too much work to do. Sorry."
"It's alright, but can't you let the others do it themselves? Why do you help everyone?"
"Well, when I first joined the company I saw a bunch of people fast asleep like Suiko on my first day. At the time I was energetic and excited, I felt bad for them so I decided to help them do their work but now here I am and I haven't done much of anything other than work..." he crossed his arms.
"You'll have to solve that problem yourself, we can't do much about it. Well just try to make it this time, it's not the same as last time right? This is more important than usual for you." The men waved to each other, "see you later then," they say before the door shut completely.
"Well... at least THEY do their own work." He turned to the other person in the room. "Wasn't Suiko a new hire? It's only been a week."
His face became gloomy and his tone grew lazy, "I should be used to this already... isn't this the ninth time I've had to skip out on a juniors welcoming party? Wish I could go to one. Didn't even arrive at my own party too..." he slapped himself several times. "I need to finish work first! You never know when something will work your way!"
'I think the word 'work' is engraved in my mind,' his face looked despondent.
He swiftly took a sip out his bottle and started quickly moving his hands on the table to organize it.
While the man at the office grew more and more restless. His friends held a welcoming party at a nearby barbecue restaurant away from the main party.
They were the only people from the office in that restaurant, it was an informal welcome.
They all sat down at a table in the middle of the room and a waiter wearing a company apron walked up to them. "Is that a new design?" The older brother asked. "What would you like to order?" The quiet brother asked to the other person there, ignoring his older brother.
They browsed through the catalogue on the menu, "what do you want?" The older brother asked towards the hazel eyed woman who sat silently whilst staring at the menu.
She slowly pointed a few items to the waiter, "your order will be with you shortly." He walked away. "Why didn't you go with the others to the official welcoming party?" One of the men asked her, "oh, I want to know too." The older brother remarked.
The young woman looked at her phone and there was a picture she took with the same man who was stuck in the office due to work.
"He helped me out a lot one time so I thought I would return the favor after coming here, but it seems he isn't coming..." she disappointedly placed her phone down on the table. "Don't worry, you'll get the chance to return the favor one day I'm sure of it, he helps all of us out a lot as well but we rarely get to do anything for him."
"Didn't he have a reputation for not going to welcoming parties? I heard he didn't go to his own either." The men laugh after hearing her concerned voice, "what?" She asked. "Oh no no... don't worry about it too much, he's just a workaholic, he doesn't do much other than work."
"You're putting it quite lightly."
"It's fine, he doesn't let it get to him... at least most of the time."
"You three are quite close."
"Well, we've known each other for how long was it?"
"Three years." The little brother remarked.
"Trying to get him to do anything other than work is hard." The older brother laughed. "You know... when we went to his house this one time, he was still working even though it was a day off. The manager even specifically scolded him for doing things that the others could do themselves earlier that morning, you should've been there to see it. Her face was SO ANGRY!" He waved his hands up and down.
The older brother continued on his story, with both the young woman and his little brother sitting silently until the waiter returned.
"Here's your order." He carefully placed the plates onto the table one by one while the young woman placed her bag beside her. "Sorry, I end up talking for too long whenever I get into a story about him, too many things happen whenever I'm around him."
The young woman waved her hand while smiling, "It's alright, getting to hear stories about him is quite a nice thing. He doesn't tell me anything about his past."
The waiter soon walked off to attend to another customer and the young woman saw the grill which was now opened.
"How do you use this?" She asked. "We need to turn this switch here and the fire will start, we've been here multiple times before so we're quite accustomed to this." The younger brother replied. She lowered her shoulders and let out a relaxed sigh.
"Do I just drop the meat on top?"
"Yes. Oh, but don't actually drop it. Also don't forget to flip it or it might burn."
"Ok, alright I think I know how to do it."
The older brother called for the waiter, "we want to get some drinks here!" The men turned towards the young woman sitting infront of them, "do you drink?"
"I don't usually drink, uh... I think this one is finished cooking." She reached for the meat using chopsticks and carefully picked it up and onto her plate.
The waiter quickly reached their table with a large green tinted glass bottle, "here is your order." One of the men pat the waiter on the shoulder, "come on, we've come here multiple times now, I know you're also a new hire like this here young woman but can't you be less on guard?"
The waiter pushed his hand away, "well, sorry I want to be more professional and do my job properly, don't you have anything else to do other than come here and pester me?"
"That isn't correct but... I guess it'll do for now, you've improved!" The older brother smirked while showing the waiter a thumbs up, the waiter shrugged him off and faced the young woman. "Ma'am, is there anything else you'd like?"
"I don't think there is..." she looked through the menu again. "No, there's nothing else." The waiter walked away behind the counter before another customer called for them again. "Quite busy today isn't he." The little brother commented. "It is a Friday after all. The weekends are tomorrow so people usually come here to eat now.
9:41PM
A lone man walks down a road late at night, finishing overtime work a minute ago and returning home, the area's dark atmosphere is calming, the street lights paving along the sidewalk. A long road leads straight down to another 3 blocks. Completely different from the office, yet the same.
His eyes started fixating from building to building. "How many times have I seen this picture already... it's all starting to blur together. Not a difference in the world."
His phone ringed and he saw a message on his phone, "a picture? what did he send me now..." to his surprise it was a picture of the two men and the young woman at the barbecue together. There was a message that followed after. "Maybe you can come next time?" He slowly mumbled whilst closely staring at his phone, "Nanami here says she wants to meet somewhere outside of office..."
"Next time..." He started writing back a message, "maybe next time." He smiled and excitedly sped up his pace.
He soon reached an intersection and gazed up at the sky as the light turned red, a few cars drive past him. Whisking the wind up, the man sighed and whispered. "I wonder if it'll ever actually happen one day, I'm tired of repeating the same thing, though it might not actually be so bad... a bit of change should do the job." The light turned green and as the man took a few steps onto the road.
"Hey! Don't you like this pamphlet? Cute, isn't it!" His life started flashing before his eyes.
A speeding white car turns around the corner...
The man feels time slow down nearly to a halt and his expression widens to shock.
A large thud could be heard echoing around the area but no one else is nearby, all are asleep in the silence of night. The man lying on the ground. Bleeding from all over, peered into the car with his vision fading to see the outline of a person seemingly with their hand to their ear, he silently whispered, unable to move his body as smoke rose. "What just happened."
He hears a siren's blare approaching and completely loses consciousness.
A while later, his vision fading in and out, he hears more... nothing.
Even with a loud siren wailing and people all around him speaking frantically, he couldn't hear them. Only a few words popped into his mind, "what... was... that?" The feeling of when the car was about to hit him, "it felt... strangely real." As if his wish was fulfilled.
From the inside of an ambulance with paramedics trying to take care of the injuries as fast as they could. To a hallway on a stretcher, rushing into a room and finally on a surgical bed with people all around him; he is administered anesthesia and sees a bright light straying further from him.
Nothing happened; at least nothing that he was aware of during the time he spent in his own mind, unable to escape, being lead on by the faint feeling of anticipation. He doesn't feel anything at all... he can't think of anything meaningful or logical no matter how hard he tries.
He woke up after what felt like an extremely short time, like a time skip from a movie or show. He opened his eyes to see an empty room around him.
Beside him a round white button, he isn't in the operating room he remembered before but a patient bed. The windows were wide open letting a slight relaxing breeze into the room. He finally relaxed his body after having been tense from pain and confusion.
He let out a sigh of relief and disappointment, after taking a look outside the window he spotted his apartment from far away. Someone was at his door but he didn't know who. He tried to look closer but nearly fell off the bed after being surprised by someone opening the door.
The doctor saw the man had awoken and quickly sat down beside him. "Do you feel fine? Is anything different from usual?" The man answered, "besides from the fact that I can't really feel my lower body, I'm fine."
The doctor was unamused, he then sat upright and placed his book on his lap, "looks like you are fine... at least for now but listen."
"The surgery may have been a success. But it was only a temporary treatment, you only have a few days left to live, however during that time you may do what you want... given the right amount of caution of course." The man stared at the doctor in disbelief, 'was this really happening?'
"Doctor, do you tell people this a lot?"
"I do."
"It's fine, what's your name?" He gently forced a smile, "Kazu." The doctor responded, "nice to meet you Kazu."
"The feeling is mutual."
The conversation with the doctor alleviated some of his nervousness and a lingering feeling of hope still resided in him for a better ending. His hope for a better life had already died long ago. Would he really just come into this world, only to fade away and have the effects he had made be unknown to him? Did he even at least have an effect on the world around him?
The doctor having told the man about the news, also told him something he wasn't expecting to hear in a hundred lifetimes. "The woman in the car that hit you was also injured but only slightly less than you were, maybe you would care to go... get an apology from her?"
The man looked puzzled and pondered for awhile with the doctor staring at him, "let me think about it." The doctor got up and left the room, saying, "call me back anytime you want to go out."
The man stared at the wall, wondering if he should go to see the woman. He gazed out the window again and saw the person at his door was no longer there. He felt a small feeling of anger starting to swell within him.
It was very unlike him to feel that way and he was aware of it. He'd waited for his whole life, to have something new and maybe even better, not to be placed into his lap but through effort and preparation. Was everything he had tried and tested still going to fail in the end?
He was never one to worry about something like that. However, after he considered the circumstances he started to worry about it more than he would've been comfortable with. He thought about the woman the doctor mentioned.
He decided to forget about all that he was expecting, as the woman may be the last friend he would make.
He felt it was a once in a lifetime chance so he called for the doctor using the button and convinced himself that it wouldn't be much of a problem. He wanted to die peacefully and quietly. "This has been quite an eventful night hasn't it..." though it wasn't night anymore.