'Life is strange isn't it?'
Al hadn't been feeling very good and he had moved to a new city, just to feel good. He was looking for work but he hadn't found anything and it has been more than three months. At this point he was willing to work for the devil. He had spent the last week sleeping on park benches. The only reason he was not reported was because he was wearing rich people's clothes. Old but clothes that made you look rich. Nobody wanted to report a rich man who was weird enough to sleep on a bench. People must have thought that he has a home, he is just crazy. The benches were cold but so was everyone else. Warmth was done. He had come here with a dream and the city had turned into his worst nightmare.
Al was hungry. He had decided to move out of the hostel that he was living in. He did not have enough money to pay the next rent and he wasn't optimistic enough to wait for an opportunity. So instead of spending his last bit on rent, he decided to move out.
The money was enough to keep himself full for two months. He got up from one of the benches and through the park gates went to the nearby shop. He was looking for the cheapest thing that could stop his stomach from growling. He realized that willpower can only control so much. He was not willing to ask for food but his stomach surely was.
' This should keep me full....
He picked up the cheapest of biscuits and moved towards the counter. The cashier looked at him and decided to call him sir.
' Is that everything?'
The man was expecting more, considering Al's choice of clothes.
' Yes that will be all'
He walked out of the store and looked at his phone. He had been charging his phone in the nearby public washroom.
He opened his biscuit and ate it all. Al didn't speak much but he thought a lot and he had had a lot of time to think. He had been walking for quite a while and there it was.
It was smelly but he had to endure this smell for another hour and a half to recharge his phone. He plugged it in. He looked around and the place was messier than usual.
' They wouldn't shit like this if this was their home... Bastards... '
Al was always angry but he appeared calm. It was as if he could not care any less but at times he appeared awfully concerned. Al was a strange individual. He was educated and intelligent. He was smart but he was not optimistic. He had a hatred for his own kind. A hatred that had turned into self loathing over time. It was as if he had seen through life. He was like an old man, someone who had given up. He knew how fleeting all this was and he refused to participate in this facade called existence. He was not a sore loser but he was not a winner either. He was a philosopher. A bleak man who had found pleasure in his own misery. It was a peculiar situation. He had been happy, he had experienced the laughs and the giggles. However, he did not miss them. Infact, he was repulsed by them. He knew what they were. They were poisonous. They were like drugs.
It had been more than an hour and Al stood beside the toilet looking at his phone. He was browsing through his old photos. His story was a weird one. It was sad in the funniest of ways. He was a fool unlike anyone else.
' I am glad you are dead.... I am glad...
He looked at the photo of an old man. It was his father. He had never gotten along with his father. His father was a much more superior being than him. He was honorable and strong. He was clever and dignified. Al was nothing like him. He was weak and dishonorable. He was not clever nor was he dignified. He felt as if his father was responsible for his failure. He would remember the past and tremble but he tried to remember it everyday. It was not that he could not forget, he simply had no desire to escape his past.
The phone beeped. It was done charging. He got out of the bathroom and headed back to the park. Al decided to open his social media accounts and looked at it. His latest photograph had no likes. He barely had any friends. They were fading away like his sanity. They were all better men than him. He was but a boy. A rebel.
He looked at his clothes. So far they have been a real help. He had not been reported yet.
' All it took was good clothes to convince them... That I am not the devil.... '
Al entered the park again. He was still feeling hungry and decided to go pick some berries off one of the trees. They were not ripe yet, but they were still food.
He climbed the tree and grabbed one of the branches and the fruit didn't fall down. It was still not ripe. So he climbed on the branch and suddenly the branch broke. Snap! Al fell face first on the ground.
He got up and he was more worried about his clothes than he was about himself. He checked to see if his clothes were alright. They were. Luckily the branch had drooped down low before it snapped.
He headed towards the fountain and washed himself. Just then he reached inside his pocket and suddenly something cut his finger. It was his phone. It was broken. The glass cut him.
Al knew that he would not be able to live without a phone. It was not as if he was getting calls. He was alone. He tried to switch it on but it was nothing more than a pile of debris. It was crushed.
' I guess I don't need a new phone.... '
He said what he said but he wanted to get a new phone. He ran back to the shop in a desperate attempt. Al wanted to get a job.
Al had always been reluctant to take a job that he thought was beneath him but then again he did not have the confidence to talk to people who he thought were above him. Back at home his parents had built him to be the next superman but he was nothing like that. He was a coward and an overthinker. Enclosed inside a cage that he had called home, he had spent most of his time with his family. He had escaped that when his father died.
Al's father was a weird one. He had spent all his money on his sons but he had never once shown them love, even though he loved money more than anything. I guess he was just shy but Al remembered everything. He remembered the pressure of being the oldest sibling. He remembered being beaten to a pulp over failure to solve a simple math problem. He had never been good at math. He never could be. It was beyond him. He heard that math was the language of the universe and he clearly did not understand it. Nor did he want to. Al and his father had always been at odds. They were never happy. His father was never happy with him and Al was never happy to be his father's son. That made him a very miserable man. He kept looking for a man to look up to his whole life. Being betrayed over and over, he had stopped looking. He was glad his father was dead, he was glad but he wanted to treat him the way that his father had treated him. To make him want to kill himself. To make him miserable just like he had been for the last 25 years, but he had escaped. Death had come to his rescue.
He had a deep grief hidden within. He didn't know what it was. The people who had raped and broken him were now his friends or atleast that is what he called them. He could not take revenge from a friend. He was noble like that, but everyday he would sleep knowing that he was a helpless man. A man too helpless to avenge himself, a saint. He forgave, and not because he wanted to.
His memories were a constant reminder of a life of survival. He had to survive school, and then he had to survive his home. His enemies had been placed so close to him. Some in his home and some in his school. He could neither come to loathe his friends nor his father. He wanted to change the past but no one can.
' I should get a job....'
Al hasn't called back home in quite a while, nor did his family bother to call him. He was not the favorite son. He was barely a son. He looked at other families, those who had smiles on their faces and he wondered if they were happy or were they hiding something behind those smiles. He wanted everyone to be happy. He wanted to stay special, miserable and alone.
' I have been alone for too long.. I am forgetting how to talk....
Al looked at the storefront and entered. The cashier looked at him.
' Can I help you Sir?'
The man was still respectful. The clothes were still doing their work.
' Can I get a job here?'
The man was shocked. A man with his stature and clothes.
' I...uh.... We do have an opening but....
Al looked at him with hope.
' I would like to apply.... '
He took out his worn out wallet and took out his ID. This was it. It was the beginning of something new. It turns out that All qualified for the job. There was no interview. Almost no formal process and he was let in. The cashier, as it turns out, was the manager and could not find anyone to handle the nightshift.
' Thank you.... '
Al had a job. It was his first one. However, he had never thought of getting a job like this. He had always thought of this job to be beneath him. The man sat Al down by the cash register and asked him to look closely. Al kept looking at every customer that came in. There weren't many.
Al was not happy but he was glad he had something. He was excited enough that he wanted to call people but he was glad that his phone was broken. He was going to be paid hourly. It was not the best but he was going to be able to buy his phone in a month.
' You will be working at night... If you have any problems... There is an emergency alarm.... '
The man taught him how to do a good job. He was a simple man. He did not talk much but made a clear point. He was really good to the regulars. Some of them were even on a first name basis with him. He even introduced them to Al.
Al was given a space to sleep. Between the shift he went back to get his bag. It was hidden in the bushes. He went back and got his bag. He looked around at the park and was grateful for this place. He was not very optimistic but he was still grateful that he did not resort to begging. There was even a time he had contemplated suicide.
He looked around and behind the bushes, there was a couple. Al was not surprised to find couples as in the last couple of days he had found quite a few of them.
'There is something about nature that turns men and women into horny beasts.... '
Al went away and did not look back. He was not sure what to do. He just left like he usually did. He was not tempted to spy. He thought himself to be above this. He fought his wishes. He always had. From wanting a toy his parents would not buy to sex, everything was a wish that he had to kill and reisist. He was beyond all this. At Least that was what he thought.
' what should I do next?...'
Al wanted a life of excitement but he knew that he wasn't made for it. He was a fragile little child.his body had become stronger. He was living alone now. However his heart was still that way. Afraid and cynical. He stayed away from everything.
Al was going to take over the next day. He went and decided to sleep that day. His shift began at 11pm. It was really late. He slept through the morning. He was given a little cabin, just big enough for him to stretch his legs and the keys to a bathroom that only the employees could use.
Al asked the manager to wake him up. He banged on his door around 10:30pm.
' Kid... You are on... Take this key...'
The man handed him the key to the cashier cabin and left.
The store did not appear as big from the outside as it was on the inside. It was huge. There was no one. However Al was not afraid. The park has cured his fear of ghosts. The silence bugged him though.
' channel number.... 56'
He switched on the TV and started watching the news. He decided to get in touch with the world.
' Let's see how horrible you have gotten without me...'
Al kept looking at the TV. However his mind never stopped thinking. He looked at the magazine section of the store.
' All those books I read.... Just to sit here like a fucking bum...'
Just then a group of customers came in. Al was sitting comfortably and decided to sit up straight after they walked into the store.
These were his first customers and he was nervous. Really nervous. They walked towards the counter with some packets of chips and cold drinks in their hand. Just as they approached the counter. One of them pulled out a gun.
Al was terrified. He wasn't calm. He immediately raised his hands and the man took it as a sign of aggression. He pulled the trigger and the bullet went through the glass window of the cabin and into the heart of Al.
He dropped on the counter. He looked at the man. The man stood there looking at him. Both the robbers were in panic. The gunshot was loud enough but the street was empty. There was no one out on the road at this time of the night.
There was blood coming from his chest. He was thinking of how empty his life had been. He had done nothing.
' Is someone going to cry for me?'
He looked into the eyes of the man and then he drifted into darkness. His lifeless body was there on the counter. The men broke the window and grabbed the entire cash register.
' Where am I? '
Al looked at himself. It was not his body. He looked and in front of him was another body. It was his own. He was trying to pull the register out of the cabin. He was still not in control. Suddenly he heard a voice.
' Do you want revenge?'
Al could speak. A naked man appears in front of him. Al was shocked.
' Who are you?'
The man was not impressed.
' Ask a question about yourself....'
The naked man was smiling. He ape6 sinister yet caring.
' What is happening?.... '
He was keen to answer.
' You are dead.... Actually your body is... You are very much alive... In another body... In the body of your killer... '
'How can this be?'
' I gave you this opportunity to take revenge... Kill this man.... In any way you want and .... '
' I ...uh.... '
' I thought I explained it pretty well but .... I forget that men are supposed to be stupid.... he killed you and now I have given you his body so that you may kill him, in the way you see fit.... Not many people get this opportunity.... Go on.... Shoot him in the head.... Do whatever you want... I am giving you control of the body...'
Just then Al got back control of the body he was in. He suddenly looked around. His partner shook him.
' What is the matter with you? Pull....the cops are gonna be here.... '
Al was still looking around and then he looked at his corpse. Then he looked at his current body.
' What just happened? '
He pointed the gun at his head but he could not pull the trigger.
' I am alive.... '
Al had experienced death. He was looking forward to it but he had another chance. There were sirens in the distance.
Al ran away. Leaving his partner behind. He went back to the park. The park was located in a residential area and it was far from the marketplace. Far enough that it took him several minutes in his body. He stumbled. He was not used to his new body, but he got there.
He washed the blood off his shirt and took off his jacket. He didn't know what had happened. His partner tried to stop him but he ran away without saying a word. He did not want to kill this man.
' Death wasn't what I thought.... Just darkness....
The voice appeared again.
' What else do you want from death? It is eternal bliss.... It is nothingness in the purest form... '
' You ... You are back again...
Al was still shocked. He looked at the naked man. It reminded him of the naked couples that he had seen behind the bushes in the park.
' so... When are you going to kill yourself?'
The man looked at Al with excitement, still naked.
' I am not.... '
Al had already thrown the pistol in the gutter.
' You are in the body of a murderer... If you do not kill yourself. Others will....
Al was still trying to get his head around the situation. He was not even thinking about the future but the man brought his attention to the problems at hand.
' You are ...right..'
The man looked at Al for a proper answer and then spoke, impatiently.
' I gave you a chance to avenge yourself.... and you choose to live... Foolish.... '
Al looked down at his hands. This body was stronger, younger and faster. It was built better. He could do things better, this time around.
' I want to get my life back....
Al was afraid but he was optimistic for the first time in his life. He realized that he was going to be on the run but at least he wasn't floating in the darkness for eternity.
' I am going to make it....
The man vanished and Al was looking around. He sat there in the park. Waiting for the day. He was still in shock and he had pinched himself so many times
One of his cheeks was bleeding.
It was cold and just as he put his hand in his pocket. He found a wallet. It was his own wallet. He took it out. He found an ID.
' Mark Sears..... So...21 years old.... And it will be enough for a little while...'
It was daybreak and the park was starting to get crowded. People were starting to notice the man in poor clothes.
' let's get some new clothes....'
Al got out of the park and went back to the marketplace. He went into a barber shop. There was no other customer yet. The barber had just opened the shop. He looked like he had been doing it for a long time. He was busy shaving himself.
' I am sorry, I Usually don't get customers this early....
Al looked at the man. He was just about done shaving himself.
' Can you cut all this hair....?'
' Hahaha.... Are you running from the mob?.... Just kidding...'
At that moment another man entered the shop. The man had a gun on his side and some tattoos. Just then a lot of other men entered the shop.
' Hey Mark... It's mark right.... Where is your buddy, Swill…. ? . '
Al had never felt this afraid. These men knew him and on top of that they had guns. Al had a new body but his brain was still the same. It was weak.
The barber felt uncomfortable and started to sweat. Al. could see the tension on his face. He was afraid. He just realized that the mark was obviously not the most virtuous man. His dreams of getting his life back had been ruined and he had no clue if he was ever going to get alive out of this situation.
' I am fucked.... '
Just then the naked man appeared.
' Yes... You are fucked.... '
Seeing all this a cop car passing by pulled up and Al began shaking. He was more scared than those who had guns with them. The man appeared but it seemed that only Al could see him.
`… killed twice in one day… you are more hilarious than a fucking clown…