Enjoyment
Excitement
Relief
Happiness
Sadness
I felt every single word written, shared their grief with them when they lost a precious friend or when they faced crisis, understood every choice they made like when they followed a difficult path which have no return, believed in them as they believed in each other, laughed when they laughed on little jokes they made and cried when they did. This bond is very special for me, something I cherish in my heart.
I still remember the day when I first discovered this novel, my world. I was 7-year-old, hiding inside a small play house in a local park near my orphanage, where I used to play around a lot when I was in kindergarten, when I knew very little about this cruel world but gradually when I faced the reality, the same world which seemed very beautiful to me suddenly became a dark place, like an abyss which have no boundaries and no clear depth.
When I read the first chapter of the novel, I felt connected to it instantly like it was present since a long time, like it is written only for me. I followed it closely since my middle school days in the very same play house to present day, as an intern in very big-tech company for the post of Junior HR. I read it repeatedly like all the scenes happened in front of me, until the author released another chapter for the past 14 years.
"Hm..." I let out a small sigh while remembering the beautiful moments of my life or more precisely my encounter with
I am sitting inside a taxi on my way to office while watching the dawn breaking from the clouds, a new day in New York City from my side window, a lot of people call this place the city of dream, whether it is true or not is still debatable. I watched the reflection of myself in the semi-transparent glass window. Today I have put up my most expensive white shirt made of pure cotton and a navy blue trouser which is slim fit from my ankles with a pair of black formal shoes, which I recently brought for this special day. I got a same navy-blue tie from my office which had a small phoenix logo on the top side, after a bit of binge watching some tie folding videos, I made a Classic English Tie knot in an hour. I am perfectly ready for today.
As it is the last day of mine as an intern and first day as permanent worker in the company, to be honest I am very excited and a bit nervous for this day; I worked very hard and diligently to make my life better and to leave the hell hole of the past life of mine.
"…what matters is it ends well", I commented in my mind. Clearly wanting to cheer me up a notch with a small smile on my face.
"Yo! Boy you look nervous today, wanna share, bro?" Suddenly the taxi driver from the front said with an overly excited voice to me.
I became startled but quickly collected myself.
"Nothing...", listening my reply the man turned silent and started the radio. While sitting at the back I remembered that today the author of
Resuming my activity, I reached the novel as I usually do and checked for new update. At present there are approximately about 9,871 chapters of the novel, I know it is really long for someone to read, but I sticked to it although the views of the novel declined since a long time and currently there are only about one or two views from the 5,836 chapter but the views usually deviate as some people by mistake open it and then leave it.
As I scrolled up a notification appeared.
[A new chapter of
I casually tapped it and another screen opened, A white screen with some lines on it, while seeing the page in a swift manner, it clearly did not contain any chapter rather there is an announcement by the author, I started reading it.
[To My Readers,
Thanks for all the support you have shown me for the past 14 years since I started writing this novel of mine. At start people were not much interested due to reason like my writing style, theme of novel, slow pace and etc. but surely and gradually I improved whose reflection can be seen on my novel and people started to praise and appreciate my work. Although it has been a long time since I interacted with you guys so a lot of people left the journey even before its completion. At present only some people read this novel hence I would like to end it here. Sorry guys especially you Ethan, but I have one last thing to say to you all.
This is just the beginning, it is your journey, make it complete.
Thank You! J ]
I flinched at the sudden announcement of the author firstly because he mentioned my name Ethan in the announcement and secondly there is a lot more things that have to be done. To speak in short words the end of this novel must at least take a lot more time to come.
"It's really strange" I spoke in a meek voice.
"Did you say something?" the taxi driver spoke, attentively looking towards me from the back mirror.
"Nothing, how much time will it take to reach though?" I changed the topic of the conversation to avoid answering.
"About 10 min or something, you getting late bro? Wanna speed up?" the taxi driver again spoke in his overly excited voice but this time I spoke in a bit milder tone.
"Nah, nothing to be late. Keep the same." Finishing my reply, I smiled towards him a bit to look normal but on the inside my mind was racing to understand why the author dropped the novel after coming to this end, actually if he wanted to drop then he must have done it a lot before but he didn't so why now? why after wasting 14 years on writing a novel and suddenly dropping it, what made him do it. It is really a mess but it is not something I can interfere as I am just a reader.
'I will think about this later' I thought in my mind.
Putting aside the matter of novel, finally after 10 min the taxi reached the destination, my new office, a huge glass skyscraper which is reflecting the morning sun rays in a clear linear pattern with red logo of a phoenix on top, it has a total of 120 floors including 3 underground floors, which makes it a huge astonishing mechanical marvel, and one of the top skyscrapers of the whole New York city, sometimes I wonder how can this be possible if we were not advanced in technology. Turning towards the area the base of the skyscraper a huge park is spread contain a thick foliage of green plants that gave this area a picturesque look of nature and tech together around it. Still adoring the sight in front of me I jerked back my head from the side window and noticed how the driver was gasping at the site of my soon to be office.
"Ahem..." I coughed in a dramatic manner to make the driver come out of his reverie, and as if responding from my clue he smiled foolishly and asked me with a goofy tone,
"Bro you really work at a nice place, it's really cool!"
"Thank you, how much fare?"
The driver, remembering about the fare told me about the amount and I paid him from my phone, again digital currency, a modern marvel. Stopping myself from joking around, I checked myself again to not miss anything on my part as it is very important to give my outmost best at my first day.
'After all, first impression is the last impression'
Walking calmly towards the main gate of the building I got in line, yes line because there a lot of people who work here as naturally any one can guess from the building's sheer size.
The people in the line are talking among themselves like it is a daily routine of them, some people were discussing about their projects, some about their nit-pick boss while some are just speaking daily jargons of theirs to their friends and colleagues. As a sore thumb I naturally looked strange because while wearing the same tie like them I was not talking with anyone, but it was not my fault, how can you expect someone new to just casual join a group of people and start talking, while some can do that but I am clearly not like them. The people just casually ignored my antics without thinking. Soon my number come and I started entering through. The gate is full of metal detectors and we, the people entering are obliged to put or phones and briefcase on the side to scan it and it is a regular custom at that. The security check was done flawlessly without any hic-ups, but the security guard, who is a middle-aged man with strong bulging muscles all over his body asked me
"Your ID card?" the security guard's voiced his question in a stoic manner
"I am new, you can check the system or you can verify this document, it's my joining letter." I spoke just after the question as I am prepared for it.
The guard took the letter from my hand and read it swiftly and after pressing some keys on his keyboard returned the letter to me again,
"You can go, congrats for the job by the way." The guard said in his same stoic voice and even refrained from smiling towards me.
"Thank you." I moved out of the line inside the main gate. After some steps across the green park where birds are chippering, I reached the office door for the ground floor and moved towards the reception area, fine quality black marble adorned the floors with aesthetic and modern lights are placed from different angles and glass like smooth and milky white panels were placed on the ceiling.
Like always the reception area on the ground floor is huge and a lot of people are there simply doing their everyday chores, ignoring them and moving towards the back of the reception desk sat a charming and beautiful looking woman probably of mid-twenties, smiling towards the ones approaching and helping them out like a good receptionist, when I first arrived in this company as intern I thought of her as an literal angel without wings, this is how much beautiful she is, with long silky smooth blonde hair that are coming to her waist, with sky blue eyes that are not too much round and not too much slender, they are just perfect that sparkled with an unknown curiosity, a fair complexion and beautiful visage adoring with light pink cheeks and her small protruding collar bone makes her more mesmerizing. Her name is Clara Smith. She is a permanent employee who joined the company 7 months ago directly while I have to work as intern for 7 months to get permanent.
While I was staring towards her, she caught me and waved towards me, and I shyly moved towards her getting a bit embarrassed about my shameless conduct. Still, I greeted her
"Good morning, Clara." With a smile on my face.
"Good Moring Ethan, you excited for your new job!" she said joyfully to me in a melodious tone and winked towards me.
"Um…yeah v-very excited." I shrunk back a little because it is not every day a beautiful woman talks to you and more particularly with someone like me who is social-awkward.
Realizing my laid-back attitude she suggested, "You know the HR room on the 48th floor, there Mr. Adams is waiting for you."
"Thanks, I am going." I said and rapidly moved towards the elevator door, let me mention that there are approx. 17 elevators on the whole building and by the god's miracle I got an elevator completely devoid, without anyone inside.
When I got inside the lift, I pressed 48th floor and waited inside, while opening my phone to check today's news on my phone.
Suddenly the lift started making sudden stops and completely shut down in mere instant.
I panicked inside as if to know what was happening, I reached my phone when a loud alarm rang on it with a notification by the government, I, clearly distressed by my own precedent and the government's sudden alarm made me more panicked but I made my self-calm down,
"Calm down Ethan, clam down nothing will happen good if I start panicking." Then I looked on my phone screen and saw a image depicting a huge paradoxical warp on the middle of the road in New York City, from which fearsome, disgusting monsters which can never be imagined by human appeared out of nowhere and started attacking everything in their path, they are 7 feet long standing on two hind legs and have small hands with long sharp claws, like a miniature version of T-rex, they are black in color with hard and tough spike like prostitutions on their back, even before reading the message after the image send by the government I become shocked, not by the monstrosity in front of me, which is wreaking havoc just two streets away, but on the fact that I know about this creature, whose image is shared by the government,
I shuddered and recalled "T-they are…Ranjors, from…the novel. b-but how?!"
Then
Roaaarr---
All the glasses embedded in the building shattered in an instant
"AHHHHHHHHH THERE ARE MONSTORS HERE!!"
What came after the loud bestial roar was an ear-piercing shriek of a human.
Just as if the world is evolving again.