Serafina woke up the next morning with a blinding headache, groaning and cursing herself and the world around her, then spent a couple more minutes cursing some more about whatever came to mind, like the loud rock music playing in the apartment upstairs or the roaring motorcycle engines racing right outside of her window.
Her apartment was on the bad side of town, so far into that area that there would often be gunshots through the night or random arguments that were too noisy to be ignored. Rats were a permanent fixture, just like the intermittent water and electricity.
But the rent was undeniably dirt cheap. Fitting, since it was almost like living in a dirt hut.
In order to survive living there, she had to take some of the money that she had saved by living in her tiny, trashy apartment and bought a pair of noise-canceling headphones. Wearing those was the only way that she could get to sleep at night.
However, she had lost her headphones recently, so she could only sleep after tiring herself to the point of passing out.
This morning seemed like another entry in the long series of unlucky days. She ran out of shampoo, she dropped her toothbrush, she accidentally spilled her coffee, and that was all within the first fifteen minutes of the day. Then she decided to try and focus on something else, only to be driven to frustrated tears at trying to sort out her rent and bills or review for her upcoming statistics test with sporadic internet.
Eventually, she gave up and went to her class earlier than usual. On the commute to her college, she got weird stares and wondered why until she realized her skirt was inside out. In the classroom, she broke her pencil lead when pressing too hard on the paper.
As she walked towards her part-time job at a nearby coffee shop, she stopped in the middle of the street.
A sudden realization hit her.
Could it be karma for her thoughtless actions yesterday?
Serafina couldn't recall much of what she wrote, but she knew it was probably the sort of thing that got people sent to hell. Alcohol diluted her filter and made her writing more profane than usual, could it be that whatever gods there were saw what she had done and decided to punish her even more today?
Thinking about it now, she could feel her karma going into the negatives.
"No," she gasped aloud. Curious passersby gave her incredulous looks that she ignored. "Damn it, that letter! It's going to have me sent to hell!"
She generally tried to believe that 'what goes around, comes around' when it came to her everyday life, hoping that it would apply to her family and that one day they would get what was coming to them. Except now, wasn't she the one who was in the wrong in this case? She had slandered an unsuspecting man!
When she arrived at The Daily Grind for her shift, she was still gloomily pondering this question.
The Daily Grind was a popular hang-out spot for students since it was near a school district and was just down the street from Serafina's college. It was usually packed to the brim with students, either rich (buying countless overpriced drinks) or poor (serving the rich students who were buying countless overpriced drinks).
Today was no exception. Serafina had to shove past three different people to get to the counter.
As she slunk behind the counter and started to get to work, one of her coworkers, William, gave her a sympathetic look. He was a high school freshman, about four years younger than her, and her favorite coworker because he let her rant to him whenever they were on shift together. In return, she dealt with the rude customers who tried to stomp all over him, usually with her sharp tongue and, on occasion, mild violence.
He was still a kid, what monster would dare bully him? As his self-declared surrogate older sister (since her own siblings didn't deserve to be acknowledged), she had to defend him.
However, it was true that most of the time, it was her availing of his listening ear.
Without him asking, she said, "Is it morally wrong to send hate mail?"
"It depends," William said, which was the usual answer he gave her when she asked those kinds of questions. He didn't even bother asking for context. "What kind of hate mail did you write?"
Serafina said thoughtfully, "Well, I called him a–"
William immediately winced at the next words that came out of her mouth, almost dropping the cup in his hands. He struggled to balance it, somehow managing to even layer it with whipped cream and top it off with a straw. Ignoring his struggle, she continued speaking.
"–and told him to–"
He put the cup down to cover his mouth with both hands, eyes wide with horror as she spoke.
"–and I also–"
"That's enough!" William cut her off with a rapid shake of his head. His face was flushed a bright shade of crimson, and steam was nearly coming out of his ears. He was a delicate sort. "...Who did you send it to?"
She blinked. "Does it matter?"
"Sort of," he replied as he started preparing another order. As usual, his tone was polite and even; he took her role as his senior too seriously sometimes, even though she always told him that he could relax around her. "If you sent it to one of your friends, maybe it would be okay as… say, an ironic joke, but to someone not used to your interesting sense of humor and vocabulary, it might be not so appropriate. But you wouldn't send it to a stranger, right?"
A sense of guilt ran through her at his earnest words. William was truly an angel, always believing the best of her. How could she tell him that she was the sort of shrew who actually did send such furious hate mail to a complete stranger?
As she reluctantly opened her mouth to correct him, there was the sound of a bell chiming as the door to the coffee shop opened.
That in and of itself was not odd. The Daily Grind was fairly popular, so she was used to the high-pitched bell signaling another round of customer service. What was odd was the strange shiver that ran down her spine, the atmosphere seeming to grow colder as the new customer entered.
William and the other people inside the coffee shop didn't seem to notice, however. Was it just her? No, maybe she was just on edge from her unfortunate morning. She decided to take a look and check who had just come in, expecting a regular customer.
When she looked towards the entrance, she was greeted by eyes the shade of molten gold staring directly at her.