Sigh!
'Friday…A day that makes you tired and happy at the same time. Well, tired, because you have been working constantly like a robot for five days and happy because the next two days are weekends. It's even more painful when you have to do overtime not because you're enthusiastic about your work but because others are doing so and if you want to keep your puny job; you need to follow the crowd!
'It just feels like I'm living in a loop now. Wake up, get ready, go to work, come home, finish the summary meeting, make dinner, have dinner, sleep and repeat. I wish I could just turn back the time and go back to my school life. I'll then just study hard and go to medical school or maybe practice and develop a talent in sports or I could learn and invest in those stock exchanges. I mean, I would choose anything but not a life like this!'
'Well, no point in pondering about such unrealistic thoughts anymore. I should get ready now or I'll be late.'
Keeping my morning monologue aside, I entered the bathroom. It was a fairly cold day and nothing's better than a warm shower before a cup of hot cocoa on such a day. As I turned on the shower, the projectile of the warm water first hit my chest slowly moving upwards as it finally stopped at my head and my hairs before trickling down my body, warming it up. I liked that warm feeling and wanted to stay longer but sadly, I was limited by time. Getting out of the shower, wiping my hair, I made my cocoa. Holding the cup in my right hand, I went through the to-do list for this weekend, which was sticking onto my refrigerator door:
• Sleep a ton!
• Visit my orphanage.
• Fix the sink's faucet.
• Buy new shoes.
• Stack-up the groceries.
• Buy the items on list-2.
• Watch that new trending movie.
• Start that new game that I bought on Wednesday.
'I think that's a pretty normal weekend. Couples might be using it to spend more time together and people with friends might be planning to hang out and have some drinks but I had none of them. Don't get me wrong, I did have acquaintances but none were so close that I would call them friends. As for a girlfriend, I'm not romantic, I don't understand the concept of love and I also lack time to research in that field. Maybe someday, someone will just spawn in my life making it colorful…yeah, probably not.'
Ranting over my life, I closed my house and went to the train station to catch the morning train. I don't know why but I was a lot more melancholic like a poet today. Usually I don't think so much about my life and just close my brain or keep it busy with the thoughts about my work.
I walked to the station and got on the train just to notice that there were very few passengers. I was surprised, was it a holiday today? Did I skip Friday and today's actually Saturday? I checked my smartphone but today was actually Friday and the date aligned with no national or international holiday. It was just a normal Friday.
'So what's going on? This is a rush hour, where is the crowd? Why does it feel so creepy? Am I still dreaming? Maybe it's just a coincidence?'
As I looked around, I noticed a more peculiar sight. There were only old people sitting on the seats and a young man standing and holding the grab handle, despite there being empty seats! He was wearing a long black coat going slightly below his knees, black trousers and a pair of polished black shoes. His face was slightly hidden by a thick winter hat but his sharp jawline revealed him to be quite handsome.
There were exactly 12 old people in the coach, 7 women and 5 men. All of them in casual and old winter attire holding a cane and sitting on each corner of the 6 benches. They looked upset, having a melancholic aura around them but the man looked normal but expressionless. There was something about him that was mesmerizing which made me want to inspect him closer. But, at the same time my body wanted to stay away from him. It was a very creepy and strange feeling!
'I think I got on the wrong train. Sigh!…What is wrong with me today? I'll just have a seat and get off on the next station to change the trains or see what I can do. I don't even know which station is the next stop for this train. I'll just sit and wait for the announcement to be made.'
I went towards the seat farthest from the man not wanting to take any risks. I directly moved towards the back corner of the coach where a man and a woman were sitting on each side while holding their canes with both their hands and putting their head over the top of their hands. Either they were mourning or praying, I didn't know. I put my bag down in the middle of the bench and sat down.
As soon as I sat on the seat, my heart started to feel heavy. The atmosphere became suffocating and it was becoming harder to breathe! Then, I heard a heavy, coarse and low-pitched voice that just said, "Thirteen!" The voice was soothing to the ears and yet it made my heart beat faster, activating my fight or flight response!
I looked up to see where the voice came from and my breath got stuck in my throat. I noticed each of the old people staring daggers at me with an expressionless face! And the man in the long coat was having a creepy smile and his crystal blue eyes turned crescent to show the joy on his face. His right hand was still holding the grab handle but his left hand was pointing its index finger straight at me!
I opened my mouth to ask what was going on or if it all was just a prank, but no words came out of my mouth not even a single sound! It felt like this was all a nightmare, a very realistic nightmare.
Soon I felt the atmosphere getting colder and saw a black fog rising from the ground. Slowly, it was covering my ankles and then my knees, rising at a noticeable speed. Every part it covered was going numb as if it was being removed out of existence! My heart was filled with dread and fear, my mind was filled with shock and constantly telling me to run but my soul, it was feeling pleasure! A pleasure out of this world! Every part of my body the fog touched just filled my soul with comfort and delight, so much so that it wanted to sink in it!
I looked at the man but now he was back to his original posture, standing straight, hiding his face from my sight. He looked calm, very calm. I looked at my surroundings and all the old people were also back to their original posture. The only difference was that now I can notice their lips moving and hear whispers coming from them. But, they were so low and my mind was so confused that I couldn't make out what they were saying.
As I looked around in dread, confusion and pleasure, the fog came up to my nose and I lost my sense of smell. As it moved further upwards, it covered my eyes and everything went dark. It felt like I was thrown into Oblivion where I can't sense anything.
Click! Click! Click!
Strangely enough, I heard some clicking sounds like someone was setting up a machine. When I'm not able to use my other senses, the sound felt unimaginably clearer despite being distant.
- "Initializing… Bonding with the host's soul…searching for a suitable body…"
Then, I heard a robotic voice, probably a male. Though I was clearly able to hear it, my mind was too clogged to make sense of it. Soon, the voice grew distant leaving me again to my loneliness. And then, the black fog covered me entirely and nothing was left.
'Am I dead? Just like this?'
Those were my last thoughts as my mind went blank and everything ended. No more thoughts, no more senses, no more dread, no more surprise, no more pleasure and no more life…
***
Slap!
'Huh? What's going on? Didn't I die? Is this hell? Am I still alive? Was that all a nightmare?'
As I slowly regained my consciousness, I started to feel pain all over my body, especially on my right cheek and my head. My body felt surprisingly light but very tired. It was like there was no energy left in me. I felt like I could faint any moment now. I couldn't feel or think about anything else, the pain and tiredness was clogging my mind. All I wanted to do was keep my eyes closed and sleep but nevertheless, I still tried and opened them to see what was going on. As I opened them I saw a blurry figure extending his arm and reaching my cheeks with his palm at a rapid speed!
- "This is an alert! Host's life is in danger! Host should activate the system!"
I heard a familiar robotic voice in my head but my head was too clogged up to notice what was going on. I noticed the burly man's hand approaching me but I was too tired to move.
"You worthless son of a whore!" he said in a heavy voice filled with disgust as his hand was just an inch away from my face. And then-
Slap!
A heavy slap came onto my left cheek! A hot sensation flushed through my face and then came the pain, an unbearable amount of pain! Never in my life was I ever slapped by a stranger so hard! Moreover, I was a grown adult! I couldn't take it, so I retaliated. I brought all the remaining energy within me and screamed at the top of my lungs.
"Aaaahhhh! You-"
Swoosh! Whip!
As I tried to reach for the man who slapped me, a whip swooshed through the air and hit me at the back. Feeling all the energy in my body getting dissipated, I fell onto the floor.
Thump!
"What the fuck! Since when did this kid gain so much courage?" the man with the whip asked.
"We need to teach him a lesson!" another voice resounded from one of the guards.
"What are you all looking at? Get back to mining if you don't want to die!" said the burly man from earlier while looking at other weak, skinny and dirty people holding pickaxes.
There were some more shouts, some sounds of beatings and some whispers. I couldn't make out what was going on anymore and then I lost my consciousness.
***