"Alex, is the invitation order done yet?!"
"Just needs laminating...!" Alex yelled back, his voice shredded from too many caffeine-fueled all-nighters.
"Can it be finished today?!" His boss bellowed. Alex fought the primal urge to click his tongue and fired back, "Maybe before lunch!"
The deadline was technically this afternoon, which meant Alex still had oodles of procrastination time. Well, not that he'd procrastinate.
"Great! Let me know when it's done, okay?!"
The boss strutted out immediately after. Around him, the workspace hummed with the kind of existential dread only a soul-crushing job could produce. Offset printers thundering like drunk gods attempting to throw thunderbolts at their own incompetence, banners getting tortured with precision-cutters as though the paper had personally wronged some divine being, and the air was thick—like you could inhale crushed dreams if you inhaled too deeply.
Alex remained unbothered, pushing sheet after sheet into the laminator like a man who'd already resigned himself to hell but hadn't signed up for the overtime shift.
Meanwhile, Felix—his blessedly insufferable coworker—decided that now was the time for some unhelpful existential questioning. "Hey, Alex, ever thought about starting our own business?"
"With the shit wages we're pulling?" Alex replied without a beat, not even looking up.
"I'm kidding, of course," Felix laughed. "You don't have the spine for entrepreneurship anyway."
"It's too early for some existential crap."
"Exactly why I said that," he cackled.
"Fuck off."
The surrounding workers tuned them out, because let's face it—this was every morning in Corporate Hell™. Alex called it "just another day lost in the underfunded capitalism and human misery."
Alex stole a glance at the cheap, faded calendar pinned to the wall, practically drowned in ink smudges. Everything in his life seemed stained these days.
He wasn't even six months into this job, and his "career aspirations" already felt like the ghost of a deadbeat uncle—fading and disappointing. 'Stable income my ass.'
He couldn't even get close to it.
Felix didn't let the blessed silence stretch for long.
"Hey, Alex...! You seen season two of that soccer anime?"
"The one that looked like they outsourced animation to a PowerPoint presentation?" he snorted. "The last episode's the only one worth watching, so… pass."
"Yeah, fair enough," Felix nodded sagely. "What about that cosmic horror webnovel, then? You know, the one everyone's shoving down people's throats like it's divine intervention?"
"Pacing's slower than a snail on its last leg. All it does is drown you in info-dumps. It's like listening to a pretentious lecture with none of the payoff. Hard pass."
"You're missing a gem, man."
"Or I'm just dodging an eternity of 'Chapter 1000—Nothing Happens But in More Detail than I Can Handle.'"
"Fuck you."
Alex threw him a middle finger without looking, continuing to feed sheet after sheet to the infernal laminating machine.
"Alex! How much longer on the laminating?!" Another coworker piped up from across the room.
"Just wait five minutes!" Alex yelled in response.
***
Once the laminating was finished, Alex, along with the other disgruntled bodies still working away, packed the finished invitations into tidy little bundles. The rhythm was solid. The dull factory clock still had plenty of time before anyone would consider getting a break. And by nearly 12 a.m., they were all done.
Lunchtime was getting closer, that sweet sweet reprieve. While Alex packed his portion into his sad excuse for a lunchbox, his mind circled around his living conditions, frowning slightly. 'What am I doing with my life...?'
He wasn't born into money. He wasn't aiming for fame. Helping his family survive paycheck to paycheck? It meant something.
But they're now gone from this world. He's the only son, so he's all alone now. His relatives barely care about him.
'How about a freelance?'
It lingered in his head like an intrusive thought.
His subconscious heckled him: 'Stop being a lazy bastard and write something useful for once.'
And then a darker part of him whispered truths too shameful in this daylight. 'And then you can just write porn—people eat that crap up like starving dogs. Shitty income is still income…!'
He quickly shook his head as Felix broke the silence. "Hey, Alex, Aure wants to eat with you again."
"What?" Alex gave him a raised brow. "Why not just the three of us?"
"Go ask her," he cackled. "She's probably falling for you or something."
Alex snorted. "Yeah, right."
He stood up and walks to the breakroom. Inside the breakroom, culinary tragedies awaited their cremation in the communal microwave. Plastic-wrapped leftovers and unloved rice bowls paraded their misery on the counter.
Aure was already there. Her chipped thermos sat on the table.
"You're late," she said without even lifting her eyes from the death grip she had on her phone.
"It's five seconds from the packing room," Alex sighed as he flopped down in the seat across from her, opening his lunchbox with a sense of resignation. What was inside wasn't food—it was last night's leftover mistake: cold rice and a shapeless hunk of… something.
Aure spared him the briefest glance before scrunching up her face like she'd just caught a whiff of a dead rat in the corner. "Is that supposed to be food?"
"It's called 'budget dining,'" Alex shot back with a glare. "Some of us can't live off of takeout and condescension, alright?"
"That doesn't mean you have to eat out of a garbage disposal." She slid half a sandwich across the table, as though offering him some kind of mercy. "Here. Eat something that doesn't look like you're about to send it straight to the morgue for once."
Alex eyed the sandwich like it was a disguised bomb. "What's this? A pity offering?"
"Yes," she said flatly, biting into her own half without so much as a wince.
Alex hesitated for a solid second—then grudgingly grabbed the sandwich and took a bite, immediately regretting everything that had led up to this moment. "What is this?"
"It's avocado and spinach," she replied.
Alex scowled. "I see where the pity part comes in now."
"Just be grateful."
"I am."
The two ate in silence for a while.
"...Sunday," Aure mumbled mid-bite, breaking the stillness soon.
"Ah?"
When the confused Alex glanced at her face, it wasn't the usual blend of apathy and sarcastic disdain. It was softer—almost embarrassed.
"Sunday," she repeated, barely looking up from the remains of her sandwich. "Would you… go out with me?"
Alex froze. 'Is she asking me on a date?'
"Uh, sure," he blurted, worried that she'll be concerned about his long response. "That sounds like, uh, a good plan."
If his family could see this right now, they'd be squealing like some delusional drama fans, though he'd do the same if it were his siblings pulling off this miraculous social interaction.
'—but no, Alex. Don't assume she's head over heels just because she's nice to you. Maybe she's just... nice. But again... she 'is' the closest girl to me. Should I make a move? —eh, but I'm broke.'
Aure smiled—brief, almost imperceptible—but he caught it. Then she wiped it off like it never happened and returned to her default setting of disaffected coolness. "It's the day after tomorrow. Don't forget."
"I won't."
Aure was a refreshing girl. Honest to a fault. Alex liked that, to say the least.
They continued eating, quiet once more, until—
'RUMBLE!'
Alex and Aure went stiff. His reflexes kicked in before his brain did. He grabbed Aure's arm, yanking her to her feet.
The lights flickered, buzzing angrily, as though trying to let something out.
"W-What is happening?" Aure clung to his arm, her usual cool composure replaced by slight fear.
Before Alex could throw out some pointless comment to ease her, the vending machine next to them exploded—literally.
Bags of chips, candy bars, and soda bottles flew out of the machine like a hyperactive gremlin who had lost its mind. The contents rained down onto the floor.
"—Alex, Aure!" Felix barreled through the cafeteria doors with an uncharastically panicked voice. The laminating machine outside let out a high-pitched screech—like a tortured soul screaming in frustration.
A tremor coursed through the walls as everything around them suddenly stilled and silent.
Alex frowned. 'What the hell is happening? This isn't just some earthquake—and what the hell is that gash in the air?'
A jagged gash appeared in the middle of the air, glowing faintly. Alex just stood there, jaw slack. "What is—"
Before he could finish cursing reality one last time, the crack widened. Something long, dark, and fundamentally 'wrong' slithered out, like a grotesque parody of a hand reaching from hell.
Before anyone could scream—or run—or comprehend—the thing grabbed them.
It didn't touch their bodies. It reached deeper.
The void yanked Alex, Aure, and Felix into the gash, turning their vision all-black.
***
A/N: Rate it from 1 to 10 with the reason, if you don't mind. That'll help me covering what's lacking from the story.
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