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| 34 After; My "Magnum Opus" | |
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| Topic Started: Aug 21 2016, 04:47 AM (232 Views) | |
| Violet Spinel | Aug 21 2016, 04:47 AM Post #1 |
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Mars CEO
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Chapter 1 Spoiler: click to toggle There is a man named David. He is a 22 year old young man who is very good at existing. “It is one of my strongest skills,” he boasts, “along with breathing..” Of course, this aforementioned boasting only occurs mentally, as talking is not one of his strongest skills, especially when the topic of conversation is himself. Every morning, David awakes to the monotonous clicking of his broken refrigerator, which routinely begins sputtering around 7:18, a time conveniently and permanently nestled into his internal morning schedule. At around 7:20, he is out of his bed, and at 7:23, his teeth and hair are both brushed. He then proceeds to pull a pair of beige pants over his legs, tuck in his shirt, and clip on his clip-on tie, which he finds most convenient. David shuffles to the kitchen in his apartment and proceeds to pour a generic brand of wheat cereal into a bowl, though he intentionally neglects to add milk, as he finds it to be more of a burden than it is useful. He had never even thought to pour milk in his cereal and this would never change throughout David’s entire life. He can do without. Adjacent to his cereal is a glass of water, poured directly from the tap. On occasion, he enjoys pouring the water into his cereal to make breakfast slightly more interesting, but today he drinks it from the glass. At this moment exactly every day, David checks the clock on his stove, and by strange coincidence, it always reads 7:34. Despite this unusual phenomenon, the clock is disregarded and David leaves his seat and acquires his plain black suitcase for work, which he then carries with him out the door at around 7:40. He passes a small, damaged black convertible automobile that has been present in the parking lot of his apartment complex for several years. Upon its cracked windshield lies a faded yellow note that is completely illegible due to severe water damage. David’s car is not present in the parking lot, because, unless someone neglected to tell him, he does not own one. Instead, he continues walking along the broken sidewalk until he reaches a bus stop, with a bench that is poorly shielded by a thin, plastic roof with several gaping holes in it. Behind the bench where David sits is a faded advertisement for a television series that was cancelled three years ago. Neither the advertisement nor the cancellation of the series affect David, as he cannot afford cable, and is not interested in television anyways. Usually, the bus arrives at 8:15, assured by David’s involuntary habit of checking his watch before boarding the vehicle. However, today, the bus did not arrive at 8:15, and after patiently waiting for twenty minutes, David decides the bus will not arrive at all. Perplexed by the absence of the bus, David glances at the weathered bus schedule that reliably remains pinned on the wall to his right and remembers that it is Sunday, and the bus does not arrive on Sundays, and that he does not have to arrive to work today either, because despite his bickering with his employer, he is not allowed to work all seven days of the week. Slightly annoyed by how his day began, David decides to return to his apartment, wondering why he makes that mistake every Sunday, then wondering why he wonders why he makes that mistake every Sunday, every Sunday. Chapter 2 Spoiler: click to toggle David returns to Apartment B201, where he passes the dented black car a second time and walks up the wooden staircase to his apartment. Upon arriving, however, he realizes he had forgotten his keys at the bus stop, something that was strangely against his routine. David slumps against his locked door and sighs. This unfortunate event has completely ruined his morning schedule, and because of David’s heavy reliance on the aforementioned schedule, he feels as though today has no purpose. David slumps over, limp and lifeless, until the maintenance man for Building B comes up to him and says in Spanish what David assumes was request for him to leave before the maintenance man calls security on him. David lethargically crawls away from his door and down the stairs, where he passes the abandoned black car a third time. He glances at his ticking watch, which reads 9:32, before fainting and lying sprawled against the side of the black convertible, his shoes scraping against the asphalt with a crunching sound. *** David awakes, and it is already dark out. His watch reads 9:32. David takes a glance at his surroundings and finds he is no longer next to the car, but in a rusty dumpster with chipped green paint located in an unknown location. He checks his pockets and finds he is missing his wallet, which contained $16 dollars and several coupons that expired yesterday. Considering this was his only loss, David crawls out of the dumpster and sees the flickering green neon sign for “Fuel and Food”, the gas station that lies next to his bus stop. He enters the gas station and walks into the men’s restroom, where he promptly unzips his pants and urinates into the yellow stained urinal. After he empties his bladder, he washes his hands with two pumps of shampoo scented hand soap. Leaving the restroom, he notices a calendar behind the cash register, which says it is Wednesday. David assumes the calendar has not been maintained with the days passing, but then reads further and realizes it says it is the Wednesday after today, which likely implies today is not today, but rather three days after today. David is not phased, and he approaches the glass door that opens automatically when he comes near. He decides to walk to the bus stop, where he finds a silver keychain on the bench which holds the keys to his apartment and mailbox. He takes the keys and walks back to his apartment, passing the black car. He climbs the wooden stairway again and unlocks the door to his apartment and enters. Inside, David moves to the laundry room and removes his suit, which reeks of garbage and sweat, though he keeps his precious clip-on tie clipped on. He then goes to his bedroom and lies on the white sheets of his bed, though he lacks the energy to sleep, nor to stay awake. Caught in this pathetic limbo of insomnia, David finally decides to crawl out of bed and into the living room watch television until the sun rises. During this not-so-brief moment of mindless entertainment he is fully aware he will forget the contents of, he considers buying cable. *** As the sun rises, David hears the sputtering of his refrigerator, routinely at 7:18 as normal. He reaches into his laundry basket and pulls out his suit, which still reeks of garbage, and he pulls it over himself, buttoning it up. He then pours himself a bowl of wheat cereal. The clock reads 7:34, and David finishes his cereal, placing the bowl back in the pantry without rinsing it. Then he grabs his black suitcase and walks out the door, locking it behind him. Chapter 3 Spoiler: click to toggle While waiting for the bus, an elderly woman walks to the bench and sits next to him. She is in her late sixties, or perhaps early seventies, and her silver hair is curly and cut short, barely reaching her neck. Her thick round spectacles and wrinkly yet soft face gives her the appearance of a kind homely grandmother. “Good morning.” She says. David remains silent. “That’s not very polite.” She whines, “You should reciprocate.” David continues his silence, then vomits an orange-green vomit-colored puddle on the floor of the bench. “Oh my god!” The elderly woman cries out. “Are you okay?” David wipes his mouth as the bus arrives and ignores the sour aftertaste left behind by his vomit. His watch reads 8:15. David climbs the stairs onto the bus and clutches a handrail, despite the fact that there are several open seats. The bus stops at his workplace, and David stumbles out, giving the vehicle a passing glance as it drives off., David vomits again. He wipes the vomit off his shirt, as he’s been told a dirty shirt is unprofessional, and walks inside to his workplace. His employer, a short stocky middle aged man with a balding head of light brown hair approaches him. “Where the hell were you?!” He demands. David doesn’t speak a word. “Huh?! Come on, what do you have to say for yourself?” David remains silent. He receives a slap across the face from his employer. “If you don’t show up to work, you don’t keep your job!” David rubs his face, as the slap was painful. “Get out of here!” His employer yells. “You’re fired! If I see you in this building again, I’ll call the authorities.” David leaves the building nonchalantly and sits on the curb. The bus arrives a few hours later. David’s watch reads 11:16. He boards the bus and finds himself back at his bus stop, where he walks back to his apartment complex. He passes the black car once again and enters his apartment, where he sits comfortably on the couch and flicks on the television, absent mindedly watching a spanish soap opera. *** David hears the doorbell ring, which he has never heard before. It sounded like a church bell and rang two loud, echoey tones. Startled, he jumps off his couch and opens the door to see a man in his thirties. He has blonde hair and carries an infant in his arms. “Dude,” he says. “It’s me, your neighbor. You know, the guy from apartment B202.” David sighs. The man at his door looked older than his age, with yellow teeth and a weathered face. His long hair reeks of cigarettes and marijuana. The man continues. “Anyways, I was just wondering if, like, you had any money for diapers? I ran out and this guy is getti--” David slams the door nonchalantly. He glances at the blinking stove clock, which reads 7:34. David disregards the clock and sits back on the couch, where he continues watching the Spanish soap opera. He falls asleep on the couch at around 8:30. Chapter 4 Spoiler: click to toggle The next day, David wakes up and puts on his clothes. He pours himself a bowl of wheat cereal and decides to add water this time. While eating, he examines the stove clock, which reads 7:34. After he finishes, David remembers something of extreme importance. He places his bowl in the pantry, again without rinsing it, and rushes out his door. He climbs down the stairs, passes the black car, and runs through the parking lot. Halfway through this endeavor, David forgets what he was going to do, so he turns around and returns to his apartment, where he watches the spanish soap opera for another several hours. Chapter 5 Spoiler: click to toggle While watching television, David’s doorbell rings. This time it startles him less, but enough to make him jump. He assumes it is the diaper man again, but when he opens the door, he sees a tall, bulky black man with sunglasses and a suit. David notices that his tie is clearly not a clip-on tie, and he sighs at the thought of how much time the man must have wasted tying it, and how this time could have been spent eating a second bowl of wheat cereal, or brushing his teeth more vigorously. The man clears his throat, revealing an intimidating deep, yet somehow jovial voice. “Is this the residence of David Simpson?” He asks. David doesn’t speak. “Sir, I am with the police.” He says sternly, flashing his badge. David remains silent. “Look, if you won’t cooperate, I’m afraid you’ll have to come with me.” David realizes if he doesn’t speak now, his morning routine will be ransacked. He clears his throat. “Yes.” “What do you mean, ‘yes’?” “Yes, I am David Simpson.” The officer takes off his sunglasses to reveal blue eyes, which David is not surprised by in spite of how unusual a black man with blue eyes is. “Oh, that’s good. I thought I had the wrong house.” The man said apologetically. He hands David and envelope. “I’m sorry to say that your uncle Stephen has passed away.” He writes some things down on his small notepad and looks up. “He didn’t really have any close family, so you were the only one in his will. The envelope contains a check for all of his life savings.” David examines the check, confused as to who this Uncle Stephen is and why he put only put David in his will. The officer waves his hand and prepares to leave, turning away. “Well, be seeing you.” David can tell the officer feels uncomfortable in his presence. David checks his stove clock. It reads 7:34. David decides it would be best to go to the bank and make a withdrawal. The check contains several million dollars, which David proceeds to take with him to the store to purchase a massive supply of wheat cereal. There is no money left after this transaction. As he returns to his apartment, his home phone begins to ring a blaring, unpleasant tone. He answers the phone. “Your child Benjamin has been absent from the following periods: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 8.” It is an automated message. David hangs up the phone, as he does not have a child, nor does this non-existent child attend a filthy public school. David walks outside and notices his neighbor, the diaper man, who asks him a second time for diaper money. David ignored the diaper man and continues walking until a shady man in a black leather jacket approaches him. The man wore sunglasses not unlike the ones the officer sported, and his black hair was slicked back like an outdated punk greaser. “Hey, you wanna buy some fly stuff?” The shady man asks. David ignores him. “Hey, I’m talkin’ to ya!” The man insists. David continues walking. “Oh, come on! This stuff’ll make your life more interestin’!” David keeps walking until he feels a sharp pain in his head. He clutches his head in a futile attempt in easing the pain. The shady man stops walking. “Hey, you okay? You don’t look too hot.” David slumps over and blacks out. his watch reads 8:22. Chapter 6 Spoiler: click to toggle David wakes up. It is pitch black and he cannot see his watch. It is also cold, not incapacitatingly but enough for David to notice and shudder. David feels his head, which continues to bring him pain. He vomits vigorously on the asphalt. His clip-on tie soaks up some of the vomit. It now smells of garbage, sweat, and vomit. David feels the ground and crawls about until he finally sees the faint light of a neon sign. It reads: “Breast n’ Butter: Gas Station”. David questions the unusual name, and the apparent need to specify that it is, indeed, a gas station. He walks to the gas station and enters. The light on the ceiling is dim and flickering, and the shelves are barren. There is a single ATM in a shadowed corner of the stor. David looks down at his wrist to see his watch is missing, alongside the keys to his apartment. David walks to the cash register and reluctantly asks the man behind the counter, “Do you know the directions to Detroit?” The man looks confused. He is clearly of Hispanic heritage and has a faint peach-fuzz mustache that fails at obscuring the revolting brown mole on his upper lip. “Que es un Detroit?” The cashier asks. David sighs. The amount of effort he had put into speaking to the man was in vain. David enters the restroom, where he attempts to urinate in the urinal, but misses due to his light-headedness, which leaves a yellow stain on the wall next to the toilets. The wall is already riddled in graffiti, and David feels that the urine stain does not seem terribly out of place, so he makes no further attempt to clean the stain. David leaves the mysterious gas station with an empty bladder, though his head continues to bring him pain. He then turns around and goes back into the gas station, but recalls he does not have money for a box of aspirin, so he leaves the store a second time, this time without the cashier noticing his presence. He examines his surroundings. It is dark, almost to the point where nothing can be seen, and all is silent but the distant sound of horrific laughter coming from a lonely white light shining through the window of an apartment building that looks like no one else has inhabited for decades. David walks through the darkness until his vision is restored thanks to the illumination of a tattered old traffic light that looked almost distressed, flickering yellow, then occasionally jumping between red and green. David looks at the light, but the broken light has no street sign attached to it, and David feels it will be a long time before he figures out where he is. David slumps over next to the wooden post holding up the traffic light and vomits again on the sidewalk. He wipes his mouth and continues walking through the thick, empty darkness, taking a small break each time he enters the illumination of another broken traffic light. A faint buzzing noise is heard, and it gets louder as David walks through the darkness. He continues walking until the source of the buzzing is found: a single wooden lamp post with a dim, flickering bulb. The post has a rusty telephone with a rotary dial. David picks up the phone, hoping he can contact his former employer or even the diaper man. The phone is silent, making not even a dial tone or a buzz, and David accidentally pulls the rusty phone off its weak cord with minimal effort. This frustrates David, and he falls to the ground hopelessly as he realizes his morning schedule has been ruined yet again. Chapter 7 Spoiler: click to toggle David hears a beeping noise, a melody of sorts, followed by a rumbling feeling in his pocket. It is his pre-paid cellular telephone that he forgot he owns. Shocked that its battery hasn’t died, he examines the message list and sees his former employer is attempting to contact him. He picks up his phone. “Hello?” David says, before the tone blares in his ear, reminding him to press the green button resembling an outdated phone. “Hey Dave.” His ex-employer greets him upon pressing the button. David remains silent. His former employer continues. “Anyways, sorry about the other day. I was a little hard on you.” David doesn’t speak. “Hey, Dave, say something. I’ll make it worth your while, just talk to me, man.” His former employer has a shaky sound to his voice. He seems distressed. David speaks. “Hello.” His employer’s voice sounds a little lighter now, as if hope is restored. “Oh, hey! I was worried you accidently picked up while you sat down or something.” David doesn’t speak. “Well, I was wondering if you wanted your job back?” His semi-former employer proposes. “The company isn’t holding up very well with you gone.” “I don’t know where I am.” “What? What do you mean?” David looks around. “It is dark. I do not know where I am.” “Your phone I gave you has a GPS. Hold on.” His former-former employer is silent for a small amount of time. “You’re in New Mexico?!” He exclaims. David is not surprised, though he is surprised that he isn’t surprised. “Hey, you there? I said you’re in New Mexico!” “Can you pick me up?” David asks. “No, of course not!” His former-former employer snaps. “Do you have any idea what time it is?!” David looks down at his watch-less wrist. “He took my watch.” “Who did?! Look, kid, you’re on your own. I’ll give you a day off, but you need to get here by Saturday. Good luck.” He hangs up. David gets up. Having a deadline is just what he needs to have a shred of hope, and it gives him the energy to keep going. David continues walking through the darkness for several hours, with only a dirty suit and an empty stomach. Chapter 8 Spoiler: click to toggle The light of day leaks through the city, but it makes little difference. David continues walking down the road until he finds a small building. It has a rusty metal door with peeling grey paint and a sign with the words “Chinees Food” crudely scribbled on a cardboard square nailed to the front. Driven by both hunger and curiosity, David enters the building. Inside is what looks like a small warehouse, with a counter and a menu of similar fashion to the sign out front hung on the wall behind. Behind the counter, which he finds is actually a cardboard box with a blanket thrown over it, is a short hispanic man, whose open smile reveals terrible dental hygiene. “Ello.” The cashier says. “How you do?” David remains silent. “You wan’ food? Here, we have menu.” He proudly displays the cardboard sign hung behind him. David examines it and orders the “fryed rice.” After a few minutes, the same man leads him to a “table”, which looks like a smaller cardboard box with another blanket hastily thrown on it. The man hands David a smaller version of their menu, this one written on a wrinkled sheet of lined paper. After again confirming his order, David’s “waiter” walks through an opening in the wall, which appears to be a makeshift door that was torn open by a crowbar. His “waiter” returns with a paper plate, and he lays it down on the table. “Have good food.” The man says, and leaves David to enjoy this “meal”. David looks at the plate, which has a few grains of undercooked white rice, and a squishy brown pellet David assumes is supposed to be a carrot, or at least once was. The smell was foul, and the mix of that and his tie causes him to vomit, though nothing comes out due to how frequently he had been vomiting recently. David glances around, making sure the restaurant owner isn’t watching him, which he is. The owner has a vacant, intent stare that makes David uncomfortable, as if this owner can see through David’s soul, although David doesn’t believe in such things nor does he fully understand what the word even means. David waits until the man turns around, and quickly darts away from the table. The man tries to stop him. “Stop! You no pay for food!” David runs out the door and down the street. He picks up his cellphone and calls his former-former employer. “Hello?” “It is David.” He says, panting as he continues to run. “Dave! How’s it going?” David ignores the previous question. “If I may inquire, do you know a place in New Mexico where I can get wheat cereal?” “Wheat cereal?” “Yes.” David nods as he continues running. “That’s a weird question, Dave. And why the hell are you panting?” David adjusts the phone, which is beginning to get hot on his ear. “I am running.” “From WHAT?! Dave, can you please tell me what the hell is going on?!” David ignores his former-former employer and hangs up the phone. He continues running through the dark city, although he clearly is no longer being pursued by the restaurant owner. He runs through the darkness until he recognises a wooden pole with a broken rotary payphone. His cellphone rings and David answers without hesitation. “What was that, Dave?!” His former-former employer yells. David doesn’t speak. “Nice try, Dave. Start talking. I need to know what’s going on!” David ignores his former-former employer and hangs up. Chapter 9 Spoiler: click to toggle David’s phone continues ringing, and voice messages upon voice messages stack up on his phone, flooding the call history. One of the messages is a string of vulgar profanity and David knows that he has likely lost his job that he had just gotten back a few hours before. David continues until the darkness reveals a neon sign that reads “Beat n’ Whip: Grocery store.” David notes the unusual name, and the apparent need to specify that it is, indeed, a grocery store. He enters the store and activates the nearby ATM, in which he makes a withdrawal for wheat cereal money. The store is empty, as if it has been abandoned for years, and the shelves appear the same. In the cereal aisle, David finds a single box of wheat cereal, though it is an obscure generic brand and is clearly watered down compared to his favorite brand. David takes the box anyways, and has no choice but to use the self-checkout machine, as the store is void of both customer and employees. He feeds the machine a couple dollars and leaves the store, eating his dry cereal from the box on his way out. David takes his phone out of his pocket and decides to call his possibly former-former-former employer. “Dave?! I called you like four times! What’s going on?!” “I don’t know.” David replies. “How do you just end up in New Mexico?!” His former-former-former employer demands. “I just woke up here. Next to the Breast n’ Butter.” “Next to the WHAT?!” His former-former-former employer sighs. “Look, kid, I don’t care where you are or how you got there. The only thing that matters is that you get back here by Saturday, okay?” David hangs up. He takes a handful of wheat cereal and starts running through the darkness once again. Finally, after hours of walking, he makes it through the city. The light of midday sun burns David’s eyes. The sign behind David is horrifically scratched up and completely illegible. David looks around and continues walking down the road, relieved that he can now see the horizon ahead of him. Chapter 10 Spoiler: click to toggle David awakes inside a dark, enclosed space. He vomits, though gravity brings the stomach acid back into his mouth, and David discovers that he is lying on his back. He bangs on the fuzzy black roof of his claustrophobic prison, and a force of motion causes him to slide forward. A clicking sound is heard, and the roof lifts up to reveal he is in the trunk of a car. “Ey!” Says the man who opened his trunk. “This guy’s awake!” David’s head hurts. He groggily steps out of the trunk. “Ey bro. Bro. You okay, bro?” “Where am I?” David asks. The man shrugs. “We saw you passed out on the side of the road, bro. We’re in Michigan” David nods. A twist coincidence saved him quite a bit of time to get home. “I can walk home from here. Thank you.” David wipes the lint off his pants and nods in gratitude as the driver of the car walks back in and slams the car door behind him. It makes a thunking sound and swings back open, and David assumes by the mild yelp accompanied by the sound of the door closing that the driver had slammed the door on his finger. The door slams again, this time with nothing obscuring its path. The car revs up and drives away, and David begins walking home. He recognises the area, as it is on the route that his bus takes to work and after a few hours of walking, he arrives at the familiar gas station across the street from his beloved apartment complex. He walks across the street and passes the black convertible. The yellow sheet of paper has completely eroded away. David enters his home and sees his stove clock, which reads 7:34. David takes off his shirt and throws it in the public washing machine for building B. He goes back into his house and calls his former-former employer. “I made it back. What day is it?” “Dave? Hey, what’s up? Anyways, it’s Friday. You’d better get here tomorrow.” David hangs up. He pours a bowl of wheat cereal, water included, and remembers his stove clock is broken, and has been stuck reading 7:34 for several years. He ignores the clock. He grabs the remote for his television and watches a Spanish soap opera while eating his wheat cereal. A car appearing on the program on his television reminds him of the black car outside of his apartment. This suddenly triggers a memory that gives David a disturbing realization. The car outside of David’s apartment belongs to him. It was inherited from a now deceased father that he felt indifferent towards. The car was driven to and from a business he owned for three years until David got into a tragic car accident that rendered both his car and frontal lobe useless. The sudden discovery of his past disturbs David, and he sits in horror until a surprising plot twist occurs on the Spanish soap opera, and David becomes distracted and forgets this valuable information. *** The next day, David awakes to the monotonous clicking of his refrigerator, which begins routinely sputtering around 7:18, a time that David is grateful to be nestled back into his schedule. At around 7:20, he is out of his bed, and at 7:23, his teeth and hair are both brushed. He then proceeds to pull a pair of beige pants over his legs, tuck in his shirt, and clip on his clip-on tie, which he finds most convenient. He then shuffles to the kitchen and pours a bowl of wheat cereal, then eats it, and then pours another bowl for lunch. He clips on his clip-on tie, which now smells like laundry detergent, and he walks out the door, past his black car, and to the bus stop he knows and loves. At the bus stop, the bus arrives at 8:15, and David boards the bus and clings onto a handrail. The bus stops at his former-former workplace, and David gets off and enters the building. Inside, his former-former employer greets him. “Ey, Dave! Glad you made it!” David walks past him and steps into his cubicle. He begins to work nonstop for the next seven hours, only interrupted by a bowl of wheat cereal that is consumed while working. Then, he waits for the bus and arrives home at 4:12 PM. Epilogue Spoiler: click to toggle David awakes the next day with a severe pain in his chest. He vomits on his bed, then proceeds to clean up the mess, then proceeds to vomit again. After cleaning up the second mess, he hurries to the bathroom and vomits vigorously into the toilet. David wipes his face and looks in the mirror. He then vomits into the sink and faints. His head collides with the sharp corner of the bathroom countertop, and the impact knocks him unconscious. The last thing he hears is the ambulance’s siren. He miraculously dies that day on November 1st, 2014, at 7:34 AM. His funeral is held two weeks after his death, at the cemetery that he passes on the bus ride to work every day. No one arrived except for a priest and David’s former-former employer, who only came for the food. |
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Sunrise's Machinist Hero shall not back down! 




8:41 AM Jul 11

