Chapter 1: The New World

First chapter of the story, depicting Alex's world changing.

Chapter 1: The New World

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.

 Albert Einstein

“Al? Alex! Wake up!”

I opened my eyes. What a weird dream. I thought. Sun shining through the window made my eyes immediately hurt. I looked at the clock on the table next to my bed and saw 8:27. 

“Alex!”

“I am coming.” I said loudly with tired voice, while sliding off my bed on the ground. I lifted myself up and grabbed the table looking at the clock. Why didn’t the alarm work? I would swear I did set it up. Did my roommates turn it off to prank me or something? I have to ask them once they come back. I thought to myself and got quickly into my clothes. I looked into the mirror to see my tired green eyes. My short brown hair was all messed up and my thin body felt like if a strong wind would blow right now it would take me with it.

“Alex! You’ll be late for work.”

Rose walked into my room and gave me a kiss. She had to rise up on her tiptoes to do that. She’s as old as me. That means she’s 19 years old. Has brown wavy hair, reaching her shoulders and brown eyes. Since I am 182cm tall and she is 173cm tall, she either does that or I have to bend down a little to kiss her.

“I got to get home before my dad starts to worry. I told him I’ll be home before 9.” She smiled at me and put a hand on my cheek. “You know how he can be. It’s a big enough miracle that he likes you.”

I smiled at her back and put my hand on hers. I kissed her palm. “I better not change that then.” I quickly go into the bathroom and after few minutes we were both ready to leave. I grabbed my keys and put on my jacket. Rose already ran to the car and I quickly followed her. We got in and I drove us to my work. I stopped near a bus stop for Rose.

“Are you sure you won’t be late? You got less than ten minutes.” She asked worried.

“It’s okay. If I don’t get stuck in traffic it should be fine.” I said with a smile and gave her a kiss. “I’ll be on a mobile if you’ll need anything.”

“Sure. Good luck.” She said and closed my door as we said each other goodbyes.

While riding to my workplace, which is a small mall, where I work as a cashier, I set my car to auto-drive. Thanks to Google and their aggressive marketing team, every car that has been created over the last 15 years has been equipped with auto-drive system. This also made it pretty expensive to buy my first car, even though it was pretty much a wreck. In my spare time I tried to think about the dream I had. I wish I had time to think about it after I woke up, because now I couldn’t remember any details. All I knew is, there was a weird person with white eyes.  Other details were pretty hazy.

I put on my uniform, which mostly meant switching my jacket for blue vest, since I already had a yellow t-shirt and jeans on me. I ran in and pressed my ID card against the sensor right on time. 

“Where the f**k were you?! Do you know what time it is?!” a voice of my boss started to shout behind me. “Alexander! Answer me!”  She always calls me Alexander when she’s pissed off. I turned around sheepishly, to look at my boss Christie in the eye. She’s in her early thirties, her blond hair in ponytail. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her without it.

“Nine?” I say quietly, not being able to hold an eye contact.

“Exactly! The cash register won’t work by itself!” She continued to shout. “Get there and work! We are losing money! You will see this on your paycheck!” She stepped aside and pointed on a cash register. “Go!” 

I am on time though. I thought to myself as I nodded while looking at the ground and quickly walked to the cash register. Scene created a lot of attention and everyone, who could hear it, was looking at us. My hands kept shaking for at least thirty minutes as I worked. Since every customer looks at them as I put their goods to the sensor and eventually take their money and return the change, it wasn’t getting any better. The rest of the day continued in similar fashion. Christie was looking me most of the time with her watchful eye and to make it even better, it almost looked like the entire city decided to go shopping today. Doesn’t anyone work on Fridays? Thankfully, breaks in 4 hour intervals are still something even Christie doesn’t want to take away from me on a twelve hour long shift.

When I came back from the lunch break I looked at the mall and I notice that there is a woman with dark red hair in pony tail. Didn’t I see her in the morning? That’s stupid I am sure it’s not the same one. I thought to myself. I watched the clock for every minute that passed. “Just ten more minutes. Just nine more minutes.” I keep repeating silently to myself. When two minutes were remaining I started to expect Christie, to send here another worker to take my place. I looked at her and she just smiled at me and shrugged. What a b***h. I am sure she will make me work overtime. I smiled back and continued working. Finally after thirty more minutes she sent Clara to take my place and I could leave.

“Next time, come ten minutes sooner. Just because the contract says you start at nine it doesn’t mean you should be here at that time.”

It doesn’t?

“This time it’s going to be just a warning, but do it one more time and I WILL make stand behind my word.” She said and tapped my chest with her finger while looking into my eyes and I nodded. I averted my sight again and I noticed the girl with a red hair leaving. That’s weird. Who keeps shopping entire day. Was she looking for someone?

“Is that clear?” Christie asked.

“Uh yes. Everything’s clear.” I said with nods, not sure at all what she was saying. She usually talks about authority and stuff like that, so I was pretty sure it couldn’t be anything else.

I got to the underground parking lot. As I walk to my car my pocket vibrated. I pulled out my phone and with few clicks and swipes I read a message from Rose.

“I just found out that there is a new play in theatre tomorrow.

Can we go there?

Pleeeeaaaase?”

Right after it I got another message from her. This time it was a picture of her doing puppy eyes. I started to laugh a little and sent a respond.

“Sure. Who could resist such beautiful eyes?”

I pressed send and locked my phone. As the screen darkened I saw, that on a wall right behind me is, what I presumed, a security camera cut in half. I mostly noticed it because of sparks coming out of it. I put my mobile in my pocket and turned around to see what it really was. Turns out I was right. The camera was even laying on the ground right under it. I guess I didn’t notice it before, because of those messages. I came closer to inspect it. It looked like it was a clean cut. I had no idea what could cause this. As far as I knew, normal knife wouldn’t be able to do that. Maybe sword? Nah, that’s stupid, who would run around with a sword. I doubt that would go unnoticed. Something in my mind was also telling me that even sword wouldn’t make such a clean cut through steel security camera they used here.

I heard a noise. Is that someone running? I turned around and saw someone charging at me. I jumped back and hit the wall with my back. The person could have been less than two meters in front of me and I saw the red hair. It was that girl from the mall! I widened my eyes as I saw that she was going to attack me with her hand in a stabbing motion. I jumped aside in panic and realized what she was just attacking me with. It was her bare hand, nothing in it. That would not be something that stunning, if that hand didn’t just penetrate the wall as if it was a butter and her hand a hot knife. Hot knife? She looked at me and smiled mischievously. She pulled out her hand in an arc, cutting a wide hole in the wall in the process.

“WHAT THE F**K!?” I yelled out loudly. I turned around and started running. She gave me few seconds and then started to run too. She is going to kill me! She is going to f*****g kill me! “Help! Anyone, help!” I yelled and I started to run in between the cars, hoping I can lose her somehow or hide somewhere. I looked back and saw that she jumped on a roof of one and kept skipping on the roofs of cars, closing the distance between us quickly, making every possible car to sound the alarm. I ran to the exit door still yelling for help. I had to get to stairs. If I would run on the road I would have to get up 2 floors to get from underground. As soon as I saw her moving easily in open space I knew that was not an option. I got to the door. Locked. “F**k!” I shouted. I heard laughter.

“That was a wrong choice, boy.” She said and jumped down from the roof of a car. She began to run again. I looked around quickly as she was closing in. THINK! THINK! I started to run again, I never said I was the smartest guy. Adrenaline in my blood was making me run faster than I ever would. I kept running to the exit, cars use to get out of the parking lot. Steel gate was coming down. Probably because all the alarms that were sounded. I jumped forward and rolled under it as it was closing. I got quickly got on my feet and continued running. If she could cut through the wall, this was not going to stop her. But now, she didn’t at least see me. This was my chance. I quickly hid behind a car. I made sure I hid behind a wheel so she can’t see my feet. I looked at the gate and saw a hand quickly cutting a rectangle through it. She then kicked it off and ran in. She stopped and noticed that the gate was down at the exit to another floor. F**k, f**k, f**k! Why me! I took out the phone out of my pocket and dialed 911. It’s ringing! Come on pick it up!

“Oh sneaky, sneaky.” She said. “Look boy, stop hiding, we both know it’s inevitable!” She shouted. “Huh? A call? I don’t think so.”

“911, where is your emergen-“ The voice was cut off. I looked at the mobile and saw that there was suddenly no signal. F**k! Who the hell is she? I looked where she was standing and saw her clicking something on her mobile.

“Now we have some privacy. There are not many places you can hide at, boy!” She said and plunged her hands into the car and walked through it as if her body itself was a knife. Alarm of that car died down as soon as it started. I looked around frantically as she was closing in. Finally I saw something useful, a fire extinguisher. Okay, it wasn’t the most useful thing since she could slice through steel or wall, but it was better than nothing.

I waited for the sound of another car being sliced in half and I ran to the fire extinguisher, hoping her slicing that car would give me the needed time. I was right! I managed to get to the fire extinguisher and slide it out of its holder. I ran between two cars and waited for her. I didn’t have to wait for long. She immediately charged against me with that smirk of hers and I immediately started to shake even more than I was before. Now or never! I thought at that moment, put the fire extinguisher above my head, and threw it at her with my full strength. She started to laugh and sliced the fire extinguisher in the air. I guess she didn’t realize it, but as she did it, the fire extinguisher exploded into the cloud of white smoke, white dust falling all over her and on the ground. Luckily for me, she inhaled it and started to cough, stopping her motion. As she did, she started to wave her hands around to get rid of the smoke obscuring her vision. All I could see were sparks caused by her cutting through the metal and electronics of two cars around her. When the cloud disappeared her lower part of the body and her hands were drenched in what I presume was gasoline from those cars, she chaotically cut to pieces. She looked in my general direction and had murder in her eyes. In her red irritated eyes from the stuff that was in the fire extinguisher.  

This was it. I had nowhere to go. I was hoping, maybe I can knock her unconscious with that throw. But this was it. I had nothing else. I wasn’t going to stand her and die though. Even though I started to be exhausted already, I ran more. She followed me. This time though, she didn’t run. She moved slowly, angrily. She was cutting everything in her path, her eyes fixated on me. I ran away to hide behind one of the columns of the parking lot, hoping she wouldn’t see me. When I got there I crouched and hid behind one of the non-destroyed cars and tried to quickly sneak my way out. I saw another door. I hoped it would be unlocked this time. It wasn’t! Here I stood trying to desperately open the door I knew, won’t even budge with a supernatural killer behind me.

“End of the line boy!” She shouted and sliced through the last car that was between us. She then plunged herself against me, her hand aimed forward, serving as deadly rapier, ready to thrust into my chest. I quickly fell aside in panic, adrenaline helping me in the process to ignore pain of my elbow hitting the hard ground. I felt how she stumbled over my foot, probably because of her vision being worse now. She dived through the door, cutting them open. Right after that I heard scream full of pain and saw lights and flame. I got scared and run away from the door towards the middle of the parking lot. I turned around and saw that horrible sight. She cut through some cables that were on the side of the door and they were now hanging from the wall, giant sparks coming out of them igniting her body , that was covered in gasoline.

She was burning alive and I was too horrified to do anything. I just watched. Part of me wished to help her, but as she was burning she was cutting through everything around her. She was yelling in pain as her flesh and skin was turning black. I looked around and saw another fire extinguisher. Even though she tried to kill me, she was still a human. I ran to it and grabbed it from the wall. I ran towards her, but as soon as I got to the door I saw her cutting through one of the supports that was keeping the stairs together and the entire staircase fell right on her. There was a loud noise of all the steel and concrete falling on her and then, the yelling stopped.

I stood there with fire extinguisher in my hands. Debris extinguished the flame and also killed what was, just few moments back, alive. All I could see was a burnt foot without a shoe under the tons of steel and dust.

The sight was horrifying.

I turned around and started to vomit. I have to get out! I have to get out! I couldn’t bare the sight anymore. The smell of burnt flesh and hair was filling my nose. I ran back to the elevator I used to get to the parking lot in the first place. I didn’t want to risk using it while being chased. Just the thought of hiding in it and hoping the door would close before she can get to me was horrifying at that moment. Now, it seemed like the only exit that wasn’t locked or destroyed. I ran to it, avoiding cars cut in half or into pieces. As I was getting close to the elevator, my knees and hands still shaking, I noticed my own car. Front of it was cut clean off. She thought about everything. Who the f**k was she? I got to the elevator and found out it was still working. I let out a sigh of relief. I guess she didn’t need to take it out. Image of me running away from her and hiding in the elevator door clicking the button for the door to close came up in my head again. Then an image of her hand going through the door and eventually she would step in and me not having any way out. I shuddered with horror as the door closed and the elevator started rising. 

In my few seconds of silence, before I got to the main floor, I could swear I was hearing that girl scream in my head. I could swear it was not the same scream of pain I heard just few moments back. Maybe I am just in a shock. My body is still shaking, I just saw someone burn to death and then the entire staircase falling on them. F**k, f**k, f**k! Why me? I walked out of the elevator and sit down next to the door. I put my hands on my head, putting my elbows on my knees. I started to breathe rapidly. The scream of that girl was getting louder in my head. Shut up, shut up, shut up! That’s it, I am going crazy! I wouldn’t even be surprised if last few minutes didn’t even happen. F**k! That must be it! Woman cutting cars in a half with her bare hands and slicing through the steel gate like it was a f*****g air? That can’t be real can it? Images of me witnessing it were going through my mind. I kept revisiting those moments over and over again, trying to figure out how it can be possible. My thoughts were coming back to the burning woman. There were so many things I couldn’t just make up. It’s true though, that human mind can come up with stuff that can be too hard to distinguish from reality. My thoughts were interrupted by a police siren. I don’t know why I did it, since I was the victim of the attack, they were certainly going to investigate, but I stood up and ran.

After an hour of walking through streets of this damn city I finally got home. I unlocked the door and walked in. Peter, my roommate, was standing in the kitchen making a late night snack. “Eh… Al?” He turned to me. “You walked? I didn’t hear your car. Have you been drinking after work? Friday night and you won’t even let your roommates know?” He said with a laugh. I ignored him and went to take a shower. “Okay?” I heard right before I slammed the door shut. I took off my clothes and looked into the mirror. Did I become crazy? I could hear the scream again in my head. Cold shower, I need a cold shower. I got into the shower and set the temperature of the water to 15°C, then clicked the button to make the water flow from the shower head. I immediately jumped up. F**k! That’s cold!

“Stop it!” Unknown voice sounded in my head. I stopped the water immediately and set the temperature to something bit more comfortable. Then I repeated the process. Now I am really going crazy. I am hearing voices. At least that’s what I thought. I looked at my bruised elbow and touched it. Is this the only evidence I have of the last night? I didn’t even get really hurt by some miracle. She died. She… Died… Those words were sounding in my head in an unpleasant tone. I’ve never seen anyone die. Even though she wanted to kill me, she could be just put into jail. Who the hell deserves to die?

“Hey! Are you alright?” Shouted Peter from behind the bathroom door. “You’ve been there for forty minutes already. I don’t want to be rude man, but Luke and I are also paying your water bills.” There was a moment of silence and then he followed in bit more serious tone. “Seriously man, are you alright? You didn’t seem well. At least answer so I know that you are not slicing your wrist or something. I am giving you 5 seconds and then I am coming in. They say blood is hard to clean and I am not in a mood to find out if they are right.” He said the end part with an upbeat voice. “Five!”

He really started the countdown.

“Four!”

“I am fine!” I shouted and turned off the water.

“Ok, I wouldn’t want to explain Rose, that I let you bleed out to death in fear of seeing your dick. I think my chances with her would rapidly fall down.” He said laughing.

“F**k you.” I said with a smile I knew he couldn’t see.

“Ha! Yep, you are alright.” He said and I could hear him walk away. I then came out of the shower and started to dry myself out with the towel. The scream disappeared. I need to sleep it out. I took my clothes I had on me when I came here, emptied pockets and threw them into washing machine. Then I put the towel around me and with all the stuff from pockets in my hand walked quickly into my room.

I walked in and threw the towel aside. I put on some underwear and t-shirt and lay in the bed. I looked at the mobile. Signal still didn’t work. That’s weird. Whatever she used seemed to kill my signal permanently. So it did happen… I put mobile on the table next to the bed, right next to the alarm clock. I let out a small laugh I wanted to ask my roommates about that alarm. I lie on my back and look at the ceiling. What a weird day. I closed my eyes and exhaustion took over me.

 

Author's Note

Please tear it to shreds if you have to, any criticism is welcomed.