I want to go home.
I've been dealing with this customer for the last 30 minutes over a stupid return; someone just walked out with a stack of jeans with the sensors on them; and someone just came up to complain that the sales floor looks horrendous when it's noon on a Saturday, and this store is located in a strip mall!
I swear if my cover doesn't come in within the next 5 minutes so I can leave, I'm crashing the fuck out. I call into the walkie for backup to the cash wrap for the fifth time in the last few minutes; still, nobody has come to help. I hold together my fake smile and customer service voice, finally getting to the next customer.
"Hi! I hope you found everything alright today!" Another man with a singular pair of pants. I look up and my first thought is how broad his shoulders are; the perfect broad, like if he takes pride in arm day at the gym. My second thought was his eyes, for some reason, even though they were just a regular dark brown like mine, they sparkled. It was as if they were void of emotion, but there was a small flame waiting to ignite into a wild fire. His nose arched and sculpted beautifully, and his skin looked as if he'd been working in the sun all day, tanned to a beautiful caramel color. His black, loose curls complement him beautifully. The rest of him was what could be described as a dad bod that was still toned; he was hot.
"Tired?" He asks, sounding as though he had other places to be, which, to be fair, he probably did. "Sorry, sir?"
"I asked if you were tired because it looks like you were staring off into space there." He said with a huff. "Oh, um." I scan his pants and start taking off the sensor at the bottom of the leg.
"I'm sorry about that, yes, it's been a long day-" I start before I am cut off, "Well, the rest of us also have had long days too, places to be, so if we can hurry this up, that would be nice." He was an asshole.
My mouth went into a straight line as I threw the sensor away and folded the pants, placing them into a bag. "25.98, cash or card?"
"For a singular pair of pants?"
"Yes, sir, I don't make the prices unfortunately; that's with corporate, cash, or card, please. Or I can cancel this transaction." I say in my customer service voice, watching his brows knit together in frustration. "No, unfortunately, I need these, card." I press the buttons, "Whenever you're ready." He pays with a grumble, and I place the receipt into his bag with a fake smile. "Have a wonderful day." I hand him his bag, and he walks out. That wasn't the worst interaction I've ever gotten, but that guy was still an asshole.
Even so, I couldn't help but shake the feeling that there was something about him that intrigued me. I'm not the best person to read people. Hell, most of the people I've associated with in life have either been psychotic or downright criminal, but something was off about him. Like I'd met him before, but I couldn't place where exactly.
It doesn't matter, though, that happens to everyone. You always find someone who reminds you of someone else. I continue on with my day, until FINALLY my cover comes in about thirty minutes late to their shift. I clock out as fast as humanly possible and get the fuck out of there.
Then, as if sixth senses were a thing, or my whereabouts were just something that was intuned, I get a call from my mother. "What the-oh wait Life360 DUH," I mutter to myself, and answer the phone.
"Yes, mother dearest?"
"Lynette Grey, I thought you said you'd be home half an hour ago?" My mother's voice is stern in my ears; she never likes to be held waiting. She needed me home so I could go with her to the store, since my Dad was at work, and my siblings were all busy with their own things. Lord knows what, all I know is they leave me to take care of helping mom.
"I know, I'm on my way back home now, I just got caught up with work. My cover came in late, so I couldn't leave on time." I explained, and as I was heading to my car while multitasking fishing my keys out of my purse and speaking with my mother, I ran into a hard chest with a grunt. Like my life couldn't get any more embarrassing or difficult-
"Watch it-"
"Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry-" Our voices overlap together when I realize who I ran into. One pant asshole man!
He glares down at me as if I had badmouthed his mother, then stepped on his toes. I can't even begin to imagine the large stick that's up this guy's a- "Hello?"
My mother's voice cuts through my thoughts and brings me back to reality, "Sorry, mama, I'll be home in a second. I love you, bye." I hang up, pouting at him since I'm no longer in work mode.
"You seem to space out a lot, don't you?" Pants man states in the most uninterested voice I have ever heard. "I wouldn't call answering my mother's calls 'spacing out'," I say in quotations. "But for someone who had important things to do today, you sure seem to be hanging around a strip mall like you have all the time in the world."
He studies me for a moment in the middle of the parking lot. His dark eyes scanning over my body slowly as if he's memorizing every nook and cranny of me that he can see. I shift under the weight of his gaze and cross my arms. But I don't look away, because like hell one pants man is going to intimidate me in our great year of 2025!!! But for some odd reason, his gaze doesn't scream intimidation.
A weird pool of warmth floods my stomach- I think it's organ failure. "Who's to say I didn't have other errands to do here and I just didn't feel like driving my car around?" He raises an eyebrow at me, and a ghost of a smirk plays on his lips. Jackass.
"Whatever, like I said, I'm sorry for running into you. Have a day." I move to go past him, but he steps in my way. "You're irritated." He says, not so much as a question, but more so as if it were the single greatest discovery in his life. I frog blink at him. "What gave it away, Sherlock?" I state sarcastically. For someone who's extremely attractive, he is incredibly annoying. Can't win them all, I suppose.
But this time he grins, "Interesting." Ok, this guy is officially a weirdo. "What's that supposed to mean?" I ask.
"…Have a day- Lynette." Pants man says, walking away without a second glance. A shiver runs down my spine, and all my senses run haywire. I brush it off and make my way to my car. On the drive home, it doesn't hit me then.
It doesn't hit me as I run errands.
Doesn't even hit me when I get ready for bed that night.
Because I don't sense that something is very, very, wrong.
I have the survival skills of a fucking packing peanut.
I never gave Pants man my name, but somehow, knowing that I didn't wear my name tag today, the thought of how he may know didn't scare me as much as it probably should have…
I didn't fall asleep so much as sink-
There's an unmistakable burn within my lungs. As if I had been screaming for hours, my body feels as if it's mine and not mine all within the same breath. New. I look beside me, a creature in a cage, that can only be described as something from myth. Its eyes are the most beautiful shade of green I have ever seen. I should be afraid of it. My instincts say I should. But I'm not-
I'm comforted in knowing it's right next to me. Its gills flex, and it makes a soft clicking noise as if it's trying to communicate. Its scales shimmered like a lost pearl hidden in the sand in the setting sun. Man, but not. The way it looks at me, as if it's too, comforted by the sight of me. For a moment, when I think I can remember who I am, and where I am, because of the presence of this creature, I start to reach out to it- but then screams.
Fear, blur, then water. My attempts to escape the cage that I am in are futile. Water takes me under. The creature manages to leave its cage, and it tries to make its way to me. I reach out through the bars. Its webbed hands reach for mine, just a little faster, a little more. But before it could reach me, rubble from the building hit it and-
I wake up with a start, gasping for air. My breath is heavy, and my body shakes and tremors. A dream, a nightmare. It felt real, almost like a memory. I look down at my hand and flex my fingers. I flinch, realizing that my joints are inflamed. Great, just wonderful.
I take a few deep breaths to calm myself, getting worked up from a nightmare won't help the current nightmare happening in reality. I cautiously move out of bed, making sure the rest of me isn't suffering from joint pain, as I go to my medicine bag. I need my meds, have needed them since I got diagnosed with an Autoimmune illness a few years ago.
My body has never worked correctly for as long as I can remember. Doctors' visits, many medical teams, it took them forever to figure out exactly why I was in and out of hospitals my whole life. Finding the problem didn't fix much since there's no cure, just treatment…just management. Does it make living a normal life difficult at times, as well as growing my hair out the way I want it? Yes.
Do I get a choice in it? No.
I take the stash of waters I have by my bed, and take my pain medication bottle and open the cap about a billion times with the stupid child proofness of it. I'm a 22-year-old woman, for goodness' sake, I don't know why I need this! I pop my pills and jug my water, feeling the liquid run down my throat. When my head levels, I'm faced with my reflection in the mirror.
My pixie cut that I was forced to get due to my thinning hair, round brown eyes, and pale tanned skin from being forced to be inside all the time, since the sun isn't my friend. Plain. Not hard on the eyes, but not model worthy. Me, but somehow not me. I shake the thought out of my head as I close the cap of the bottle and set it down on my dresser.
I'm exhausted and sleep deprived from the last few days, so I've decided to stay up till 3 am reading. Of course, my thoughts aren't in the right space. I crawl back under my covers and close my eyes, drifting back to sleep.
But even in my dreams, I feel a sense of unease, as if there's someone waiting on the side, watching, studying, for the perfect moment to show themselves.