What a day...

The Day started with a noise. A distant, but ever present noise. It was rhythmic and harsh. Grinding away at sanity after every shriek. It grappled its prey, dragging her out of inconsistency and unreality and bringing her towards consciousness at an ever quickening pace. She fought hard, ever desiring to stay where she was; where she belonged. But the tugging nature of each roar slowly extracted her from her dreamspace. She didn’t understand why at first. What purpose this creature had for her. But the farther it dragged her, the more she comprehended, and the stronger she resisted. Despite her attempts, the relentless nature of the beast carried her onward. Each bellow bashed at her mind’s defenses, cracking the veil until it shattered into a million splintering pieces.

And Evanescent woke.

Directly across from her was the creature. It was crouched on her nightstand. Its gazing eyes glowed red in the dark. It sat there, mocking her with its monotonous laugh, “--Beeb--Beeb--beeb--beeb--!” Even in her weakened state, Evanescent called upon the fury of a thousand suns and belted across her bed. She hissed a litany of curses and brought her fist down with great malice. She smashed the off button, cutting the Alarm Clock’s malignant squealing short. Evanescent held her stance for a second longer. Victorious, She gave a sigh of relief, and rolled over. She closed her eyes in a vain attempt to return from whence she came, but she knew she couldn’t. Despite her delicious revenge, it was a Pyrrhic victory. The clock had won. Even as she curled even tighter under her sheets, dread crept upon her. She knew what time it was. After a moment more of wallowing in unwarranted self pity, She flopped out of bed and crossed to the bathroom. She pulled a T-shirt from off the dresser as she shuffled and then pushed the door open. Across from her was a horribly distraught hollow eyed creature looking back at her. Her Blonde hair was matted and messy and the slightest layer of dirt and grime remained on her face. She bent her hair over the sink and shook her hair violently. A thin amount of dried silica dust floated down and lined the bowl.

Evanescent grabbed her toothbrush and paste and crossed to the shower. In half an hour, she had made a complete transformation from a crawling creature to an actually human woman. She glanced at the wall clock and again at the window. The slightest amount of light was beginning to pass through. Time to go to work. In short order, she had made a snack pack and left her room with a piece of toast hanging from her mouth. She made a short gallop down the hall, passed the Out of Order elevator and and the fully functional one and hopped down the stairwell. Eleven floors later, she passed out the front entrance and turned left. Upon reaching the conjunction, she glanced at the General and crossed Sycamore at a brisk pace. As she continued to Milk Street, she slowed her pace and shielded her eyes. The sun was just barely over the horizon and its heat was already incredibly concentrated. For seven something in the morning? Great…

As Evanescent passed the abandoned warehouse, she groaned. There it was. The orange tarp fencing, the cranes, the piles of rubbish and debris, dirt, and clay. The few co-workers milling about before work started. As she stretched a leg over the the fence, One of them approached her. Basil. He was wearing the reflective orange and neon green safety jacket and he had his hard hat under his arm. “Hey, Scratch. How’s your mornin’ been?” Evanescent nodded and squinted through the sunlight, “Pretty good, you?” He nodded in return, “I’ve been alright.” There was a long pause where they both loosely stood there. Evanescent pivoted to the left just a bit to shield her eyes from the sun. Basil said quietly, “Ready to get to work?” She nodded, “Yeah.” And then another long pause snuck in. “Its going to be hot today,” Basil stated. Evanescent nodded, perhaps a little too quickly, “Uh-huh.” Yet another pause. “Okay, let’s get to work”

--

The Day was long, tiring, and beyond all, hot.

Swelteringly hot.

Unbelievably hot.

The sun glared down all day long, baking the earth. As Evanescent walked home, she lifted and shook out her shirt. It was stained through with sweat and clay. The sun was on the lower end of the sky, but it was not finished just yet. It glared at her, Depositing as much of its heat on her as it could. She had to walk just over a block, but it felt like a mile. Not many people were out today. The heat must be keeping them in. As she reached the entrance of Maplewood, She noticed there were no lights on. Stepping inside, there was no one in the foyer. She continued to the stairs and scuttled up the stairs. She could hear someone’s voice echoing indistinguishably somewhere up higher. She trudged to the Twelfth floor and trounced along to room 1216. When she pulled out her keys, they slipped from her hand a clattered to the floor. Evanescent groaned and slowly slide down to the floor and picked up the keys with agonizing stiffness.  Once she threw her door open, she walked in, slammed the door shut, and then walked straight to her room. She unclipped her toolbelt and dropped it and her lunch pack on the floor in the doorway. She sighed and flopped face first onto her bed. It was so satisfying to just rest. In a matter of seconds, she began to overheat and moved off of the bed. The room temperature wasn’t much better than outside. It was also dark. Suspiciously dark. She got to her feet and pulled off her uniform. dropping it on the floor, she moved to her dresser and put on fresh new clothes. dressed in comfortable attire, she made it her mission to find out why the air conditioner wasn’t blasting. Moving to her front room, she looked around. Lights were off, microwave was off, toaster oven off. In a hopeless attempt, Evanescent passed to the air conditioner dial and turned it back and forth. Frustration building, she jammed it all the way to eleven before turning around and falling to her knees. She cursed the heavens and fell to the floor.

And then, the air conditioner croaked to life, the microwave beeped, and the lights turned on. Evanescent got on her hands and knees and looked around. “The power? The power is on!” She hopped to her feet and put her face right next to the air vent. Air was flowing through. While it wasn’t much better than the stagnant air, it was steadily improving. She would spend many minutes, basking in the cool air flowing from the vent.

What a day…  What an especially pointless day....