1 1. The Beginning

The world was quiet.

The darkness enveloped everything like a soft blanket, mudding out every emotion or instance of being. Everything seemed to be at peace.

Suddenly something even darker loomed over, almost ridiculing the calmness. It slowly moved closer, and closer.. Almost touching...

*BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!*

Josh jumped awake at the sound of his alarm clock. He immediately slammed the thing to oblivion before anyone else did the same to his door. The walls were famously paper thin in this part of town, which probably explained the low rent.

Josh sighed as he tried to focus and get in touch with reality again. He noticed a fluttering in the corner of his eye, and came to realise his window had been open with the curtains fluttering like leaves.

"I thought I closed that" he murmured as he reached to shut out the cold. He prepared to depart from his warm and cozy bed before noticing a leaflet on the sheets.

'What the.. Someone must be throwing these off airplanes or something' he thought as he read the title of the colorful piece of paper.

*Welcome to the adventure of a lifetime! Come join us at our spectacular show at The Circus!*

Josh laughed at the strangeness of this and threw the marketing sheet into his bin after closing the window. This wasn't the time for entertainment, he had to get to work.

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After having a measly coffee for breakfast he departed from the now noisy apartment building and onto the street. Work was a only a 15 minute walk from his apartment, so there was no need to take part in the absolut mess that was the morning traffic with his old truck.

'I guess the baker came in late though' thought Josh as he noticed the shelves in the nearby café were empty and a long line of hungry people were standing outside waiting for their first treat of the day.

'That's strange, he prides himself in being the first one out on the block'

Josh recalled talking to the fat man living across the hall from him, and hearing that statement for the 90th time since moving in.

'Oh well, maybe the old geezer finally forgot to set the time.' he thought as he crossed the intersection.

After several minutes of mindless walking he arrived at his destination. He circled the building and went in from the back, stepping in to the changing room immediately. He put on his work uniform, a striped, ugly thing the color of vomit, and headed for the public space inside the store.

It was a normal grocery shop, supplying customers with the most basic products they could ever come by. Josh loijed around the store to see if anything seemed out of place and then retired to his spot behind the counter. Gared, his co-worker, greeted him and continued looking at his phone like always, probably checking the time to immediately flee when his shift was over. Josh sighed and went back to checking the vicinity.

A loud bang rang throughout the store that made both of the employees jump slightly, and what seemed to be mop of fur stormed out from the employee-side of the store.

"JOSH CANNAHAN! LATE AGAIN!??" A voice roared and the previously mentioned mop approached the counter. It was the branch manager, in full rage as per usual, and her glaring eyes fixated on Josh's through her thick and curly hair. She was a petit lady, but what she lacked in size was compensated by her luscious mane and thundering vocals.

Josh glanced at Gared, who had by now retreeted far enough to reach the door from which the raging monster had emerged and looked quite guilty. Josh sighed and tuned out the furious woman as she slandered him for no apparent reason. Again. This had been a common theme for Josh, always blamed by others for things he didn't do. He glanced at the watch on the wall behind the raging woman and sighed again. 6:55am.

"Mrs. Glade, my shift starts at 7-" "WHAT DID YOU SAY???!?" Josh winced as the volume was turned up a few too many decibels for this early in the morning.

"Mr. Cannahan, may I remind you who's in charge around here? How dare you interrupt me when I'm talking!?"

"But Mrs. Glade, I am 5 minutes-"

"MR. CANNAHAN!" He couldn't finish stating his case before receiving another screeching hit from his employer.

"I employed you even though your resume looked terrible. I accepted you being late on several occasions and your mistakes while working here. I EVEN accepted a change in timetable because you DIDN'T SHOW UP one morning!"

"*sigh* Mrs. Glade, I've never missed a shift and never been late. I keep telling you-"

" IF YOU INTERRUPT ME ONE MORE TIME YOU'LL BE WALKING HOME WITHOUT A JOB!!"

The scolding continued for a few minutes, and Josh noticed a few customers glancing at the front door, seemingly too scared to enter. Seeing the lady continuing to blow off steam about unrelated things at the counter, he sighed for the third time in 10 minutes and tuned out the rant. He really wanted her to stop. Truly. Just stop this endless thing and be quiet for once. Please, just stop talking. Just for a moment. Sh-

"Shut up."

Everything became quiet. 'What just happened?' Josh refocused his absent mind and saw the lady gaping her big mouth at him. 'What now?' he thought, and watched her. He had a bad feeling about this.

"..YOU DARE TELL ME TO SHUT UP!??!" Josh's mind took a second to reboot before registering those words. 'Wait, what? I never said anything'

"Mr. Cannahan." Her unusual calmness sent shivers down his spine. This was bad. Real bad.

"You're fired."

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