I lay belly-first on my bed, kicking my feet in the air, the walls and ceiling as beige as my skin. Oddly enough, today was special for some reason. I felt like I could smile for hours and hours at a time, and go any place I could possibly think of without stopping. I felt like I could take on the world, or heck, even travel. I don't know what exactly got over me on this specific day, but it was quite nice indeed, especially considering how everything in my house looked clean. Gives me an excuse to not do chores. Suddenly, I felt the urge to gain some sustenance for my empty stomach. Despite how good I felt, I haven't eaten all morning.
After getting my purse, and heading outside, I realized something odd. The skies were dark, at 5PM. If that wasn't strange enough, the grass was slightly discolored as well. It was dry as pampas, like the autumn came and somehow changed its color, but I didn't pay much attention to it. What I was more concerned over was whether the supermarket had what I wanted. When I made it to the store, it was relatively quiet compared to what I was expecting, even with there being a few cars outside, and the sign flashing a bright green "OPEN." It was still lit up, however, and it had everything I needed, albeit as clean as my house. The apples I came to pick up were all a perfect, vivid color. The meat also looked warm and bright, like the cow that was slaughtered to be in that packaging was fresh out of the butchery.
When I made my way back to the checkout area, I noticed something. A woman, in the pasta aisle, with the same wide smile as me, inspecting a box of rotini. Feeling friendly, and wanting to break the unusual silence plaguing the building, I stood next to her and attempted to strike up a conversation.
"Hey, I definitely recommend getting Spaghetti-Os with crackers if you want a little side. It tastes great when you dip it!"
No response. She just kept staring at the box. I tapped on her shoulder, not wanting to alarm her, but at least trying to get something out of her mouth. Still nothing. I was a little bewildered, but I tried to ignore it. She might just be more focused than I am, who knows?
I made my way over to the checkout, and I encountered the same problem. The cashier was just staring me down, with the biggest smile on his face. Now that I mention it, the conveyor belt wasn't even moving. I waved my hand in front of the clerk's face. Yes, I know that sounds kind of rude to do, but I just wanted to get my food and leave. Even while all of this was happening, I still kept a smile on my face. Gotta be nice, even on days like this. After standing still with question marks buzzing around my head, I decided to just head over to the self-checkout.
It had a small screen, and a handheld scanner. I took the scanner and pressed it against the barcode on the back of my packaged ground beef. Instead of making its usual beeping sound, it played a short jingle, somewhat like those bootleg flip-phone toys manufactured from China. Every time I rung up an item, it always came up as five dollars, no matter what it was. The exact subtotal came out to be around forty-five dollars. No cents. To top off all of the weird occurrences that went down, I reached into my purse to get my money, and it came out coarse. Rough as sandpaper, like itty bitty pieces of my ceiling were torn off and shoved in my handbag. All of the money came out as ten-dollar bills, and while I did have enough, it was still five dollars over. I went back over to the clerk and told him to keep the rest of the money as a tip, and then I walked out of there.
Despite all of what happened at that time, I still felt happy, somewhat. Like a carefree child, scanning a candy store, thinking about all the possibilities he could get. I didn't want to let this ruin my day. Why should it?
As soon as I got home, I took out all of the items I bought, and put them in their respective places. The canned foods went into my pantry, of course. The meat and drinks went into my fridge (which by coincidence didn't feel very cold). Then, I put the apples in a bowl in the center of my table. Wanting to see if the apples I bought really were fresh, I picked one up and turned it left and right. After checking for spots, I brought it close to my mouth.
Bump. It didn't go in, even though I felt like my mouth was open. Bump, again. It still didn't go in. Bump, bump, bump. I raised my opposite hand and felt the area where my mouth should be. It felt like it was blocked by some barrier, forcing me not to eat. I tried to shove the apple in my mouth, but I just ended up falling on my back, with the apple hitting the ground. I wasn't truly happy, after all this time. Something was just dictating me to keep a twinkle from ear to ear.
I ran up to my fridge and tried to open a drink. It was hard to open, but when I did manage to unlatch it, the entire top came off in one piece. The inside of the soda can was completely hollow, with not a drop of liquid. I opened the canned foods, which were surprisingly easy to open, and there was nothing in those as well.
My freak-out went on for several minutes. I couldn't scream, talk, or even breathe, but I still felt alive somehow. Just then, I was able to comprehend another thing. I didn't blink once throughout this whole day, as if my eyes were given the same treatment as my mouth. I began to wonder if this was even my home, as I should've been able to recognize that while it did look familiar, it was once again, too clean.
That's when I spotted something outside of my window. Something I did not notice when I walked out of my house, shrouded in the darkness outside. I couldn't see it on the first glance in my kitchen, so I raced out to get a closer look.
In front of me, twelve feet away from where I stood, covered with the sable shadows that filled the air, was a colossal, wooden door, accompanied by a bed and shelf.
Written by LafawndaPasta
Content is available under CC BY-SA