New Beginnings

>The day was relatively normal, I guess you could say.

>Shit, shower, shave, get dressed to go to my job at Meijer

>Blood red polo shirt that smelled all right, same deal with khakis that will most likely cause my spontaneous combustion in the mid-Michigan summer heat.

>Clip on nametag with peeling paint on the 'name' part, fading white labeling.

>Shuffle out of my apartment, shut and lock the door, near fall down the flight of stairs.

>Climb into my average car, drive with a bored expression in my face.

>Another day in the cycle, a tired look reflecting in my dull gray eyes.

>Buy a mediocre coffee from McDolan, down it as I drive down the road skillfully, hardly seeing around the cup.

>Now my car smells like my Michigan Basement, something like rotting flesh some would say...

>And the sweet smell of bitter coffee.

>Charming.

>Pull into the expansive parking lot of the supermarket I work at, pull around toward the back of the building where the supply trucks park.

>Trudge to my doom, enter through the Grocery end, disappear into the back to clock in and give my coworkers some shit before taking up position at a self-scan

>So vacant, compared to the afternoon shifts.

>Those poor souls.

>They deserve it, I bet.

>I sure as Hell do.

 

----Boring timeskip through my uneventful morning at the grocery store----

 

>At last, I was ready to leave this hellhole of scanner beeps and anally devastated self-scan users.

>I got in my car, slammed the door as violently as I could, and drove.

>Ended up working the late shift so some rookie asshole could go home early.

>No say in it, but at least I got overtime.

>Tired as fuck, have to swerve and nearly get in accidents on the small highway home.

>Nearly crash into the pole of the adjacent parking 'garage,' we'll say.

>Assigned parking spaces, steel roof that slopes down toward the sidewalk.

>I don't have a car worth protecting against our indecisive weather anyways.

 

>I climb out of my car, ignoring the noises I heard, figuring it was just my neighbor.

>Talkative black woman with a shih-tzu, I've made it a terrible game to avoid her when I heard the tags on the dog collar and her keys jangling.

>Cruel, but hey. She knew nothing of it and I had nothing better to do with my time but browse 4chin.

>The noises are a little bit louder, and I become paranoid. One too many creepypastas, right?

>...Right?

>I dick around with my keys, trying not to shake like Treekicker seeing a nigger in town.

>I swear I feel breath on my neck, though I shake it off, assuming the best. It was just the wind, and so was the gruff sounds in my ear.

>Just as I was about to turn around and make sure I was right, a calloused hand was around my neck, a pinkie finger pressing into my throat roughly.

>The finger was only there momentarily before being replaced with a dull blade. The hand also slid away.

>"Yell, and this place goes through your windpipe, got it?"

>Too late

>"HOLY S--"

>My yell faded away into a string of curse words as the blade hit me in the esophagus.

>I knew it was a bluff, he seemed to come nowhere near my motherfucking trachea

>I do believe my words were bubbled up by violent coughing into the grass. The guy harshly grabbed my arm, and afterward I blacked out cold, being dragged away helplessly in some brute's fiendish grip.