Moneta sat crouched down in front of her old, square-shaped box TV, wrapped in her black knitted wool blanket, ignoring the mess around her. Well, less ignored and more accepted, as this was part of her home. The discarded junk food wrappers lay next to her in place of her friends, and the somewhat empty drink containers in place of furniture. Living alone with no one to talk to and nothing to do. It was a miracle she even got up from bed at all.
In her early days of being a shut-in and grieving, Moneta could watch TV from her bed, but she had lost the remote. Most likely buried or lost to the growing heaps of garbage filling her room. Fortunately, she had a vast, very nearby window to help dispel the pungent smell. Although small miracles like that began to appear less frequently as a blessing, the world started to curse. Starting with her TV.
Now, Moneta knew it was an old model, but she didn't think it would die out too soon. Especially right now, when she could really use a break from her miserable life.
As it fritzed, she began to tap the side, hoping to wake it up.
"Come on, please, please work," she muttered, and then screamed, "Oh, screw you, world!" after it had finally gone dark and silent, like the crash sound on a hospital vitals screen.
Another inevitable thing happened, she thought. First, my life, and now my TV. Perhaps this was the world playing the role of her late mother and saying, "ok, times up, you've moped around long enough, now it's time to get up."
Moneta had no choice but to go outside and walk to the mall to get a new one. While it may only be around the corner from where she lived, this treacherous task involved the two things she hated most in life. Walking and interacting with people.
***
As Moneta exited her house in her black hoodie and bright pink sweats (so as not to appear as more of an addict or troubled than she already was). She hissed the moment the sun met her skin, her eyes, her face. For the next twenty or so minutes, she was like a vampire. Sunglasses on, hood up, and sleeves rolled down.
Upon arriving at the mall, she was grateful for her nonexistent desired invisibility skill. An ability she had a great deal of time to master during her recent high school years. With it, she blended into the crowds oh so easily, on elevators and escalators. Avoiding eye contact or conversation with strangers. Going so far as to pre-order online any food, drinks, or other items she could want or need, to avoid lines and speaking with cashiers. Or customers who wanted to ask her if she was waiting in line for the cashier. Those twenty minutes walking to the mall weren't wasted sightseeing her bare, empty neighborhood.
As she began to exit the mall with bags and fountain drinks in hand (but no TV, because she had forgotten just how heavy those things are, she has no car, and there was no chance in hell she was going to invite some store clerk's assistant to her rat den to help install it), She was better off just ordering that online too). Anyway, as she began to exit the mall, she noticed an off feeling lingering in the air. Some strange voice, not an actual tangible higher power, more like a conscience or intuition, told her to look up from her phone. As she did, Moneta noticed some small green blurbs in the short distance ahead. As she walked further into the mall parking lot, the blurbs became clearer.
There was a horde of short, fast-running goblins. Along with a tall, brunette woman in red, engulfed in lightning, opposing them.
All those weeks being a shut-in and skipping the news in favor of comedy shows to keep her humor bones alive were sure coming back to bite her. Moneta had forgotten that the world had changed; monsters that used to only exist in books were real, and so were the people who gained abilities and became adventurers to fight them.