(1st person.MC)
"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!"
You're probably wondering why I'm screaming, well I'm currently running for my (sorry for the language) FUCKING life from the stranger things, Bob killing demodogs in the upside down. I got pretty banged up in the process, cuts and bruises all over my body, sweating like a sinner in church. I'm like 50% sure I've run at least a mile in the last 8 min running away from these things. Which, in all honesty, is pretty surprising since just yesterday I could guarantee that I couldn't run this fast, adrenaline really is magical, right now I'm currently lost in Hawkins, can't read a map for shit or im so tired i forgot how to read, and still got at least 3 demodogs following my trail, and this all started because of a fucking truck.
… (6 hours ago)
Who could have guessed another job interview, another we'll get back to you, the same stupid questions, trying to find out if I'm a team player. Aka whether I'll agree to unpaid overtime, increased workloads, and little pay, how the hell are you supposed to live if it costs more to work then ill ever get paid. I'm an unemployed college student, got no debt but got no money, and I still live with my mom, my older sister, and my younger brother. Even after four years im still not that much closer to getting my degree, though not for a lack of trying, but more from a lack of money. Who could have known that my scholarship money was government-funded? I probably should have, but hell, if I were smarter, I would have had a better scholarship.
'How much worse can my life get? Oh, wait, I forgot World War 3 is right around the corner, and we all know it. This world sucks. The only semblance of happiness I get is fanfics and gaming, and that's being slowly corroded bit by bit from the current AI takeover, and shitty companies taking all my RAM for more AI bullshit!' i thought as i walk twords my house.
"Sigh… I should have gone to a trade school, but nooooo, just had to follow my dreams, try to become a computer engineer, that's where the mOney is, they said...gOod jOb security, they said."
As I got to my front steps and opened my front door, I thought, 'well, I'm here kind of, and I see no money in my future, just ai taking my future jobs, my current jobs, and my computer parts. What next, my fanfics too this world is cruel. At least I'm home now, that's a positive. At least nothing else could go wrong today.'
After closing the front door, I take off my shoes in my mud room and open the second inner door of my house. Saying a quote from the movie Sing, "the good thing about hitting rock bottom, there's only one way left to go, and that's uuuup," to an empty house. I close the door and make my way to the living room couch facing the opening of my mother's sewing room/lounge area with no doors to separate it from the kitchen and the living room.
Little did I know it was about to get a whole lot worse. The second I sat down, I opened my phone and dodged the notifications about the Biller copium and opened a web novel to a brand-new novel I found. It had everything I love: systems, weak to strong, over a hundred chapters, so there's plenty to read, good reviews, the magnum opus… (in a deep voice) But I was wrong. I should have known it was too good to be true. 5 stars, not one critique, and as I read the first chapter, it was like an AI used an AI to make an AI version of a novel… all I could think was 'My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.' "This world really won't let me have anything," I say as a single tear drifts down my face. "Fuck the internet, I think I'm just gonna go for a walk o-or do the dishes, I could sweep the floor, hell, why don't I just clean the whole damn house then do my homework and go to bed early, maybe mommy will like that at least."
Screech!!! The sound of tires skidding across the street right outside my house, right behind me. I turn around, and my heart drops as I see a truck, its high beams on full blast, flying towards my living room windows. I know it's moving fast, but it's like I'm seeing it in slow motion. I try to run, but I'm too slow; it tears through the windows, the wall, my couch, like the fucking Kool-Aid man. Its front was dented in such a way that it almost looks like it fucking smiling, but there's no way, right? All I could do was stare at it as I try and fail to run away, just as its about to hit me I thought 'I'm gonna die, what's mommy gonna do when she sees me, she's gonna break down she can't handle me dying, first my dad, then her mom, now her son her heart can't take that, she always said if I die first she's coming right after.'
What about my sibling? We've already lost my dad a while ago, and Grandma just last year. They can't handle another death this soon. How's my sister supposed to wake up in the morning to go to work? How's my little bro supposed to be fine without me there to push him further, to teach him how to cook, to be his own person, how's he supposed to know always delete your search history?'
The truck hits me, and I go flying. My body spins like a giant Beyblade while my spine says let it rip, pain shooting all over my body as my back hits the tiled floor of my mom's connected sewing room. As I look up at the cheap chandelier my mom got that she always hung too low cuz she's short, I whisper, struggling to say words, "I-I can't leave them th-they still need me." The tears started flowing as my world grew darker, as I remembered all my unfulfilled promises, 'I was always so careful, never took big risks, never got in trouble for anything, but the world still did me dirty,' I thought with the truck's alarm blaring in the background, slowly fading as I drift in my thoughts.
'I'm sorry mommy guess I'm going first.' and my world goes dark…