The clangor of plates echoed through the spaces of the corridor, the words of gossip were nothing new, and men in suits and women in regal dresses were in front of the establishment.
"Hey! Kalan get the dishes delivered to the tables right now, you make sure to follow my inst-"
Words from the kitchen manager echoed through the expanse of the large kitchen, barking orders from one to another. Footsteps were the main sound in the back of the kitchen. Servers, Chiefs, Cooks, and Kitchen managers were bustling through the kitchen as if they were in a military. On one of the corners, a young man is traveling through the crowd of his busy co-workers.
"Next batch, please."
He said to the kitchen manager who was near him, the kitchen manager turned his neck to the right, and he saw the young man's aloof face, unfocused eyes, and brown hair with a bit of white at the edges of his right head.
"Kalan, give me the lists of the important individuals that you recognize tonight."
He said to the young man, As soon as he was asked, reaching from his left hip where a ballpen and notes reside. Picking up the small note, he tore at the front paper and handed it to the man in front of him, and muttered.
"There are six people I recognize, however, at table 14th, there's some kind of a bigshot...I think? I judged from the way he moved, and it looks like he is waiting for someone."
He muttered with indifference as he was tasked to observe his surroundings more so that the restaurant is able to give priorities, whether there is a celebrity, the rich, or just critics.
"Good, good. You can now go back to your post, and once your shift is done, you can rest and go home, and also don't push yourself too hard, your hair's turning white."
He said with comfort and concern to the young man as if he were his own
"Thank you...I guess?"
He was always baffled, yet not uncomfortable with words coming from the old man. He touched the edges of his hair and walked away to the door where all the customer resides
***
An hour and a half flashed by, and the busyness made Kalan forget the time. He was moving fast yet unhurried for someone who was simultaneously serving, writing down, and observing the customers' movements for potential customers that may or may not be given priorities.
'No new noticeable entered the establishment for a few weeks.'
His eyes darted from the tables, the entrance, and the balconies. Footsteps echoed behind him; he relaxed his shoulders upon recognizing the footsteps by their rhythm, Pattern, and intensity. A hand patted his right shoulder, and he turned his head to the right.
"Kalan, shifts up, as always, you will be paid half more than our usual servers if you keep this up, of course."
The man said with a smile. Oddly enough, his employer was always happy or elated when he was around, as if he were some kind of bird dropping gold. With those words, his employer walked past him and greeted the upcoming customers.
Glancing at his shoulder where he had once been, he looked at his own hands and clothes, lifting his arm to his face, he smelled his elbow, trying to determine the scent of his current state.
'Ah, I smell like a dead fish.'
He walked towards the kitchen and never even gave a glance at his co-workers as if they didn't exist. He was near the back exit of the restaurant until a voice came from behind him. A voice of a young man.
"Kalan, shifts done?"
Kalan turned around, carrying a tray of ingredients with his cooking attire, with blond hair, porcelain skin, green eyes, and an even face that felt like it was sculpted by an artist's hands. He was smiling towards Kalan, unable to give a bad impression due to the overall assumption of an innocent face.
"Ah...yes, shifts done, I'm going home, I don't want to go around smelling like dead fish."
The boy laughed, elated by Kalan's words
'That smile...'
Kalan thought to himself, unable to give wrongful impressions from his observations.
"I see, I see, Anyways, Kalan, log in later, I want to get revenge for the wrongful defeat I got from you yesterday."
Kalan smiled from those words alone. This young man was the one who kept interacting with him at the start of his job at this establishment. As for others who already knew him, however, they kept their distance from him as if he were a plague. Kalan smiled, staring at the young man's face and thinking of the many possibilities of what his answer should be, as though he didn't want to answer; it was rude and cruel not respond to the only one who always interacted with him.
"You aren't letting me go? huh? I'm not that easy to defeat."
After he replied, he turned his back to the blond young man and pushed the steel door, and muttered while slightly smiling.
"Although I'll wait for you, I guess."
***
Clad in his thick jacket and pants to combat the cold of the night, he walked through the crowded streets, with visible artificial lights in the night, almost indistinguishable from the day. Many were walking home and also going to their respective roles or jobs. He walked fast through the crowds and weaved in the small gaps, his height was at the average of 5'7, and having that length limitation of his bones, he moved with ease, thus not being caught by the waves of sweat and suffering of an everyday salaryman.
In a remote place, he arrived at a decent apartment building with clean windows and a clean front lot. It was a good standard building in the city, as it was made a bill of the government, having inconsistencies in cleaning areas will give a large fine. He walked towards it and contemplated how absurd that bill was.
He walked to the automatic door, and it opened. Inside were people, however, too few as it was the night in the city. Walking for a dozen steps, he arrived at the front of an elevator. He waited for a full minute, and it opened. There was a woman who was about two heads taller than he was, wearing a red regal jacket that complemented her figure and asset, she had silk black hair that blanketed her entire back and shoulder and pale white skin and a face that was to be called a jade beauty if critics were to be involved however - Kalan had other concern instead of the latter.
'Damn, how are females even taller than me?'
His mind grumbled as he was jealous that because of the maximum height of his own genetics. He gave the woman glances at her posture, face, and build in a span of three seconds while walking inside, and then she muttered.
"Hey"
Being a meter away and side to side with her, he was not appalled and yet also would not be surprised if the woman was uncomfortable with him within the confines of this elevator, even if they were only near together for a few minutes; almost everyone was either distant or awkward around him when they noticed his presence.
"Uh...what is it?"
He asked, he was prepared on what to do, as it was the usual, either ask the other to be patient or apologize for the inconvenience. With the stark realization that when he was around people, whether they were recognizable faces or strangers, he became even more distant from socialization.
"Your eyes darted from up and down for three seconds."
He was rather impressed that she noticed, however, he was also concerned that he might be labeled as a pervert, saying from experience, of course, and he insisted on not being able to experience it again.
"I apologize...I would rather not want this to turn into a bigger event."
With his words, the woman turned her head and looked down and Kalan and squinted her eyes- At least that what it'd looked like to Kalan if someone was suspicious of him.
'Great...please don't escalate'
Inwardly, he was concerned and wanted to sigh; however, he judged it was more of an act that could or would be labeled as disrespect of her pride- if she even had one. She became quiet for a minute, and the awkwardness increased, and his eye looked in the opposite direction.
"What's your name?"
It was out of the blue; his mind went black for five seconds, then the question made him think of multiple scenarios, yet the highest probability that was on his mind was neither the romcom nor the romance that he had read in novels. It was the culmination of his brain's multiple experiences and feeble yet profound knowledge.
'BLACKMAIL!!, what would a woman want to a guy like me who seems like a pervert!?'
He was inwardly in chaos as his mind was jumbled with countless possibilities of what would happen to him. This was a terror he doesn't feel often, although Kalan gets a hard time feeling his emotions, only until this happened. He faked coughing to have an eligible start on the conversation and began his plan to escape.
"May I ask the reason why?"
He probed her with a question with his own, hoping that she would realize that it wasn't worth it.
Sweat fell down on his chin onto his jacket as he was heating up from the nervousness, as he didn't want to be embarrassed and have his life practically be ruined.
"No reason in particular, altho-."
The sound of a bell rang once inside the elevator, and it stopped going up, which gave him enough time to escape from her. He hurriedly walked to the door and inwardly was happy because the longest two minutes of his life ended. He turned around and faced the tall woman who was still in the elevator, happy that all ended well for him this night.
"Thank you for being patient."
Squinting his eyes, the woman looked at him with a almost unseeable annoyed expression as the doors closed, she was smiling with a mix of displeasure. He was waved his hands so as not be almost rude.
***
Floor 14- room 9
He faced the front door and stretched his hand, then reached into his left pocket where his keys reside. Upon opening the door, he was welcomed by darkness; all lights were cut off, and thus, he was unable to see. Waving his right hand up and down to the nearest wall to find the light switch, and walking slowly to make sure not to trip over.
As the lights were on, he walked through the apartment, and in his humble adobe was a classy American-style household - although it's an apartment, it had a semblance of a complete house. It was spacious and had the gadgets, electronics, and all the necessary or unnecessary furniture that gave it a vague feeling of memories of the past.
Walking up to a wall and reaching for a button, He saw two shining eyes in the darkness. The living room lit up, and there she saw a girl with brown hair the same as his own, a beautiful face that could enchant the common, both of their features and skin were almost alike, yet she had something that he could not understand that made her attractive to others. He smiled, relaxed his body as he saw his own sister having awoken by his untimely arrival.
"Why aren't you sleeping in the room?"
She rubbed her eyes as if she had just been awoken untimely. She looked around her sides, and what state she was in, after that, she looked at him with a smile that resembled someone who was caught red-handed.
"Would you believe me if I said I studied all night?"
He gave glances at the table, chairs, and the cushion. Cellophane bags of chips were at the table, and at the chair were manga and novels that were bought according to her preferences. With a dubious look, he turned back to his sister.
"No."
"Well, I tried."
She spoke with surrender in her voice, although she was caught, it neither made her sad nor lessened her mood. She stood up, tidied her belongings, and threw what she had eaten before she had slept carelessly. Kalan glanced around, and he saw the kitchen was clean, with no dirty dishes.
"Did you already eat the ones I cooked this morning?"
He asked her with concern for her own well-being. She bent her posture forward and picked up the fallen pillows, straightening her own posture while hugging a pillow that had an image- no, a shape of a dog she glanced to him.
"Yes, I also brought some of your cooking to school and cooked up some of my own, and of course, I always cleaned up after myself."
After a few hours her sister had gone back to sleep, the whole apartment was quiet again. He walked to fridge and grabbed his rarest liquor, he walked and picked up a corkscrew then a small glass bottle. Walking up the balcony with his indoors attire he sat down at the chair with a fairly large table at its side.
'It's been a few years'
He served himself a glass of the liquor and drank it. Reminiscing about his struggles through the years, it was the year 2087. He gave the lights of the city a somber look; he still remembered that one unfaithful day.
"ALL CIVILIANS EVACUATE TO THE NEAREST BUNKER IN THE AREA"
Loud sirens were enveloping an entire city, and the planet Earth was in a dire state as beings flew in the sky. Hideous abominations spanning over a hundred meters with wings that can put a shade to an entire district, and behind it, the sky cracked as if a mirror. And then with a deafening boom that was certainly able to put jets that travel at the speed of sound to shame.
The crack in space was enlarged, and from the perspective of those who are below, they saw white light coming from it.
Something collosal peeked out of the rift, it was smooth, long and resembled the front of a plane, except its width spans a 7 dozen meters. Gust of winds moved, It was strong enough to destroy building's windows despite miles away, dust fell from it. For a full minute the whole city was enveloped in panic, terror, and fear at its center.
Another similar coloum appeared, then another, in the 5th minute of it's appearance, 4 identical Soft end edges was outside of the rift. And at the last minute the palm was seen, A giant Stone hand that spans over six hundred meters.
As the giant object travelled through the sky while amidst the flying horrid abominations, it chased. The giant hand towered at height and width than the flying abomination, it tried to escape however- it couldn't, it stayed in place and the hand drew closer, and closer. The hand closed and another deafening exploded with the mix of a voice of the abomination. It felt like tens no- Hundreds of human screaming in microphones simultaneously and red blood rained in the sky.