I sank into my bed exhausted.

Dreams overtook my mind fast.

I dreamed that I came across a fountain. Peering into the fountain, I flipped a coin into the fountain and made a wish, but the coin kept sinking. The bottom of the fountain disappeared. As I leaned over to gauge the depths, I slipped and fell in headfirst. My limbs flailed, but they seemed to only make me drop faster.

After a while I hit the bottom. The water was gone, replaced by mist. Gazing back up at the top of the fountain through the mist, I found I’d fallen a long way, but the sides of the hole were smooth, with nothing to grip. I turned my focus to the mist surrounding me.

A shape moved in the mist. Unafraid I stepped towards it. The closer I got, the more it resembled a man with his back turned to me. My hand stretched out on its own volition and grasped the man’s shoulder. As he looked over at me, I almost got a glimpse of who he was.

A scratching sound on my front door woke me.

Blinking and wiping my eyes I looked around. I was in my apartment, but only half awake. Cat-Rob sprawled out asleep on the floor next to me.

Scratches on the door sounded again. From under my bed I snatched Jade and edged towards the door. I raised the sword with one hand and ripped the door open with the other.

Tain eyed me, and walked in on all fours. He went to his dog bowls and immediately lapped up all the water, then proceeded to his dog food like he had not transformed into a massive werewolf earlier that night.

After a while I realized I was standing at the open door in my A-shirt and boxer briefs wielding a sword. One of my neighbors who was an early riser eyed me as he got into his truck and fired up the engine. I put on a false smile and waved to him, then shut the door.

I had so many questions for Tain. But of course he was a dog and couldn’t answer them. Sitting down on the bed, I watched him with drowsy curiosity as he finished the dog food and curled up next to Rob. Within moments he was asleep.

Weird.

My eyelids did not want to stay open, and at this point I didn’t care how Tain got back. I was just glad that he was back and seemed to be all in one piece. And that he was a normal dog. My head hit the pillow and I was dreaming of Charice before too long.

---

The community college counselor pulled up a screenshot of my student profile. Her eyes darted across the computer screen taking in the information in a matter of seconds.

“So Mr. O’Farrell, it seems that your grades are still dropping. Why is that?”

I tried to get comfortable in the wooden chair. “I just have a lot of personal things going on outside of school that are out of my control.”

She nodded, still looking at the screen. “Is education a high priority for you?”

“My current day job will never be a career. But I don’t really know what I want to do for a career. So I need to stay in school to at least get my general education done. Once complete, hopefully I’ll have a clearer idea of what I want career-wise.”

“I hear you,” said the school counselor. “What you really need to consider is where is all your time going? If you want to keep continuing to do school, are there unnecessary things in your schedule that you can cut out?”

I had a similar discussion with Sensei a few weeks ago. And I’d come to the realization that I needed to cut out volunteering at the dojo. The problem was, I really didn’t want to quit volunteering at the dojo. It was the only mainstay in my life, for fifteen years. I had been going there on and off since I was five and I didn’t want to give it up. It would be closing the door on a huge chapter of my life. After losing my sister and my dad I didn’t want to close that chapter, couldn’t close that chapter. If I didn’t have that, then what was my constant, my mainstay? I guess it was fighting monsters now. But that wasn’t something I wanted as my constant. It was something I had to do. It was a responsibility because I had powers. If I didn’t have powers I wouldn’t even know about the monster underworld.

“Yeah, I’ve decided to cut out my volunteer activities.”

“Good,” said the counselor. “That’s a start in the right direction.”

She said it flippantly. But my chest burned.

“Well what are your interests Mr. O’Farrell?”

“I’m interested in… aliens, conspiracies, comic books, martial arts.”

She pondered for a moment. “Well we don’t have any ancient alien history classes. But those are all subjects that dance around legends and myths. Have you considered taking a mythology class or majoring in folklore?”

It was something I had not considered before. Probably due to fighting monsters and holding onto dear life every evening shortly after I began community college. I just did it so I wouldn’t be a loser, and because of the hot girls. But now that I considered it, taking a mythology class, especially one that focused on Celtic folklore wouldn’t be a bad idea at all. In fact it would help me out a lot. If I could devote hours of study time to things that would help me fight and understand monsters, it would clear up a huge bucket of time. I might even be able to continue to volunteer at the dojo.

“That’s a great idea. I’ve always been interested in mythology. I just didn’t think to take a class.”

The counselor nodded, smiling. “Okay, so let me look at the mythology classes and see if we have an opening.” Her fingers raced across the keyboard, keys clicking like a woodpecker. “Hmmmmm, looks like these classes are full. Do you want to be put on the waiting list?”

My heart sank. Waiting list? Yeah right. I’d never get into the class. There went my shot at learning folklore. “Yeah, sure. Put me down on the waiting list.”

She must’ve heard that dejection in my voice. “I can’t promise anything, but people frequently drop classes, so there’s a good chance you could get in one of these sometime soon. But after a certain cutoff point you won’t be able to get in the class even if there is a vacant seat because you will have missed so much homework that it would be too late to catch up.”

I nodded understanding. “I guess I can always audit the classes too.”

“Yes, if you like the material that much. It just won’t get you anywhere towards a career.”

I thought about monster hunting. How long was it going to go on? Up until this point I hadn’t thought about how long I would have to fight monsters. But with the rate new baddies kept cropping up, it would never end.

Did I want to end up like Nehemiah, working a blue-collar dead-end job and fighting monsters all night, essentially working sixteen to eighteen hours a day? I didn’t, but what were my options? Innocent people were dying, having their dreams taken away from them because monsters invaded the Bay Area. Whether or not this was a career, it was my calling. I had all the skillset to fight monsters. Gun skills, Kenjutsu training, and physical agility, not to mention innate magic that I was still developing. As long as I could make an affordable living and have a roof over my head along with clothes and food, I’d be all right.

Then I had Charice to think about. What was our future? Did she want a guy who wasn’t aiming for a career? Probably not. She wanted a guy that would have some kind of plans and concrete job leads in mind, not some guy who didn’t know what he wanted to do in the next five years.

“I’m going to be late for my job,” I told the counselor. “I’ve got to run.”

She kept me another five minutes, reiterating things she already said, I guess to drive home a point.

---

And of course, all that talk of school made me late for work.

Fortunately it didn’t matter.

“Sean, you’re fired.”

My boss, the owner of the chiropractor office, offered me his palm. At first I thought he wanted to shake my hand. But why would he want to do that? He had just told me I was jobless.

I stared at his hand, not sure how to react.

He sighed and shook his head. “Keys.”

Oh yeah. Duh.

I dug into my pockets. My keys caught on a little hole in my pocket and I had to tug extra hard to get them out. In the awkwardness of the moment I yanked too hard and all the contents of my jeans spilled out. My phone, wallet, comb, a blue pen I didn’t know I had, and my keychain. If you didn’t know, men's pockets are really deep because we can’t carry purses. And I don’t do murses.

Crouching down on the ground, I scrambled to gather all my things. My former boss just stood there with his hand out, not even offering to help me, to stoop to my level. Once I gathered everything up I shifted through the keys trying to remember which one was the office key. My mind drew a big fat blank.

“Come on Sean, I haven’t got all day. I need to hire a new janitor.”

The keys were right in front of me the whole time. I tried to get them off the little key loop, but I couldn’t get it open because I’d bitten my fingernails extra short that day.

“Oh. My. Gosh,” he said, as if this was more painful for him than for me.

I got the keys off and handed them to him like nothing had ever happened. “Here you go.”

In exchange he handed me an envelope. It wasn’t sealed. I opened it up and pulled out the contents. It was my final check.

“Don’t worry. It’s the right amount. I wouldn’t shortchange you.” He looked offended that I’d even glanced at it. “Good luck with life, Sean. I hope you figure it out.”

Dirt bag.

I slammed the door of my Fastback and sat in the driver’s seat staring at the check. My last check.

So I’d done it. I managed to get fired from my first real job. Score.

I tossed the check on the seat next to me and fired up the engine heading for my bank as the sun set.