2:14, middle of the night…

“Huff, huff, huff… what, was that?”

I just had, the best nightmare in my life, I feel cold, but I’m sweating so much. I can’t remember much of it.

Did I… Did I die?

That was exhilarating. It felt great. Was it because I felt I’d accomplished something before I died then? I… I want to experience that again. I might not gonna kill myself, but just getting on the edge should feel good enough. I think there’s a rope somewhere, here. My family used to love camping so I should still have it.

I managed to find it after spending long minutes rummaging through the garbage. It was old but I’m not too heavy so it should hold. Good thing this home has a few wooden support beams to make sure it doesn’t collapse. I tie the rope to one of the beams and tie the noose to my neck while standing on the bed. After I walk off, the rope will tighten and I’ll die.

For some reason, I felt freer while doing this than every day of my life. Three, two, one… Let’s go.

“Huff… Ugh.”

I can feel my blood being cut off but…

Why isn’t it feeling good? Why am I not happy!!!

What’s going on?!

Why!? Why!? Why!?

*Snap!*

The rope broke. I am thankful I guess, I didn’t want to die feeling that miserable. Why did it feel so different when I did it. Was it just because it was a dream? No. A dream plays out based on the thoughts of the dreamer so if it felt heavenly then, it should have made me feel at least that good now.

What was different?

My feelings? In the dream, I felt like I died after knowing I would be remembered, after doing something that no one would ever be able to forget. How do I do that in real life? I can hack government agencies and spread secrets but that would be forgotten, it can be covered up, and most won’t even be interesting enough for me to be remembered. Apart from that, I’m just a great liar and manipulator, as a kid, I managed to make the bullies fight each other so I stayed out of it, I was never a good fighter, and I also managed to cause a war between the two largest gangs in the city.

I need to manipulate people with enough power to create an event so big it would never be forgotten, until humanity’s extinction. Controlling governments shouldn’t be too much of a problem if I play my cards well. So then, I have to think of what countries to control if I want to roll along with this, but most importantly, what would I use them for?

I’m getting tired, I can think about it later. Is… Is the Sun rising already? What time is it?

5:30

“Ah, shit! If I don’t start to get going I’ll be late for work!”

I’m getting ready at Mach speed, and just as I finish I speed to the office building as fast as possible. I look at the time as I’m dashing up the stairs, the elevator’s been out of order for the last few months. When I finally reach my floor I lift my head to see a very unhappy boss glaring daggers at me.

“You’re 5 minutes late Mr. Silver. Do you think yourself above rules?”

Of course, the fatass had to come early the one day I’m late. Besides, on 99 percent of day’s the guy arrives at 2 in the afternoon, so I can’t believe the bastard dares to get mad at me for being 5 small minutes late.

“No sir, sorry sir. It won’t happen again.”

“It better not. You know there are lots of people who would kill to get your place and who can replace you at a moment’s notice. If you late again you’re fired.”

“Okay, sir.”

“Now get to work.”

One day I’ll punch that guy straight in the face. How did someone like him become the manager of a company? I head to my desk and start working. Coding a game from scratch takes a lot of work, and making sure there are no mistakes a lot of concentration. I’m tired. I didn’t sleep enough. I’m… falling… asleep…

…

Muffled voices.

“Mr. Silver. Blake Silver!”

“Ah! I’m awake! What’s going on?”

I wake up to an unpleasant and sadly familiar voice.

“What’s going on is that you fell asleep. This is your workplace. That means you have to work.”

“Yes sir, I am sorry about that, I will work now.”

“No. No, you won’t.”

“What do you mean sir?”

“You won’t work for two reasons, one is that it’s already past noon, and the other is that you’re fired.”

“... What? You can’t be serious sir. It’s the last time, I will never do it in the future!”

“Oh, I’m afraid I am. And you are right it will never happen again because there will never be a next time Mr. Blake. You may take what belongs to you and leave immediately.”

It’s now or never. He’s not my boss anymore and I have nothing to lose, so might as well.

“Lucas sir, for your kindness let me give you one last gift of departure”

“Not that I will care about it in the slightest, but what is it”

*BAM!*

“My fist.”

That felt so much better than I thought it would. I’ve waited so long to be able to do this. I feel so free.

“Are you crazy?! Security! Security! Drag this man out of here now!”

Not like I left anything of value in this place anyway. Oh, two of the security guards are on their way. The two protectors of this shithole strangely look almost exactly alike. They violently grab me by both arms.

“Woah, gentlemen, no need to get physical, if you need anything just ask.”

“Shut up, we’re taking you out.”

Wow, they speak in unison too.

“Ahhh, calm down guard 1 and guard 2, no need to be salty about it.”

“...”

Their lack of an answer is annoying, but quite the proof of professionalism considering the amount of ridiculing I’m doing. Since they aren’t answering I don’t have any material for snarky remarks and teasing so I just stayed silent.

Going down all the flights of stairs from the office of this 80 story building without a peep is quite awkward.

“Are you two seriously not gonna speak at all during the entire trip? If you don’t this is really gonna take a while. Oh, I get it, you two are like golems in video games, you don’t have brains and just follow orders from the boss mindlessly.”

“Would you just SHUT UP already!?”

This time guard 2 spoke up, seems I finally annoyed one enough.

“Calm down he’s not worth it, we’re almost at the exit, throwing him out there will make you feel better.”

Now I’m offended. Throwing me out?! What an outrage… But, in that case, I might as well get my small wins where I can, I’ll piss them off so much they won’t be able to wait to throw me out. And that’s how I went from being silent to bickering when they answered and teasing them when they didn’t for the rest of the trip downward. If there’s one thing I’m confident in it’s my ability to annoy people.

“Finally he’s out.”

“Good riddance”

Landing face-first on the concrete hurt, but I’ve had worse.

“Well, what do I do now?”

A new start in a way. So about that plan, I was thinking about.