Dead on Arrival

I was running as fast as I could. A speed that was unnatural. Superhuman, even. Beyond anything I could ever accomplish.

My body was weak, flesh pockmarked by acid, clothes burned to tatters—but I had purpose.

Cutting through mist—no, fog—I could see the huge form stalking in the distance. A grim spectre, whose eyes flared with malicious intent.

The shadow shifted, like the flash of lightning before the thunder, as a massive jaw clamped around my torso. Teeth punctured me, and I could feel my life pouring down my hips.

“Gah-ah!” I screamed as I was tossed through the air like a rag doll.

I was flying. No. I was falling. Gravity had taken over, pulling me down towards the toothy maw.

Teeth chattered hungrily within jaws that snapped and cracked, opening beyond their range as I tumbled down. Down towards its hungry gullet.

“I’m sorry…” A voice cut through the chaos. It pierced my mind. An unfamiliar voice.

And there, in the distance, through the fog, a green point of light formed. An arrow cut through the air, aimed at my heart.

“Tyuh!” I gasped, startling myself awake.

Adjusting my head, I slid an arm down and grabbed at my shirt.

Bah-dump! Bah-dump! Bah-dump!

“Just another nightmare—” I whispered to myself, taking a deep breath and raising my head. “Fug, I hate dreams. So stupid. Like, what purpose do you serve?”

My name’s Tahvin Echebarriscoa. Thirty-five, unemployed, and, currently, hunched over the keyboard of my computer.

At some point in the early morning hours, I had fallen asleep at my desk. Frankly, not ideal, but this was my life.

When I wasn’t sleeping, my fingers clicked across keys like machine gun fire, typing away at my latest story chapter. There was nothing I wanted more in life than to finish this next chapter.

It was the same last week. And the week before that. A culmination of years of planning coming to a climactic peak with the eternal lich summoning a hero to complete her goal.

Vrt, vrt— My phone buzzed, alerting me to a message.

Glancing at the screen, I ignored the text and instead looked at the time.

Nine-forty?! I thought to myself. Crap! I lost a lot of time.

Though the time I lost was of importance to no one. I wasn’t famous or talented, nor was I trying to be. I simply wrote. Wrote to forget. Wrote to live for something. Anything.

My name’s Tahvin Echebarriscoa. Thirty-five. And I live for a fantasy.

With a crack of my knuckles, I gave the computer mouse a feverous shake and allowed the white light of the document to wash over me.

“And so Phyllis finished the sigil, her body weak from the energy sacrificed to perform this ancient and dangerous ritual,” I muttered as I began to reread. “Now, she spoke, time for this incantation. Raising her arms, she—”

Vrt, vrt— My phone buzzed again.

“Ugh, come on!” I grumbled to myself as I picked up the device to finally look at the messages.

They were from Alyx, the last person still calling me a friend.

He had planned a blind brunch date where I was supposed to meet his other nerdy friend. She liked fantasy books, Kaverns and Kobolds, and hanging out on the couch while watching shows, which was obviously a euphemism for the twenty-toe tango. The perfect woman for me and, yet, I wanted nothing to do with her.

Oh well, too late for that now. I thought, realizing I had slept through the date. Probably for the better anyways. Who even goes on brunch dates? I don’t even like crêpes.

Ignoring the messages, I dropped the phone to the desk.

Alyx was only doing what he thought was best for me. He had said he didn’t like seeing me like this. That, for my sake, I should get out of the apartment with him more.

But what did he know? He hadn’t lived my life. He didn’t understand the pain I felt by simply existing in this world. The only thing keeping me from truck-kunning myself was this story.

This chapter.

Though…a mimosa does sound good. Oooh, or a tequila sunrise. But that would require me to get up—

Sighing, I looked towards the door that opened to the rest of the apartment.

“Ugh! Effort is hard. I wish I had a mini-bar or something in here. But that would also require things.”

Defeated by my own laziness, I returned to the screen and continued to reread the last few paragraphs in an attempt to settle myself back into the narrative.

“Raising her arms, she…” I tapped away, making a quick edit. “Began. To. Mutter…a series of nonsensical words. Words that meant nothing to any who would hear them but to the ancient and omnipotent Phyllis, made complete sense. The sigil began to glow as a gust whipped the fragile parchments of the spell, tearing them to shreds. She would only have one shot at getting this to work. Raising her weak arms up, she finished the incantation with a single proclamation, ‘I’m coming to get y—"

Vrt, vrt— A third message.

“Whatthefug!! Seriously, dude?” I sighed, picking up the phone and looking at the text chain. “Let me just yank one out in peace!”

The chapter, of course. I thought. Though Palmela Handerson does seem lonely…

A single green bubble in a sea of blue had come through.

Bah-dump! Bah-dump! I again grabbed at my chest as my anxiety flared once more.

September 22 - 9:43 - ‘I’m coming to get you.’

There was no number attached to it. A glitch on the provider's end, maybe? But it had come after Alyx’s texts, so it likely meant that he was coming over with the date.

Putting the phone down, I sighed at the thought of company.

“Ugh! Nuuu—” I continued with a groan, “I don’t want to get dressed. I’d rather get hit by a—”

Screams erupted outside my window, but I wouldn’t have the opportunity to react. The sound of a truck grew immediately louder until the cacophony of said vehicle breaking through the wall of my first-floor apartment overtook it.

Before I even knew what had happened, my world went dark.