Chapter 1:

Washed Away

Rebirth Of A Faceless Nobody


Sitting in a booth at a rather small diner, I found myself leaning my head against the cold window, my eyes unable to focus on the rain coming down and drenching everything in its reach. The cafe was rather empty on a late Monday afternoon. The only souls in sight were an elderly couple some seats away, and a couple of waitresses whispering by the kitchen. Music played at a low volume, blending in with the background.

My cell phone was burning a hole through my hoodie pocket. Every so often, it would vibrate. But I couldn't bring myself to answer it.

I didn't want to answer to anyone right now.

Merely an hour or so ago, I handed over my letter of resignation to my boss and stormed out. I'm sure he tried to stop me. On my way out, I had stormed past a certain group of now ex coworkers. Their expressions morphed from confusion to glee when they noticed the box of possessions clutched to my chest.

---

I was never a social person and tended to mind my business when it came to my humble call center job. I never felt compelled to gather in the break room and chat up people. This place was nothing more than a means of financial stability. Friends were not a priority for me.

The queen bees on the work floor didn't like my supposedly stand offish attitude. They'd tried on multiple occasions to pull me into their group. I'm sure they were genuinely invested in having me join forces with them. But with each rebuff, their attitudes quickly became hostile.

Then it would be little things. Maybe a stapler would go missing for half a day. Or my lunch would “mysteriously vanish” from the fridge. I knew who was behind it. But I had no intention of confronting them.

So I silently took it and prayed that they would get bored eventually.

Instead, they took my silence as a personal attack.

One day, I was called into my supervisor's office. One of the women from that group was in tears, hiding her face with her hands. According to the boss, she claims that I was the one who broke her chair, in retaliation to her friend's harmless “pranks”. Naturally, I denied it.

“You need to remember that we're all friends and family here. Please try to get along”

Rather than do any investigation, like maybe actually checking the cameras scattered throughout the call center, they gave me a written warning and marked it on my record.

For a couple of weeks, it was quiet. All the disappearing objects remained. No one was really talking to me, but I could live with that.

But that peace soon ended.

Again, I was called into the supervisor's office. But this time, everyone was there.

“These women tell me that you've been talking behind your friend Amy's back.”

It took a moment to process his words. “Sorry, but what friend?”

At my words, the girl from the first time peeked out from behind a bookshelf. “You... You've been spreading rumors... That I broke my own chair... Or that someone else did it...”

Was this Amy? Or was it someone else in the room? At that moment, I regretted not keeping tracks of my coworkers names and faces.

My boss sat at his desk, shooting me the most disapproving expression. How was I supposed to defend myself when everyone was out for me?

“I wouldn't do that.” I kept my eyes pointed to the ground. “I didn't mess with your damn chair, and I'm sure as hell not spreading rumors.”

The boss let out a deep sigh. “See, Christine, I want to believe you. You're a hard worker and you've never caused me any trouble. I'd hate to think that you're causing your friends so much grief.”

As of thinking of something, he turned his attention to the women on the other side of the room. “I think I should talk to her alone. Feel free to return to the phones now.” Though disappointed, the women headed out the door in a single file line. The last one, Probably-Amy, let her gaze linger on me a bit longer before shutting the door behind her.

Without any spectators, the boss leaned back in his chair and sighed again. He looked like he just wanted to be done with this already, and I didn't blame him. His short black hair was sticking up in places, indicating that he had tousled it around at some point in his frustration. Even his button up shirt looked crinkled and beaten down from the day.

I stood there silently, waiting for him to address me. After at least a couple of minutes, he finally collected his thoughts.

“I don't know what you did to piss them off. But could you just pretend to feel bad and apologize to them? I'll wipe your record of this mess, and we can move on.”

Those words left a sour taste in my mouth. “But I haven't so much as said a word to them. I didn't do anything to them!”

“I know. But they're just going to keep at this. And I don't have time to play games with you all.” He tousled his hair with one of his hands. “Upper management's already on my back about metrics. It seems that certain people, who I won't name, haven't been keeping up on their calls”

And what did that have to do with this? I wanted to ask, but I kept my mouth shut.

“I need to get that addressed. But I can't deal with that and petty office drama. So... You need to just pretend that I yelled at you or something, and you feel awful about what you supposedly did. Like I said, I'll wipe this incident off the record, so it doesn't mess with your bonus this year.”

“But...” I was rendered speechless.

That was just letting them win! He knew they were lying, and that this was just a waste of time. But because they caught him when he was already overworked, he just wanted to sweep this under the rug and get it out of his sight!

I could feel my respect for this man drop significantly.

My hands balled into fists by my sides. Emotions were raging war inside of my head. I didn't want to poke a hornet's nest, but just letting them get away with their sabotage wasn't sitting right with me either. My desire to see them punished and my need to stay out of people's radar was fighting evenly, with no give on either end.

The boss took my silence as agreement and relaxed in his chair. “I'm sorry for this. I promise that I will have this dealt with properly at a later time. He offered a weak smile. “You're free to return to the phones as well, Christine. Thank you.”

He didn't leave any room to add anything, so I nodded at his direction and walked out. Passing through a hall with cubicles lines on both sides, I heard a distinctly high pitch laugh. Poking my head into one of the cubicles, I saw that same group of women, casually standing around and chatting.

This just meant that there was going to be a backlog of calls today. I'd probably have to put in extra time to answer them all. As I was about to leave with my bitter thoughts for company, one of them laughed again. I stopped in my tracks and decided to listen in.

Our customers were used to waiting on hold for a while, so I didn't feel as bad about it.

“I can't believe that idiot actually believed us!” A slightly older woman with light brown hair cut into a bob was barely able to get her words out between laughter.

“That'll teach that little teacher's pet not to mess with us!” Another woman, a petite girl with curly brown hair tied back into a ponytail, nodded in agreement.

Probably-Amy, the youngest and smallest of the group, was the only one who looked remorseful. Her head hung down, long blonde hair falling to frame her head. With big glasses, she looked even more sad and pathetic. “I don't think we should have done that...”

“Relax, newbie!” Bobbed girl slapped the younger girl on the back, causing her to stumble forward a bit to catch herself. “That stuck up bitch had it coming. Thinks she's better than us because she has good numbers.”

The fourth and final member of the group, a tall and lanky woman with streaks of gray running through shoulder length brown hair stood there with a smirk on her face, arms crossed tightly. Just seeing her look so smug sent shocks of anger down my spine.

“I'm sure that scatterbrain of a man is smart enough to know the correct course of action.” She unwrapped her arms to grasp onto the top of the only chair in the cubicle space. “He likes to keep the peace. Calls us family and all that other drivel.” In a clearly artificial sad voice, she asked, “How could he stand and watch his precious family fight amongst themselves?”

Bobbed girl snickered, and Curly Ponytail grinned from ear to ear. The only one not reveling in their victory was Probably-Amy.

“I don't think she should be kicked out because she didn't want to be our friend.”

The cheer on the other girls' faces morphed from glee into something more sinister.

“Who said that was the only reason?”

“Huh?”

Finally deciding to just call her Amy for the time being, I watched as she looked at the tall leader of the pack with with confusion written on her face. I'm sure my face looked just as stupid.

This wasn't because I didn't want to be a part of their little high school-esque clique?

Catching on to her confusion, the leader grinned back at her. “She makes the rest of us look bad with all her numbers. Then they pull us into these little meetings and ask, 'Why can't you be more like Christine? Why don't you have all the answers like Christine and keep bothering us leads? Why don't you take stay and clear the queue like Christine?'” She pushed the chair away from her, ramming it into Bobbed girl.

“Yeah! They think we're all supposed to be all amazing and stuff! But these customers are a nightmare to deal with!” Bobbed girl spun the chair around and practically threw herself into it. “I had this lady keep me hostage for half an hour yesterday because she was pissed about waiting on hold! What am I supposed to do when people like you complain and keep the rest waiting?!”

Amy squirmed in place. “That's not her fault though!”

The leader tilted her head to the side. “And who said we cared who's fault it was?”

“Huh?”

She clicked her tongue at that response. “Really? You're too nice for a place like this, Amy. Maybe you should head out with that show off when she gets fired.”

They thought I was going to get fired over this?

“Or even if they just forgive her - because why wouldn't they forgive their precious Christine? - we'll get rid of her sooner or later. Actually, she should just do us all a favor and just disappear from this place.”

“Yeah! Good riddance!”

“We won't miss her!”

At that point, I had to pull myself back from the corner and take a couple of steps back. This flood of information was starting to make my head swim.

So it wasn't because I wasn't friendly to them, but because I did my damn job?

This wasn't going to be a one time incident. If the boss simply dismissed it like he said he would, they would just find other ways to push me under a bus. They would eventually just fire me because I was being a nuisance to my co workers. There wasn't going to be an end without me leaving this place, either of my own accord or by force.

Fine! If they wanted me out so damn bad, then why waste time fighting with them? I stomped the rest of the way back to my cubicle on the other end of the row and flung myself into my chair.

Within ten minutes, I'd drafted my letter of resignation. No frills or anything extra. Just the standard notice and my signature. I didn't even bother to add a little note stating that I enjoyed working at this company and would hone the skills I used here.

Deciding that the filling queue of callers could be someone else's problem, I wandered out of my workspace to find a box. Luckily, there were a couple by the front door of the office building. I'm sure the receptionist wasn't going to miss one of these boxes anyways.

Once back at my desk, I began the processing of packing up. There wasn't much I brought from my house, so it didn't take more than a couple of minutes. All that lied in the box was some papers full of doodles I made during slow times and a photo of my family from a vacation at the beach. It wasn't anything fancy, but it helped to get through some especially hard days.

As I lifted the box up to carry out, I took one last look at what had been most of my world for the past five years. I wasn't going to miss waking up early to get in, the customers that had poison running through their veins instead of blood, or the coworkers who either had it out for me or lived in their own worlds.

Thinking back, Amy did look very sad when she saw my box of possessions. Maybe she was the only good apple in a bin of rotten fruit. But not even she could stop me at this point. I could only wish her well in her career.

---

Returning back to reality, I reached into my pocket to just turn my phone off. As I did so, the screen flashed for a moment, showing I had missed 14 calls from my boss. I resisted the urge to laugh as the device was powered off and shoved back into my pocket. I looked down at the table and realized I had allowed my cola to sit long enough that the ice had long since melted away. Not even sipping on a cola in my favorite cafe could lift my mood today. With a sigh, I resigned myself to a sad evening, wallowing in my pain, and waved my hand to wave down my waitress for the bill.

“Rough day?” My waitress seemed to appear from out of thin air behind me, the check in hand. “You don't usually stop by this early.”

I offered a weak smile. “You could say that.” I pulled out a wad of cash from my pocket and offered it to her. “Keep the change.”

“Very much appreciated, m'am!” The waitress flashed me one of her bright smiles and began clearing my table. She turned to leave, but paused for a moment.

“Y'know, if you need an ear, I'm happy to lend it.”

“I appreciate it. I'll take it into consideration”

With that, she walked back to the kitchen. Her long purple ponytail bobbed with each step she took. I caught myself staring for a bit too long, so I forced my eyes back to the table.

The cafe wasn't anything too fancy. The food it served was decent enough. The main reason I liked coming here was to be able to talk to that waitress. As I could barely handle the small talk without going into panic mode, I had yet to ask if we could get a drink or hang out somewhere. Now that I was essentially unemployed, I certainly couldn't do anything with her now.

I had no idea how other people were able to make friends outside of work once they graduated high school or college.

I pulled up the hood of my worn hoodie, pushing my hair inside of it. I briefly considered getting a haircut, but thought better of it. The rain was still coming down hard. I took a few deep breaths before I pulled the door open and dashed outside.

Dark storm clouds covered every inch of the sky, so I had to rely on street lights to guide me back home. All I could think of was all the job hunting I was going to have to do. I dreaded all the calls from weird numbers I was going to have to answer. I almost wished that I had just sucked it up and stayed at the call center.

Water was splashing up from the puddles on the ground. Rain was coming down on me with no mercy. I was soaked to the bone within minutes.

This day was certainly something special, wasn't it?

Then, the ground vanished from beneath my feet.

The scenery shot upwards, and with my forward momentum from running, I smacked my head into the edge of something.

Everything turned red, then began to fade away. I belatedly realized that I was no longer falling, but lying on my back. I was looking up towards the hole I fell in. Rain fell onto my unmoving body, and water from the street dripped down.

As my vision continued to fizzle out, my body was becoming cold.

Am I dying?

No, this can't be real. I struggled to move even a finger.

I was going to die at the tender age of 28? I had so much I never got to do. I wanted to travel the world, eat different kinds of foods, maybe make a friend or two.

Thinking of friends, my mind flashed to an image of that one clique at my job. Maybe I could have befriended Amy. She seemed nice, at least.

Then I thought of that waitress from the cafe. The thought that I would never see her again made me feel empty inside.

Or maybe that was the blood loss.

Before my consciousness faded into nothing, I wished from the bottom of my heart for another chance. I wished I could throw away this pathetic me.

---


Vforest
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