Monotony. Dullness. 

 

The same scenes repeating over and over again. Nothing new. Nothing exciting. Nothing of interest.

 

Through the eyes of a boy, this may seem as though what hell itself may be like. And the boy may not be wrong. For even a negative stimulus is appreciated when there has been no stimulus at all.

———

The man known as Julius understands this better than all. His days seem to grow longer by the minute. His memory of the day is shallow. Barely able to remember if something he has done within the last 12 hours was done then or days ago. He knows that he wakes up at some point in the morning. After all, he hasn’t been fired yet. However, everything after that becomes blurry. He can’t seem to remember the last time he had a solid meal. Don’t be mistaken, he appreciates what the food hall does. It’s just that after years of attending, you would think he would see something, anything, change. But no. Watery tomato soup and a slice of white bread seems to be the chef’s favorite.

Every.

Single.

Day.

 

But alas. “It is sinful to be greedy,” Julius reminds himself as he opens the door to his apartment. The door groans at its hinges, seemingly annoyed at Julius for disturbing it from its rest. Dragging his feet inside the confines of his home, Julius removes his shoes, if they can be called that at this point, and places them by the door. As he’s halfway through removing his jacket, Julius is struck by a cold wind racing past him.

“Shit. Is it already the end of the month?” Julius swore to himself. Rushing over to his kitchen, brushing past the overflowing trash can while zipping up his jacket, Julius risked a look at the stained calendar near his fridge.

“It’s already October! Fuck!” Julius shouted. “Yelena’s gonna kill me!”

Racing back to the door, Julius put his shoes back on his feet and hurried outside. As he ran down the hallways of his complex, Julius narrowly avoided a door as it opened in front of him. Finally reaching the stairwell, Julius grabbed the handrail and sprinted down the concrete stairs. As he turned the second flight, a person appeared in his vision,

“Shit!-” Julius yelled as he dodged to the right of the now-surprised person. Unable to stop his momentum, Julius clattered down the set of stairs. As he finally stopped tumbling, he opened his eyes.

“Red? Wait, did it get warmer?” He said, seemingly to no one in particular. 

However, as if to oppose Julius’ calmness, a shriek was heard at the top of the stairs.

“Oh my-Fuck! What the hell are you doi-” The woman yelled. Upon seeing the mangled figure of the man at the bottom of the staircase, the woman appeared to realize the situation, and began to run down the stairs, safely.

Julius, seemingly unaware of the ruckus this loud person was omitting, continued to stare at nowhere in particular.

“Man, this is...comfy,” he muttered to himself. “So warm.”

As the woman reached the bottom of the stairs she finally grasped the condition of the man in front of her. 

His legs were in pretty bad shape. A noticeable bulge appeared near his knee, and the woman tried to avoid jumping to conclusions on the severity of it. Looking lower at his feet the woman sighed in relief. At the very least they were both facing the right direction. Peering higher now, the woman could see that the man’s elbow was definitely misshapen, his wrist too. Jutting awkwardly in the wrong direction, the man’s arm was in no condition to even be touched. Looking to the other arm the woman was shocked to see nothing. Nothing as in literally nothing. The sleeve of the man’s green jacket lay slack on the floor. Lastly, she risked a peek at the man's face. His bottom lip was busted, his messy blonde hair covered the majority of his head, with the rest laying in blood.

“Wait. Blood?” The woman stated the obvious. “Oh-blood!”

Seemingly remembering what just transpired, the woman hurriedly pulled out her phone and dialed 911 in search of an ambulance. 

Julius continued to lie on the ground. The cold concrete floor felt as warm as a bed to him. His eyes, clouded with delusions, continued to stare at the ceiling. The pale yellow light that hung above him seemed so bright. Almost as if the sun itself was watching over him at this very moment.

Perhaps that’s where the warmth he felt was coming from. “This is nice. Almost reminds me…” Julius thought to himself solemnly. This warm light was a welcome sight to him. After all, he failed to pay the heating bill.

“Ha, how lucky am I? For this warmth to come to me-someone who can’t even do the simple task of paying a fuckin’ bill on time.” He thought to himself with a smile that held numerous emotions.

As the adrenaline wore off of Julius, he slowly became more conscious of his surroundings. The burning pain he felt in his legs shook him out of his blissful stupor. 

“AHH! FUCKIN’ SHIT!” He yelled. 

The woman beside him jumped in surprise at the man’s sudden display of, well, being alive.
“Uh-uh your-you’re going to be okay! I called an ambulance for you!” She said in an attempt to ease the surging emotions the man was experiencing.

Gritting his teeth to numb the pain the man looked at the person who appeared beside him, or well, tried to. His neck didn’t-couldn’t-turn to her, so his eyes did all the movement. 

“Who-who are you. Where am I? What happened?” The man spurted out anything that came to mind at the person next to him.

“Oh-uh well I’m Jasmine...Oh! You’re at an apartment complex and…you fell down a flight of stairs...and you broke your legs and arm.” She rapidly muttered the last part, cowering behind her bag.

Risking a glance, she noticed that the blood around the man’s head was growing in size. His eyes seemed distant and his skin looked paler than before. 

Unable to stand seeing the state of this man, the woman ran off down the stairs, shouting “I’ll go find the ambulance! They-they should be here by now!”

…

…

Time passed so utterly slowly to Julius. His initial pain seemed to have faded. However, it was seemingly replaced by a throbbing in his head. It was so, so loud.

THUMP

 

THUMP

 

THUMP

 

“Please. Please be quiet.” Julius begged.

…

…

 

 

THUMP

 

THUMP 

 

THUMP.

 

“Why. What did I do to deserve this. This hell. This state of purgatory.” Julius questioned.

…

…

…

“32 FUCKING YEARS OF HELL. TO HELL WITH IT. THIS WORLD IS SHIT! SHITSHITSHIT-” and suddenly, everything got quiet. Julius stopped thinking. His eyes now clouded over.

…

…

…

…

Suddenly, Julius’ slumber was disturbed by a glaringly bright box.

 

⌈ REINCARNATION ACCEPTED ⌉

⌊ WELCOME TO TURELSIA, JULIUS DORVIIR ⌋