Chapter One

Life is a wild journey. It's entirely up to you whether you enjoy the journey or scream.

On a roller coaster, you might be high in the air one moment and then plummet to the ground the next, only to rise again. The ups might be frightening, or you can appreciate the view from there. It is up to you to determine what you will make of it. The roller coaster will not change for you; it will continue to travel up and down until you exit it.

And It's the same for everyone who rides the roller coaster. It will rise and fall, rise, and fall, something like that. Some people will appreciate it, while others will not. Life, in my opinion, is a roller coaster ride. You experience highs and lows. The difference between life and a roller coaster is that you can get off if you don't like it on the roller coaster. You can rejoin if you change your mind later.

But regrettably, life does not enable you to get off, unless you commit yourself, which many people have done. The issue is that you can't get back on once you realize you've made a mistake or when you feel better. And if we decide to enjoy the ride regardless of whether we like it or not, we seem to love it. Time seems to fly by, and life doesn't seem that horrible after all.

However, it’s not applicable to everyone else. As me on the other hand, seems to be the unluckiest person who’s alive in the entire universe.

“You’re fired,” said by my boss which stretched the silence farther inside the room.

Everyone went silent and no one seems to give a fuck about what happened. Others though, were looking at me with sympathy in their eyes, which of course, I fucking hate the most.

I bit my lips as I slowly nodded to Jerica, my boss. “Well, Uh… That’s sad.”

I smiled warily as I slowly went to my table to gather all my things. I stared at my desk for God knows how long is that as I felt a presence of one of my colleagues. It was Monica, and we’ve been together and working under this company for four years. Only that, she’s more tenured than me as she’s been here for like six years already. I know, insane right. For how she was able to keep up with the management, I don’t know anymore. Because if you’re going to ask me, I was happy that I got fired since I am going to resign anyway, so it doesn’t matter anymore.

I can still remember the days where I was still an intern in this company, and I was really happy back then. As I sipped and enjoyed my extra creamy, warm coffee at my desk, it was a gloomy morning. The workday seemed to be taking longer than usual.

And being an intern at TDEX company was, to say the least, monotonous as the days went by, but I held out since it paid more than any of my prior retail jobs.  It also takes more than just computer time, because radiation sucks, right? And less human interaction, which I like.

I'd been working for the company for a few months while attempting to achieve my hashtag everyday living, and thankfully, it worked for me. It wasn't that I was an introvert or anything. I'd just learned enough from life to realize that I'd rather fend for myself.

"Morning, Clementia. Could you possibly print seventeen copies for me? This has to be finished by the end of this day or by tomorrow morning. Thank you," Mike, my coworker, remarked as he passed by, adding additional paper to my already crowded workstation. 

I smiled, trying not to lose my cool. "Certainly, sure.  No problem, asshole," I said to myself.

Despite the fact that we were both at the bottom of the corporate ladder, he seemed to believe I was his assistant. Isn't that presumptuous? He's such a jerk, and I can't wait to toss him out on the mantle.

Sighing, I set my coffee cup down and groped for the page. To go to the furthest corner of my desk, I had to somewhat rise up from my chair. As I did so, I underestimated where I was putting my coffee and ended up with a half-full mug in my lap. It quickly drenched my dress pants.

"Jesus," I growled as the mug slid across the floor, spilling the remaining coffee on my heels.

It was only adding insult to injury, but at least my coffee was cold. I yanked up my desk drawer, grabbed a fistful of napkins, and began drying up my soaked jeans.

Mike, of course, had to walk back at that very time. “Woah. Have you spilled your coffee? Are you perhaps tired? That sucks," he guffawed as he walked by.

Thank you for your insightful remark, dick.

I sighed and reached down to pick up my drink. I was honestly surprised it hadn't shattered. It was baby blue with a cat on it and the wording "May you have a furpect morning" in bold and capital letters. My elder brother had given it to me after I'd gotten my internship, stating it was a present and a fortunate spell to ward off any ill-luck that could come my way.

And now that I think about it, it kind of dawned on me how it actually sucks. Moving back to the present, my attention went back to Monica, when she asked me.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

I rolled my eyes as I grabbed my mini stuffed and put inside the box.

I shrugged. “Maybe?”

She laughed. “You’re really crazy, aren’t you?”

“I am completely aware of that, Monica.”

Sighing, I washed down the cup and dabbed at the beige mat, thinking the new stain would blend in with the pattern. I placed the wet napkins in the garbage beneath my desk and excused myself to visit the washroom. The office area on my floor was huge, and my walk of shame took me past the entirety of the cubicle-filled room. I moved quickly towards the door, my coffee-soaked jeans clinging to my thighs. I took a left in the hall and virtually sprinted into the women’s' room.

I ran immediately to the sink and soaked some paper napkins in water, hoping to get the coffee out. Fortunately, the pants were black, although smelling like old coffee wasn't my first option of how to get through the remaining time of my day.

I knelt to remove my heels, and my hair slid in front of my face, clinging to my pure creamy lip gloss. Sputtering, I attempted to blow the long golden hair strands out of my face, which only made the situation worse.

Jesus. This isn't going well.

Is today my lucky day? I wiped my hands and took more paper napkins in an annoyed huff, hoping to sponge up the water from my now painfully soaked bottom. After wasting more paper napkins, I exited the toilet and dashed back to my desk to get the paperwork Mike had cursed me with.

"Clementia," Alison said quietly from the stall beside mine. She slid her eyeglasses up her nose and smiled as she peered past the artificial wall that separated our workstations. "This floor's copy machine is broken. You should proceed to the second floor. You know, that one on that floor is never occupied."

I smiled at her with no humor at all. Maybe she has no idea of what happened, but just to give her a heads-up, I slipped back out of view before I spoke. “Uh, I’m afraid I cannot do that.”

Her brows furrowed. “Why not?” she asked.

“I just got fired.”

She stared at me for God know how long that was and I was cannot help but to feel awkward while standing in front of her. She wasn’t saying anything to me, but she was staring at me. Probably digesting what I just said to her? And as I was about to turn my back at her, she called me by my name and said something which made things more awkward between us.

“And so? You just got fired, and so? Ever heard of the word courtesy?” she replied as she went back to her cubicle and gathered all the pile of folders on her desk before she averted her gaze back to me. “Being fired doesn’t validate the fact that you still have to do the task that was being told to you. We’re a woman of a courtesy, aren’t we? Consider this as your final task or maybe rendering for a day.”

I almost burst into laughter when she said that to me. I mean, who the hell on earth does that? Rendering huh? I didn’t even resign. I was fired, maybe she should know that already.

Still, I followed her order like a fucking freaking slave of this goddamn company. I collected all the paperwork in my arms as what has Jerica had told me to do so as I lazily made my way towards the super old elevator on our floor. As I went my way to that, I saw two to three girls while I was waiting for the elevator to open.

They’re like whispering to each other and I have no idea what they were talking about.

“I saw it with my eyes! It’s not a person or anything like that. It was kind of distorted,” the blonde girl absentmindedly murmured as she walked in the corridor together with a woman which I assumed was her co-colleague.

“Are you high?”

I remained standing there, but since we’re not that far from each other, I heard their little chit-chats. I tried to ignore them since it wasn’t really important, but the last words of the blonde girl caught my attention.

“It was not a human. I swear, it was not a human, Elise!”