"Hey, what happened?!" A voice boomed. Alex was had been wandering around the aisles aimlessly now, purposely trying to kill time from his shift. However, the raspy voice of his boss interrupted his train of thought. "I heard complaints from customers that there was a bunch of yelling going on, and one of my employees was threatening another customer!" His boss continued to yell. Alex turned to his boss, and just as he was about to speak, he was cut off. "You better not have resorted to violence! I knew I shouldn't have hired you. I should of just kicked you out of my office, and leave to die and rot in the streets. You do about a million things wrong a day, and your no good, 'gangster' friends al - "
Before his boss could finish, Alex interrupted him. "I ASKED him to leave, I didn't even touch the guy. If anyone mentioned anything about violence, it would be him. He just said he would hurt the security guard, so I told him to leave and stop making a scene." Alex snapped back. "And who you do you think you are, telling me I'm no good? I've seen you harass employees, and fooling around with - "
"Okay, okay!" His boss raised his hands in defeat, trying to shush Alex up. They both stood quiet for a few seconds before his boss walked closer to Alex, pushing him in the direction of the boss' office hidden in the back of the store.
"Listen, I was going to tell this to Dale over in the Deli, but he didn't even show up today." The man cleared his throat. "You know our competitor, Maxi's SuperStore?" Alex nodded. "Well, apparently, the head honcho over there has a meeting with a large chain grocery store. They originally came to me, but we couldn't come to an agreement, so they went to Maxi's." Alex arched an eyebrow.
"And...what do you want me to do?" Alex spoke softly. The boss looked around the empty aisles, and signalled him to lean in closer. He passed him a piece of paper, with what seemed like an address.
"Go to this house, and slash his car tires. Do it tonight. His meeting his tomorrow. If he bails, they'll come crawling back to me." Alex stepped back.
"Are you insane? I don't know what you think I used to do, but it certainly wasn't destroying property. Besides, if I get caught, I'm screwed for life." He said to his boss, getting a bit nervous.
"Don't worry, I'll take blame for it." Alex rolled his eyes. That still wouldn't have changed the fact that it was him that did the deed. "Plus, I'll pay in advance for this week, and you don't have to come to work. Plus a nice little wad of cash on top for some spending money." He didn't smile, but looked at Alex with an expressionless face.
This is not happening...he's insane. Of all the weird things that happened today, this was the most bone chilling. But the sound of money made Alex think. He could pay the apartment rent to help out his mother, buy food, and on top of that, he would receive cash for leisurely activities. "So, what's it going to be? I'm not forcing you, but if you don't, we are going to make sure this conversation never happened." Alex frowned, and remained silent for a few seconds before nodding in agreement to the offer.
"Great. Consider your duties done for the next week." Alex immediately turned around, with the paper in his hand. "Oh Alex, before I forget. Don't. Mention. This. To. Anyone." Alex turned around, and saw a sinister look on his boss' face. It made Alex shiver, the way his smile grimaced, and his wrinkles began to furl. Quickly turning back around, Alex headed for the exit of the store.
~
Alex opened the door to the apartment, giving a greeting to see if anyone was home. "Hey, anyone here?!" He shouted. He waited a few minutes, taking off his shoes. No answer was heard, which was expected, as his sister was at school. However, he was at least hoping that his mother would be home.
Looks like I'll be home alone for a while. He started opening cupboards, trying to find something to eat, until a brown package on the counter attracted his attention. Walking up to it, it was labelled for him. Without hesitation, he quickly grabbed a fold on the side, and ripped the top open, revealing a bunch of white paper. Digging through it, there was a small, rectangular black box. It looked nicely packaged, and in silver print, was labelled "Caster". attached to the small box was a note.
Greetings Reaper,
If you are reading this, then you have finally received the latest in Reaper technology. The Lucid introduce to you, the Caster! This handy device is capable of finding demons in any given area, as well as function as an instant messenger, voice calls, and even a totem! You'll soon find that this gadget is more than meets the eye, so without any more hesitation, please enjoy.
Truly,
The Lucid
Alex gazed at the note.
The Lucid? I didn't know they did this kind of stuff. He didn't have much knowledge on the Lucid, other than the fact that they were the governing force of all Reapers. Putting the note down, he went ahead an opened the box, flipping the lid over. It revealed a small phone-sized sheet of glass. It had rounded edges, and looked incredibly delicate, but beautiful. Taking it out of the box, he looked at the sheet of glass, turning it around, trying to observe it. After a few seconds of that, he tapped the glass with his finger, causing the front side of the glass to light up like a phone screen. "What the...?" He looked at the screen, which read 'Lucid Operating System'. There was a small loading symbol, but the screen soon changed into a black screen, with what seemed to be, five applications.
One had the logo of a circle with horns on the side and sharp red eyes, obviously stereotyping a Demon. Underneath it, read "Demon Scanner". Beside it, was another application with a speech bubble, reading 'Message' underneath. The third application had a picture of a phone, reading 'Voice Call' underneath. The fourth application had a picture of a generic man, like the kind one would find on a public restroom, except without the lower body. It read 'Profile' underneath. Alex looked a the last application, which had the silhouette of a totem pole, and read 'Totem' underneath.
Okay...this is weird. Why would they send me this? Alex just looked at the application, until he decided to click on the Profile Application. A blank screen proceeded, until a green loading symbol popped up, with Alex's full name on it.
I didn't even type anything in! He got a little freaked out, looking around to see if anyone was in fact watching him, or playing a prank. He looked back at the Caster's screen, which was now showing some sort of 'profile' page. There was his name, age, date of birth, elemental affinity, as well as other crucial information. Alex scrolled own the page using his finger.
This doesn't look like an ordinary info page. It has stuff not even my own mother knows about me. The page itself looked incredibly...
confidential. The lettering was bright green against a black background, and the way the info was laid out almost made it seem like it would be found in some top-secret laboratory, for lack of better word.
He put the Caster down on the counter and rubbed his head, sighing slightly.