Goodbye, Alima.

4/25/2023

   I'm stuck in a staring contest I didn't consent to joining. I'm not sure when he started to see me; maybe he was always there. At first, I didn't know what it was. I would find myself rubbing off the mirror and be surprised when the object shown next to my reflection was still there. It looked like nothing more than a speck of dust that wouldn't go away. It wasn't big, wasn't big at all, but there was something daunting about it's persistence to exist. Even when it was too far away for my brain to piece together it's form, I was still terrified. I think it started to show up in sophomore year of college. Did you know I was going to be a doctor, before all of this? If I reminisce on that too much it might make me spiral again, so let me move on. As I was saying, I believe it was my sophomore year of college. Nothing out of the ordinary had happened and honestly, if anything, the last year and a half had been the most mundane thing I've ever experienced. I was scared for college when I first went. Looking back, I'm not sure why I was so terrified. I found myself curling up in my bed my senior year of high school, frantically making it through all the Best Things To Know Before Going To College videos and articles I would find. I think that when you are in high school they talk about college as if it's this fantastical thing, something that couldn't possibly exist in this reality. All of the teachers would talk in this way and then once you get to college you realize the professors in college actually view your existence as one of a human being's, something all of my high school teachers failed to do. Finding out what you thought was true to be completely false can shatter your worldview on a lot of other things, which is what happened to me and caused my slow spiral into anxiety. I was the first in my family to go to college so I had no idea what to expect other than the awful things the teachers would echo anytime a student nodded off. I said that I was terrified to start college but when I think about it more, I think it's stupid to even compare what I was feeling there to genuine terror. I've experienced that now.


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01: The Letter

XX/XX/2024

Dear Vitula VII, Watcher,

It prides us to host such a brilliant mind in our lower ranks. A true testament to the idea that any demon can become anything they wish. Beginning 5th Decem, 4XIII, the next human to be under your watchful eye is the following:


Kaliya Copperfield.
19 Years Old.

Thank you so much for your continued trust and dedication in the Omnipotens Empire.

Head Watcher,
[NAME REDACTED]


   I felt like my eyes might burst out of my head with how fast they snapped right to left reading through the letter. The letter, which came in an envelope with the return address: Omnipotens Assignment Board, vibrated with an immense amount of power. This letter was not only my ticket back into the world I was born for but it would also get me out of this couch surfing situation I've found myself in. Couch surfing might be too impersonal of a word to be used to describe the situation I'm in. In less simple terms, I'm illegally frogging in my friend's apartment between assignments. Of course frogging implies that my friend is unaware of my presence, but he very much is, it's the authorities that are the ones left in the dark. It could be better described as holding up in his apartment. I'm having a bit of difficulty coming up with the right words right now, maybe this letter is cursed. Anyways, thankfully Aeter is high enough ranking in the Soldier District that they don't preform routine checks, because even though outside my presence is invisible, once you step into Aeter's apartment it's very clear he isn't the only one living there.


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02: First Night

XX/XX/2024

   What do you think of when you have thought of everything you thought you could ever think of? Usually, I start to imagine movies in my head. I make up stories of epic battles fought in a reality separate from my own, remixing the many movies I’ve watched during my assignments. For some reason though, for the entire 15 hour ride, all I could think about was Kaliya and what kind of person she might be. I knew nothing about her, nothing more than her age and name, but I feel like that’s all I needed to know to know that she’s something special. I felt myself growing excited for what might be in store for both of us during our time together. This train ride, I made stories of what kind of life Kaliya is meant to live and how I’ll be the one to make it happen. What if she’s a world known celebrity or a super rich blogger? One of my friends had someone like that and the stories they had were way more interesting than anything John ever had happen! That’s disrespectful of the dead to say so I fully apologize for that last thought.
   What kind of person is Kaliya? What does she look like? What does she like and dislike? What has she done in the last 19 years of her life and why was I assigned to her? Questions kept popping up in my head and I continuously imagined every possible outcome. I’ve never been this excited for an assignment before, I wonder why this one has caught my attention. It might be the fact her name is Kaliya.


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