Title: Beta Test 01
\nAuthor: Harper Kingsley
\nRating: mature
\nPOV: First person<\/p>\n
Follows the rather uncomfortable adventures of a guy that’s got a very interesting and dark mind.<\/p>\n
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There are times when my brain seems to be processing so fast that I just can’t keep up. So much is going on and things are moving so fast that even as I’m screaming “Slow down!” there’s not a whole lot I can do about it. I just have to keep on running while I’m hanging outside a car door with my sneakers melting off against the asphalt.<\/p>\n
There are so many things I want to do, so many people I want to be. And in those moments of latent insanity, or maybe it’s blatant insanity, who knows. I’m not a scientist or nothing. I’m just one man living out my life the way I want to live it and never mind that I get confused when I’m trying to make change. And who cares that sometimes I talk so fast my words all slur together into one word. What’s the big deal? It’s just the way I am.<\/p>\n
“I yam what I yam,” as Popeye would say.<\/p>\n
Was it so entirely weird that when I met my soul mate I totally flubbed it?<\/p>\n
Stuttering and mumbling and so jittery that I couldn’t even get the money out of my pocket to pay for my sandwich. I just stood there staring like an idiot and I could have shot myself in the head.<\/p>\n
Then the moment was done and I was standing there alone, one hand shoved in my pocket like a moron, looking like I was copping a feel on myself. How stupid is that?<\/p>\n
The guy behind the Subway counter gave me a pitying look, but at least he didn’t say anything about it. I just hunched my shoulders and pretended like nothing had even happened. And once I’d paid and gotten my food I was practically running out the door, trying to get away from what had to have been a mocking glance.<\/p>\n
Everyone is always laughing at me. Their eyes are like staring birds pecking their way into my brain.<\/p>\n
I left the restaurant and ran down the street, my jacket flapping around me as I dodged my way across the parking lot. I nearly got hit by a little red Beetle, but I just gave the girl a nasty face and ran on.<\/p>\n
The sun was pounding down on the top of my head and everything looked too bright, the buildings tired and worn. I could nearly feel the heat rising up through the bottoms of my shoes.<\/p>\n
It hadn’t seemed like it was going to be so bright this morning, but it looked like the heat was coming on early. It had to be a cool 90-degrees already and it was only ten o’clock. It made me wish I could go back in time and change into shorts and a tee shirt, but I was stuck with my jacket and jeans.<\/p>\n
Squinting my eyes, I rushed across the street side. There wasn’t much traffic, but most of the drivers were old and there was a chance I could end up splattered.<\/p>\n
Pausing on the sidewalk, I set the bag holding my sandwich on the ground and quickly shrugged out of my jacket. I held it for a moment, wondering what I was supposed to do with it. Finally, I just shrugged and tied it around my waist.<\/p>\n
Who cared what the world thought. It was too hot to have it hanging from my arms like a dead animal.<\/p>\n
Grabbing my sandwich, I started walking the five blocks home. My shirt was already sticking to my back unpleasantly and I was worried that I was already starting to stink.<\/p>\n
If I ignored the heat, it was actually a very beautiful day. The bright light with just the faintest of breezes brushing against my skin. I closed my eyes occasionally and tilted my face back, liking the warmth against my eyelids. Everything looked red behind the hoods of flesh.<\/p>\n
I could hear my sneakers slapping against the cement and it was the closest to happy I’d been in a long time. I wished I’d brought my music player, but there was no room for regret in the midst of such personal contentment.<\/p>\n
I moved in a bubble of silence, away entirely from the rest of the world and all the people in it.<\/p>\n
My happiness was broken when I reached my apartment complex and saw smoke rising above the tops of the buildings. There was the sound of fire engines and as I came around from the back I felt my stomach drop.<\/p>\n
All the noise and rush-rush-rush was happening in front of my building. In my building, I found when I got close.<\/p>\n
“Wh… what?” I asked loudly, joining the amassing throng of spectators. My neighbors that I couldn’t even recognize on sight. Dozens and dozens of other human stink animals all standing together on the crushed green grass.<\/p>\n
A woman in a pink shirt turned to face me, her face twisting in lines of regret. I vaguely recognized her, had spoken to her on occasion even. “That’s your building, isn’t it?”<\/p>\n
I nodded. “What happened?”<\/p>\n
She shrugged. “The alarm just started going off and we all came out.”<\/p>\n
I stood there watching the firefighters running around and there were lots of hoses sounding and things happening and I kind of wanted to throw up. There was a good chance that everything I owned in the entire world had just been burnt to a crisp or was right now being soaked with gushes of water.<\/p>\n
Tears burned the backs of my eyes and my hands were clenched into tight fists at my sides as I stood there and breathed. Sweat was beading from every one of my pores and I drew rasping breaths of the dry air into my mouth.<\/p>\n
The world was moving quick-quick around me and there was nothing I could do about it. I just watched everything happening and did nothing because there was nothing I could do.<\/p>\n
My whole life was burning up in front of my eyes.<\/p>\n
\/ CHAPTER<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Listening to: http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=NEfpoUuKFOY<\/p>\n[table \u201c19\u201d not found \/]
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