EH! EH! EH! EH! Elliot leaned over and grabbed his phone and turned off his alarm. He pushed his pillow to the side, then saw it was only 7:15 AM and reached for it again.
EH! EH! EH! EH! 7:30 AM
EH! EH! EH! EH! 7:50 AM
Elliot squinted his eyes and rolled over placing the pillow over his face. He shot up wide eyed and looked over to the window then spun for his phone so hard he got caught in his covers and fell out of bed. He pulled his phone down by the charging cord and it smacked him in the face.
He quickly pulled on the chord again and tapped the screen. 8:38 AM
He palmed his head. "You gotta be kidding me."
He frantically kicked away the covers and sheets and ran to the bathroom. He brushed his teeth with so much vigor, if he had more time he would have noticed he chipped one. He raced around his apartment looking at shirts and smelling underwear. He finally found a pair of underwear with nothing on it and a shirt that didn't smell. He jumped up and down to get in his pants. He slipped on a pair of mismatched socks, hopped in his shoes and raced out the door.
Elliot looked both ways and ran across the street to his car or where his car should have been. An older man was sitting on his porch. "Red Corolla? They towed it this morning at 4 am. I've been up ever since. Pay your tickets."
"Yeah I'll pay my tickets so you can get a good nights rest." Elliot squeezed his phone out of his pocket and to his surprise it was cracked.
"Are you just going to stand there?"
Elliot had no idea why this man was talking to him. "Is that a problem?"
The man folded his arms. "Yes."
Elliot carefully slid his hand across his screen and called his ride. "Okay. I'll move over here."
Elliot moved over to the house next door. "And when you get your car back, don't park in front of my house."
It was 9:10 AM when Elliot got to work. He ran to the bathroom and when he opened the door, Anthony Huff, the Floor Manager was on the other side. "Are you just getting here Elliot?"
Elliot fumbled. "No. No I got here early and left something in my car and had to run back but I got here right on time."
"That's a lie." Michael shouted from the sales floor.
Anthony shook his head. "That's your second one this month and its only the 10th. One more and I'm going to have to let you go. You know that right?"
Elliot nodded. "Yeah I know but my car…"
Anthony raised his eyebrows. "You're car? You live 10 minutes away, by foot."
"True but if it hadn't gotten towed I would have been able to make it here on time."
"I thought your car was in the parking lot and you were early?"
Elliot had forgot about his previous lie. "Well…"
"Don't bother just get to your desk and try and make some sales today."
Elliot walked over to his desk and sat down across from his work buddy Allen.
Allen shrugged and went back to his work. Allen was the one who got him the job and whatever stars aligned that helped him get to work on time for two months straight. He had temped before he worked here for years after he lost his job as a security guard and was prohibited from carrying a firearm. The Agency that hired him connected him to another one that was more administrative based.
The job was perfect for him. The pay got even better after he got his BSIS license, which came with the bonus of making him feel dangerous. He worked the graveyard shift so the guard before him was sleep nine times out of ten, so he showed up whenever. He slept in most days and played video games when he woke up. When he got to work he could sit and binge a show and then his shift was over. The absolute best thing about the job was he never saw his boss, and considering his position right now that was priceless.
During lunchtime he went down to the cafeteria with Allen and a couple of the other guys on his floor. Allen was a really laid back guy. He had one of those minds that excelled at reasoning. Internet not working, reset the modem. Still not working? Did you pay your bill? If yes then call the internet company, if not pay the bill. Difficult problem, easy solution. Cat stuck in a tree, get a pet that doesn't climb.
It was always somebody tagging along. They sat in the elevator quietly scrolling on their phones. Allen nudged Elliot in the ribs and showed him his phone. "Did you see this?"
Elliot looks at Allens phone and there's a man pointing at two holes in his wall that says light shot through the wall in his apartment. There are streaks of melted paint and burn marks around the hole. "That's probably one of those photoshop tricks."
"I know. What would you do if someone's laser vision shot through you're apartment?" Allan smiled at the thought.
Terrance leaned over and Allan tilted the phone his way. "That's fake!"
Elliot thought for a second. "I don't know. Run maybe? This Postmates is taking forever. It said 10 minutes, 10 minutes ago when I ordered it."
"But what if there is another laser shot and it goes through your head." Allan posed.
The elevator doors opened and they all walked out ahead of Elliot. He looked up from his phone followed them. "I'd get on the ground then and call the police."
"What about you Terrance?" Allan asked.
"Um, are they trying to kill me?" Terrance frowned quizzically.
"No they were lazering some bad guys and accidentally missed." Allan assumed.
Terrance shook his head. "How would I know that?"
"I don't know. Okay, Terrance is going to sit still and ask a million questions to figure out if its hostile. What about you Cass?"
Cass was the youngest among them. He moonlit as a instagram influencer but the insurance gig payed his bills. "I would turn on live so that if it happened again and it killed me there would be a record of it."
Elliot hung up and chimed in. "They're not answering. What if nobody gets on?"
"Yeah only facebook live automatically saves after its over? I thought you only use instagram."
"No I'm on everything, Cass_SimSim, but most of my followers are on Instagram and TikTok. Now if it happened I would use facebook live, although a thousand people usually get on every time I go live. They would probably tell the world and then I would be famous."
"But you would be dead." Terrance adds.
"If only I could be so lucky. I'll meet you at the table." Cass strode over and got in line for the cafeteria food. How he stayed in shape was a mystery. It was probably just good genes.
Terrance and Allan were walking towards a table in the corner but Elliot stopped them. "Wait lets sit by the window I want to see when my food gets here."
Terrance laughed. "That food is stuck in traffic, you'd have a better chance eating it for dinner."
"You're driver is probably about to cancel. You should get in line now, so you can try and get something good." Allan warned.
Ding! Elliots phone goes off. "Suck it! He's downstairs. I'll be right back."
A few minutes later Elliot came back into the cafeteria. They all look up at him but his hands are empty. "I sent him to 5911 East not West."
Terrance winced.
"You should call and say you were there and you watched him drive away. At least get your money back." Allan suggested.
Elliot moped into the cafeteria line.
Terrance shifted in his seat to get Allans attention again. "Speaking of money back. I gave my credit card to my wife to get groceries, how do I ask for it back."
Allan took a bite out of his sandwich. "When did you give it to her?"
"Eh two months ago."
"Does she know she has it?"
"I'm pretty sure?" Terrance's answer seemed a little to uncertain to be taken at face value.
"Tell her you can't find it and ask her has she seen it." Allan could tell she had been using it. "Then cancel it."
"That's not going to go over well."
Allan shrugged. "Last resort, find a new wife or get ready for the bill."
After lunch Elliot called all of his leads and made no sales. He got chewed out by Anthony about his quota for the month and how he missed it last month. They had come to an agreement that he would make it up by the end of this month. He had renewed someone's lapsed insurance but that was all. He had to make up five sales from last month and get the ten he needed for this month on top of that. He had a grand total of zero and no promising leads to follow up on.
When he got out of work he walked to the entrance of the parking lot and remembered his car had been towed that morning. Allan felt bad and offered him a ride home, but he decided to walk instead.
On his walk home his phone buzzed. He opened his phone to find his check had come through but he didn't have enough to pay the tickets before and he was ten days late on his rent. When he walked into his building, his neighbor was grabbing his mail. Elliot waved and kept walking. He was in no condition to find out what other bills were coming due.
"Hey."
"Elliot."
"Yeah, Elliot. You're not going to check your mail?"
"It's probably just bills."
"You know sometimes my mail still comes to that apartment since I used to live there." Rich used to Live in Elliots apartment but it didn't have hardwood floors. Now rich lived above Elliot with his 300 lbs. German Shepherd.
"Oh yeah. I'll get to it tomorrow."
"Just grab it now and go through it. I'm waiting on something important." Rich insisted. "That way I can come to your apartment later after you sort through everything."
Elliot took a deep breath. "Sure I can do that for you tonight."
After Elliot finished having his soul crushed realizing all of the bills that were about to come due, he heard a knock at the door. "It's unlocked!"
Rich walked through the door with his German shepherd on a leash but the apartment was still too small. "Anything for me?"
Elliot was sitting on the floor trying to map out his expenses. By the time he saw the dog he had trampled all over his organized piles and was licking his face. Elliot quickly stood up and wiped his face. "Nope just my stuff in my mailbox."
"If you see it can you let me know."
"Sure no problem."
The next couple of weeks was the same. They'd run into each other and Rich would force him into checking his mail and each time there was only Elliots mail in his mailbox.
That Friday was a tough day for Elliot. He had had such a tough day at work. To make matters even worse his car was in the tow yard, racking up hundreds of bonus points by the day and he hadn't made a single sale. He was being forced to look at all his bills every other day and he didn't know if he was going to even have a job in five days.
That night after Elliot got home, Rich knocked on his door while he was cooking dinner. Elliot opened the door begrudgingly. "I'm in the middle of cooking. Can you wait until tomorrow, I'm cooking."
"It's okay I used to live in this apartment I can watch your food."
Elliot pressed his fingers between his eyes and answered painfully. "Okay, just please wait outside, because I live here now."
Elliot went downstairs and grabbed his mail. It was all just junk mail he could tell. "Theres nothing in here for you."
"Did you check it?" Rich demanded in his cop voice.
Elliot had had enough. "No and I'm not going to check it. It's either junk mail or more of MY bills. Because I live here. It may not be for much longer but I do. Where is this piece of mail coming from, Mars? What even takes more than 14 days to get anywhere, anymore. I'm done. You want in that mailbox again you're going to either have to wait until I move out or you break into it. If you can't wait five days good luck with your felony."
When Elliot slammed the door all of the mail he just grabbed went sprawling up into the air. The news papers and his internet bill. Everything went up in the air except one thing that fell straight down. Elliot reached down to pick it up and sure enough it said Richard Town on it.
It was perfect the moment that he lost his cool was the most important moment. If he could have just checked the mail thoroughly he would have been able to avoid what had to come next. He would have to go to Rich's apartment and apologize.
Although he didn't want to he knew he had to apologize and give Rich his mail, but first dinner. After he finished eating he sat down and at while watching TV. As he watched TV he got infuriated. Why did he have to apologize. Rich was the one who was being pushy. Elliot made up his mind that after a talking to like that he would never have to talk to Rich again. If he went up to Richard Town's apartment now and apologized he would have to bow down to him for at least 5 more days. That just wasn't going to happen.
After deciding not to give Rich his mail, Elliot opened the envelope. Inside was the largest heaviest bullet he had ever held. There was also a letter.
"If you are not Richard Town do not read any further and immediately call (866) SUPR-PWR" Elliot scoffed. He couldn't figure out what was going on. It seemed like some kind of initiation letter. He looked down at the bullet. Maybe Rich was some kind of assassin like John Wick.
He kept reading."After completing our rigorous testing and passing all levels of background checks you have been chosen as a participant and granted full clearance. We have selectively engineered a dose of Raizan-51 that will aide your already exceptional abilities.
Code Name: Liquid Luck
The effects of this specific dose should give you the ability to absorb and disperse luck in any way you can find applicable.
Continue to follow up with Doctor Emmitt Bunker as they will be how we communicate from here on.
Our country thanks you for your service.
Sincerely,
President Of The United States"
Elliot tossed the paper in the air and stared at the wall as the paper flipped and landed in his lap.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Thanks for reading!