The It
It’s the same old same old. Life never changes. You get stuck in one rut and you never get out. You want to be rich and famous well don’t fall in a rut like everyone else. Ullena thought to herself. Lena, short for Ullena, was walking to her boring, same-old dead end job. Nothing was ever new for her. She began approaching the front door of “Walldo’s Mart” like she had done thousands of times before where she worked as a cashier.
?“Clocked in, now time to start this day.” She whispered under her breath.
?“Ullena!” shouted her boss, James, from his office as she was passing it. For being in a position of leadership, he is the worst possible choice. He flirts with all the pretty cashiers and sometimes me on a down day, He does nothing but tell everyone else what to do I’m sick of it. I need the money though to pay for the rent for the apartment I stay in. So unwillingly, I walk into his office. “Have a seat,” he says. “Ullena,” I hate when people use my full name too many people over enunciate the ‘U’ to where my name sounds more like ‘Uhhlena.’ “I’m going to need you to stay after tonight so uhm.. you can finish taking inventory.” He stammered.
?Having only one answer to his request for me to do his work for him, “Yes sir,” I say with a hint of attitude. I can get away with that too, I’m one of the hardest workers around. I don’t know why I try so hard. Life is never going to get any better anyways.
?The rest of the work day continues. The joy of getting off starts now at 8:00 pm, but is quickly thwarted when I remember I have to stay after and finish taking inventory so James can probably go out and waste £200 on some street slut because that’s all he can get. Hey, he’s the one making more money than me. Maybe he is doing something right. I mean, he is making more money than me. It’s been an hour past when I normally get off. No one else is in the store. It’s get kind of creepy in here. Living outside of London, you don’t normally get too many thefts or anything of the sort.
?Lena jerks her head behind her having heard a couple cans fall. I thought I was alone… who is here. Lena crouches down immediately as to avoid being seen. An aura of fear overwhelms her. I have to get out of here, someone is in here. She creeps her way down the aisle she was taking inventory in back to the front employee exit.
?“Hello, Lena.” Said a deep dark voice behind her. It didn’t even sound entirely human. It sounded… ghostly. It felt like every hair on the back of my neck stood straight up. I didn’t want to turn around. “I r--member this day like --t was yesterd—y.” At this point I was a deer in headlights. He, or It, knows my name, and says it knows this day like it was yesterday. I’m to freaked out to think straight.
?“I Got You Now!” exclaimed a voice coming from behind. He had quite the accent too. More so Scottish mixed with proper British. Still scared to see what was going on I stayed there on one knee letting my ears do the seeing.
?“I knew you would show up.” Said the dark voice. The presence of fear was still abundant near this… thing.
?“What’s so significant about this plaice?” asked the man. At hearing this I had to turn around to see what was going on. The dark voice that was right behind me wasn’t human at all. Seeing this hit me deep with fear, I couldn’t believe that this thing was real and it is right in front of me. It was a translucent dark silhouette that took the shape of a tall thin man. His hand was open and outstretched to me. Yet, it kept a devilish look to it as well.
?“I mean, it jost a run down ole’ store,” said the man with a sort of a jovial expression, who happened to be very good looking if I do say so myself. He was tall and thin. He had perfect hair, it seemed as if that it stood up in such perfect placement that angels put it together. The clothes he wore were quite peculiar. He was there in a black trench coat buttoned up over his white button up wearing a matching bowtie. The collar of his trench coat was popped up, it went well with his sharp face and spiked hair. All of it was matching his really dark blue jeans and black converse shoes. It was a very peculiar outfit indeed.
?“Now I’m going to ask ya real calm like, let the girl go,” His face straightened up very quickly. There was no transition between he careless heroic attitude to very serious and stern.
?“Why sh--uld I? Who’s going t-- stop me? You?” laughed the dark figure. “Oh, Theo, d-- you ever learn f--om past experiences? I, a m--dman am not one t-- ration with.” The figures voice would cut in an out like it’s voice had bad signal.
?“Well, If you recall from last time, you weren’t standing next to a can full of hydro-chronic liquid in a nice portable spray can. Actually, quite a lot of them,” His expression totally abandoned the whole serious look and went back to jubilant. Theo reaches into his pocket and pulls out what appears to be a little wand of some sort, “now I can easily use this here gamma modulator to realease all the chemicals in those cans onto you leaving this misses, Hi by the way,” he said smiling at me. I looked away blushing, “Completely safe. So I would advise that you leave and we can call this one a draw,” He finished giving a victorious smirk at the dark figure. The dark figure then looked at him then at me. It gave me a death stare then totally disappeared.
?At the disappearance of… it, Theo came running over to where the dark figure was standing. That wand he was holding was making some weird noise and he was waving it in the air like a crazy person. A little time goes by as he furiously writes down something after waving his wand in the air.
?“I think this is the part where you thank me,” Theo said with a smirk.
?I get all red, “Oh I’m so sorry, I mean, Thank you,” I feel so embarassed for not having said anything. What was I thinking?
?“It was not trouble at all really,” He said turning to me, “You weren’t in too much trouble yet, If It would have found out everything I was just saying was complete gibberish then you would have really needed saving. Anyways, what is your name?”
?“Oh, uhm my name,” I am still in shock of the whole ordeal, but I feel much safer now
?“You got one dontcha?” He kidded.
?“Ya, uhm, I’m Ullena, but call me Lena.”
?“Nice to meet ya Lena, I’m Thoe, well that’s over with, time I get going!” he said as h turned to leave.
?“Wait!” I reach out for his shoulder, “you can’t leave me hanging, what was that thing?” I asked
?“You see, I’m not quite sure myself. I have been chasing that thing all over the world.” He answered almost in a braggart tone.
?“The world?”
?“Yah, yesterday we were in Egypt running through the pyramids.”
?“Egypt? How in the world did you make it here in a day?” I said befuddled
?“Oh yah, I mean it took me 2 hours to get here,” He exclaimed as if he was upset with the timing, “Way too long of a wait if you ask me.”
?“Wait, that thing in your pocket..” I questioned, “what did you call it again?”
?“My G-mod?” He chuckled, “The Gamma-Modulater RSX1157. Invented it myself, along with all my other inventions. One of the most trustworthy tools I have.”
?“What’s it do?”
?“It acts like an EMP bomb, but only in the direction I’m pointing it.”
?“I’m sorry I don’t speak genius,” I answered chuckling
?“Speaking of genius, there’s something I want to show you.”
?Theo turns around like he did last time, except this time grabbing my and going into a fast paced walk. We exit the store into the dark cool night and take a hard right into the alley next to the store. There’s a door leading back into the store, but I don’t ever recall there ever being a door there. Theo walks up to the door with a hand directing me to enter.
?“Ladies first.” He smirked.
?“I don’t ever remember there ever being a door here.” I say confused.
?“This is what I wanted to show you!” he said so excited.
?“But it’s a door…”
?“Go in and tell me it’s just a door.”
?I shake my head with disbelief. I open the door and the wall of the store is on the other side. Okay, this is beginning to confuse me. Had I been on drugs just a minute ago?
?“Yep, just a door.”
?“Oh silly me, only I can open it,” he said as if he already knew that. He then opens the door and there’s actually a room on the other side that wasn’t inside the store. I am almost not surprised anymore, almost. I still walk in like a child in a candy store. This room isn’t anything like the store at all. In fact, it’s about 10 degrees warmer compared to the awful British temperature. Theo comes running up behind me up to a table in the middle of this room wearing not his trench coat but a white lab coat. This room was dark around the edges but very lit up in the center. The floor was a silver metallic tiling. The room smelled of sanitizer and science stuff. I look behind me to just see the same door I walk in from closed.
?“Where am I?” I ask almost shocked.
?“In my lab,” Theo responded while entering something into a tablet looking device. The table in center of the room was what appeared to be a holographic looking table. Theo would be entering at the speed of light and graphs and numbers would appear above the table in a dim blue light.
?“Your lab has been in Waldo’s Mart this entire time, and I never knew about it?” I’m astonish to this thought.
?“Don’t be silly, that would be stupid,” Theo chuckled. I retreat a little bit as I feel a bit insulted. “We are in California.”
?“Wait, the California in the United States? That California?”
?“Yes, that California.” He stated not even batting an eye.
?“How did we end up there?” I exclaim!
?“Here, and well we aren’t here anymore.” He answered still typing away
?“What are you talking about?”
?“Well, here, let’s go back outside,” he says leading the way back to the door we came in grabbing his trench coat and swapping the lab coat. We walk outside to it being bright, cool, and noisy. “Welcome to Chi-town.” To my astonishment we are standing in the middle of a busy sidewalk. I pull out my phone to see where I am. The Maps app tell me that I am standing in the middle of Chicago.
?“Quickly now! We haven’t got all day!” He says going into a jog.
?“Where are we going?” I yell after him.
?“We have to catch it!” He says as he take a corner going right out of my sight. I hurry up to catch up to him. I turn the corner and Theo is nowhere in sight. I freak out a little bit. I am in a city I don’t know and the person I knew has disappeared. Up ahead, I see people pouring out of a coffee shop ahead. Makes the most sense of where he would be. I run towards the store to only be met at the door by Theo grabbing my hand running the opposite direction. “We have to go now!” I peer into the coffee shop to see that same thing that was in Waldo’s. This time it was a little larger, but I looked more technological than before. Its hand and feet were covered in metal plating and wires. The rest of its body was still translucent and dark. Theo is pulling on my arm and I run with him. As we are running I hear a crash of breaking glass behind us. I turn me head to see, to see Its first through the glass panel on the front of the coffee shop.
?In the midst of running, “Okay, think, this thing absorbs anything electronic and rewires anything to fit Its self to form something more harmful. How do we stop this?” he pants.
?“Go somewhere where technology is absent?” I was actually surprised by my response.
?“Then what would we have to stop it?” Theo shoots down, “We have to somehow find a way to shut it off from the inside.” We take a hard turn into an alley. We crouch down to stay out of sight. The screams of people can be heard as to say where It is. I look out the alley. Straight ahead I see the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry.
?“If that thing gets to that museum this could all end very badly.” I tell Theo.
?“It’s making a beeline straight for it, look” Theo said.
?“Don’t you have sort of tool to stop it?” I almost yell!
?“Come on,” He says getting up to head to the museum after It. “I have an It to catch.” We start our run to the museum. It is three city blocks down. Suddenly, A giant thing erupts through the roof of the museum. It’s the It. We stop dead in our tracks. He’s larger than before at least ten-fold. All the advanced equipment in the museum was now under It’s control.
?“We have to get out of here!” I scream
“No,” He says very seriously, “This is where things get serious. Lena,” He turns to me real close and face to face. “There’s something I need you to do for me,” He says staring into my eyes with a serious tone, “I need you to take this,” He grabs my hands placing something in them, “to the Door. You remember where it is?” I shake my head scared to death. “Go there now and place this on the table and come back. Go,” Theo says softly.
I take off running back to where the Door was. I turn to see what Theo was doing. He reaches into his trench coat pocket. Then walks head on into danger with his G-mod in hand. While other people were running away, he was walking untouched into the fiery jaws of assured death, fearless. I turn back with a little bit of adoration and inspiration. I get back to where the Door was. I look in my hand to see what Theo even handed me, an orange crystal-like shard. It glows bright orange and the Door opens. I rush inside to find immediate silence. I place the shard on the table. A tray then ejects from the side of the table. I small box, the size of a necklace case. I grab it and run back out the Door to bring it back to Theo. I run out, I’m back in London… the same boring London. I turn around to see the door gone.
He sent me home, leaving his only escape route to an insignificant cashier. He’s risking not coming out alive, so I could assuredly live. I kneel down before where the Door was, and cry.