[Dear Author]

It was a day like all the others, the same repetitive turn of events that I've been living for the past years. But something felt different, I can't understand why, it was a feeling, that this specific day it was not like all the others.

A day like all the others.

Beep Beep

The irritating sound of the alarm wakes me up, any responsible adult would immediately wake up after hearing it for the first time. But I was tired, very tired, so I gave myself a few more minutes.

Beep Beep

But that irritating sound of the alarm wouldn't let me have my peace, so without option, I got up.

I have a strange relationship with my bed. In the morning it feels like it loves me, it feels like I'm lying down on a piece of heaven itself, a place that I would never want to leave. But in the night it makes me feel unwanted, rolling from side to side without being able to sleep, wide awake with a thousand useless thoughts in my head, everyday I have to fight myself to sleep.

I don't need to say it, waking up is the worst part of my day, it always has been, and I think it will always be.

Unfortunately I can't stay in bed all day, so I got up and prepare myself for my day, brushing my teeth, having breakfast, taking a shower, and in every of these actions I take a lot of time, not because I'm putting a lot of effort in it, but for some reason I like to waste my time in those actions.

The activity I most waste time on used to be my phone, I usually spend precious minutes of my morning on it, but I force myself to stop it. But every time in the morning I look on my phone to see if 'that' notification came.

But as usual.

'He didn't reply…'

A deception that I have to go through every morning, every night I go to sleep thinking that in the next day 'He' will respond, and every morning I realize that I'm just an idiot.

Another thing, a much more important thing caught my attention while I was looking for 'His' notification.

"I'm late…"

I wouldn't be late if I had woken up earlier, or if I didn't waste so much time in the shower, or having breakfast. Or waiting for an answer I will never get. But at this point I just don't care anymore.

Leaving my house I head straight to the bus station, and as usual, it's crowded, full of people, and once again, the bus is not here.

"That damn bus is late again" the lady next to me says.

At this point my lady, it's not late anymore, since it's already become routine. After countless other precious minutes, the bus arrived, so full that I questioned myself if I should enter it. But I had no option.

I always have a recurrent thought while on the bus on my way to work, I often find myself questioning if us humans are really a civilized species. I question a lot of things regarding humans achievements and the countless studies stating that us humans are the most civilized species on the planet.

The reason is very simple: if we are truly that evolved, why are people so unhygienic, the bus is smelling like a dead rat, I can smell the stinky breath of a middle aged man talking with a friend of his meters away from me.

If people don't use deodorant, perfume, the shower, toothbrush, shampoo, soap, can we be truly considered civilized?

Unfortunately that's an experience that I have to go through for at least a precious hour before I arrive. Which will be pretty late, and as usual I'll hear from my boss.

"You are late!" he says furious. His giant belly moves as if it has a life of its own while he speaks, and he spits so much that I almost had to take another bath.

I know it's true, and some part is my fault anyway so I just lower my head, "I'm sorry, it won't happen again"

He huffed, "You always say that, next time, I'm firing you"

I always promise to not get late, and you always promise to fire me, we are both failing in our promises.

As usual I sat at my desk and started doing my work, which is not worth mentioning, just boring customer service. At this time in the morning the only sound we can hear is the computer type, or the sound of the copy machine, and the murmurs.

"Have you seen it? Amanda has cheated Daniel" 

Poor Daniel, whoever you are, I feel sorry for you.

"What really? what happened?"

The two ladies that sat on my side like to spread gossip, one of them is named Jessica, I think, and the other Linda. The whole day, I swear that I haven't seen them finish a single task since I entered this company.

And as I sit between them, I got used to their conversation. My day resumes in dealing with angry customers and hearing gossip from the two women. I never heard so much gossip about others my entire life, Jessica for example talked so well about a certain guy named Bruno that even I started liking the guy.

Somehow they never fail to bring new information every time, they could write a whole drama tv show with the people working here with all the drama they two share. These two women make my day a bit more enjoyable, it's very entertaining to hear them.

But I still don't like these job, that's why I'm incessantly looking at the time, every fucking second, as I keep moving my feet up and down below my desk. 

I guess the happiest moment of my day is when the clock strikes 6pm, and I can grab my things and leave the office. If an Olympic athlete could see me running from the office, I bet they would feel envy. 

Usually that would happen, but I knew that my feeling was right, this was not a common day. On my way leaving the office I encountered my boss, somehow he managed to get fatter while I was in the office, and I could see on his face that he was not happy.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"My house"

"No way in hell, you are always late, you will compensate this time, now go back to the office"

I knew he was right, but even though, "No, I'm good"

He was taken back, I guess he didn't expect that, "What do you mean, 'I'm good'?"

"As I said, I won't go back, you can fire me if you want, I'm going to my house" As I said that I passed by him and left the building.

Behind me I heard him yell very loud that I was fired, and I couldn't care less at this point. I wanted to go back, but first I needed one last enemy to face, once again, the bus station.

Walking through the night city accompanied by millions of unknown people, most with the same routine as mine. But they are different, they know where they are going, while I'm just going around waiting for something to change.

As I was walking I saw the news in one of the countless led billboards, nothing interesting caught my attention on the news itself, what truly caught my attention was something else.

Date: 03/13/2024.

I knew it was not a normal day, I knew it.

"So it's my birthday…"

I got fired on my birthday, that's laughable, my father would be so proud, speaking of the devil, he didn't even bother to call huh. For whom am I doing this for? For whom am I continuing?

"So fucking meaningless…"

At least the ride back to my house was peaceful. God decided to smile towards me on my birthday and gave me an empty bus, almost completely empty, it has at least five people including him and the driver, but for someone that would get a full bus everyday this was a bliss. 

Getting my phone I did the only thing that could light up my day, I looked for 'That' notification, once again I was disappointed.

I couldn't help but let out small chuckle, "I guess god won't give me two birthday gifts"

After confirming that there was no notification I opened the website and decided to once again try something useless.

[Tales of Outer Worlds, Written by NwF]

I open the list of chapters and scroll down to the end of it, finding the last chapter 'The end'. I clicked it and opened the commentaries, and countless commentaries appeared on my screen. All of them belong to the same username, my username.

Alone62, I was a teenager and thought that it was a cool username, but I guess I became too old for this kind of thing.

I begin once again to read every comment that I post.

[Alone62: Dear Author, I hated the end, you had so much potential and you lost it all with this end, it was truly disappointing, please consider rewriting it.]

[Alone62: Dear Author, I want to express more in detail about the things I disliked in this ending. First of all, killing the main character was something completely stupid…]

[Alone62: Dear Author, I want to apologize for my last comment, I was mad and I used so offensive words against you and your work, I'm truly sorry, but please, consider rewriting this end]

[Alone62: Dear Author, I'm once again here to ask you to rewrite the end]

[Alone62: Dear Author, I…]

[Alone62: Dear Author…]

Sighing I begin to type another comment, I decided to write every tiny piece of hate I had for this end, it was a good novel, not the best, but definitely good, but the last volume and the end were terrifying, truly bad, and I feel bad for it, because it's my favorite novel.

Suddenly I noticed that I reached the word limit of the comments, and decided to exclude the whole comment. Taking a breath I recompose myself

Let's be direct, one last time.

[Alone62: Dear Author, Please change the end]

I clicked send and then turned off my phone, this is the last time, the last time I will comment on this novel. If he doesn't answer this time, then it's time for me to move on.

Yeah, I can't continue to live like this, I need to find another hobby, and start to search for another job as well, and I also should try to save money to buy a car.

Yeah, I should do that.

Suddenly I felt a vibration coming from the phone on my lap, I grabbed it and turned it on, and there I saw the one notification I've been waiting for this whole time.

"It can't be"

I unlocked my phone and went towards the comment section on the last chapter, and there I saw it, an answer, the answer I've been waiting for this whole time.

[NwF: Hello Alone, I'm truly sorry that my 'End' didn't manage to satisfy you, but after seeing your persistence I decided to propose something to you, do you wish to hear?]

In the same moment I answered it, [Alone62: Yes]

And a second later I receive his answer, [NwF: I'm busy at the moment, but if you truly wish to 'See' another 'End', I could let you 'Write' another 'End' for this story, what do you think, do you wish to change this 'End?]

Without hesitation, I gave my response, [Alone62: I do]

I anxiously waited for his answer, without taking my eyes away from the screen, I was so focused on the phone that I didn't even notice my surroundings.

[NwF: Very well, good night, and good luck]

I read those words without understanding them. Suddenly my mind which was focused on the screen slowly began to notice my surroundings, and the first thing I noticed was the loud sound of a truck horn.

I looked at my side and saw the truck's headlight that almost made me blind momentarily, following the sound of the horn.

I felt the impact, and then, darkness.