1 Chapter 1: Awakening

Subtly, yet suddenly, a crack of light split the darkness. The crack hovered there in the center of this darkness for but a moment, before it slowly began expanding, overtaking the confronting dark. A young man finally opened his eyes.

With the arrival of evening, the time for him to awaken had come at last; he, who had slept throughout the day, greeted the waning day. The young man hazily rubbed his eyes, unsuccessfully stifling a yawn as he did so, before stretching his entire body until satisfied. After the extremely comforting stretch, the young man surrendered himself to his overpowering urge to just be... To not move not think, and not want... To do nothing more than exist in that moment.

The young man enjoyed this slight respite before life decided to throw a lemon at him, one which happened to splatter lemon juice directly in his eyes; for right at that moment, his alarm went off, shouting at him to rise. The young man then did what any upright person would do: he hit the snooze button and continued to enjoy his moment of relaxation...

Several minutes later, another lemon came flying his way, as the alarm once again interrupted his rest. Having grown annoyed at the impertinent alarm, fully aware that he had no real reason to be, as well as at himself for ignoring the all-important reminder, the young man accepted the inevitable, shut off the racket-maker, and arose from his bed, rubbing his eyes once more as he did.

His eyes now clear of all its nightly(daily) crust, the young man now fully opened his eyes and searched for his glasses on the table next to him, beside the bed. His ability to see clearly restored, the young man looked blankly towards the glowing light on the ceiling.

"I guess I slept with the light on..." the young man mumbled to himself as he registered the light's current status.

Lightly kicking himself for his apparent blunder, the young man nevertheless honestly cared little about such a thing. His mind now rapidly clearing away the residual sluggishness, the young man pulled back his covers, swung his legs over the side of his bed, slipped his feet into his nice, warm slippers, and stopped. The young man blankly gazed at the contents of his "room", falling into contemplation for the umpteenth time.

Laying on the floor in the far corner lay a large luggage bag, stuffed full with a portion of his property. Laying atop that was another, slightly smaller case that was similarly stuffed full. To the right of those two bags stood a cheap, yet sturdy plastic shelf that held onto a sizeable number of books, perfectly organized alphabetically. The books lay claim to 5 of the 6 shelves on the shelf, with the final shelf loaded with miscellaneous papers and documents of note. Contrasting with the well organized books, these documents were haphazardly jumbled together in a random pile, seemingly just thrown there without care.

To the right of this "book"shelf stood a small stack of wooden boxes and containers, obviously meant for storage, and honestly not even belonging to him. These containers were stuffed with spare blankets, unused clothes to be donated, stowed away Christmas decorations, etc etc. It was where all things unneeded went to await the time they would be.

To the left of the corner where the two bags that actually are the young man's belongings lay, stretched out beneath a large window, stood a rather aged wooden dresser. This dresser had a number of items strewn across the top, random knick knacks jumbled together similar to the documents on the shelf.

On the other side of this dresser, opposite the two bags, stood a beautifully aged wooden work-desk. This desk, which was obviously quite used, was also apparently quite well maintained, appearing old yet new in a perfect balance. Resting on top of this marvelous desk was a good sized television set, linked via HDMI to a laptop computer, which lay to the right of the tv, and a PlayStation 4 game console, which lay to the left, in the far left corner of the room from the two bags.

Plopped down in front of this work desk was the young man's bed, a cheap twin sized bed that held nothing but the basic essentials required in a bed: the metal frame, a worn out box spring, and the stained mattress, covered in sheets to make it more presentable.

The center of this small room was mostly bare, only possessing a small number of cardboard boxes containing more of the young man's belongings and the bedside table. To begin with, the "room" itself wasn't even an actual room... The young man presently lay in a somewhat large loft space on the second floor.

This loft was barely big enough to contain everything it did and had no door as it only has three walls to begin with. Where the fourth wall should be was just an open walkway that was open to the hallway and stairwell beyond. Forget breaking the fourth wall, this novel begins without one altogether... In order to secure some modicum of privacy, a number of sheets were pinned to the ceiling between the room and hallway, but that could only do so much...

The young man panned his gaze through his room, taking in all that remained of his property. Releasing a heavy sigh as he closed his eyes, his head subtly dropping, the young man sat motionless for a small moment, just a second or two, before opening his eyes once more as he raised himself to his feet, ready to begin(or end...) the day(... the night) as he'll ever be.