1 1 - Acceptance Letter
As he soundly slept, inaudible whispers spoke around him. Coming from all around him, their jumbled works couldn't be made out by Liam.
"--What the hell is this…?"
Liam felt as though his eyes opened, though what he saw was the same thing he would see with his eyes closed.
He wasn't dead, or at the very least he didn't feel like it, but with the agonizing feeling of his ears being torn off by the small whispers of a brittle voice, he almost wished he was.
???: ["Tell me, Liam."]
A voice spoke to him that nearly drowned out all the quiet whispers. A deep, disembodied feminine voice that Liam could recognize, but couldn't pinpoint.
The voice appeared to have authority. It was as if everything else went silent in fear when she spoke. Intimidated, Liam questioned his surroundings yet again.
"--Hello? Who's there…"
???: ["You're so young, yet you have a mind akin to a psych ward. Why is that?"]
"What…? Who is this?"
In a softly spoken, yet demanding and penetrating tone, she uttered words that Liam only loosely remembered. They only brought bad memories; ones that pained him. He couldn't remember them exactly, but the emotions he felt hearing those words yet again were burned into his head.
When her voice retracted, the young-sounding voices that once whispered now sung musical tones. None were in key with another, nor were they in sync with one another.
Just at the moment where Liam believed he would lose his mind, it happened.
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"--Huh?!"
Liam gasped, quickly leaping into a sitting position as the alarm from his clock rang out, radiating a piercing noise into his small bedroom.
"Grh...Shit, dude."
Startled, Liam slowly sprung out of bed. He was an avid dreamer to say the least about him, so an experience like that didn't necessarily phase him.
It was the shock of being awoken by an alarm, something Liam hadn't experienced in years.
'Monday, January 6th. 2053'
As he rubbed his eyes and gathered his surroundings, he quickly walked over to his door, opening it to make his way to the small living room on the other side of his apartment.
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Liam was one with a skinny figure, about 178cm, and a head of shaggy hair that was a pain to fix each morning, which he barely bothered to do most days.
To most people, he was the exact interpretation of a 'lazy bastard' that wasted his life, which as a description he honestly didn't mind.
Liam sat down on the grey booth next to the kitchen table. He got slightly startled by the grey toaster when it finished cooking his grey piece of bread.
Grey, atleast to him. Liam was colorblind to most people, but to say he was colorblind wouldn't be exactly correct.
--
'News report confirmed the attacker at the local park.'
--
The news read, showing the face of a man with a scuffed looking face.
Liam: ["A dark red aura, hmph."]
Liam was able to see color, it was unmistakable in his daily life, though infinitely more limited than the normal eye.
Each person he passed by, male, or female, they all carried a single color with them. It appeared everywhere that they were. It was even something that was visible on a TV screen.
In his eyes, the individual colors that people owned clenched onto them, appearing as a ball of light at the center of their body. Each of their colors varied in brightness, though they were all vivid enough to see easily. Each of them were clearly distinct in size, but none were big enough to interfere with any other persons' color beside them.
The meaning of them was about as mysterious as the phenomenon itself. In his twenty seven years of life, no pattern, nor anyone else with his exact condition was something he could find.
As he viewed the kitchen table, a letter he recognized laid flat on top of it.
"CONGRATULATIONS, ____. WE'RE PLEASED TO INFORM YOU OF YOUR ACCEPTANCE TO THE NTANIS COMPANY. We expect highly of you, after reading, and comparing your full application with other applicants. We believe that you, along with many others, are most fit to join our team, and work with our team. The major details of your work will be briefed with you upon your arrival, proving your acceptance of the work that you'll be put to. We are pleased to welcome you into our future, and hope that you'll aid us in paving the way for the future of humanity. Best regards. Hopefully, we will see you with us shortly." - NTANIS Company President
He picked up the message, one from Liam's mailbox. it was an acceptance letter from the president of a company called "NTANIS" stating that he had been accepted into a new position as a Pharmaceutical Supervisor.
Liam remembered the interview with the man who sat in front of him in the company building so long ago. The man, who referred to himself as the president of the company, asked questions about his skills in the field he was applying for, and even asked about his personal life, as if he had much to say in that regard at all.
It seemed that Liam was always alone in his apartment during the day and night, wasting life on the casual things that modern life had to offer.
The job wasn't the most desirable, though a desirable trait was the pay. Liam was bound to make disgusting amounts of money. Something to really boost his ego. Atleast, in his mind, he fantasized about it. The job did pay well, but expenses came first.
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Upon dressing himself, Liam -- who was still on edge about even attending his first day, stepped out of his apartment complex for the first time in two weeks.
What greeted him was the dull, windy void of a large urban city. Huge buildings fit with logos and advertisements filled his field of view. The bustling atmosphere of the morning rush to work had Liam astounded in awe.
Seeing a functioning society always brought Liam enjoyment.
"Experiences we learned from the past really come together to create such a desirable future. Simple rules lead to such order. It seems as such, anyway."
Upon reading the address on the letter, Liam deduced that walking would be the optimal, as well as the only way of getting places for Liam, as close ranges led him to not buy a car.
"Jeez. Had it been this cold yesterday…? This sucks." Liam said to himself, chuckling quietly as he walked.
In the empty void known as Earth, the cold winter weather was the least optimal for Liam. His low tolerance to anything cold, along with his absolutely enjoyable twenty minute walk meant that he'd have an agonizing brisk morning each weekday.
"Green, blue, blue. Oh, an orange."
Looking around at the other people, Liam liked to take notice of every one's aura. He didn't have one himself -- in fact, he was the only person he perceived to not have one.
Orange was something of a rarity. Most people would have a green, blue, or purple aura. Only on occasions would someone have a yellow, orange, or red type of aura.
Hospitals in particular were filled with them, especially black auras. It was the only place Liam was scared of. Seeing such rare colors all in one place gave him shivers of doubt that he preferred to stay away from.
Liam's lack of color -- it was something he'd thought about a lot. If he had to guess, he'd believe he had a purple aura. There wasn't a particular reason, it was just his favorite to look at.
With no clear meaning, it didn't really matter which color he had, as long as it wasn't something he was scared of.
His lack of color brought out a sense of separation from others. Color was something of an identity to Liam. Animals were grey, landscapes were grey, even colorful rainbows had no color to his eyes.
He felt alienated by himself. Nobody else treated them that way, but Liam's lack of a feeling of identity caused him to alienate himself from others.
He wasn't sure why, it may have been a fear of being different, though regardless, his decisions led to the life of a recluse, even staying away from his family, who's faces he could hardly remember.
--
As he continued, Liam felt a drowse that he could only describe as an interference from another life form.
"What the hell...I just slept...right?"
Liam's vision became doubled, his walking became scattered, and his mind started to go off the walls.
"Okay...okay. This bad… this cannot be good at all. Take a breather, try to calm down."
As he spoke to himself, something that felt like a dream took control of him. He was able to see, but he felt as though he had tunnel vision.
"Shit...Shit…"
Immediately, Liam vomited up anything he had eaten prior. His disgusting expelled breakfast launched everywhere on the concrete. His eyes widened, going bloodshot with shock from his situation. It felt as though his eyes would pop out of his sockets from pressure.
His heart ached -- every single heartbeat radiated through his entire body and felt like his heart was trying to escape.
"Whispers…" Liam slowly said with fear.
A similarly piercing high pitch whispering sensation spoke all around his ears. Nothing looked out of the ordinary, but he felt as though he would hunch over and die at any second.
It was almost scary just how people moved on without saying anything. Most people just gave him a stare and walked around, leaving Liam to his suffering.
As Liam found a wall to sit against, a muffled voice -- one that didn't sound disembodied called out to him.
"Sir! Sir, are you alright?!"
