Prologue

"BEEP BEEP!!! BEEP BEEP!!!" Jace's alarm blared out the same dull beeps it

always did every morning. Jace slowly opened his eyes and reached over towards his

alarm and shut it off. He laid on his back and looked up at the ceiling with tired eyes.

"Another day." He said with a sigh.

Jace groggily and slowly got up and sat on the side of his bed. His room was a

pretty average room. He had his bed on the floor against the wall, his computer, desk,

and chair on his left. And a dresser with his clothes in it on his right. Jace stood up, left

his room, went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. Jace was an average looking

guy. He had long and wavy blonde hair, hair that looked like a field of barley. And blue

eyes. Eyes like the navy blue of the vast, deep ocean. He went to his room again after

he did his business and had his devotions. Still waking up, Jace made his way to the

stairs of his apartment and climbed them slowly. He made his breakfast, which was

nothing too special. Just some cereal, tea, and a banana. He ate at his computer and

watched one of his favorite shows. After Jace ate, he started to get ready for work. He

put on his work clothes, went upstairs, packed his lunch, and headed out the door.

It was a beautiful morning. The warmth of the golden sun bathed his skin and

warmed his body. The birds chirped happily while other people were out and starting

their day as well as Jace. Some people were taking care of their gardens and some

people were having coffee on their porch. Jace got in his car and started it. His car was

nothing too crazy. Just a reliable point A to B kind of car. A good old 4 cylinder silver

gray car.

The sound of his car was a loud and beefy growl. It was straight piped after all.

Jace pulled out of his driveway and headed to work.

Jace, after a short drive, made it to work. He turned his car off and got ready to

start another day. The stress and lack of motivation was taunting him as he walked

towards his job. Every day just seemed like a lull. Just the same old, same old. Stress,

not so much stress, depression, the occasional laugh and happy moment. But it just

kept on repeating. No crazy new change really happened.

Jace worked at a grocery store. Not a big superstore or anything like that, but a

small community grocery store. He didn't mind it. But he didn't love it either. He entered

the grocery store and said good morning to some co-workers and went to the break

room to put on the rest of his work uniform. He wore black pants and a black shirt with

the grocery store's logo on it which was green. And on top of it all, he wore a vibrant

green apron. Which also had the grocery store's logo on it, but it was black. And in one

of the apron's pockets was an exact-o knife and a pen.

Jace went to the punch clock, which was more of an old tablet of sorts, and

punched in his employee number. It was 8 A.M. on the punch clock. That's when he

started work most of the time. Jace walked slowly towards the back room of the store to

start his daily work routine. The back room was a brightly lit and pretty big space that

had pallets with items on them strewn about. Jace went to the task sheet and looked at

what was on his agenda for the day.

"Hmm," Jace thought to himself. "Looks like just stocking shelves and organizing

some products today, nothing too special."

One of Jace's co-workers walked in to start their shift as well.

"Hey Rebecca!" Jace greeted her with a smile.

"Morning Jace! How are you doing today?" Rebecca said tenderly.

"Oh, I'm doing good!" Jace replied happily. But in his heart, he really wasn't that

good. He was still waking up and didn't want to be at work, all while fighting an

unrelenting emptiness in his heart.

After a couple hours went by, Jace headed back to the back room after putting a

cart of items on the shelves and entered the back room. While he was walking into the

back, he felt a tug at his feet and he started to tumble like a falling wall. Somehow his

shoe untied and he tripped on its loose hanging laces. He kept on falling, and it seemed

like everything around him started moving in slow motion. All he could see approaching

his eyes was the edge of the table with the task sheet on it. Before Jace knew it, his

head made hard and solid contact with the edge of the table with a loud "CRACK!!!" And

everything went black.