AD21//Day 19 out of 25

The Music.

If I had not known or memorized the lyrics beforehand, I would've been lured by a siren's song. I designed it with the piano I used in my early days, the one that was taken over by slow-growing plants at the end of the apocalypse. There is a tiny accent in the voice that sung.

I gave up on my craft a long, long time ago. Even so, every now and then I find the drive to do it again. I asked my past self as to why he always had this come-and-go habit throughout the years, and he thought that the answer was that he loved doing it, so at the end of the day, or year, he would eventually do it again.

The star.
It symbolizes a certain word, one that was hard to pronounce for the child me. Pseudonym. Yes, that's the word. It was one of those words in a spelling quiz that everybody knew but him. After making that mistake, he always used that word until one day he found a better word, "alias".

The dew. The condensation by the bus departing at four in the morning.

The tetris levels that go on for more than two minutes.

The small differences that become your next life's obscure memories are not made of emotions, but false memories from a nightmare that woke me up in my bus seat. I awaken to the crowd around me that wasn't there before, and then I anxiously look for signs to find out where I am, whether I missed my stop or not. In another era, where neither buses nor signs exist anymore. Impossible, confusing things are all under the umbrella of the description surreal.

The nightclub with its flashing lights.

It's uncomfortable if everyone else is there, but when the crowd disappears, and the blockings turn invisible, it's wild. I'm hearing rapping in my head. I'm taking the chairs and throwing them off the roof. I'm reading the bathroom vandalism and laughing out loud. I'm burning the alcohol on the counter and pouring some of them all over the floor to act like I'm swimming in them.

There was a dog by the door. It barks at me softly. The door opens on its own, and the dog exits the nightclub.

Various breeds enter. The leashes come off.

"How are you?" someone without a face calls out at the back of the dogs. "I see this is the location you chose today. It's unfamiliar to me."

"Non-euclidean geometry."

"Yeah." the voice's owner fluctuates from masculine to feminine and back again after every word uttered. " And these dogs...? I don't like dogs too much."

"Trauma?"

"What? No! I just don't like them. They're ugly."
Pause.

"It's even worse that the flashing lights are of different colors this time. I remember the meteor shower you materialized once before. It was hard enough for me. Now, this? You must be some sort of light-manipulating jester."

"Edit this for me."

"From where I'm from, they say "Change it for me", not Edit."

"What do I sound like when I use the word edit, then?"

"A plutarch's research assistant. Like you're the type of person who kicks down a door and yells out the scientific names of a million types of animals."

"Haha. I like that. I should do that. Let me do that."

The white walls. They are tiled and smell of sterilization. Does sterilization have a smell? It smells of bleach and boiling water. I don't know if that is sterilization. The entrance of the nightclub is now a wooden door that I know is not locked. The flashing lights are now static, pure white fluorescent.

Three, two, one, run.
BAM.

"HEY THERE MOTHERFUCKER! PANTHERA LEO CANIS LUPUS FELIS CATUS CYGNUS OLOR APIS MELIFERA CARCHARODON CARCHARIAS AMPHIPRION OCELLARIS PROGNE SUBIS SIRIS OCCIDENTALIS LUCIDA!"

"I feel cursed by a witch."

"Ahahahaha!" I punch the door over and over and this person just stares at me, not knowing whether to laugh or to cry.

"Are those actual scientific names?"

"Of course they are."

"You memorized them?"

"No, I just pulled them out of the library."

"So you won't be able to remember them the moment you wake up?"

Wake up.

The beggars by the convenience store. I went there aiming to buy a simple bottle of water to complement my order for a bunch of spicy bread. A little boy and his sidekick go "Fuck this shit" by the corner. I mind my own business and take the bottle of water that costs the least. I enter the line towards the cashier. There are two people in front of me. Just a few seconds later, someone was already queuing behind me. The beggar kid approaches that person.

"Hey come on, just a 20. I know you people have a lot of money."

The rain comes. The cashier recognizes me. I control him.
"Yes. I know you."

"Do you?"
It's hard to control a person. My head hurts.

"Uh, uh...."
I make the two people in front of me disappear. I don't even remember their faces, even.

"What would you like to buy?" the cashier says. "You do know what you came here for, yes?"

"Yes, just this." I give him a medium cup of cafe latte. "This one is 20?"

"Yes. Just 20. So can't you just give it to me for free?" the cashier becomes the boy beggar. The beggar spits on the cash register. I stare him down and control him to get out of there. Unfortunately, I don't remember the face of the cashier anymore to control him to get over here so I can pay for my coffee.

I see the world outside of the convenience store. A rain is coming, and then after, a tornado. The store widens? The shelves become longer. There was a green hue, and even though I could not see the contents clearly, I knew none of them looked the same. I do not look up, and then I hear the cashier's voice.

"20."
I don't look up. I give him 20.

I stand on the automatic doors. I remember that I was originally planning to buy a bottle of water. I look down on what I bought from the store. Of course, it was a bottle of water.

The music plays. It was the alarm. The second one.