Westenwurt

Victor entered the warehouse for the first time. After passing the interview, Victor was ready for his first shift. He’d been hired to work as a forklift operator, and was ready for his first day. Unfortunately, his day wasn’t going to go as smoothly as planned. The manager of the establishment, a very serious woman named Kaitlyn, who had been present at his interview greeted him. “Welcome, Vic. We’re excited to have you working here with us.” Kaitlyn’s voice did not convey even a fading wisp of excitement. “Thanks.” Victor replied, “So what do I need to do first?” “We just need you to sign some paperwork.” Kaitlyn said. “Okay, sure.” Victor replied, a bit apprehensive. “It’ll be really quick, I’m positive.” Kaitlyn said, flashing Victor a very forced smile. “Alright…” Victor looked around the hallway that Kaitlyn was leading him down. Hanging on the wall were different pictures that seemed a bit out of place for a shipping warehouse. Different diagrams that looked like schematics

Rad approached her home after a long shift and went up to the front door, preparing to open it when she noticed a small package resting on the porch. She picked it up and examined it, finding her own name on it. Rad decided it must’ve been something she had forgotten ordering, and the best way to remember would be to open it. She headed inside and to her bedroom and placed the package on the desk. She retrieved a pair of scissors from a drawer nearby and carefully cut the tape open. Rad slowly opened up the package and there was an object inside covered in bubble wrap. She carefully started to unravel the covering, as the shape of the object within the bubble wrap started to come into view. The color was obvious first, as a bright yellow started to become more clear through the transparent wrapping. Next, the shape of the object got more and more clear as more and more layers were removed. After there wasn’t a lot of bubble wrap between the object, Rad could determine that it was

Victor slowly opened his eyes and looked around. The sun was only just barely creeping through the blinds into his room, not having risen long ago. He slowly sat up and stretched before climbing out of bed. Stepping out into the hallway, he was ambushed by his roommate, Alyssa. “Happy Birthday!!” Alyssa yelled at the top of her lungs. Victor jumped back slightly, before taking a moment to compose himself, “Thanks. How long were you waiting there?” “Oh…Not tooo long… I was actually heading to my room, but hey, if you’re up…I’ve got your present on the coffee table in the living room!” “Uh…sure!” Victor said, walking to the living room and rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He sat down at the couch and Alyssa came out a minute later, holding her phone. Victor looked at the coffee table, noticing the small wrapped gift sitting on the coffee table with a little blue bow on top. “Is that it?” “Yes, that’s the gift, what else would it be?” Alyssa replied sarcastically, “Sorry for rushing

Victor looked up at the large pristine building before him. It really overshadowed a lot of the nearby buildings, but hospitals were a fitting place to have such an imposing figure. Victor headed inside, holding a small flyer regarding volunteer positions at the hospital. Entering inside, Victor was stunned by the fanciful interior. He hadn’t been in too many hospitals, but he wasn’t expecting this. A lot of the walls were covered in small lights that seemed purely decorative, but reminded Victor of a server bank like something out of the future. He shuffled up to the front desk and sat the flyer down on the desk. “So…I’m here about the volunteer position?” Victor asked. “Oh, of course!” The receptionist said, “They’ll be happy to see you, come right this way.” The receptionist got up and walked down one of the hallways branching off of the main lobby. Victor followed quietly, until the receptionist asked, “So, what made you want to volunteer?” “I just like to help, where I can.”

It was a slow day. Alyssa was going through a closet, when she pulled out an old book, which was thick, heavy, and dust covered. She aimlessly flipped through some pages, until she came across something that didn’t seem to fit the ancient appearance of the book. A piece of paper had been wedged in between the pages as a makeshift bookmark. The only thing on it was a QR code. Alyssa pulled it out and turned it over, but there was nothing else on the paper. She walked into the living room and set the book and QR code on the table. Alyssa checked her pockets for her phone but it wasn’t in either. She sighed and walked off to her room to go find it, curious about the mystery QR code. While Alyssa was heading to her bedroom, Victor walked past her, heading to the front door of the apartment. “Where’re you going?” Alyssa asked, stopping in her door frame. “Oh, I was just heading out to go grocery shopping, it’s always super empty on Monday mornings, need anything?” Victor asked. “No

A young man was slumped in a corner of a large dimly lit room, sleeping. He wore a light blue hoodie and a pair of blue jeans. The ground was covered in empty beakers and vials, most of which had been slightly broken. Strange liquids were forming puddles that changed color every few seconds. The young man awoke and scanned his surroundings. “W…where am I?” Victor thought, slowly picking himself off the ground. He looked around until he spotted the only door leading out of the room. He walked over, carefully avoiding glass shards and puddles, and tried the knob. The door swung open easily, revealing a larger room that could only be described as a laboratory. It was in a similar state of disrepair as the room Victor had come from, different machinery missing panels or having wires exposed or cut up. The lab was empty of all life. “Great…what even is this place?” Victor thought, squinting in the dim lighting. A faded logo on the wall depicted a wave of water, with text underneath it.

Victor breathed in the salty air and sighed. “The sea…isn’t it nice?” they asked Alyssa who was standing next to them. “I prefer pools if I’m being honest…a lot less sand.” Alyssa said. “The ocean has such a mysterious air to it. And I love a cool ocean breeze on a hot day like this.” Victor explained. “Fine..fine…I suppose it does have its benefits.” Alyssa said, switching her glasses for a pair of sunglasses, and rolling a towel out to lay on. “I’m not going in the water though, that’s for you.” “Why’d you wear a swimsuit then?” Victor asked, gesturing to Alyssa’s one piece. “Like I’m wasting an excuse to wear this thing.” Alyssa murmured. “Maybe you’d like to get ON the water, but not in it.” Victor proposed. Alyssa lifted her sunglasses to make eye contact with Victor and raised an eyebrow. “You could ride on this!” Victor pulled a large box out of his bag in one swift motion and slammed it down onto the sand, kicking some towards Alyssa. “Watch it!” she hissed

Alyssa was checking her email and noticed an email from the management of the apartment building. Alyssa had been notified that the front desk of the apartment had received a package. Alyssa opened up the front door and headed down the stairs to the lobby of the building. After a brief exchange with the guy working at the front desk, the small package was in hand, and she returned to the apartment. Victor still wasn’t back from the grocery store, and Alyssa decided to check to make sure her little “surprise” was ready. Over the past week, Victor’s computer mouse had broken, and Alyssa had lent Victor a spare wireless one she owned. This led to more than a few complaints from Victor about how the mouse would be unresponsive at times and the batteries died at one point, giving him another complaint. Alyssa had been a little upset regarding the complaints after she had done Victor a favor letting him borrow the mouse in the first place, but just to stop hearing Victor gripe about it

As flowers took in the first rays of sunshine and birds had already begun to sing their love songs, two friends were busy searching for hidden eggs in the nearby forest. Alyssa had been contacted by someone organizing an Egg Hunt several days prior and was given few instructions of how the day was supposed to proceed. They were to go to the forest and the invitation listed some instructions about collecting and gathering the eggs, but beyond that there wasn’t much besides a line that said: “Have fun!” The pair had started with enthusiasm but quickly Victor was feeling discouraged by their inability to find any of the eggs that were supposed to be spread all around the forest. And even though they were trying their best, not much luck had graced their search. Victor was getting frustrated. “We’ve been searching for hours and we haven’t found a single egg! Is this some kind of joke Alyssa?” Victor asked as they looked in the direction they last saw Alyssa who was searching around some

“I’m not sure about this, Alyssa…” Victor said, “I haven’t been to a gym in a little while, I’m worried people are going to notice.” “Oh please, I haven’t been to a gym practically ever. If anything, people are going to be too busy watching me fail to lift the 5 pound dumbbells.” Alyssa reassured, “Besides, we can always just stick to the back of the room and nobody will notice us at all.” The pair waltzed into the gym and stopped at the front desk. “Welcome to our little yoga studio!” the lady behind it, “Are you two members?” “Yoga studio?” Victor asked, “I thought you said this was a gym.” Alyssa ignored Victor, holding up a poster, “It said that there were free group sessions for the first week of January.” “Oh, of course!” The yoga studio’s employee replied, “The next session starts in a few minutes, feel free to go in. It’s in room M03” As Alyssa took Victor’s hand and pulled him down the hall, she responded to his previous statement, “I thought it might be nice to just