Last Thursday
Lately I’ve been noticing that things aren’t quite right. It’s hard to put a finger on it. Let me try to explain myself. Every morning I get up at six and go for a little run around the local trail. There’s a lake and a little hill. In the summer months when the sun comes up early, there are fair amount of people running, walking and just enjoying the view. It was a nice start to the day before work. But since last Thursday, I noticed that something was kind of wrong. I was pretty sure that the lake had always been there. I remember going fishing there as a kid and catching a decent sized fish, I forget what kind. But since this time last week, I saw that there was no lake there at all. Where it used to be was this massive rock wall. At first, I didn’t think much of it as work was on my mind last Thursday.
On Friday, I got up, put my running shoes on and went to the same track. This time, the blue lake was back. For the life of me, I couldn’t remember what the name of it was. Being summer, there were people on boats and ducks and everything. Again, I didn’t pay too much attention as I had a big sale to close today, and I was psyching myself up for it. So, I completed my run and just left it there.
On Saturdays I usually slept in until about nine and I usually go for breakfast with my girlfriend about ten-minute drive from my apartment. As I was driving, I noticed more peculiarities. I didn’t recognise any of the streets, but something was still guiding me and I knew where I was going. It was as if someone was downloading information just before I needed it. I finally turn left into the street and park right outside. My girlfriend Sarah is already there. For a second, I didn’t recognise her but eventually, all of my memories and feelings of her came rushing into my brain. I gave her a kiss and sat down, a little disoriented.
“You ok?” Sarah asked casually
“Yeah, just…” I didn’t want to weird her out. “Hey let’s go to the beach today, it’s meant to be a hot day.”
“What are you talking about, it’s middle of winter. You sure you’re ok?”
That’s when I realised that something was definitely wrong. We were sitting inside of the café by a fireplace. I clearly remembered driving there and feeling the hot sun. Sarah was giving me a concerned look. Our food came and I started to eat. I hoped that I was just low on blood sugar and a bit of food coffee would fix that. Suddenly, Sarah wasn’t there, she just glitched out of existence. I looked around, the noisy café became dead quiet.
No one remained in an instant, except for one man dressed in a black suit and he looked right me.
He got up, walked right to my table, sat in Sarah’s seat.
“Mr Leiter, listen to me very carefully, none of this is real.”