Seagulls swam chaotically in the sky and spiraled down to the asphalt of the parking lot to pick at some french fries someone left behind as Robert watched from the edge of the sidewalk, puffing on a cigarette one last time and casting it down then walking back into the building and returning to work. I wonder if she was pissed because of me for some reason, he thought to himself as he began picking trash up off of the floor that customers had left behind. "Excuse me. Do you know where you keep... Hey Rob, I need you to come to the front and cover Lisa's break." His manager had unwittingly interrupted the customer in front of him and he hadn't heard the last part of what the silver-haired old woman had said at all.
Rob pulled the earpiece from his ear and looked the customer in the eyes, smiling slightly and saying, "I'm sorry about that, I couldn't hear you. What can I help you with?" The old woman smiled a little in return and replied, "Oh, I just need a molding for the mirror in my two-story foyer. The mirror fell in the middle of the night a couple nights ago and scared the daylights out of me." Rob's head lifted in understanding and he nodded a little, saying, "Ah, yeah - I'm not sure we have that here." He looked it up in the system as he was talking and found that they had it online, but not in the store at all. "Yeah, we do have it online, but we don't have it in the store." The older woman grimaced a little as he continued, "You might be better off at a furniture store." The woman nodded a little and said, "Oh well. Guess I'm going there. Thanks for your help." He smiled and nodded once, "Not a problem. Have a good day."
Walking briskly away from the woman to the back room, Rob picked his coffee up from the table once he was there and took a gulp. He stared at the clear plastic lid of the cup and took another sip before returning it to the table and walking off to the bathroom, his thoughts returning to that woman he'd had a few instances of communication with who had suddenly taken off. He mopped the bathroom floor and walked from the lit-up Men's to the dark Women's, the photo eye of the switch catching his motion and the light flicking on at which point he mopped in there too. He had forgotten entirely about his manager talking to him a bit ago on the earpiece which now hung from the clip attached to his shirt. Once he finished mopping, he returned all the cleaning supplies to their homes and walked up to the front of the store.
"Hey Rob, can you cover for me real quick?" Rob nodded to Lisa and stood behind the counter in case any customers needed to purchase anything. The day went on as usual, Rob checking his phone intermittently to respond to messages and check emails. The crew all said goodnight and went their separate ways as it approached ten o'clock, the full moon making the night sky much brighter than normal as they all got into their cars and left. Rob whipped his car around quickly and to the light at the entrance to the mall where his job was, drawing to a smooth stop at the red light as his hands left the wheel. He turned on the stereo and turned up the metal that was playing to almost full volume, the light turning green and resonating over the grim expression that was so common to find on his face. His foot immediately found the floor with the gas pedal and his eyes darted forward as his car sped off, his left palm controlling the wheel as the front-wheel-drive car slid a little around the median. He shifted into second at 6,000 rpm, the car taking off from those beside it and Rob cutting over into the far right lane before turning right down the next main road. Not long after that he arrived at his house, putting the car in park and shutting it off almost instantly.
Rob got out and went inside, placing his things on the dining table and pulling a microwave dinner from the freezer. He set the time and let it cook, taking a glass to the fridge as it did and getting some water from the built-in dispenser. He took a gulp and walked out, the microwave beeping as he sat on the porch and lit up a cigarette. I wish I could understand what you wanted from me. Every day he would go and do what he needed to then come back and contemplate all the things he was paranoid about going badly or that were obviously going wrong in his life. He'd been doing research he needed to do for work when he'd first met that woman who he'd taken a liking to right away. It didn't much matter who he liked or what he wanted in life for the moment though, as he was locked down by a contract to that horrible job for another year. Well, maybe I'll see you at Johnny's cookout. He smiled a little as he thought of it, her face appearing in his mind for a moment before he retrieved his food from the microwave and ate right away as his stomach growled at him. He tossed the paper plate into the garbage and went back outside to smoke, leaning over and passing out on the couch he sat on after a little while. Waking groggily after about an hour from where he had fallen asleep on the couch out back, Rob stood up in the darkness and walked up the few steps into the house. He walked quietly to the couch inside and laid down there, falling asleep fairly quickly.
After roughly seven hours, Rob got up from the couch and walked out to his car. He put the key into the car, eager to go to the store and get his favorite drink. His slightly expectant expression changed to one of anger as the key turned, but the car refused to start. The inside lights blinked on and stayed lit, so he had a feeling it wasn't the battery. He tried again and the car started, though it was making a knocking sound now. Rob gasped slightly, his eyes wide as he whispered to himself, "Aww fuuuck. I threw a rod?" Anger and disappointment overcame him, his wrist turning back and the engine cutting off with a reverberating clack. Rob stepped out of the car and slammed the already dented door, the driver's window shattering as he did so. His mouth gaped open as glass fell into the car, his eyes wide with amazement. He didn't think he'd slammed it that hard. Just then his eyes narrowed and he looked around, a black van pulling up on the curb at the edge of the driveway and two men in black full body armor carrying what looked to be fully automatic assault rifles rushing him. His eyes bugged out and he raised his hands up just above his head as they got within a few feet of him, "What is going on?" His voice was shaky, his heart beating vigorously as he looked back and forth between the two armed men. "You're coming with us, Mr. MacAlvee." Rob's lips parted slowly as his hands descended and went behind his back, turning around so they could cuff him as he did.
No one was supposed to call him by that name in real life - because it was his alias as a black hat hacker, but these men who were probably from the FBI or CIA called him by it like they had something on him. As Rob was escorted to the metal bench in the back of the van, he asked, "So what is going on? You taking me to some black site or something?" The two men sitting in the front which was separated by a metal cage wall ignored his questions and continued driving, pulling into the parking lot of what seemed to be a wharf on the coast. There was only one boat there which appeared to be a cargo ship, Rob spotting other armed men in body armor on the deck of the ship and walking around the dock. The one in the passenger seat got out as the van stopped and opened the back door, unlocking the cuffs holding Rob to the bench and shoving him toward the back of the van lightly. "Get out, MacAlvee. The boss is waiting for you on the ship."
Rob jumped down out of the van and turned toward the ship, another of the guards approached him from the dock and grabbed his arm, saying gruffly, "Right this way, Macky-boy." Just as they were about to ascend the stairs onto the ship there was gunfire from behind them, police lights and sirens blazing into the darkness as the guards all scrambled to fire upon the small swarm of cops. One of them fired a rocket launcher at the police car that had pulled up closest to them, the body of the car exploding and vaulting up into the air as the man inside disintegrated into gray dust. Rob's right hand splayed out and extended toward what he'd just seen, the pitch of his voice rising a bit as he half-yelled in an unbelieving tone, "What the hell was that?" The man holding the rocket launcher approached him and said, "Something you're not supposed to know about, civilian." As soon as he finished speaking, the man brought the rocket launcher down swiftly on Rob's cranium - Rob crumpling to the concrete messily and laying there unconscious.
He woke up at some point though he had no idea how long it'd been, let alone where he was. He was in a mirrored interrogation room that was barely lit, a metal table in front of the chair he was cuffed to. "You ready to talk now, moron?" The speaker from the room on the other side of the mirror was on the ceiling just next to the mirror, Rob looking up at it before staring into the mirror. "I don't know how the hell you expect me to talk when I'm unconscious." The only door to the room opened, the girl who he'd been thinking about walking through the door dressed in a black suit along with her coworker. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me. You work for the feds?" A sweet smile as she stared into his eyes and raised the gun in her hand, the sights leveling between her eyes and Rob's forehead. "I've been waiting for this..." Her smile lacked the warmth it had just possessed a moment ago, just cold in those chocolate-colored eyes as she disengaged the safety. "I was going to take you with me to the feds, asshole. I loved you, but you had to honor your contract." There was much frustration and bitterness in the tone of her voice as her smile faded, a tear sliding down her cheek as she pulled the trigger.
Rob woke up in a start, sweating and almost hyperventilating as his mind attempted to escape the nightmare he'd just woken from. His mouth fell open and horror consumed him as he realized he was in that mirrored room from the nightmare, Melanie's words ringing in his ears as he looked to the mirror and a shiver going down his spine as he heard the voice from the nightmare through the speaker say, "Are you ready to speak now, moron?" Rob shook his head furiously and attempted to stand from the chair, realizing then that it was the table he was cuffed to. "Noooo...", his voice was much louder and more psychotic-sounding, "Stay away from me!" Just then the door opened and Melanie once again entered the room, pointing a magic wand at him and saying, "Hush, boy." Light burst from the end of the wand and struck Rob, transforming him into a disturbing looking jack-in-a-box - its arms flopping around as the spring holding its head bounced chaotically, the contraption much smaller than Rob's human body had been. The only thing different about this jack-in-a-box was the eyes, still human eyes that looked on in horror and disbelief.
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