I ran back up to my room and hastily logged onto my computer. My username was “superlewis223,” and I’m not going to tell you my password. I opened my browser and typed “WHO THE HELL IS THIS GUY” into Google. In my anger, I failed to realize that this search query would probably lead to nothing useful at all, since Google cannot read my thoughts (as far as I know). After my mood calmed down a bit, I logged onto Facebook and searched for a profile with the name Blank. Luckily, Blank is not a very common name for a person, and there were few profiles with such a name. Their faces all displayed a certain type of despondency, typical of people with strange names. Except for one. The man portrayed on this profile had a mischievous looking grin, and it almost felt like he was staring at me through the screen. I knew that this must be the Blank I was looking for.
After surveying his profile a bit, I deduced several key details. For one, he posted every day at precisely 5:00 AM a photo of his face after waking up, always stuck in that same insidious smile. Intentionally so, I’m sure. Nothing this man ever did was unintentional. That brings me to my second discovery: this man was of monumental intellect. He frequently posted about impenetrable mathematical equations and logical conundrums. This could be an issue, as smart people were one of my biggest fears. And fear was also one of my biggest fears. This scared me. I had to get my revenge on Blank as swiftly as possible. I scanned through the important data of his posts in order to triangulate the exact position of his house. In other words, I looked at the home address he had put in his bio.
Bushville, where Blank lived, was a few towns over; it was about a 6 hour drive. In the overall distress of this morning, I had completely forgotten to eat any breakfast at all, and the tear-contaminated cereal was absolutely a no-go. My stomach began to notify me of my oversight, and so I stopped to get some breakfast at a gas station. This particular gas station had been here for at least 15 years, but I can’t remember a single time that the floor near the front entrance was stain-free. True to tradition, as soon as I walked through the all-knowing automatic doors, I stepped into a small puddle of what I assumed was orange juice, making my shoes sticky for the remainder of my visit. Utterly fascinating. Now, I would have gotten some milk at the gas station to quench my thirst, but they only had the shitty kind, like whole milk and almond milk. If it isn’t 2%, then it might as well be piss. Given that I still could not get any milk, I decided to grab a Lunchable from the shelf. I did not pay for it, but even as I walked through the orange juice puddle again, with my eyes locked onto the cashier’s eyes, his locked onto mine, he did not make any move towards me. We were in some sort of agreement, though we had never exchanged a word, that I could take whatever I wanted from this gas station without paying. I liked this guy. In my mind, I pictured him as a very successful and wealthy gentleman who owned a private jet and a luxurious mansion. This was in spite of the fact that he worked at a gas station.
I was walking towards my vehicle when my phone emitted a small vibration. It was a text from an unknown number which read:
“BACK OF WALMART ON SPRUCE AVE AT 12:OO PM TODAY GO THERE PLEASE”
What? Who sent me this? I don’t know about any Spruce Avenue in this town, and trust me, I know every road. Did Blank do this? This is the exact kind of trickery he would use on me. Whoever did it, I couldn’t act upon their wish even if I wanted to. It was only 10:00 AM, and I did not know where this Walmart was. I took a screenshot of the text out of respect and put my phone back in my pocket.
As I was driving to Blank’s house, I eventually did stumble upon a road called Spruce Avenue, in a little town called Brayfield. This avenue did indeed have a Walmart, and this Walmart did indeed have a back. However, it was still only about 11:00 AM, so I couldn’t go there yet. Instead, I decided to explore this small town to see if I could find anything useful. Looking in all directions from there, all I could see was the Walmart, a small computer parts store, a McDonald's, and an apartment building. There was probably more to this town than that, but in my eyes, this was the entire world to the inhabitants of Brayfield. I tried to imagine what that would be like, only ever seeing 4 buildings for your whole life. What a depressing thought. I already did not like this town.
I decided to check out the Walmart first. From the outside, it looked quite similar to a Walmart. As I entered the building, I noticed that the interior also bore quite a heavy resemblance. It wasn’t a very large Walmart; I was almost able to see the entire width of the store from the front door. This place had the usual wide selection of products that you would expect from a supermarket, including basic forms of weaponry. I decided to purchase a small pocket knife, as well as a small handgun. I hoped that these purchases would prove unnecessary. I went to the snack aisle to grab something small when I noticed a small caterpillar wriggling across the floor. It was beautiful, its green and yellow exoskeleton shining under the fluorescent ceiling lights. I instantly crushed it under my shoe, because it was a disgusting creature. My appetite had faded after that.
After leaving the Walmart , I decided to go look at the computer parts store. It was called Ted’s Ware, and across the front of the building a small banner was hung which read “MASSIVE SALE! 30% OFF EVERYTHING!!!” Despite this flashy display, the inside of the store looked pretty much empty, with the lights completely off. I decided to walk in anyways, and was immediately greeted by the smell of mold. This store hadn’t been open for business in years. I looked for a light switch, finding one behind the front desk. With this enhanced vision, I could now see clearly that most of the shelves were empty, with the items that remained looking antiquated, covered in dust. Still, I wanted to see if there was anything I cared about. Most of the stuff on the shelves were just outdated keyboards, mice, and other miscellaneous internal parts. However, there was a small software section, with a couple CDs remaining. I picked up a particularly unprofessional looking disk, noticing that somebody had scrawled “family photos” on its reflective surface in red marker. Feeling intrigued, I put this in my pocket and left the store.
Finally, I decided to venture across the street to the apartment building, ignoring the adjacent McDonalds (I’ve seen plenty of tragedies in my time). The apartment building lobby immediately relaxed my mood as I walked in, with its smooth beige walls, soft burgundy carpet floors, and generic smooth jazz quietly playing over an overhead speaker. This room had been designed by a highly trained professional to achieve the most serene environment possible, and there was no doubt to that. The front desk currently had no employee attending it, but there was a small piece of paper left there which read “Back soon!” I did not feel like waiting for this employee to return, soon as it may be, because I had no reason to speak to any employee at this facility. At this point, I decided I would knock on the door of the first apartment I saw and ask the person within some questions. I walked up the stairs to the first floor, and proceeded down the first hallway I saw. I could see the doors of at least a dozen apartments from here, but true to my goal, I approached the first door on the left and began to knock. Initially, I had no results, but after about 10 seconds I heard a stirring within the room and stopped knocking. Footsteps began to grow closer until the doorknob twisted counter-clockwise and the door opened towards me.
“What do you want?” the man inside asked with a tinge of confusion.
“I just wanted to ask you a few questions about your experience here in Brayfield.” I explained.
“Sorry, I’m not interested.”
The man began to shut his door, but I quickly lodged my foot between the door and the doorframe, causing no small amount of pain.
“I don’t think you understand. I’m not a solicitor or debt collector or anything like that, I just want to know more about your perplexing little town.”
“Fine, if you say so. What do you want me to tell you?”
“Tell me about your life here! What do you do every day?”
“Well, I work at that Walmart down the street right now, though I’m off today. I used to work at that old tech store next to it, but they had to close their doors.”
“And why is that?”
“I don’t know man, don’t ask me. I have better things to do.”
The man shut his door once more, but too quickly for me to try and stop him. I was quite frustrated at this moment, but I did not yell or knock on his door again, as that certainly wouldn’t convince him to tell me more. I checked my watch and saw something that made my heart drop. It was 12:03 PM. I should have been behind that Walmart 3 minutes ago.