Chapter 3 - 1 AM, not a morning person
January 3, 2021
1:00 AM
To the wind,
Just so you know, I'm never gonna be a parent. Like, not at all.
So, you're probably wondering, why the random declaration? What's an insomniac who can't get out of bed in the morning is doing at 1 AM in the morning writing an entry in his diary?
You're probably thinking that I couldn't sleep a wink so I just decided to write.
Well, as luck (or bad luck... do people say that? Probably not, doesn't matter) may have it, today, or should I say yesterday, was one of the exceptions, like the day before that...
I was tired okay! I'm still an insomniac. It's just that working my ass off makes sure that I have no energy left at the end of the day.
Taking care of a kid makes sure I'll have enough work to be tired at the end of the day. What I didn't know was that the day could start as early as right now.
Of course, the kid wanted to know where her parents were.
I mean, who can blame her?
They hadn't come back in a few days.
But 1 AM? Really? When does she even sleep?
Anyway, I took that opportunity to ask her what she knew about her parents. I needed to know if they would... could be coming back any time soon.
She said her mother was super tall, taller than me. Not a surprise considering I'm a bit of a midget. Not too small, somewhere around 5'6... She tried to think of something else she remembered about her mother.
Nothing.
She started panicking. She misses her mother but can't remember anything about her. It's only natural for her to feel kinda... I don't know the word to describe this. Just a bit like your missing something important.
As for her dad, it wasn't much better. She couldn't remember much about him. She couldn't remember his face well, but see said it was mostly angry about something. Still, according to her, the last time she saw him, he smiled for her. Then she pulled out this old looking children's book with a butterfly like symbol on it.
Never seen it before, to be honest. It also looks like it was recently drawn on the book. There was something written on it too,
"This is a little gift from me. It may not be much but I want you to promise me that you will never, never lose this book. It's a very important mission for you.
-Love, Dad"
"See! He gave me this gift and told me to keep it safe until he comes home!" She said, cheering up a bit. "This was his the first gift he gave me!"
I just replied, "Yeah... pretty neat."
She didn't know too much about her dad too, but it didn't seem to affect her.
Still, that symbol bothers me... something about it is odd. It reminds me of the symbol I found in this book. The book I got from... someone... I don't think I knew him even before the whole shadow business.
I didn't pay much attention to it when I got it, but there's more to these than meets the eye.
May said that she didn't want to be alone so I found a sleeping bag and brought it to her room and slept on the floor. Never used one before though so I won't know how I'll manage considering that I move a lot in my sleep.
Pray that I don't end up in a yoga pose in the morning,
Joseph
-
So, now it's 8 in the morning. I woke up in the same position I slept in and I feel great! Now to try and make some breakfast.
Also, this is pretty weird, but the internet is still online. I mean, I've heard of some diligent workers but this is just waaaaay too much to be just a few people running the internet. That's assuming there's even anyone left manning whatever systems are involved.
No time to think about that now, May's hungry. I gotta fix something up. Looking up "Simple breakfast recipes"...
Wish me luck,
Joseph
-
To the wind,
So after searching for easy to make breakfast recipes for upwards of half an hour, we ended up having some eggs and bacon which is pretty easy, even for me. It barely takes any time so I won't get distracted easily either.
May put her dishes in the sink (Applause to her parents for that. My parents know... knew how hard it was to get me to do that when I was in my teens) and went over to her book. It was the one her father gave her.
The symbol is still bugging me through. It kinda looks like a butterfly but I'm not really sure what it's supposed to mean. I mean, it could be a well intentioned drawing for her by her father but something tells me that there's something more to it than that.
Now that I think about it, she was sleeping with the book in her arms last night too. It was with her in the morning as well. Maybe she's taking the thing her father said a bit too seriously.
I asked her more about her father. Specifically what he was doing for a living. She told me he worked as a ghost person. Probably means that he was a spirit medium or an exorcist or ghost hunter or one of those kinds of people.
Still don't think any of those things are real. Doesn't mean that they can't be, just that I don't believe in them. I'm more of a seeing is believing kinda person for that kinda stuff. Until I have proof, I'm on the fence. And no, I don't think that these shadow things count as ghosts, then again, I'm not an expert on that kinda stuff.
"He told me it would keep the monsters away," May said, probably because I look more than a little confused when I'm thinking and writing.
Is that why we're still alive? These symbols we have on our books, I mean... does it need to be on a book?
For now, we'll just have to keep them close... just in case. Maybe there are others that survived. If they have a symbol too, that would mean that the two are related.
I guess I'll post something then. My lack of followers is gonna make it hard... I wonder if anyone will see it to... Still, better to have some chance rather than no chance at all. I'll post it eventually.
Anyway, May's calling me. She says she wants to show me something.
See ya later then,
Joseph
-
To the wind,
Alright, so I'm going out for a minute to collect some of the food in the restaurant. I'm assuming a significant amount is outside so I hope it hasn't gone bad.
Some of it probably has.
Hope I can salvage whatever's left.
If it's good, we won't have to eat my cooking for a bit... Yeah, I think that would be for the best. The less we have to eat what I make, the better.
Anyway, I'm just writing this down on my way to the ground floor. Apparently, the elevators still function properly. How the hell does that work? I should probably stop using this though. No clue as to how long this thing will last. Probably gonna need to search for someone who's got some knowledge about this kinda stuff.
Reached my floor, I'll write when I get back.
Joseph
-
To the wind,
So... I decided to make a short stop at the grocery as well. Got some veggies that we can shove into the fridge. Stuff looks fine for now. Also bought some basic necessities... water, packaged food for when stuff starts going bad. The refrigeration here works well too. Nothing's broken down yet. Some things even look well maintained.
It has just been a few days though. It'll probably break down soon. I hope I can set up a way for the two of us to survive.
If I can't, all I can do is pray that there are others still out there.
Frankly, I think we're screwed if we don't find other survivors with actually useful specialisations... like a mechanic, a cook, a doctor... can't think of anything more for now. I'll add others later I guess.
Or not.
Anyway, see ya later. I gotta set up lunch.
Joseph
(P.S. Back to the list of professions we need, we could use someone with survival skills, preferably who has alternate solutions to quenching their thirst than drinking their own piss. Can't remember who that was, but I remember someone drinking something from piss on TV.
Maybe a hunter who spends long stretches of time in the wild. Then again, he or she'll probably tell us to eat moss or something even when we have perfectly good food available. They may be a weapons expert as well which would be nice.
Maybe a weapons otaku with a weapon collection would help if there are any dangers that can be shot or sliced or bashed to death... It's not because I've always wanted to handle a blade that isn't a kitchen knife or anything... baka!)