A Mind Filled With Misery.

"Michael!"

"Nora?"

Her little sister was at his side, calling out to him. He was surprised to see her. But then he looked around.

The playground not too far from their home.

"A dream..."

She held his hand and pulled her towards the tunnel slide. He had grown up, while she was still a kid.

He didn't resist, and followed her. He stepped on the sand that was surrounding the slide.

She climbed up the ladder and waved towards him. She smiled at him, and he smiled back. This was a pleasant memory. He wanted to stay in this moment for as long as possible.

She entered the tunnel.

Her laughter was audible as she was travelling through the tunnel. Nora was clearly enjoying herself.

He looked towards the exit. She should be out any second.

1 second. 10 seconds. 20 seconds. 40 seconds. 1 minute.

Time passed by, but she didn't come out.

He tried to call out to her.

"Nora!"

There was no response. He moved his legs to walk towards the slide.

With each step, his legs started to feel heavier. After taking 10 steps, it felt like his legs were as heavy as a boulder. Michael tried as hard as he could, but they didn't move.

"Damn It!"

He looked at his feet. As soon as his eyes saw what he was walking on, he was paralyzed.

The sand had been replaced with blood. It was dark enough to be closer to black then red, and the smell of iron was everywhere. The blood around him shot out thousands of strings, and trapped his body to the spot. He could no longer.

He raised his head to look at the slide.

"Nora..."

It had disappeared. Now, there were two people in its place, staring at him with a smile on their faces.

"Stay away from her. You do not deserve her responsibility."

The blood started to slowly cover his entire body.

His body was engulfed.

His face was restrained.

His eyes were forcefully closed. He couldn't see, feel or breathe.

All he had, was darkness and misery.

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The alarm clock started to ring.

"Shut up."

He pressed the off button. The loud sound came to a stop.

He had already been up for an hour, reliving the nightmare again and again. The alarm clock had snapped him out of his trance, wherein his mind was constantly processing harmful thoughts.

He placed his forearm on his forehead.

'Why doesn't it stop?'

It was clear that he couldn't forget it. 6 years had passed, but he was not able to make peace with himself. Now, the solitude was a major part of who he was. And he was fine with it. But the nightmares refused to leave him alone, no matter how much he tried.

He gave the clock another glance. 1 PM.

A huge sigh. There was work to do.

He drearily picked himself up. After getting out of the bed, he made some space in the room and did some simple body exercises. Head rotation, shoulder relaxation, two yoga poses, and 15 pushups. His work didn't allow him to do anything more, so he went straight to the bathroom to clean himself up.

After taking a shower to clean up the sweat he had worked up, he dried himself up and got into a fresh change of clothes. Another Black T-shirt, and black shorts with blue stripes.

'Should I get something to eat?'

He looked back at the clock. 1:25 PM.

'Food can wait.'

He picked up his phone from the desk, booted the system, and started his daily grind.

Cutting clips, rearranging them in order, going through the audio, getting stock images related to the video topic(An online messaging board review), editing them to match the video, royalty free music, adding text where required, going through the audio once again to see if all of this works together, chopping some more of the 1.5 hour original to get the runtime to 10 minutes, compiling all of this together to get the final cut, going through the video one last time, and voila.

2 hours passed in a flash. His opened the drawer inside his desk and took out an energy bar.

After tearing up the wrapper, he took a big bite.

"Yuck."

He gobbled up the rest of it, threw the wrapper into the trash can, and looked at his desktop.

"2 more to go."

He cracked his fingers, and moved on to the next video.

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"Excuse me?"

The girl was startled. She regained her composure and answered,

"Yes?"

The old man was a homeless drifter, known around these parts as 'Big Frank.'

"Are you...?"

He knew her, but he could tell from her expressions that she had forgotten him. As of now, she was trying to recognize him.

She stared at him for around 40 seconds. Finally, realization.

"Uncle Frank?"

He broke into a smile.

"So it is you..."

He raised his hand to place it on her head. She was slightly taller than him, therefore she had to lower her head.

She looked at his face once again. All the hair on his head had turned white. He had a thick unibrow, and his eyes were smaller than before. His wrinkles were deeper than before, and his body was slightly hunched. As a 60-something year old now, he looked a lot older than he should.

He took his hand back. As he looked at her face, he couldn't hold his tears back.

"You have grown up."

'Ron, you bastard. Why did you have to die?'

Frank cursed him in his heart.

The girl took out her napkin and handed it to him.

"Don't cry, Uncle Frank."

She knew exactly what he was thinking right now.

He wiped his tears with the cloth.

"You are right. This is no time to cry."

He gave it back to her.

"Nora, it is nice to have you back."