Shattered Reality: Zenoda Chyrim

My name is Zenoda Chyrim and I’m either caught in a black hole of depression or I’m merely in a dark tunnel with light surrounding me. I used to be part of a rebel group but now I’m uttered blindsided. What is reality one might ask? That is a darned good question. I wasn’t always someone lost in a tunnel, but now this is my new reality. One shard of many shattered mirrors. Where will I find a new reality? Only time will tell. Perhaps I should go back to when this all began, only hours ago it seems to me, or rather now it is considered a lifetime ago because I have no way of knowing when I will return to somewhere other than this unknown Purgatory.

Three Days Prior…

Barnes Point, CA. 2018

“Zenoda, what are you up to this fine morning?” Jarrold Cord called to me.

I turned to face him with mild curiosity. Unlike me with my purple hair in disarray all the time, Jarrold had smooth black hair, neatly tied in a tail down his back. His sharp green eyes regarded me with polite courtesy.

I grunted. “Fine.” Then I turned back to observing the tree backlit in the sunlight. It had an odd reddish hue to the bark. I appreciated how wild and barren it looked. After all, it wasn’t summer-time yet despite the predictions of various critters used as an excuse to have a party.

Quite frankly, I wasn’t amused with all the frivolity and simultaneously the hatred promoted in the world. I’d come to the conclusion that I’d either been born in the wrong century or just didn’t fit in with the whole, “Ya gotta promote something or bitch and hate on something,” mentality floating around around us.

I didn’t need that stress while an unemployed college student searching for work while completing a degree or two. It isn’t as though I hadn’t worked before, or gone through college for that matter. I had, but I’d taken some detours down “Life of Hard Knocks” reality tour and that seriously threw me for a loop.

Nowadays, I just do my own thing and right now that didn’t include having a man in my life. I’m aware of my drawbacks. I’m weird, a misfit, introvert, and who the hell knows what else. I also don’t do well with social interaction half the time either.

However, if someone needs help or makes an interesting case of why they need volunteers to help out, I’ll do it. I’m not interested in flashy gimmicks or weird stuff. I tend to investigate what I’m asked to do in order to make sure I don’t get scammed or later arrested for entering into assisting with a scam. Let’s just say my past was filled with misadventures I like to refer to as life lessons learnt the hard way.

“You are such a grump. Why are you so hostile nowadays?” Jarrold grumbled. “I distinctly remember a time when you actually enjoyed life.” He walked to my side. “That is an awesome tree. it is beginning to show signs of life.” He didn’t approach it, just stood at my side.

“You lied to me about what that job entailed, and I got fired from my previous one which I had held onto for almost a year.” A record since I tended to have trouble conforming. With my previous job, where I’d done data entry, I’d actually enjoyed the work because I could dictate my own hours and I telecommuted more often than I’d gone into the office.

Jarrold was speechless. “Okay,” He sighed. “I apologize for getting you mixed up…when did you lose your job?”

“Two hours after I was arrested, jerk.” I refrained from saying what I was thinking because I knew there were kids that enjoyed listening in on conversations. They had the bad habit of repeating everything and telling who’d they learned the foul language from.

“What happened after that?” Now he looked shocked.

I regarded him coolly. “I’m still looking for more work, but my data entry boss decided to ensure I couldn’t work in her industry ever again.” Now that I thought about it. That woman hadn’t liked me from the very beginning. I don’t know what I’d done, beyond the fact that I was an utter misfit, to piss her off.

“Oh, Mrs. Carter of Soliz?” Jarrold grimaced.

“Yup that is the one.” I agreed calmly. “Oh well, it wasn’t as if I was going to stay there for much longer.” I broke off when the ground shook beneath my feet. “What the hell?”

“Earthquake?” Jarrold frowned.

It didn’t feel like that to me. I knew what one was, having grown up in California. No, this was something different. Even as I thought it, the tree jerked, split, and odd green light spilled from it.

To my shock it engulfed me and I no longer saw, heard, or felt anything at all.

I’d fallen down a rabbit hole, but don’t know where I’d gone, or where I would wind up.

So this story ends, or restarts elsewhere, while I learn what my fate will be.