Chapter 2
Chad’s mind was about to break. He had never been one for complex thoughts, maybe the hardest thing he had ever thought about until now was when he was hitting up siamese twins and wondering which one he should talk to first. So when faced with this number of irrationalities in the span of a couple of hours, Chad’s mind decided to lump all of that aside and to start pursuing his phone.
He had left officer Bloom with the body with the excuse of having to use the restroom. Arriving at the doors to the engineering faculty he put his hand to handle and pushed but the door didn’t budge. He pushed again, this time harder but to no avail. Just before losing all hope, he noticed a sign on the door right above the handle that said in bright red and all capital letters “PULL”. He just hoped nobody had seen that, or worse recorded that.
Chad pulled the door triumphantly, this time the door did budge but only slightly. He was dumbstruck, the only other option of calling the police to come open the door wouldn’t work as his phone was what he was trying to retrieve. Looking at the door he noticed a second sign that read
“Opening hours:
Monday-Friday 10-17
Weekends: closed”
His mind started racing, maybe it was the lie of being a detective or some other divine intervention but for the first time in a long time, Chad started to think. Option 1, he could use a rock to break in through the window.
Option 2, he cou- CRASH! Broken glass scatters on the floor as a rock breaks the window. Carefully Chad reaches and opens the door from the other side. He brushes past the “wet floors” sign.
While walking through the darkened halls of the now empty university, another flash of white from outside. Once again the heavenly announcer spoke “As per the reincarnation contract rule 29: Additional material has been added to further make the first lie believable”. With that Chad felt a jingle in his pocket.
He couldn't care less as he was close to his destination, the men's toilet in the university’s gym. At the door to the toilet he pushed gently, after the traumatic event at the front doors he couldn’t be more careful. Luckily for him the door had a hinge that allowed for movement both ways.
A small creaking noise from the hinge was what broke the silence as the door rotated open. Looking in Chad could see one person looking him dead in the eyes. It was a middle-aged man with dark unkempt hair, sunken eyes and a pale complexion.
He jumped back, as did his reflection. The door closing between them as if to shut out the horrible truth. His tan was gone. Hair could be bleached and muscles be gained, but a perfect tan, that was something unattainable without the proper genetics.
After some deep breaths and steeling himself for what was now the horrible truth he realised that the best problems were those that were out of sight. So, eyes closed, Chad once again braved into the toilet.
If only he could get to the second stall from the right, he would be home free. Thus began the arduous tip toeing and shimmying forward and to the right. Step by step he could got closer and after what seemed to be minutes he arrived at his destination safe and sound.
Opening the door (which had to be pulled) was just muscle memory to him as this was the toilet he had been using for years. Now that he was safe from the figure in his reflection, Chad opened his eyes. At first pitch black, but as his eyes got used to the darkness he started to make sense of shapes. And there, on the toilet paper holder, nothing.
And so in the darkness of an empty building, from the toilet next the gym, a haunting cry of a man who had now lost everything.
“Fuck! Where is it”
Followed instantly by a red flash of the lights and the same heavenly voice as before stating “First warning”
