Chapter 15: A Day In John’s New Life
John was sitting at his usual table while reading a book. It was another boring afternoon day at the Mystic Emporium.
Most days were like this for him.
Outside his regulars, he rarely would get new visitors. He was lucky if he got one new customer every ten months. Even his regulars didn’t show up that much. Scarlett probably only visited him maybe once a month, and Fenny hadn't shown up for some time.
If he hadn't become such good friends with his neighbors he would've been a lot more lonely, but like most people, they had day jobs. So, John didn’t feel like disturbing them just to relieve his boredom.
This place had become both a blessing and a curse for John. It provided him with everything he needed: clothing, food, money, tools, even the book he was reading, but in doing so he was left with nothing to do most days.
He didn’t need to work to live like others.
It made him realize how much of his own life he used to dedicate to his old job before coming here. Yes, he didn’t particularly like his old job, but it added structure to his life and it certainly was never truly boring when he was working. However, given the opportunity, he’d probably stick with what he was currently doing. Whatever that was.
He’d done this for almost fifteen years, in that time it didn’t feel any clearer as to what this job was or even why he was doing this. He was offered a choice and chose to help people, but he didn’t know why that entity wanted him to choose. What was the purpose? What did the entity get out of this? Was he doing a good job? How long was he supposed to do this?
The question of how long made John particularly nervous. Over the years of living here, there had not been much physical change in John's appearance in that time. Something that didn’t go unnoticed by John. He suspected that the entity had done something to his body, evident by the fact he woke up in this world with red eyes that were not his original color.