AEAJ - Chapter 6

Chapter 6 - In Which Justin Decides Something, And Is Threatened With a Wrench

Justin couldn't have told you how long he spent outside the building, his back to the wall. The salty tinge of sweat on his lips was about the only thing keeping him tied to reality; his vision was all color, no form, and there was only a dull sense of sound in his ears. He observed the world as if he was looking at it from a million miles away, and for all he knew, he was a million miles away. His muscles wouldn't move, as much as he willed them, and someone came over and asked him something, obviously concerned. He was vaguely aware of him making some sort of response, but he didn't know what. He must have looked like he was on drugs. And, to be honest, he thought, that would have been preferable to the reality. Justin attempted to pry his feet from the ground and make it back home before he drew any more attention.

Alright, then. Walking. One foot in front of the other. You just walked through...through time, or something. Surely you can make it a couple of blocks. Right foot, left foot. There you go. That was easy.

It was nighttime before Justin wandered sleepily into his apartment. He was initially surprised by the vaguely romantic presence of candles everywhere before recalling his light switch didn't work due to lack of electricity. He was not quite as surprised by Chadwick, who was eating Chinese food on his couch (more specifically, he was unsurprised at Chadwick's presence but found his food choice odd; Chadwick didn't seem the type to eat anything that wasn't colorful, low in calories or European).

"You know," he said, wiping his mouth, "General Tso's specialty was actually cakes. He was good with tortes, too. Pies, he never really grasped. I don't think the man cooked a chicken in his life."
"I suppose that's understandable. 'General Tso's Cake' doesn't have as much of a ring to it," Justin muttered, as he lay down on the carpet. Finding his way to an actual sleeping surface felt like much too much work.
"Went well, then?" Chadwick asked, cocking his head to the side slightly.

Justin paused for a few seconds before he responded.
"Did you know what was in the package?" he finally asked.
"I knew who wanted it delivered, and I knew why. I can infer what it was, but I don't actually know."
Justin hesitated again. He knew he should leave it alone. He knew there was absolutely nothing good that could possibly come out of asking his next question. This made him feel all the more foolish when he actually asked it.
"The hallway-"
"Anyway, you're hired."
"Excuse me?" Justin said, sitting up.

"I have to admit, I wasn't completely honest with you before. This wasn't just a test for you, but for me to know that you were right for this job," Chadwick said, as he took his take-out container to the garbage. The candles around the room cast a soft light on everything, but the dramatic shadows being cast made the apartment look smaller than it was.
"Most people would have walked into a perfectly normal apartment building, delivered an uninteresting package to no one in particular, and their lives would have remained largely unchanged. You, however, and may we note for a second that I was impeccably right about this, were able to see what the hallway really was, where it really led. Most people are far too ignorant of their surroundings to realize that sort of thing.
"She...she didn't seem to like what was in the package."
Chadwick sat back down on the couch, and was silent at first. He seemed to be choosing he words, which Justin hadn't seen him need to take time to do before.

"You can't run away from time, Justin," he finally said, in a voice that was a tad softer than usual.
"She managed to get a few decades more than she should have. Time had to move forward sometime. She-"
Justin interrupted him. "Wait, did I kill her?"
"Justin, she was maintaining her own pocket of time in her apartment for years, there was only one-"
"You didn't answer my question," he said, glaring at Chadwick, straining to read his expression in the candlelight.

"What you did was show her some sort of evidence of today's date, correct? She had stopped time. Rather, she kept it from ever entering her space; all you did was show her that it wasn't her decision to make. That she wasn't the boss."
That didn't comfort Justin. He began to feel sick, and stumbled into his bathroom. Chadwick sauntered over and stood in the doorway.
"Think about it. An apartment in an abandoned building in which time does not pass. Imagine if it were demolished. Do you have any idea the kind of horrible mess that would create for her? It may seem bad, but in the long run what you did was put things back in their natural order, and ensure she didn't get in any trouble later on."

The thing, Justin mused, that he despised most about Chadwick was that even when he couldn't grasp a thing that he was talking about (this, of course, encompassing most of their conversations thus far) he knew, somewhere in the back of his mind, that Chadwick was unequivocally right and to attempt to prove him wrong would most likely result in him looking like a complete moron. He always felt like a child in Chadwick's presence, and this made interacting with him an immense pain. And yet, Chadwick was the sort of person you knew instinctively you could never get away from, unless he wished it to be so. He began to wonder just how much choice he had in this affair.

These thoughts were interrupted by a stack of $20 bills being lowered in front of his face.
"Your payment. And a bonus, for your troubles. But I'm afraid I really should get going. Its been fun, but there's work to be done. This is your last chance. You've seen what I have to offer. You've received a fairly large amount of money, with which you could pay off your bills and go on with your horrendously boring and unstylish life, or push through the veil of reason and reality and make more money than you'll ever know what to do with."

Justin stared intently at the money in front of him. Even if he paid off everything, he had no job, nor a college to go back to. He was knocked out of his deliberations by a knock on the door. The voice of his landlord came through, some business about "rent" and "months" and several vague threats involving a wrench. Justin pocketed the wad of cash, and went to his bedroom to stuff what little he found important into a duffel bag.

Elmer Rocca was gripping a large wrench tightly in his left hand. Justin was a nice kid, and before this year he was always good about payment, but hey, he needed his money, and being a good guy does not make a profit for a landlord. He didn't imagine that, when it came down to it, he could actually do any of the things to Justin's head with the wrench he said he would. His arm, maybe. Not to break it, or anything like that, just a bruise. Maybe rip his shirt up a bit. That would teach him. Justin emerged with an effeminate man dressed in purple and red, and, well, Elmer didn't want to say he'd known it all along because there wasn't anything wrong with that, he lived in America and all now, but he'd always felt Justin had that feel about him. He shook Justin's hand, patting him on the back.

Having not injured Justin with a plumbing implement, he readied himself to head back, when Justin handed him a large sum of money, in cash, and informed him he was moving out. This, to say the least, made Elmer very happy. He was going to inquire when the marriage was going to be, but the two seemed in a hurry.

Chadwick had a stylish but decidedly nauseating shade of purple adorning his Corvette. He put Justin's bag into the back, as Justin took one final look at the life he really didn't care much for to begin with.
"So, where do you live?"
"Where do you think? England."