Ambsace

“Yo, Cyclops! Ed wanted to see you. He said it was urgent.”

Ryan’s colleagues made it a point to remind him daily that he was visually impaired and he hated that! But today, it didn’t bother him as much as it usually would have.

Ed was their boss and being called to see him had never ended well for anyone. Panicking, he quickly walked up to Ed’s room and knocked.

“Come in!” called Ed.

“Um, hi Ed…you wanted to see me?” asked Ryan nervously as he closed the door behind him.

“Yeah, you’re fired!”

Ryan was dumbfounded. Fired? He must have heard it wrongly. “Sorry Ed, but I didn’t quite catch that.”

“I said, you’re fired!”

“Ed…come on. You can’t do this to me. On what grounds are you firing me?”

“Sexual assault! How dare you pretend not to know anything?!”

“Sexual…assault? I would never! Ed, you know me. I have a wife and we’re expecting a baby!”

Ed clicked away on his mouse and when he was done, he turned his computer monitor to face Ryan. It was a security footage of the copy room.

Ryan leaned closer to see whatever it was that got him fired. He could see Lola making copies of some documents and he saw himself walk in.

Nothing could have prepared him for what he saw next.

He saw the Ryan in the footage assault poor Lola! She was struggling to push him off her. He couldn’t believe his eyes. He was speechless. He didn’t know what the hell was happening.

“That isn’t me! I didn’t do that to Lola! I would never do that to Lola or anyone!”

“So that isn’t you in the footage?”

“It does look like me. Exactly like me. But Ed, you gotta trust me, that isn’t me! I would never do that!”

“So, you agree that it looks like you but you’re claiming that it’s not you? Do you realize how stupid you sound? If you with only one functioning eye can see that it looks like you, then I with two functioning eyes can say that it is indeed you!”

“But Ed–.”

“No buts! Pack your things and leave!”

Ryan felt his whole world come crashing down. The walk back to his desk seemed to take forever. His mind was whirring with thoughts.

For the past two weeks, his luck had been on the downside. Something weird happened to him daily.

There was one day when he kept stubbing his toe whenever he walked past something. No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn’t prevent it from happening. His toes were so sore by the end of the day. The next day, it stopped but something else started.

On another day, his nose kept having boogers hanging out of it. He would only realize if someone pointed it out to him or if he caught his reflection somewhere. No matter how much he cleaned his nose, the next second, he had a booger hanging out.

Every day, there was a different inconvenience that happened to him. Some days were more painful than the others. But today was by far the worst. He didn’t know how Tahini would take this news. She had been very volatile lately due to her raging pregnancy hormones.

He also kept hearing this eerie giggling at night but Tahini kept insisting she couldn’t hear anything.

He thought the bad luck was Karma, finally catching up with him but that didn’t explain the eerie giggling. It was non-stop throughout the night. Some nights, he heard it cry but mostly it giggled.

Ryan cleaned out his work space, bid his colleagues goodbye and left his office. On the drive home, he kept reflecting all these things that had been happening to him. He didn’t do anything to Lola. Yet, there he was, in that footage.

He didn’t understand how but that footage had to have been tampered with. But who would want to get him sacked? More importantly, how would he break this news to Tahini? Should he tell her about the security footage?

~~~~~

Tahini jolted awake when she heard the front door close.

“Oh honey, I’m so sorry, I didn’t know you were napping.”

Tahini rubbed her eyes, “Hey baby…what are you doing home so early?”

“Um, honey…about that…I have something to tell you.”

“Wha–”, she stifled a yawn, “What is it?”

“I got fired.” Ryan anticipated an outburst but he got the opposite instead. She started sobbing uncontrollably.

She asked him in between sobs, “But how… will we get by? The baby…will be here…in four months.”

“Don’t you worry honey, I have good qualifications and enough experience. I’ll get a new job in no time.” Ryan pulled her into a hug.

Looks like there was still some luck on his side as she didn’t ask him why he got fired.

~~~~~

After four months, Ryan and Tahini became the parents of a baby boy who didn’t look human.

He had ingrown ears, his eyes were merged partially so it looked like an infinity sign, his nose was upside down and his mouth was below his chin. His feet were backwards and his hands were feet too.

Tahini blamed Ryan for this. She brought up Ryan’s birth defect that required him to get a face surgery as a baby, which in turn made him blind in one eye and his facial features slightly distorted.

Ryan was so heartbroken. He didn’t think his son would inherit this because his birth defect wasn’t hereditary. His parents and grandparents were normal. Everyone was normal on Tahini’s side of the family too.

He thought about his bad luck. Could that be the cause? He still had not been able to find a job although he attended countless interviews because they somehow always got messed up.

In one of the interviews, he got kicked out for attaching nude photos of himself in his resume. He had no idea how those photos got there. He had never even taken a nude photo before!

In another interview, they rejected him after the receptionist brought to their attention that he sexually assaulted her before entering the interview room. Ryan swore up and down that he didn’t do anything and requested to view the security footage.

And there he was, in the footage, doing unimaginable things to the receptionist. He just didn’t understand how he was doing that in the footage when he clearly didn’t.

In the most recent interview, he got thrown out because he kept flipping off the interviewer and couldn’t stop it no matter how hard he tried.

Tahini didn’t want anything to do with the baby. Ryan named him Logan. Logan had to go for surgery a few days after he was born and it cost a fortune. Ryan was the only one struggling to take care of him.

After the surgery, Logan’s ingrown ears were exterior but he was deaf, his eyes were separated but he was blind, and his nose wasn’t upside down anymore but he couldn’t smell.

His feet were reversed to the normal direction but his hands remained as feet and his mouth remained under his chin.

Tahini started working to support their family and Ryan stayed at home to care for Logan. He started to hear the eerie giggles during the day too now but he tried his best to ignore it.

Logan needed a lot of extra care and the weirdest thing is that he would never be where Ryan left him.

For instance, Ryan would put Logan in his crib to go wash his hands. He would only be gone under a minute and Logan wouldn’t be in his crib anymore. He would be in the attic or somewhere else. This hide and seek was an addition to his daily affair of bad luck.

Just like the unexplainable security footage, Ryan couldn’t understand how four-month old Logan could teleport. So he had to make sure Logan was in his field of vision no matter what.

~~~~~

When Logan was eight months old, Ryan decided to drive up to his hometown so that his mother could spend some time with Logan. He informed Tahini that he would be back the next day.

When he got home, the house seemed slightly emptier than usual. It took him a few seconds to realize all of Tahini’s things were gone. He clutched Logan tightly to his chest as he ran to their bedroom.

Everything of Tahini’s were gone without a trace. Like she never existed. His head was spinning. He scrambled to find his phone and dialled Tahini. His call didn’t go through. She must have blocked him.

He checked her social media and none of it were to be found. She had blocked him everywhere. He crumbled to the floor, still holding Logan. He was crying and hyperventilating.

He didn’t know how long he had been lying on the floor but only snapped out of it when Logan started crying. He went to the kitchen to get milk for Logan and stopped dead in his tracks when he saw a note on the refrigerator. He yanked it and read.

Dear Ryan,

It’s over. It was actually over once that baby was born but I didn’t leave then because I had to recuperate from the childbirth and I didn’t have any money of my own.

I wanted to leave you once I started working but you were always home! I could never make my move. But yesterday, when you left for your Mom’s, that was my lifeline and I grabbed it.

I have found someone else from my work. He’s not disabled like you or that baby you care for. He’s even better in bed than you. Yes, I’ve been cheating on you for many months now. All my late night shifts were at his place.

I don’t have any feelings for you anymore. There is nothing between us. Don’t try to contact me as I have blocked you. Don’t come into my life anymore. Goodbye.

Tahini.

Ryan let out a howl of pain so loud. He didn’t care if the neighbours heard.

~~~~~

Ryan was losing his mind. His savings were decreasing at an alarming rate as Logan’s medical expenses kept increasing. He knew he had to go back to work to support both of them.

Yet again, the same mishaps happened each time he attended an interview. He was still experiencing his daily dose of bad luck without fail.

There was once each time he drank water, it turned into pus the moment it touched his lips. He was severely dehydrated that day.

Also, there was a day where every time he moved, he felt millions of needles pricking him. He couldn’t stay put either as he was caring for Logan. He endured so much pain that day.

Ryan doesn’t usually set his alarm when he goes to bed because every morning around 7.00 a.m., Logan would start crying.

Today however, Ryan woke up to silence. He quickly shot out of bed and checked his phone. It was 10.17 a.m. He rushed into Logan’s room and peeked into his crib. Logan was sound asleep.

He then realized Logan’s chest wasn’t moving in rhythm with his breathing. He checked for a pulse but didn’t get one.

He carried Logan’s lifeless body, hugged him tightly and sobbed uncontrollably. He sat down cross-legged on the floor and rocked back and forth, crying loudly.

He knew this day would come as Logan was too disabled for human life. The doctors made sure to inform him of this. But Ryan had hoped for some miracle to happen. For Logan to heal. For Logan to survive.

Foolish Ryan. Didn’t he know that miracles don’t exist? Didn’t he know that having hope is just lying to himself? Didn’t he know that believing in something is giving himself false hope?

~~~~~

After the funeral, Ryan sat on a bench under a tree at the cemetery. He had lost everything he loved. He was just a shell of the man he used to be.

Today’s dose of bad luck was laughing. His family kept shooting him warning glances as he kept laughing throughout the funeral. He was laughing now too as he thought about how and when everything started to go wrong.

He had been having these daily doses of bad luck and hearing the eerie giggles for two years now. However, in these two years, only three major losses had happened.

The first one was when he lost his job. The second one was when Tahini left him. The third was when Logan passed away.

Something clicked in Ryan’s brain.

All these three major losses happened on April 17 of each consecutive year. That was too much of a coincidence.

He began racking his brain.

He knew that if he recalled what had happened on April 17, he would be able to crack the mystery of the daily dose of bad luck and the eerie giggle as well.

After several minutes, it dawned on him. He left her for Tahini all those years ago, on April 17. He broke her heart. She begged and cried for him to take her back but he treated her worse than trash.

He pulled out his phone and opened Facebook. He went to his Blocked List, unblocked Dahlia Ravine and went to her profile.

His suspicion was confirmed. Dahlia’s Facebook account was now a memorial account.

He scrolled down and found out that she passed away two years ago. With a shudder, he remembered what she had said to him last time he saw her.

“When I die, mark my words, I will haunt you. I will make your life a miserable, living hell!”
__________________________________________
Thank you so much for reading this! 🥰 If you liked my writing, please leave a comment, click the heart and subscribe for free!

You might enjoy this as well: