Sunday's Best

“Sunday’s Best”                                        

William Butt

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word count: 1634





         





Chapter 1

The Crossroads

Brent Sawyer woke up and found himself in a damaged land.  He scanned the territory that lay before him.  Vast hills rolled before all strewn dead or dying trees.  Grass was nonexistent the ground was covered by a dusty grey dirt. Every time Brent’s feet hit the dirt dust kicked up around him dirtying the nicest suit he’d ever owned.  Clouds blanketed the sky and a black sun punched through the clouds when it could; picking its spots like a boxer on the losing end of a twelve round ass kicking.  “Yet another fucked up situation you’ve gotten yourself into, another in a never ending line.”  He thought to himself as he started down the only visible trail.  The trail came to a spilt after walking for just under a mile.  Brent kept walking until he came upon the crossroads and stopped.  He glanced up both trails, his right eye twitched, sweat dripped down his forehead.  As far back as he can remember Brent was prone to anxiety attacks although over the years he learned to control it.  This of course led to a can a day dipping habit and quite an impressive drinking ability. 



The right side of the trail lead straight up a massive hill coated with trees that draped across the trail protecting it from what little sunlight there was.  The roots of the trees snaked up through the ground squeezing the ground like a python gripping it’s prey.  The left side of the trail sloped down a steep hill and he could only see the trail for a hundred feet before the slope dipped too steep.  Instead of trees there were dead cacti that littered the land down the trail.  Needles covered the ground like broken glass from a shattered window.  Brent paced between the two entrances of each trail.  He searched the ground for any sort of trail sign, yet there was none that he could find.  A rock sat a few yards from where he stood he made his way over to the rock his pants becoming covered in the grey dust.  Time and wind worn the rock down into a great little bench; Brent wondered if this was coincidence or something else.  The rock was jet black and had three deep scratches in it.  If those were always there or was placed there by something, well Brent didn’t want to think about that part.  The situation was too fucked up to think about monsters on top of the rest of everything else that is happening.  He sat on the rock his shoulders slumped and his face fell into his hands.  He cried for the first time since his grandfather died ten years ago.

“Brent, come on into the office and have a seat.”  Mr. Snapp said with just a hint of being better than Brent.  Brent walked into the office and sat into the leather chair on the opposite end of the table.  Snapp’s office displayed what a man he really was.  Certificates and awards lined the walls showing what an accomplished businessman Brent was really dealing with.  An “I love me wall” that’s what it is called when you hang a bunch of bullshit on your walls does it really prove anything other than to feed a failed ego?  Brent slouched down, preparing himself for yet another shitastic Snapp feedback session.  Everyone can improve themselves right?  That’s what these little feedback sections were about.  They were never about knocking you down a few pegs to make sure you didn’t think too much of yourself.  Snapp’s own little way to make sure he kept you in check. 



“So Brent, how do you think you have been doing this past month?”  Snapp asked as he checked a few boxes on the feedback form.  The form was a standardized form you got to keep in case you forgot you weren’t as good as you thought you were.  Brent shifted in his seat and under the table cracked his knuckles.  He looked down at the table trying to think of a good way to answer such a fucked up question.  Why was this question the standard boss question?  Does he think anyone will say that they only do a few hours of work a day while the rest was spent surfing the internet finding out which websites were blocked or not.  He knew he had to give the bullshit answer that the boss wanted to hear.  He wanted to say he was doing a great job and it was his magnificent leadership that was fucking the office up.  If people would just listen to him everything would run a lot smoother.  Instead everyone ran around trying to suck Snapp’s  cock trying to get ahead.  It made Brent sick on a daily basis but it wasn’t anything a bottle of Jack a night couldn’t cure.

“Well Sir, I think I’ve been doing pretty well lately.  I’ve gotten through four inspections without any write-ups or errors.  My work is always turned in on time.”

“That’s true your work and inspection record is extremely impressive.  But what I am worried about Brent is your leadership development.  You see I haven’t really seen you step up and take some initiative.”

“Well Sir, I have asked for more leadership responsibility or perhaps to have a couple of people work underneath me.”

“True, you have asked for that, but you need to learn some more leadership skills before you are given that kind of advancement.

“But how am I suppose to learn these skills if I’m not given the chance?”

“Well that’s easy, you have to start leading yourself.  Every day you come to work you have to think to yourself how can I lead myself today.”

Brent stared at Mr. Snapp, very unsure of how the fuck to respond to such a fucked up statement.  Honestly what does that even mean?  How do you lead yourself through anything?  Is he going to assign himself work to complete for the end of each day or some shit like that.

“Well Brent do you have any questions about your feedback section?”

“Ugh, no questions.”  Brent never asked any questions he always wanted to get out of there as fast as possible because he hated this passive aggressive bullshit.  As Brent walked back to his office, which was hidden on the back corner of the second floor he thought of his great boss Mr. Snapp.  Snapp’s wife was a really hot German MILF, and Brent always wondered why a woman like that would marry such a douche.  He and his only friend in the office came to the conclusion that he must be a cuckhold.  German women were into crazy shit like that.  It always gave Brent a laugh even if his boss didn’t spend his evenings prepping the bull.

Brent lifted his head up and stared down the middle of the two paths.  A crumbling wall laid between the two trails and made a valiant attempt to keep the two apart.  The grey ground beneath him began to tremble with enough force to cause Brent to fall off the rock onto his knees.  Brent raised up to his feet.  A large dust cloud kicked up where the source of the trembling started.  The tremble caused a spilt in the ground just were the trail split into two.  Out of the split a hand came up and a man, well a man so to speak, pulled himself out of the spilt.  The creature stood there with torn cloths barely hanging on its body.  His head had no skin just bone but the teeth were what really scared Brent.  The teeth weren’t like anything he had seen.  There were two fangs jetting down from his top jaw, the bottom jaw became unhinged on the right side of its face.  What little skin the creature had sagged off its body leaving openings where Brent saw blood stained bone.  The creature popped each shoulder into place before reaching up and snapping his jaw bone back into place.

Brent slowly moved backwards creating space between himself and the creature.  “You wore the suit I see, that’s good she likes that for some reason, she is into some weird shit.”  The creature said while still popping joints into place.  “What the fuck is going on here?” Brent asked while he moved back a few more steps to ensure he had a good distance between himself and the creature.  “The question isn’t really what the fuck is going on here, it’s what the fuck do you need to do to make it through this journey.”  Within a blink of an eye the creature closed the distance between himself and Brent.  Brent jumped back tripping over a giant root snaking up through the ground.  “Easy there, you don’t have a thing to worry about with me, I am here to simply get the journey started; to explain the rules of the game to you.”  Brent moved back on his hands and feet again trying to give him some distance between himself and the creature.  “Relax I said, for fuck’s sake look around you, you made it this far without hanging yourself with your tie from a tree.  You really shouldn’t be worried about me.  The name’s Jester.”

“Alright Jester, what the hell is happening?”  Brent said finally getting back up to his feet.

“What is happening here is an opportunity, an opportunity to finally be something great, to undertake a great journey.”  Jester said while he popped all his fingers into place.  Brent said nothing to this proposition he saw chances to be great a few other times in his life.  He passed on all those opportunities what would make this time any different?