The Ultimate Disruption

Hannah sat at a small table tucked away in the back of the café. Her seating choice had been strategic. The only thing back here was the bathrooms and few people passed. If she wanted to keep the new writing software, she had to submit a story by midnight. She had only written the opening paragraph.

           Between the constant calls from her twin siblings, Jacquelin and Jillian, who were fighting, where Hannah had to play moderator and her girlfriend’s painting project that took up all the room in the apartment Hannah hadn’t been able to find a quiet space. Then there were the text messages from her manager as if Hannah was her only employee. More accurately she was the only employee who could be counted on but that wasn’t Hannah’s problem. It was her day off.

           The café promised uninterrupted time to write. Hannah had turned her phone off, unheard of before today but she had never been so close to a deadline before. The ambient noise helped her to focus. She found when there was no noise her thoughts became loud trying to fill up the silence. They raced from one place to the next but the background music and the indistinct chatter and the sounds of brewing coffee silenced the rush in her head so she could pick out one thread and follow it.

           She would come to find out her one mistake was connecting to the café’s wi-fi. It was her one connection to the world outside this building and the people in her life were going to use it to their advantage.

           She had her notebook open to her notes. Her laptop screen was laid flat and the holograms were projecting her character. The character stood there waiting to be set in motion, so far all Hannah had was a description -  five feet two inches, blonde hair up in a high ponytail, athletic build, jogging pants, and tank top. The description had to be detailed. She would delete it from the main story later but the word processor had to save it in its internal memory so it could accurately project the character throughout the story.

           Aside from the physical description, all Hannah had written about the character was that she was an assassin. Who she was to assassinate and why she didn’t know. Once she did she would have the story. She swiped her fingers so the projection was looking at her. Flat green eyes showed no emotion, mostly because Hannah hadn’t written any emotion in them yet. Even though she knew this it was unnerving all the same. She would keep no emotion in them. It made her truly look like a cold-blooded assassin.

           An image flashed in Hannah’s mind, the woods, fragrant dark evergreen trees, a cold rainy night, her assassin running, running, running. Hannah was closer now. The projection was running in place in a forest but still where?

           An alert for a call came up. Hannah pulled her screen up and minimized the writing program. Her sister Jill’s face appeared on her screen. Hannah groaned and her finger hovered over the reject button but as her concentration was already broken and there would be hell to pay if she didn’t answer Jill’s call she thought better of it.

           “What?” She snapped at Jill upon accepting the call.

           “Is that how you greet me, baby sister? No hello. No how are you doing? Just what.” Jill’s face was turned away from her own laptop as she looked in a mirror applying lipstick.

“You know I’m busy trying to complete my story. I posted it to all my socials.”

“That silly story again. When are you going to give up that writing thing?”

It had been a common argument. Surprisingly it hadn’t been with her parents but her older sister, Jill. Jac, on the other hand, had always supported her dream.

“That writing thing is my dream. Why can’t you understand that like Jac?”

Jill scoffed. “Is this why you always take Jac’s side?”

“I don’t always take Jac’s side. But it is nice to have one supportive sibling.”

“I support you.” Jill protested. “But I’m also realistic. How many people do you know who make a living writing?”

Instead of answering, Hannah ended the call. She would catch hell for that later but at the moment she didn’t care. She went back to looking at her assassin. She wrote a knife in her hand, a long-blade that gleamed in the moonlight. Another incoming call popped up on her screen, this time from her mother. Jill must have called her. To ignore Jill was one thing but to ignore her mother was another matter.

If she did her mother would call over and over again and if she didn’t get an answer she would then call her husband who would then call Hannah. And there was no way Hannah wouldn’t answer her father. She had done that only once before and she regretted it to this day. It wasn’t that he yelled or anything but the sheer disappointment in his voice at hurting her mother was evident. It had made her feel like crap for at least a week.

Instead of letting this chain of events progress any further. Hannah answered the call. Her mom’s face filled the screen.

“Hello dear. I just got a call from your sister. Do I need to go on?” Her tone suggested she was as tired as Hannah by her Jill’s antics.

“No. I’m busy, Mom. I don’t have time right now to play moderator between Jac and Jill and I especially don’t have time to listen to Jill’s melodramatic rants. Can’t you talk to her about it?”

“I tried but their fight has been momentarily forgotten. Now, she’s mad at you.”

“Tell her I’ll make it up to her later. Right now I have to get back to my story.”

“How is the story going?”

“It’s going nowhere because I keep getting interrupted.”

“I can take the hint. Talk later. Love you.”

‘Who are you trying to kill?’ Hannah typed. She looked into the assassin’s eyes. The longer she did the more it seemed like the assassin was seeing her as if she had awareness. Hannah felt like she was being watched. It was unnerving. Hannah highlighted what she had written and was about to delete it to start over when she realized there was a woman leaning over her table, staring at her.

           Hannah looked up and jerked back in her seat. “Kate, you scared me.” Kate, Hannah’s manager, pulled back the seat opposite Hannah and sat down.

           “I’m not surprised. You were staring so hard at that thing. What is it anyway?” Kate looked at the hologram.

           “New writing program. It projects whatever you enter into it so you can see your writing play out.”

           “That’s awesome.” Kate moved her head around trying to see it from all angles. “Anyway, I hate to do this to you but Christian called out again. We need you down at the restaurant.” She turned her eyes to Hannah.

           “It’s my day off,” Hannah said as if this hadn’t occurred to Kate.

           “I know and I’m sorry to ask this of you. We managed through the morning but the lunch rush is going to start soon and we don’t have enough servers.”

           Hannah wanted to say that it wasn’t her fault the restaurant hired unreliable people. In her two years working there, she had never once called out. She was probably the best worker they had. She wanted to say she didn’t know why she was getting punished for this. But then she thought of her bank account and how she could use the extra cash.

She did some quick calculations in her head. She would get home around nine-thirty, which would give her two and a half hours before the midnight deadline. If she skipped eating and showering, she supposed she could bang out the story. She wouldn’t have time to edit and she figured she wouldn’t win but as long as she submitted something she would be allowed to keep the new writing program. She figured she could always go back and improve the story later.

           “Fine.” Hannah agreed.

           “You’re a lifesaver. Instead of the normal fifty percent discount, whatever you eat today is free. How’s that sound?” Kate smiled as if it was the greatest offer ever.

           “Awesome.” Hannah offered a weak smile back. She didn’t add that she was sick of everything on the menu. “How’d you find me anyway?”

           “I swung by your apartment when you didn’t answer any of my texts. Your girlfriend told me where to find you. You know how the saying goes, desperate times and all.”

           Hannah questioned the legality of this as she followed Kate out of the coffee shop. She would also have to discuss protocol with Diana for how to handle her boss in the future. How hard would it have been to say she didn’t know where Hannah was?

           Too many hours later Hannah swung open her front door nearly dead on her feet. The restaurant had been the busiest Hannah had ever seen it and Christian wasn’t the only one who called out. Hannah seemed to be the only one that Kate could corral into coming in on their day off though.

           She could hear the sound of the shower and figured Diana must have finished her painting. Immediately after she finished a piece, the first thing she did was shower to wash off the old paint from her hands and arms even if she was going to begin a new piece right after.

           The first time Hannah noticed this she asked Diana why she did it. “I have to start fresh.” Diana had answered.

           Hannah cleared art supplies from the kitchen table so she could set up her laptop and checked the time on the microwave. It was quarter past nine. She had fifteen extra minutes. She knew she should use them to write but her stomach grumbled interrupting any thoughts of her story. Instead of a promise of free food, Hannah should have asked for a guarantee that she would have time to eat it. She had to sneak bites of her meal between taking orders and delivering food to tables. When she was about half-way done with it, someone had thrown it away thinking it was from one of the tables.

           She popped a frozen rice bowl in the microwave and turned on her laptop. She figured she could eat and write at the same time anyway. Her assassin stood in the same position in the woods waiting to be set free. She described the wood in more detail, the branches that scrapped the assassin, the sweat that formed on her hairline as she ran. She was running towards…

           “Babe! You’re home.” Diana emerged from the bathroom toweling off her shoulder-length blonde hair.

           “Writing.” Hannah had to be economical with her words. She didn’t want to use them all up talking when she needed them for writing.

Diana rolled her eyes at this tactic. “Come look at my painting. I just finished.”

Hannah tore her eyes away from her work. “I have to finish this.”

“It’ll take five minutes.”

           Reluctantly, Hannah followed Diana into the living room. The smell of paint hung heavy in the air. Hannah loved that smell. It reminded her of her life here with Diana.

           “What do you think?” Diana asked gesturing to the canvas.

           For a moment, Hannah couldn’t say anything. She was looking at a picture of the forest she was writing about. It looked exactly as she had pictured it in her head. The dark green pine needles glistened as if they were dripping with rain.

           “Babe, what do you think?” Diana asked again, turning from her painting to her girlfriend. She noticed the intense way Hannah was staring at the painting. “What’s the matter?” She reached out to grab Hannah’s hand to get her attention.

           “Nothing. It’s…I’m writing a scene that takes place in a forest that looks like this.”

           “Did you sneak a peek at my work? You know I don’t like you to see it before it’s done.” She mock scowled at Hannah.

           “No. I swear I didn’t.” Hannah said still looking at the painting.

           “It’s a weird coincidence then.” Diana shrugged. “Maybe we’ve been together so long now we share one mind.”

           “Right,” Hannah said but was unnerved. She turned her attention to her girlfriend. “It’s good though. I love it, seriously.”

           “And I love you.” Diana pecked her on the lips. “Now get back to your writing.”

           Hannah dragged herself back to the table but was distracted. It was weird that both she and Diana had thought of the same forest. She picked up her rice bowl and began to eat. The top layer was too hot and she burned her mouth but digging in deeper it was still frozen. She sighed and put it aside. A good meal was not in the cards for her today.

           She brought back the writing program to get to work. It took her a minute before she realized anything was wrong. The assassin was gone. It was impossible. The forest was displayed but it was empty of any living creatures. Hannah skimmed what she had written, thinking maybe she had deleted it by accident but her description of the assassin remained.

           One word had been added. Under the question, who are you trying to kill, someone had handwritten the word You.

           There was a loud knock on the front door. Hannah jumped up from her seat so quickly she knocked it over and the knock came again more incessant this time.

           “Babe, can you get that?” Diana called from their bedroom.

           Hannah walked over to the door on shaking legs and slowly turned the doorknob.