Episode4: One Month Earlier
1137 Words
Talia’s POV
Talia grabbed her phone and scrolled through her notifications again. Emails she hadn’t
answered, reminders about deadlines, messages from friends she hadn’t replied to. She sighed,
tossing the phone onto her bed and swinging her legs to the floor.
“Coffee first. Always coffee
first,
” she muttered.
The apartment smelled faintly of last night’s takeout. The small living room was cluttered with
notebooks, half-finished sketches, and the faint trace of perfume she had spilled earlier in the
week. Talia rubbed her eyes, trying to wake herself up.
“Why does everything feel so heavy on
Mondays?” she asked herself, though it was Thursday. She shrugged. Time felt strange when
you were living for deadlines and routines.
She moved to the kitchen, opened the cabinet, and grabbed a mug. The coffee machine hissed
to life, filling the apartment with warmth and the comforting smell of caffeine. She leaned against
the counter, staring out the window at the busy street below. People were already rushing, cars
honking, the city alive.
“Everyone else looks so normal. Why do I feel like I’m running in slow
motion?”Her phone buzzed again. A message from her coworker reminding her of a morning meeting.
Talia groaned, fumbling with her mug.
“I really need to get moving,
” she muttered. She grabbed
her bag, threw on a jacket, and double-checked her keys.
The streets were busy, as always, and Talia wove through the crowd with practiced ease. She
liked being invisible sometimes, slipping past people without anyone noticing. She liked the
anonymity, the way the world moved around her while she carried her thoughts, her little
routines, and her quiet little dreams.
She arrived at her office, the familiar glass building gleaming in the morning sun. She tapped
her ID card, smiled at the security guard who always remembered her name, and walked into
the lobby. The smell of coffee and paper hit her, the hum of computers and chatter of coworkers
welcoming and familiar.
“Another day, another deadline,
” she muttered to herself.
Her desk was cluttered, but she liked it that way. Organized chaos, she called it. A cup of cold
coffee from yesterday sat next to a stack of reports she hadn’t finished, and a sticky note with
her own scrawled reminders clung to the edge of her monitor.
“Focus, Talia. Just focus,
” she told
herself, setting her bag down and booting up her computer.
She glanced at her reflection in the dark screen. Brown eyes, untamed curls, pale skin that
never seemed to get enough sunlight. She shook her head.
“Nothing exciting ever happens,
”
she muttered. And maybe that was the truth. Today, like yesterday, like the day before, would be
ordinary. Mundane. Predictable.
But even as she typed out her first emails of the day, Talia felt a small flicker in her chest. A
restlessness she couldn’t explain. A pull, not from anywhere specific, just… a feeling that things
weren’t quite as simple as they seemed. She shook her head again, blaming it on too little sleep
and too much coffee.
“Just focus. Work first. Dreams later.
”
The phone buzzed again. A notification from her favorite social media app. Talia leaned back in
her chair, scrolling absentmindedly through photos, videos, and posts. She smiled faintly at a
funny clip a friend had posted, laughed at herself for how predictable her own little life hadbecome. And yet, even in the ordinary, she felt… something. A tiny itch under her skin, a
whisper of something coming.
She shook her head.
“Stop it. Focus. Mundane. Normal. That’s all it is,
” she muttered. But deep
down, she knew her life was about to change. She just didn’t know how or when.
Talia sipped her coffee, grimacing at the bitter taste. She set the mug down and glanced at her
screen again. Emails, reports, reminders everything piled up as if the world was trying to drown
her before the day had even properly started.
“Why do I let it pile up like this every week?” she
muttered, rubbing her temple.
Her coworker, Megan, popped her head over the cubicle divider.
the memo about the new client?” she asked, cheerful and annoyingly chipper.
“Morning, Talia! Did you see
Talia smiled faintly, nodding.
“Yeah, just saw it. Looks… complicated.
” Her voice carried the faint
trace of exhaustion she tried to hide. Inside, though, her mind was already racing ahead,
thinking about how she would manage the deadlines, the meetings, and the constant stream of
tasks coming at her.
“Complicated is one word for it,
” she thought.
“Impossible is another.
”
She typed furiously, fingers flying over the keyboard. The office buzzed around her, the hum of
computers, the ringing of phones, the quiet chatter of coworkers. She liked the noise—it made
her feel alive, distracted from herself. Still, even in the bustle, she felt the pull again. That small,
nagging unease in her chest, like something was off but she couldn’t name it.
She pushed the thought aside.
“I’m being dramatic,
” she told herself.
“Just focus on work. Focus
on surviving Monday through Friday like everyone else.
”
A knock on her cubicle wall made her jump.
concerned this time. Talia laughed lightly, waving her off.
said.
“You know me.
”
“Talia, you okay?” Megan asked again, more
“Yeah, just… thinking too much,
” sheMegan smiled and walked away, leaving Talia alone with her thoughts. She leaned back in her
chair, letting the hum of the office wash over her. Normal. Ordinary. Predictable. That’s what she
craved. That’s what she needed. And yet, something inside her refused to settle.
Her phone buzzed again. A message from her mom: Don’t forget your appointment later today.
And eat something before you leave. Talia smiled faintly, shaking her head.
“Always looking out
for me,
” she muttered. She typed back a quick reply, promising she would.
She glanced at the clock. Almost time for the meeting. She straightened her shoulders, took a
deep breath, and pushed her unease aside.
“Focus, Talia. Just today. One day at a time.
”
As she stood and walked toward the conference room, she felt a flicker of awareness she
couldn’t explain. A glance, a sound, a sense of someone, or something watching her. She shook
her head again.
“No. It’s just the office. Just the day. Nothing else.
”
She entered the conference room and nodded to her boss, trying to seem alert and confident.
“Morning, everyone,
” she said, forcing a smile. Inside, though, she felt that restlessness
prickling at her, the subtle whisper that life was not going to stay this ordinary forever.
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