End of the Road


In the winter of 2013, Daniel received a phone call that would change his life. It was midnight, and Daniel was still fast asleep. His cell phone started to rang. The phone ranged seven times and he hoped that that if he just ignored his phone it would stop ringing. Daniel was too tired to answer the phone but it kept ringing. Normally, phones only rings six times before going to voice mail but it kept ringing. “WHAT THE F***!?” he said while getting up and turning on the lamp next to his bed. He answers the phone, “HELLO?”
“Uhm… Daniel we need to talk” It was Alexis his girlfriend.
“Babe it’s like 12:30 in the morning I got work tomorrow. What do you want?” Daniel replies sounding irritated.
Alexis was quiet on the other line, thinking what she wants to say.
“I want to break up with you” she said faintly.
Daniel rubs his eyes and replies “Wait why? What did I do wrong?”
“I have to go.”
Daniel hears Alexis crying on the other line.
“Go where?! Babe what’s wrong?”
“I’m sorry good bye.” She hangs up.
Daniel puts his cell phone down by his lamp, turns off the light and lays down staring at pitch black. Daniel body couldn’t move. He was in shock, his mind could only think about why she broke up with him. He didn’t know what ‘I’m just tired’ meant. The relationship between Alexis and Daniel was cute like a typical young movie you would see in the movie theaters. Every time Daniel takes Alexis out on a date they would lock arms and smile thinking how great their day went. Daniel would send her cute texts and call her at random times just to say hi and keep her company. ‘What went wrong?’ he thought. All of these thoughts about why Alexis broke up with Daniel were a mystery and he needed to find out what happened. His brain started to hurt just thinking about this so he decided to go back to sleep, that’s all he could do anyways.
In his conscious mind during his deep sleep, he dreamt about falling on top of the Transamerica Pyramid at night. While he was falling to his death, in the real world he could actually feel like he was falling. He felt the force through his stomach as if he was going down on a drop during a roller coaster. As he falls closer to the street his life flashes before his eyes. The mind goes through a fast forward of his life, but he doesn’t see the bad moments only the good moments. Through his eyes, he is remembering seeing light for the first time all the way to his first kiss with Alexis. Finally he hits the ground face flat and he wakes up.
In the morning, he gets another phone call. The phone rings only six times as usually and goes straight to voicemail. Daniel let it go straight to voicemail because he wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone
“Hello? Daniel are you still sleeping?” it was his Dad, Romy. “Are you still sleeping? Well I just wanted to check on you and see how you are. How’s you and Alexis? Is everything okay with you guys, if you see her tell her I said hi. Okay, call me back. Love you, okay bye” the voicemail ended.
Daniel is still in bad half awake and staring at the ceiling. All he could think about was Alexis. ‘Everything happened so fast, why did she broke up with me?’ he thought. In the morning he was supposed to go get Alexis a Carmel Frappuccino from Starbucks and get her McDonalds breakfast. He would always do this on Saturday mornings and go straight to work after but they broke up last night. Daniel finally gets up and gets ready for work without getting Starbucks. At 12:30 he shows up to work and clocks in. Daniel works at Urban Outfitters as a cashier. The store is empty as usual at this time of the day since they just opened. While Daniel slouches on his register with his head resting on his arms he notices groups of people starts walking in the store and notices a cute girl walking in. The cute girl is wearing a heather gray sweater with a scarf around her neck, faded black high waisted shorts with black long socks and wearing a pair of black combat boots. With her hair tied up she is also wearing thick framed ray bans glasses. ‘She’s perfect’ he thought. This cute girl reminded him of Alexis. The cute girl almost looked liked Alexis but the cute girl was thicker and her body was more athletic. Daniel was staring at her while she was studying clothes and picking out the ones she liked the most. Finally the cute girl showed up to Daniels register and says “Hello.”
“All set?” Daniel replied
She doesn’t reply and puts the pile of clothes on the register. Daniel slides the clothe tags on the scanner and the prices starts to add up on the small monitor next to the cash register.
“Aren’t you cold wearing high waisted shorts in this cold weather?” he said.
The cute girl gives him eye contact and replies back saying “No, I’m used to it actually” and starts to smile.
Daniel smiles back and says “Okay, your total comes up to $67.58.”
The cute girl pulls out a small wallet out of her brown satchel and pulls out four $20 bills and hands it to him. Daniel pushes some sort of code into the register and the cash register opens. He puts the money inside the register and hands her change and the bag of clothes. “Thanks for shopping out Urban Outfitters” he said.
“You’re welcome, also you are cute” she said while blushing. She puts a white card that has a written phone number and a name that said “Alan” and hands it to him. She walks away.
“Uhm… is this your number?” he said.
“No, just call it. It’s really important” she replied back while walking out of the store. Daniel studies the card and see’s the phone number and the name. Daniel didn’t know why he should call this number but he decides what he will do with it later and puts the card in his denim pockets and goes back to head resting on arm mode.
Its closing time and his manager told Daniel to close up the shop. The manager throws him the keys to the store to lock the door and the gate. The manager walks out the store and goes home after a tiring day. Daniel is finally alone in the store. Daniel checks his pockets and remembers he still has that car the cute girl gave him. Daniel whips out his cell phone and dials the number. It ringed only once and immediately picks up.
“I’ll be there in a couple minutes”
Daniel didn’t know who it was. The voice sounded very deep, almost sounded like James Earl Jones but deeper.
“Who’s this?” Daniel replied.
The strange man hanged up.
As Daniels locks up the store, a black Mercedes Benz pulls up right behind Daniel. Daniel turns around and is shined by the light and tries to cover up his eyes.
“Get in the car!”
It was the exact same voice Daniel heard in the car.
The back seat door of the Mercedes Bens opened and Daniel walks over and hops in. The car drives off fast to the point of burning rubber. Daniel fastened his seat belt and the force of speed pulls him back. “Why are we going so fast?” Daniel said.
“We need to talk” the strange man said.
Inside the black Mercedes Benz, Daniel could barely see the strange man. All he could see is just a tall black shadow of a man driving the car. The windows are tinted to the point where you could barely see anything outside since it was night.
“Do you know Alexis?” the strange man asked him.
“Yes I do, what about her?” Daniel replied with a calm toned of voice
“She misses you. And we can only take you to her.”
“Who’s we? And What happened to her!?”
“Well I can’t tell you but she’s on the other side.”
“What’s the other side?”
“Like I said I can’t tell you”
The car stays quiet for awhile.
“Where are you taking me?” Daniel said to break the silence.
“I’m taking you to the other side. That’s where Alexis is.” The strange man replied.
The Black Mercedes Benz drove passed the Golden Gate Bridge and plunges fast towards a tunnel. The Car starts to go faster.
“Look I don’t have much time, but you will be back in your bed and by the time we go to the other side of the tunnel you will wake up. And by the time you wake up I will call you to take you to her. You will get to see her one last time.” The strange man said. The end of the tunnel is almost near.
“Wait, where is Alexis?! What happened to her?” Daniel said.
Suddenly, Daniel wakes up and he’s in the same clothes he was wearing yesterday. He sees the gray sky outside his window. “What the f***….” He said while rubbing his eyes. Daniel was confused how he got here, who that man was and why did he picked him up. His cell phone ranged and he picks up immediately.
“Get ready and meet me at West Field Mall” the strange man said and hangs up.
Daniel gets ready and puts on camo cargos, a Nike sweater, and some neon green 95 Air Maxes. Daniel was always fitted, since he works at an Urban Outfitters. He leaves his apartment and notices it’s really quiet, almost dead silent. Daniel looks outside and there were no daily joggers or people riding their bikes and cars’ rushing to work it was empty. The whole city of San Francisco was quiet and empty. ‘Where the hell is everyone? Am I Dreaming again?’ Daniel thought to himself. Daniel shakes his head and hops into his white Acura Integra start the ignition and drives off to the West Field mall.
As Daniel drives towards the West Field mall he notices the whole city was deserted. It was like an empty waste land but the city is still intact. Daniel felt like he was in an episode of The Walking Dead just without the zombies. When Daniel got to the parking lot of the West Field mall, he noticed that everything still worked. He walked to the elevator of the parking lot that links to the inside of the mall. He pushes the button and the elevator door slides open. He walks inside the elevator and pushes the 1st floor button. As the Elevator goes up, he gets a call. He answers his phone. “Hello?” he said.
“I’ll be waiting for you at Starbucks “the strange man said and hangs up.
Daniel pushes the 9th floor because that’s where Starbucks was. While Daniel is waiting in the elevator he hears Alexi’s favorite song in the elevator. He hears the piano version of “End of The Road” by Boyz ll Men. Daniel starts to sing along and starts to reminisce the good times with Alexis. He gets flashback of holding hands with Alexis, taking her to the California State Fair, and spending time with her at the Golden Gate Bridge. Daniel starts to tear up, but suddenly wipes it away. The elevator music ends and the door slides open. He’s at the 1st floor and the whole mall was dead empty. But for some odd reason, all the stores are opened. He stays inside and the elevator door closes. “Why is he all the way up there, we could of just met me at the 1st floor?” he said all confused. The Elevator slides open, and Daniel walks out. He sees a mid-aged man with a white suit on, that almost likes Colonel Sanders without the beard.
“DANIEL! It’s me, the man who drove you around last night” the mid-aged man calls out. His voice was normal now.
“Come with me” he said while picking up his coffee.
Daniel followed him to a hallway that he never seen on the 9th floor. The mall was dead silent; all he could hear was the mid-aged man footsteps. Daniel see’s an elevator that only goes up. “This elevator will lead you up there, that’s where you will see Alexis” the mid-aged man said while smiling.
Daniel pushes the only button that was next to the elevator door. Daniel turns around and the mid-aged man is gone. The elevator door slides open and he walks in. He looks around the elevator and see’s only one button that said hotel room. He pushes it and the elevator immediately goes up. The elevator lights turned off and it was dark. Soon the Elevator speed picks up and goes faster. Daniel holds onto the rail and the elevator smoothly stops and the door slides open. A Bright light blinds him until he walks out of the elevator. He rubs his eyes and he could clearly see that he is in a hotel room. Daniel hears someone knocking on the door and he opens the door. He sees Alexis, and immediately hugs her and picks her up off the floor. Daniel starts to tear up. “I miss you” he said.
“I know” Alexis said.
Daniel tightens his hug.
“I have to go now.”
“I know.”
Daniel suddenly wakes up and he’s back in his room.