Rays of sunlight shone through the trees on a lone man sitting on a park bench.
"Jeez, how depressing can you get, huh?"
He said to himself while swiping his phone to read one of his favorite novels, using his other hand to run through his charcoal black hair.
"Especially the villainess; she went full psycho mode, and... man, did the author have to describe all the gross stuff she did?"
Shortly cringing in disgust, he continued reading until he reached the end of the chapter. He arched his head back with a sigh while stretching on the bench. He relaxed a bit before he felt his phone vibrate. He checked the notification with unease, opening only one eye to look at it.
"Mr. Frost Raintaker, we regret to inform you that we had to reject your application...."
He didn't read any further; he didn't have to.
"Again?! Seriously? It's the 20th company this month... Why is it so difficult to get a good job?"
Frost sighed in defeat again before recalling his past.
"I should have tried to get a normal job back in college instead of trying to start my own company... twice... Eh, no use crying over spilled milk."
After reminiscing for a moment, he got up and started stretching. He combed his short charcoal grey hair with his hand, fixed his dress shirt, and with a yawn, Frost started walking out of the park. Slouched, he slowly walked, glancing at the newly arrived group of young people, making noise. He scowled, partly at the, partly at himself, for feeling like a cranky old man at 26 years old. As he exited the park, Frost quickly decided to head to a convenience store.
"Well, I might still be jobless, but I have to treat myself sometimes... totally not to forget about my sorrows."
He said to himself, and while laughing dryly, entered the store. As the automatic door slid open, he hummed to the short tune that played. Frost slowly made his way through the shelves of this average-sized convenience store, glancing at the various produce and thinking of what he should get. The moment he reached the alcohol shelf, he immediately felt the need to drink, but he stopped his hand from reaching over, scowling and shaking his head. Instead, he grabbed a cup of iced coffee and a small piece of cheesecake from the cold area and made his way towards the row of sandwiches. While browsing the shelf, trying to find his favorite kind of sandwich, he heard a familiar voice.
"Huh, isn't that you, Frost? It's been a while."
He turned to face the person, recognizing him as an old colleague from college. A plain-looking guy with simple brown hair and a hoodie, so plain in fact that Frost couldn't even remember his name.
"Oh, you're... Mark? No... John? No... Sorry, remind me of your name; it's been a while, so I forgot."
"Haha, as always, straightforward and honest... Seriously, my name is Dane." Dane laughed sarcastically.
"Ohhh... Right, we took most classes together; how did I forget?"
"Heh, no worries, I didn't exactly stand out of the crowd, and honestly, I expected this; after all, back then you'd even forget the names of our professors."
"Right... After all, there were always more important things to think about."
They both shared a laugh, remembering their past while dismissing the awkward encounter.
"So... what's going on for you nowadays?" Dane sheepishly asked
"Not much, just a string of rejected job applications..."
Frost answered while trying to avoid eye contact as he chose his sandwich.
"Oh man, I get that..." Dane tried to empathize. "... although I can't say much since I just got a job at my dad's shop."
"Hmmm, at least you have something," Frost responded sorrowfully
"Sorry, it's just kind of weird... Back in college, you were, like, the smartest guy..." Dane reminisced. "The best negotiator, the tactician, you always prepared plans for all exams and even tricked all the professors into going easy on us... Like seriously, dude, I doubt that I would finish college without you."
Frost listened, taking pride in the high praises, remembering his 'glory days' and how valuable his wit and quick thinking were.
"Oh, don't exaggerate, I was just a smart guy who knew how to use his wits... though a bit too obsessed with strategy and management games."
"Yeah, I remember when you almost wrote a thesis about those..."
They both laughed as they approached the register. They continued as the cashier scanned their items.
"I might have been all that back then... but nowadays I can't even get a job to show off what I can do." Frost started complaining
"Yeah, that's rough, man... I want the best for you." Dane retorted
"Well... I'm doing what I can; if I don't get a job, I might try to start something again or maybe even become a delivery guy."
When Frost finished shopping, he said his goodbyes to Dane and exited the store. As the door slid open, light shone right into his face, blinding him for a second. But something was wrong with that light; it was summer, so the sun should have shone with a warm orangy glow, but it instead shone with cold pale yellow light. Frost didn't mind this oddity as he started walking down the street, taking out his phone again to once more check on his favorite novel.
"Man... I wonder if people in such fantasy worlds have the same stupid problems as me..."
He continued to walk down the street, observing others. Then a wind blew past him, but unlike what he expected, it was pricing cold, to the point he felt shivers. At first, he ignored it and continued walking, trying to shake it up to a weird weather. Despite that, the cold winds continue to blow past him, slowly getting stronger and colder. Frost started to feel the piercing cold, making him shiver and even see little white sparkles in the wind. To warm himself up, he started rubbing his arms, drawing attention from other passersby.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, young people these days, breaking down from the slightest inconvenience... Back in my day, we would swim through snow naked and didn't mind the cold." Some old man grumbled towards Frost.
"Oh honey, don't be so mean; he shivers because kids these days don't eat enough; look how skinny he is..." His wife added
Frost didn't respond, only shooting them an annoying glare. He continued walking, slowly getting used to the cold winds. As the winds seemingly died down, Frost felt relieved, but then in their place, he started hearing weird noises. A loud shrill noise continued to echo through his ears.
...Come...
Frost stopped upon hearing a distant voice from nowhere and tried to chalk it up to his seemingly tired state. But the voice continued to call out.
...Come...here...
...Come...to...us...
The voices started to make him angry and even scared; they made him even more tired. As he was slowly losing his mind, he saw a group of teenagers coming back from school. Feeling like this might be the chance to see if the voices were real, he approached them.
"Hey, tell me... can you hear that? Those shrill voices?" He asked
"No, I don't hear anything out of the ordinary..." one of the teens responded
"Haaa, haaa... So I'm going insane then, huh?! Thanks, kids..." Frost retorted, his voice almost quivering.
"A-are you ok, sir?" another of the teens meekly asked concerned
"Don't worry about me; I'm... just going through something."
Frost walked off, waving to the teens, dismissing his problems. In reality, deep inside he was afraid; he didn't know what was going on, and he genuinely thought he was going insane. Then voices stopped, but instead, the deafening shill noises intensified and the piercing cold winds returned. That made Frost even more afraid; as the winds grew even stronger, he was forced to close his eyes. Not helping that was the blinding pale sunlight, which made it even harder to see. In his blind stupor, he tried and felt himself falling forward.
"Shit"
Was the only thing he thought, getting ready to face the concrete ground. But as he fell, instead of the impact of solid ground, he felt something soft and wet. Still not opening his eyes, he had laid on cold, wet, and soft ground, in which he seemingly started sinking in. Feeling breathless, he jolted upwards, pulling his head out of the ground and gripping it. As it started to melt, a realization dawned on him. Slowly, he started opening his eyes, only to just a white landscape, feeling the freezing cold winds hit his face as he sat there in the snow. Fear and confusion crept onto him as he observed a long, stretching snow field. He covered his eyes, feeling the binding pale light reflecting from the snow, his body shivering from the cold. At this moment, when his body felt weaker than ever before, he knew...
Frost found himself in a different world.