Neon signs flickered spasmodically around me, tall concrete trees stretched out their fingers

as they grabbed for the murky, overcast sky. Discord and chaos reigned over the city as the
cacophonous sounds of oncoming traffic echoed through the telescope of acrid plumes of
smoke. A multitude of office workers scrambled around like the vermin that roamed free
amongst dumpsters; these corporate slaves boarded each bus, packing themselves into the tin
shell like sardines.
Monotony and dysphoria morphed into two demons that would launch a barrage of attacks
upon my crippling will to live; my only defence- locked away under the folds of the fabric of
time. I had been likened to Prometheus except, my morale to be pecked at by the two demons
as it re-generated the next day, only to be consumed greedily. I sat alone in my pit filled with
my woes as I sank deeper and deeper. The halcyon days of my childhood disappeared and
took along with them, my happiness; happiness was ripped out of my childhood self, as the
perils of adulthood lurked around. At this epochal moment, my childlike innocence
disappeared from my eyes as they turned gray and were filled with nothing but the absence of
hope.
I sit alone, waiting for the next rattling bus to whisk me away to my job. I would end up
sitting at my desk as I clacked away at my keyboard incessantly as the pile of paperwork and
emails rose exponentially. My life was buried and burdened under the weight of surrealistic
corporate deadlines and the constant fear of being fired. My spine bent itself into a warped
shape like the other slaves as my eyes turned red under the immense strain; my clothes were
drenched as each bead of dripped down the back of my neck and soaked into my clothes. My
work, mindless, my life, aimless.
The job was the only thing that sustained me, my apartment was a wreck, filled to the brim
with leftover food that rotted into the floorboards. Mice skittered along the passages in the
wall, haunting me with their shrieks and squeaks. The pulchritudinous smell of sweat and the
scent of rotting fruit merged into a paradise for fruit flies, which zoomed around the kitchen
in all directions. Dead flies were littered across the floor as they plastered themselves into the
carpet. A manifold number of dirty dishes piled up in the sink; pieces of decaying pizza
floated around in the murky water.
A life devoid of happiness, was the one I had sentenced myself to. Like Sisyphus, I roll up the
rock to the top of the hill, hoping that my brutal and unforgiving life will sprout into a
flourishing meadow, where flowers of euphoria bloom; the rock rolls back down, delivering a
crushing blow to the castle I built in the air. Even death couldn’t free me from this vicious
cycle as it would just rewind like a tape.