[centre][img]http://i.imgur.com/M0w8Wg4.jpg[/img][/centre] [b]22nd June, 2014 | 05:50 AM | Julia Castor[/b] [i]Beep beep beep.[/i] ...Ugh. There are a certain kind of people who simply wake up in the morning. At the sound of an alarm, the cry of a rooster, or whatever signature that told them it’s morning already. Sometimes the circadian clock itself suffices. Those people open their eyes, sit up and get off their beds without the slightest bit of hesitation, and go straight to being completely awake - out of sleep, and right into the day. They carry on to whatever tasks they have scheduled, with a perfectly clear mind, efficient, precise and reliable. Julia Castor absolutely envied those people. A hand extended out from below the blanket and upwards towards the desk that was situated near it. The fingers only managed to tap against the edge on the first try. [i]Beep beep beep.[/i] The second time a more extended arm allowed the whole palm to land within the area of the desk’s surface. The smartphone, however, spinned a couple of times as the fingers hit its edges, and now lay once again out of reach on the desk. ….Hhhhhh… [i]Thud.[/i] With a muffled collision, back against the ground, legs still stuck on the bed, and her torso along with a very messy blanket sheet lying twisted in between, the girl grunted and finally concluded that attempting to turn off the alarm is consuming too much effort to actually be worth it anymore. Recovering from a position like this was always kind of hard. Pulling the whole body back up by the legs was impossible. Grabbing the edge of the bed or something around it and pulling the upper body back onto the bed was possible, but there was the risk of accidentally grabbing onto the mattress instead and pulling the whole thing down onto the ground along with herself instead. She could bring her upper body up with force from the waist but the the pose will be very awkward and uncomfortable and she was unsure what that was supposed to achieve. Julia sighed and decided to just roll completely off the bed along with the blanket and get out of that mess afterwards. With a great yawn she stood up on the wooden planks that composed the floor of the second floor apartment. The blanket unravelled and fell to the ground. Her fingertips felt like they came close to touching the ceiling as she stretched. [i]Beep beep beep.[/i] Alright, alright, alright! I’m waking up. She picked up the phone and tossed the blankets back onto her bed with her other hand as she did so, and at the same time pressing against the power button to bring up the screen with her right thumb. Also just then she noticed that her desk was to the left of her bed. What was she even doing trying to reach over and grab the phone with her right hand? No wonder she ended up tumbling off the bed. Oh well, it didn’t matter now. She’s awake already. 22nd June. Sunday. She didn’t have class and her shift that day didn’t start until afternoon. 05:50, the clock showed. What on earth was she supposed to be doing awake at five fifty in the morning? She wandered pointlessly around the little space her living quarters had to offer as she flipped the phone around between her fingers. It was raining outside. Julia looked out through the window. A moderate amount of rain more than a drizzle but not enough to be called heavy. There was also fog. Julia stared blankly at the window pane for a few seconds, watching raindrops collide with it once in a while, and droplets forming on the surface before gathering enough weight to start sliding down. There was silence except for the sound of the falling rain. She decided the scene had a nice atmosphere to it. She considered opening the window to let the rain come in a bit - paper on her desk, possibly not a good idea. But still the rainy day was pretty. A part of her was almost tempted to go out into the rain and get soaked on purpose. A morning shower - she internally laughed at the pun. Maybe she should go propel the pun even further. Walk out there onto the balcony. Without getting dressed. Morning shower in the - - no. That's a ridiculous idea. - the apartment didn't even [i]have[/i] a balcony. What even? [i]Beep beep beep.[/i] Wait, what? That wasn’t even the alarm. Recovering from the random musings, Julia realized that. Idly flipping the cellphone right side up again, she looked at the screen. [b]YOU HAVE ONE(1) NEW MESSAGE.[/b] [center]* * * *[/center] Julia sat on the side of her bed, phone in hand. The blankets were piled onto the corner along with her pillow - not tidily because she hasn’t given up the possibility of going back to sleep, although she knows from experience that it was not possible. She also knew from experience that she never could sleep properly with the pillow under her head, but she kept the pillow anyway. She also went and got dressed, in the sense of pulling something out of the closet and throwing it on. In this case, the selected piece of clothing happened to be a white button-down shirt. Julia owned a number of similar shirts. She slid her arms into the sleeves - her arms and back had to be kept warm, she thought. June meant the start of summer, but with a climate like this one it also meant a higher risk of catching the cold from the temperature difference of the mornings and evenings, and having to awkwardly explain why one could be all sneezing coughing in under the summer heat. She didn’t bother doing all of the buttons, though. Not like she’s going to need to go out soon. Besides she probably wasn’t awake enough to do them correctly even if she decided to back then. So there she sat by the bed, legs crossed, shirt halfheartedly worn, hair kept only to the degree that just ensures no strands end up in her eyes, and finger scrolling idly the screen of her smartphone. The interface displayed on the screen was one offered by the “Key Shop” - an app that just happened to be installed into her phone that morning. She tried deleting it, but it refused to be removed. The system told her errors have occurred, some with error codes that she didn’t understand, which were just about as good to her as a complete lack of further information, which was the case for another number of error messages. After a while of trying all the things the user-friendly software design had to offer - all that Julia could find, at least - and with nothing working, she decided that she should go downstairs later and ask Bernard for help perhaps. Boy downstairs was a hardcore computer specialist, as can be known from the numerous pieces of paper packages of electronic compartments constantly piled at his doorway, and the landlord paying him equally frequent visits asking him for advice on electronics and demanding him to move the broken screens out of the hallway. He’s a nice lad, really - Julia thought. Really friendly. Questionable sense of fashion. But hey, that’s kind of cute in its own way. “Bernard is an old man’s name” was the standing joke. But then the phone wasn’t exactly malfunctioning. And since it still worked, Julia decided it probably wasn’t critical to go ask for help immediately. Maybe when she’s about to go to work later? Or perhaps when she came back in the evening. For now, though, she saw no harm in messing around with it some more since she’s going to get it checked later anyway. Free keys. If this was some sort of advertisement or publicity stunt she didn’t really get it. But there are publicity stunts whose actual intention is to be incomprehensible, so that’s probably wasn’t something to really worry about. The later pages of the Key Shop were locked. The first page, though, which she was free to browse, displayed an array of keys. Things are quite literal so far. The keys looked delicately decorated - more works of art than tools; like some of those lovely little trinkets or similar pieces of decoration people would spend time crafting. [b]YOU ARE ALLOWED ONE(1) ITEM[/b] Everything in the visible catalog so far was labelled free. Curious. That relieves the stress of the fear of accidentally clicking on something when one intended to scroll - Julia thought as she moved further down to page. Some of the designs were sharp, modern; and others equally elegant but in a more old-fashioned way. Some even had the texture, perhaps intentionally, of specks of rust, which added to the feel of the entire design. This one key with the clover keychain looked particularly pretty th- *click* [center]* * * *[/center] [i]Ding.[/i] Eh? Julia’s immediately regretted turning to look at the door with such a dramatic gesture. Her neck wasn’t doing well with sudden movements after being still and supporting a head that stared at a phone screen for most of the morning. She put the phone back onto the desk, app left open, as she stood up and yelled something at the door that signalled whoever was there to wait for a moment. Who could it possibly be? She didn’t expect a visitor this early in the morning. A bit panicky she drove her fingers to do the rest of the buttons on her shirt - - oh snap, wrong one - - done. Found a pair of shorts to put on, combed down with her fingers the clots of hair still poking conspicuously out into the air. She headed over and opened the door, nearly tripping over in the process. “Yes?” No-one was there. Huh. Julia shut the door again, wondering what just happened; and tossed the two books on the ground that came close to serving as a trap earlier back onto the shelves where they belonged. ...Was this parcel on the desk before? Julia went over and inspected the package. Her full legal name, shipping information, a stamp. She loosened the strings and removed the packaging. Paper, and then a cardboard box. The cardboard box was padded, perhaps to protect the contents from impact? The content was a smaller cardboard box. This one seemed much more delicate. It was made of that kind of rough paper boards, brownish in colour. It carried a nice texture. Some words were inscribed on it, yet they belonged to a language she did not recognize. Removing the second box from its container, Julia opened it. Inside lay a heavy, rusty metal object. The key that she saw in the key shop, along with its keychain - an emerald green trinket with a white clover pattern embedded in it. Beside the key was a little batch of cute white flowers - a great decorative addition. The flowers were beautiful too. There was something on the back of the box’s lid though. A piece of paper, a note of sorts. Curious, Julia removed it and read: [i]1. Use on any door, gate or lock…[/i]