"That will be two hundred dollars, ma'am," the cashier said in a monotone voice, not even bothering to look at the woman in front of him. His hands moved to gently place the figurine into a box—white hair, four kagune tentacles extending from his back, most of his face hidden beneath a black mask, leaving only his right eye visible. The figure looked incredibly detailed, almost alive in its coolness as it was none other Ken Kaneki figurine from the hit series tokyo ghoul.
"Here," the woman replied, handing him the money before turning and leaving the store.
----
Click.
The door slowly and making as small a sound as possible opened as the same woman re-entered, walking as she tried to make as little sound as possible, as she headed straight to her room without looking anywhere as if she was afraid that she was going to be caught.
"Ren, stop."
A sharper, authoritative voice cut through the air, freezing the girl mid-step.
"tsk"
Ren clicked her tongue in irritation and turned to see her mom standing there, a stormy expression on her face. In her hand, she held a paper. The seen of it sent a chill down Ren's spine she instantly knew she was in trouble.
Carefully, she set the plastic bag down on a nearby table and slowly walked toward her mother, trying her best to muster a nervous smile.
"So, young lady, how long were you planning to wait before telling me you were fired from your job?" her mother asked, her voice sharp with authority and anger.
Ren couldn't even look her in the eye. Shame weighed heavily on her shoulders. Her lips trembled as she spoke, her voice barely above a whisper.
"I... I was going to tell you tomorrow. I just... I got fired," she said nervously, still avoiding eye contact.
"Tomorrow? Tomorrow?, Tomorrow? when you were fired two months ago, and now you're saying you were going to tell me tomorrow?" her mother snapped, slamming her hand down on the table with a loud thud.
"Mom, I'm just 19! I'm still young—I'll find a job soon," Ren said, her voice rising slightly in desperation.
"And who's going to give a good, well-paying job to an educated person with an useless degree?" her mother snapped.
"I'll find a way," Ren muttered, stepping aside and starting to walk toward her room.
"You better," her mother called after her. "Or I'll kick you out with all your little toys, too!"
Ren didn't look back.
"Well... this really was a my good has now tuna into a bad day," Ren muttered to herself, gently placing the Kaneki doll on the shelf beside her other Kaneki figure.
Her entire room was filled with Tokyo Ghoul items—everything from masks to figures with the distinctive Tokyo Ghoul characters' faces. There were bags and posters of Tokyo ghoul in every corner of the room. It was clear to any person that enter her room that she was a huge Tokyo Ghoul fan. There were a few Marvel items scattered around, but they were barely noticeable among the sea of Tokyo Ghoul memorabilia.
"Well, you won't agree with me, Mister Kaneki, that getting fired wasn't my fault, right?" Ren muttered to herself, holding another figure of Kaneki—this one in his black Reaper outfit.
"Who am I kidding... it was my fault. I shouldn't have told that fat-ass woman to shove it in her mouth," she grumbled as she lay back on her bed.
"But she deserved it! Like, who the hell does she think she is, accusing me of giving her the wrong order?" Ren snapped, more to the ceiling than to anyone else.
"What do you say? Was I wrong to punch her?" she asked while staring at the figure, as if it could actually talk back to her.
"Because obviously, she had a punchable-looking face," Ren replied immediately to the silent figure, as if talking to an inanimate object like this was the most normal thing in the world.
After a while of just lying there, shifting her gaze between the figurine and the ceiling, she let out a long sigh. One hand came up to cover her face as her lips moved in a soft mutter, "What the hell am I even doing right now? I seriously need to stop talking to figures..."
But suddenly, the world around her started to shake.
Ren shot up in a panic, eyes wide as the books and shelves around her began crashing down. The room was trembling violently, and she could feel her heart pounding in her chest.
"What the hell is happening?!" she yelled, stumbling as she rushed toward the door to escape.
Everything was falling posters tearing, figurines crashing, shelves toppling. Just as she reached the doorway, her eyes caught a glimpse of one of the cabinets the one where she kept her precious Kaneki figure tipping over.
Before she could move, it came crashing down.
Then darkness.