*Ding*
A phone notification rings out clear over the soft patter of rain on glass. It's bright screen lighting up the room to reveal the figure of a young man sitting on a bed, head held in his hands.
His short black hair was unkempt as he clutched it in his fingers. His dark eyes betraying no emotion behind the cover of his palms, though a slight quiver runs through them at the sound of his phone.
"No," Cal muttered, the words barely audible over the increasing downpour outside.
The phone lay untouched beside him. Why check it? He knew what the notifications were. Even if he didn't know the specifics, he knew what to expect. At least this way he could lie to himself, maybe convivence himself it wasn't what he knew was.
Just a WhyTube notification. That's it, this was about the usual time his favorite WhyTuber uploaded. But he knew that couldn't be true. It's Wednesday, after all. They didn't upload on Wednesdays.
*Ding*
Another one, lighting up his room once more like a strike of lightning to accompany the heavy rain.
*Ding*
Again and again his phone went off. The frequency of the notifications picking up in tandem with the storm outside until it was a constant within the small room.
"Why?"
His fingers tightened in his hair as he muttered the word, trembling slightly as his self told lies became harder to believe with each notification. Each ding shooting down a new lie as it formed, until eventually, it stopped. Replaced with a new, rhythmic ringing.
*Ring Ring.*
A call this time.
Cal froze instantly.
A phone call? No one ever rang him. He had no friends he was close enough with, his never ending overtime made sure of that. His colleagues long since gave up on inviting him to gatherings since he was always behind on his workload. While maintaining contact with those from school became more and more difficult till it stopped all together.
That only left....
*Ring Ring*
Cal slowly released his head from his hands, glancing down at his phone to see what it read with trembling eyes.
Spawn Point was calling.
His mother.
The phone continued to ring as his gaze shot over to the alarm clock beside his bed.
11:00PM.
His mother was usually well asleep by now. That woman lived on a very strict life style. Up at 5:00am, in bed no later than 10:00PM.
This was no ordinary call.
Even calls within her waking hours were just to make sure he wasn't dragging the family name through the mud more than she thought he already had.
The relationship he had with his mother nowadays was rough at the best of times. Her expectations had always been high, but she use to be kind. In her own way. Generally wanting was best for the family yes, but also for him.
However that changed when his father passed away in an accident while Cal was still in high school. Something inside of her broke. Her expectations of him tripled and her kindness vanished, replaced by a cold detachment for anything that wasn't the company.
She focused purely on the family name, demanding nothing but perfection from him at all times so he could take over the family company. Being an only child there was no one else in the direct line to do so when his mother would have to stepped down.
But after the death of his father, Cal was heartbroken. Depression started to take hold. Focusing on his studies became impossible and his grades fell rapidly. He went from top of the class to rock bottom in record pace.
His mother didn't take kindly to this change, instead of understanding, she was furious. And her own hidden grief seemed to only fuel her anger further. Demanding that he fixed his studies or be shown the door the moment he turned 18.
Under the threat of being homeless, Cal barely managed to scrounge together the shards of his shattered mental. Enough to raise his grades to the point of getting accepted into a third rate college for accounting. He abandoned the idea of leading the family company to a cousin, in favor of escaping impossible expectations.
He moved to live on campus and managed to complete his diploma before finding a dead end job at a sub branch of some major company.
*Ring ring*
The continued ringing of his phone dragged him from his thoughts.
He had left her waiting. She would not appreciate that.
After another moment he reached for his phone, answering it before bringing it to his ear.
"Mother?" His voice came out a quiet whisper.
"YOU ABSOLUTE FILTH!"
Cal winced at the yelling of his mother, pulling the phone away from his ear instinctively before bringing it back.
"I knew you were a disappointment, your uncle and cousin love to remind me of that every given opportunity. Calling you a failure," she continued. "I defended you, explaining the effect of your fathers death. Bullshitting excuse after excuse, if not for your sake, than for my own. And- and for your father's."
Her voice trembled almost imperceivably at the mention of her dead husband. She had not spoken about him since the funeral. At least not to Cal, always dismissing it when he brought it up. He had just assumed she stopped caring, for whatever reason.
But that tremble in her voice... For the first time, it was from something other than anger
"..."
The unexpected display of something other than the usual contempt or fury gave him pause.
"I had reluctantly come to terms with raising a disappointment. But this?!" The previous trace of something other than anger vanished as she continued. "I did NOT raise a rapist."
The sharp accusation brought Cal back to his senses.
"Mother, I-"
"ENOUGH! I do not want to hear it! You're no son of your fathers, and I'll be damned if you're a son of mine," she spat. "I only rang to ask that you change your name. I want all connections you have to my family erased. Our name stands out too much here for you to keep it. You're no longer a Vayne, and as far as anyone else is concerned, you never were."
"Wait! Mum! Please-"
He began to beg, but it was too late, she had hung up before he could plead his innocence.
An attempt to ring her back was met by an instant direct to voice mail. She had blocked him.
Squeezing his phone in his grasp, his gaze was attracted to the dozens of unread notifications. They ranged from insults to threats, with a few being from the only people he could maybe consider friends, telling him not to contact them again.
Amongst them was one from his boss, 'Don't bother coming in tomorrow. You're belongings will be packed up and sent to your address. You're fired.'
"But I- I didn't do anything," Cal whispered as his phone slipped from his hands, landing on the hardwood floor with a thud.
It was the truth. He hadn't done a thing. Not deliberately. All he did was trip. The only thing he could really be accused of is being clumsy. Unfortunately, the owner of the breast his hand landed on, disagreed.
--------------------------
Earlier that night.
Cal and his coworker, Lara, were alone in the break room late this night. They were stuck with the usual mountain of work that required long hours of overtime.
He had long since be designated as the office loner, while she on the other hand was the opposite, often considered the 'office hottie'. And Cal found it hard to disagree.
Her long black hair framed her near perfect face. While her white office shirt and black pencil skirt hung close to her generous figure. Overall she was very nice on the eyes. He could certainly understand all the fuss the other male coworkers made over her, even if he himself did not particularly care.
He knew out of his league when he saw it.
Because of this, neither made an effort to strike up idle conversation, instead preferring to prepare their meals in uncomfortable silence.
Once he finished heating up his simple meal, he made his way to the counter to add the final touches when he lost his footing. Something that should have just been embarrassing for a few days became the beginning of the end. If only he fell backwards... But no, he had to be falling forwards. Right into the arms of his coworker as she was turning towards the microwave he just finished using.
With a loud crash they fell to the floor in a tangle of limbs and a mess of half prepared dinners.
"Ah, shit. I'm so sorry Lara," Cal said in a daze.
"Just get the fuck off me."
Unfortunately, her looks came with a catch - she was hot, she knew it and she acted like it.
After orienting himself he started to push off her, but the unexpected soft feeling under hand caught his attention.
"Hm?" They both said in confused tandem.
His gaze dropped down to his hand with a raised eyebrow.
Square under his clenching hand, rest one of her large breasts.
"Fuck- I- I didn't mean t-"
"I said; GET-"
*Thump*
In a rush to get up before things could somehow get any worse, he slipped on some of the spilt food, making things worse. Much worse.
His knee that had been between her legs got driven up further as an unfortunate result of the second tumble. The hand that had been placed on her chest landed straight back on it with greater force.
"-OFF ME!"
The ear piercing screech assaulted Cals ears as he once again tried to orient himself, but before he could do so he was thrown to the side as Lara used a surprising amount of strength to free herself from under him.
"Ah. Lara, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to-"
"You disgusting little rat! Happy? Copping a feel under while pretending it was an accident?"
She was already back on her feet, backing towards the door as she looked down at him with open disgust and fury.
"It was an accident though," Cal said with indignation.
"You'll pay for it. You can count on that. I'll tell everyone what happened," she began. "While alone working overtime, Cal, the office loner attacked and raped me. That's all it takes, and your life is over. A small price to pay when the prize was groping me."
"But i-"
"It doesn't matter, it's you're word against mine. Face it little rat, you're life from here is over."
Lara was right, it was a battle of words. His against hers. There was no proof of what happened here. The only inkling of proof that anything happened at all, is that it was just the two of them scheduled for overtime tonight. All that does is add weight to her own story.
Cal had nothing, no way to prove his innocence. It was the office loner against the one who's pants everyone wanted to get into. Even if someone believed him, they weren't likely to speak up. Not with the risk being the next office outcast.
No one knew him enough to trust him over her. As a matter of fact, they probably thought of him as just the type of person to do it. That was the sad truth.
He truly felt his life was over.
-------------------------------------
'Not even my own Mother believed me. A few choice words from Lara and here I am. I've lost my job. Been disowned and lost any semblance of a friend I may of had in a matter of a few hours. Why? What did I wrong? What can I even do?"
Cal's thoughts spun as he sat on the side of his bed.
Running away and starting fresh elsewhere was not an option, that required money. He was already struggling to make ends meet as it was.
Getting a new job would be near impossible now. He would be blacklisted from the company he just worked at, which was one of the two big dogs in this city, the other being his fami- his previous families company, suffice to say, not happening. Not to mention all it takes is one google search and he is known as a sex offender. True or not, no one would be jumping to hire someone with that sort of background.
*Ding*
His phone. Another notification.
He glanced down at his phone where it still rest on the floor.
A message from an unknown number. It read two words, as if in answer to his unspoken question;
'Kill yourself'
"...Ha. Haha. HAHAHAHA. Oh, oh that's gold. If that's not a sign, what is?"
Truth is, Cal was already considering it. Hell, he has been for months. The monotonous cycle he has been living for years now had long since grown old, he was just going through the motions. All it took was a couple seconds of thinking about his future for him to realize;
'What's the point, really?'
He was 25 years old and had never even had a girl-friend. Amusingly enough the only time he had ever touched a woman was earlier tonight.
His family was already on the verge of disowning him before tonight. And his only friends were just a couple colleagues who didn't completely act like he didn't exist.
He already felt like he was half dead, so why not go all the way? The most fun he had in life recently was sleeping. And sleep is just the little brother of death. He was due for an upgrade.
'Well, it's decided. I'm going to kill myself. Why not at this point? The only question now is; how?'
Hanging? Everything he has seen about it, makes it look rather uncomfortable. Cutting? Sounds slow and painful. Overdose maybe. He had nothing to use.
'Ah, i know.'
With that he stepped out of his small studio apartment for the last time, not bothering to put on shoes or even close the door behind him.
Why bother? He was off to kill himself.