"It's the, eye of the tiger, it's the thrill of the fight! Na na na, na na nuh na now no neh na!" Tory jammed to the music pumping through his headphones, doing his best air guitar. People on the busy subway car had moved as far away as possible, but Tory didn't care. Some days you just needed to be the crazy person on the subway, and today was that day for him. If he didn't let the crazy out here, he would probably accidentally let off steam on his mom, and that usually ended in a lecture and tears and guilt.
Tory didn't want to think about his day. He wanted to just feel the music, let loose, and scare some tourists. "Eye of the Tiger" ended, and his Spotify playlist shuffled to the next song, "Tainted Love." He still had five stops to go before he needed to change trains.
It wasn't just that it had been a bad day. No, more than that, it was that everything bad had happened all in sequence. His phone hadnt charged the night before, so his alarm never went off in the morning, which made him two hours late to work, which was the twelfth tardy he had at work. And his boss had already told him that the next tardy would be the last straw, so he called him to the back office. Tory, already tired and having a rough morning, had been a little too honest about how he felt about the company, which, combined with the attendance issue, led his boss to fire him. On his way across the street to the subway station, he stepped in gum, and when he went to scrape if off on the curb, he just got garbage stuck to his shoe instead. Then he realized he forgot his MetroCard, and had to buy a new one. Finally, he sat in more gum while waiting for his train.
Tory was not having a good day. He also suddenly realized that no music had been playing since "a Tainted Love" finished several minutes ago. Add a broken phone to the list of things that have gone wrong today, Tory thought as he reached into the from pocket of his khakis. The pocket was empty, save for he dangling end of his headphones. He would have to also add having his phone pickpocketed to his list. Furious and fed up with the day, Tory spun around, looking for the thief, even though he knew whoever stole it was probably long gone now, since a couple stops had already passed since the music stopped.
"Great. Just great. What else could possibly happen today?" Tory asked, falling into the unoccupied seat between a business woman and a guy wearing too much body spray.
"Get off the train at the next stop, and transfer to the C train," a voice said right in Tory's ear.
Tory looked at the guy next to him, "What'd you say?"
The guy raised his eyebrow at him, "I didn't say anything."
Tory looked around at the other people around him, none of whom seemed to be trying to talk to him.
"It wasn't any of them. Just follow my instructions, and get off at the next stop," the mellow voice said.
This time Tory was sure he heard the voice through his headphones. The headphones that weren't plugged into anything.
The voice spoke again, "Don't reply. You'll just raise suspicion. I am speaking through your headphones. Don't ask how. You won't understand. Just stand up. Up! Good, now when the doors open, walk out and get on the C train."
Tory's mind was racing. Was he really going to listen to the instructions the voice in his head was giving him?
"Oh, and in case you decide to do something stupid like ignore me, think again. If you want to see your mother ever again, that is."
The subway doors slid open.
If you like my writing, check out the novel I'm writing, as well as all of my writing prompt responses, at /r/1_stormageddon_1!