The Fyrn

The advertisement

"Lookout wanted. For more information, call 1-800-200-2230" My eyes scanned the sentence thoroughly. The ad intrigued me, I never was one meant for city life. However, for the past four years that's exactly what my life had been. Just another cog in the machine, wasting away at a desk working for some gutless boss in an entry-level position. As you can imagine, I was quite fed up with the life I was living, if you can really call it living. I'd started looking up some new opportunities and jobs instead of working to stop myself from falling asleep at my computer. I also obviously needed something new, a challenge that could breathe life back into my boring existence. The mundane reality I lived in beat down on me, until very little of my lust for life remained. What little did remain, however, managed to bring me to this interesting advertisement.

"Lookout wanted. For more information, call 1-800-200-2230. Area: [ X ]" The short sentence was accompanied by a picture of a lookout tower in the middle of a dense spruce forest, with the sun settling just over the top of the trees. The sky was a beautiful gradient of red, orange and baby blue and the sight captivated me unlike anything I'd ever seen before. Having already found something promising, I was excited. And I mean excited, like I hadn't been since my brother Sean and I went down into the basement of an abandoned building when we were kids. Oh how I miss that time, just stupid teenagers doing stupid things.
"What if a serial killer buried his victims down there?" He'd said with that expression he was known for having, expressing both unimaginable excitement and a sense of fear that I can't quite explain correctly. If we believed any of it? Well I sure didn't, but I'm sure our stories scared some of the eight graders at our high school. From haunted houses to strange shadowy figures in the night, we never did run out of stories to tell. Well, until Sean went off to the military anyway. After that I was all alone as he –well, let's not open that can of worms just yet. A while after that I applied for some stupid goddamn job I didn't even want and well, here we are.

The ad promised to bring back that sense of wonder and curiosity, I could feel it calling to me. Without further ado, I saved it in a folder on my personal files and went back to work. Well, I should say I went back to pretending to work. I took a pen out of my drawer and drew a big X on my left hand and it reminded me of the crossroads in life I found myself at. I wouldn't let this opportunity pass me by. The rest of the day dragged on, seemingly forever. It felt like I was in an endless labyrinth of boring mundaneness. When the clock finally struck five, I was out of there faster than I ever had been. Ah, who am I kidding? I left 15 minutes early, I just couldn't wait. I practically flew down the stairs, nearly tripping over the last step but I managed to avoid that embarrassment.

I hopped in my car, scratching the handle with my key in my hurried state and I cursed under my breath before dialing the number. The phone rang once, then rang a second time and just when I thought all of my excitement was in vain, someone answered the phone. The voice on the other end of the line was soft and warm, unlike what you would expect from someone working in this business. "[ X ] Lookout, how can I help you?" The voice belonged to a woman, around her mid-twenties if I had to guess, it was as soothing as it was comforting and it made me feel a weird sense of belonging I hadn't felt before. "Yes, hello? My name is Alex Crawford and I read your ad, I'm interested in the position you're offering." I stammered out, I felt embarrassed for the way I sounded. Why was I nervous? Maybe because I felt like this was my only chance at gaining back some of that child-like wonder and at escaping the life I had come to hate.
"I see," she said, the slight smile on her face was audible even through my cheap and worn phone's speakers, "I do have to tell you that it is a very demanding job. The isolation could be overbearing and the silence can become deafening. It's very remote, you will have nothing but the forest to keep you company. Are you okay with that?"
"That's perfect!" I practically yelled back. I don't know why I was unable to contain my excitement, maybe the years of city life had taken that out of me and some part of me could now finally express itself again. The rest of the conversation went rather well, I appeared to be qualified for the position and it turned out the phone operator was only temporarily working said job, as she was usually positioned in the watchtower closest to the one I hoped to be stationed in. I was asked for my email address, and we then hung up. That day, I drove home feeling a renewed sense of hope and all my worries seemed to fade away into the deepest recesses of my mind. The evening air was thick and soupy as I drove, the city lights fading behind me like distant memories. My heart raced with the same intensity as the engine, and I yearned deeply for the new life I had dreamt up for myself. When I eventually arrived at the ugly cement carpet of my home, which people usually call the parking lot, I looked up and my apartment greeted me with its familiar, ugly rectangular look.