It was cold. That was the first thing Jeremy noted, oddly cold for this time of year, normally it would be sunny, the sound of dogs barking and birds singing would hang dryly in the air, but instead it was silent, and he could see his breath billowing like clouds in front of him.
He had been walking for quite some time now, the cold air seeping through his thick winter coat. Jeremy was on his way to meet someone, three people for exact. The same three people he had known all his life, the only three people he had been allowed to know. To talk to. To laugh with. To share stories with, and birthdays, meals and holidays. It was to bad, the two out of the three people absolutely hated him.
"How immature!" "Cant you be serious for once?" "God, we're actually trying to get something done!" "Honestly, you should probably just go." Those were the words the Jeremy was used to. It wasn't his fault he liked to make light of most situations, he always had his entire life. So why was he always ridiculed for it? They all had a notable trait, he supposed.
Ben was the first one that came to mind, he was serious. The smartest one out of the group, it seemed. He was good at numbers and computers and all that practical stuff that Jeremy had no interest in. He had a lot of bragging rights and yet, he never really bragged. Jeremy sort of admired him for that, not that Ben cared, he was a bit selfish after all.
Then there was Mack, probably the only person who was ever relatively nice to him. He was the..kind one? Thats really all Jeremy could think of, and he wasn't wrong. Mack was always nice, no matter who he was talking to. He always looked for the silver lining in every situation, something Jeremy wished he was better at. Mack was considered useful by the other two, but at the same time wasn't one hundred percent serious all of the time. He would give anything to be like that.
And finally, there was...him. The complicated one. Everyone considered him the "boss" and yet he wasnt around all that often, not outside the office anyway. Every once and a while Jeremy would spot Ben or Mack walking through the streets, or in a store, maybe at the park. But X? No, he just wasn't anywhere. Ever. And when they did meet up, he was awful. Good at what he did? Certainly, it wasn't a surprise that he ran the whole "Company". But he wasnt nice in the slightest. He spoke in odd messages that didnt make much sense, and when he spoke normally he was cruel, especially to Jeremy. He never knew what he did to make X so mad but...he feared him.
He let out a long sigh, shoving his cold hands into his pockets, thinking about how weird his life must seem to other people. Normal people. Seemingly they all lived normal lives, thats what it seemed like from the outside at least. But all four of them knew it was different.
There were rules. Rules that they had to follow. X never told them why but...all of them were to afraid to ask. Ben talked about it once, Jeremy could still remember the awkward conversation that had taken place at last month's meeting.
"Why do we have to do this anyway? What are we gaining? I never really understood."
But his words had been met with a cold silence, and then they moved on. It was never answered, never discussed. Just gone, like another useless thought, another idea of freedom pushed aside by the cold grip of reality. Because this was reality. For Jeremy, for the others, this was their life. And they couldn't do anything to change it.
Jeremy was snapped out of his thoughts by a loud creak, the sound of a large wooden door swinging open, breaking through the silence that had gripped the cold morning.
"Hurry up! You're late!"
