Ben was driving back to the office. He couldn't help putting his tongue in the place of the missing tooth. It feels so weird when they just fell off.
The road crossed a small forest. He was driving between the trees, their multi-colored leaves shaking under the wing. Got a sale, lost a tooth, got a date. Not a bad day. He smiled and started humming a song out of key.
Suddenly, a deer crossed the road just in front of his car. Adrenalin kicked in, he saw it like in slow motion, and pressed the brakes. As the car stopped, his head slammed into the steering wheel.
Half groggy Ben was confused. What? I shouldn't have been pushed that hard. He scratched the back of his head. It's like something pushed me from behind.
He felt the taste of blood in his mouth for the second time today. Great, now it reopened the wound. He checked his mouth with a finger. Something felt loose.
When he looked at his hand, a broken tooth was lying in his palm. Ben's eyes widened. "No way, what are the odds of that?" He muttered. His hand shook slightly, and the teeth fell to the ground. He tried to find it, searching with his hand, but he felt nothing under his fingers. "It must have rolled under the seat." The car started advancing. Ben shook his head. "I wonder what my dentist will say about that."
Ben parked his car in the company parking lot. He crossed the road to the pharmacy and bought painkillers and a mouthwash. He was walking toward his company building when, in the corner of his eye, something felt off. He stopped and looked at his shadow. "Weird, I could swear it was at a wrong angle for a second." He shrugged and kept walking.
He spat the now pink colored mouthwash in the sink. Then he took a glass of water and swallowed twice the usual amount of painkiller, "Once, shouldn't kill me". He froze, startled as he glimpsed something in the mirror.
He looked behind him, and then in the mirror again. Nothing. He sighed, "Looks like I'm more sensitive to ghost stories than I thought." He was quite sure about it though… two almond-shaped eyes, so bright white they left an after image, had been staring at him.
Back in his office, Ben was trying to focus on work. But he felt a throbbing behind his temple, and the screen was blurry. KNOCK KNOCK. His boss stood by the entrance. "The client called, she confirmed the sale."
He walked toward Ben and slapped his desk twice. "Good job, I knew I could count on you." Ben gave him a tired smile. His boss frowned. "You look terrible, though. She told me about the fall." He patted Ben's shoulder. "Take the rest of the day off, you deserve it." Ben answered in a crackly voice. "Thank you, I appreciate that." His boss gave him a wide smile and a thumbs-up. Before leaving the room, he said, "We can't afford to lose you, without your magic, this company goes under."
Ben was walking toward the elevator. He passed a colleague's office, and a voice called him "Hey Ben, you're mom's so fat…" Ben cut him off. "Stop it, Mike, those were never funny to begin with." Mike looked at his friend's back as he walked away. He scratched his head, confused. "That's a first… Never heard you snap like that before…"
As the elevator door was closing, Ben heard a whisper. You're mom's so fat… He shivered, goosebumps covered his arms. "What was that?..." He listened intently, but didn't hear anything other than the mechanical sound of the elevator going down.
DING!
Ben was startled by the sound. The door opened and he let out a nervous laugh. "I hear voices now… probably shouldn't have taken that many painkillers."