Chapter 1: An Adverting Leaflet

“Yes! Yes! Come on! Come on!” screeched Mike as he stood among with others within a bookies. Mike has placed a bet on a horse who he hoped would win him big.

“Yes! Yes!” shouted Mike as he saw that his horse was taking the lead. “Yes come on girl! You can do it” shouted Mike as he saw that his horse was about to jump over the last fence.He face turn pale when he saw that the horse he betted on fell

over, the jockey went flying off. “NOOOO!” screamed Mike as he covered his face. “Ooh, sorry about that mate” said one of the people that saw his reaction.

“GRR...what ever man” snapped Mike as he screwed his betting slip. “Erm...Mike” spoke a woman that stood behind the betting counter. Mike looked at the woman whom had long blond hair and wore glasses. “What?” snapped Mike as he looked at her. “Don’t speak with that tone towards me, anyway Mike” said the woman as she looked at him with an annoyed look on her face.  

“Yes, sorry...sorry” said Mike as he calmed down. “Now that’s more like it. Now then, that will increase the amount of money you own the bookies” said the woman as she wrote the amount that Mike needs to pay back. She showed him a piece of paper that has the new amount. “Dam it!” said Mike under his breath as he saw how much he needs to pay back. “I’m sorry Mike but I just cannot extend the due date. He will find out about it within time” said the woman. “Don’t worry Lauren...I will get it back before then” said Mike as he hung his head as he walked out of the bookies.

He walked down the streets and threw his betting slip onto the floor. Placed his hands in his pockets and looked around to see where he would wonder into next. Mike saw the local pub and all of a sudden he felt thirsty. With that Mike took out his wallet and saw that he had only a fiver left. “That’s enough for a pint” said Mike to himself as he made his way over to the pub called ‘The Toby’.As he entered, Mike saw that the pub was pretty much empty; its customers were only that of three young women.

“Ooh, finally a man at long last” said Mary, the bar maid as she smiled at Mike. “Not very busy” said Mike back as he looked back at the three women. Each of them looked at Mike and then back to each other and laughed.“Tell me about” said Mary as she shook her head with a smile.

“Pint of Strongbow please” said Mike as he rested his elbows onto the counter. “Take it that it was a hard day” said Mary. “You could say it like that” said Mike as he looked at Mary getting a glass and pouring Strongbow into. “Here you go” said Mary as she slid the glass over him. Mike took out his last fiver and handed it over to her. “Hmm, something tells me that you need this” said Mary as she passed the fiver back to him.

“Oh...thank you” said Mike as he smiled at her.With that Mike began to drink his pint of Strongbow. As he was drinking it, he heard the sound of the women laughing. He looked over his shoulder and saw that the three women looked over at him and then back to each other. “Looks to me that you got some fans” said Mary as she saw the same thing. “You think? Look at them, they look like top business women feel towards them and look at me” said Mike as he looked back at Mary.

“Hay, don’t be like that. What job you do isn’t what’s important” said Mary as she tried to cheer him up.“Easy said for you, I’m a jobless man that owns lots of people money” said Mike as he took a deep breath. As Mike took another sip of his pint when one of the three of three women walked up to the bar.Mike looked at the woman and saw she has short ginger hair. The woman smiled at him and said, “Hello Mike” “I’m sorry but have we met?” asked Mike as he looked at her and saw that she looked somewhat familiar to him.

“Why I’m hurt Mike after everything we’ve been through” answered the woman as she giggled a little. “I’m really sorry but I don’t know you” said Mike as he looked at her puzzled. “Of course you do, back when you were sma...” said the woman when she suddenly got pulled back by one of the other two. Mike looked on confused as he saw that they three women were arguing upon themselves. Mike could hear what they were saying but only a little.

“I told you that it wasn’t him” said one of the three women whom were Asian with long black hair. “But it has to be him, I mean look at him” said the ginger hair woman. “Perhaps that it is him but not the him that we know” said the third woman whom was a black woman with blond hair.“You don’t mean the him that came before?” asked the Asian woman. “That would explain why he...” said the ginger hair woman. Just then the black woman whacked her on the arm. Mike finished his glass and said, “Right, I better be going home” “So soon?” asked Mary as she looked at him with a sad look.

“Yeah, I got to. See you later” said Mike as he stood up and left the pub. The three women looked at him as he left.As he was walking his way home, Mike noticed something flying on the streets among the wind. He looked at it and saw that it was a leaflet. He stomped onto it which stopped it from flying.Mike knelt down and picked up the leaflet and saw something that caught his interest.

It was adverting people to test run a secret project and that they will pay huge amount of money. Thinking that it was some sort of con, Mike screwed up the leaflet and was about to throw it away. But something stopped him in doing so. He looked back at the screwed up leaflet and thought that he had nothing to lose; he put it in his pocket and carried on walking home. As he made it home, he saw a note hanging on his front door. Mike ripped the note off the door and began to read it,

‘You are late paying the rent. This is you’re last warning as you got 3 days to pay it in’

“Dam it!” said Mike under his breath. He took his key out and let himself in. As he made it inside, Mike made his way towards the kitchen and opened his fridge. He looked inside and saw that he only had one can of Strongbow left. Taking a deep sigh, Mike took the can out and opened it. He made his way towards the living room, slump down onto the sofa and turned on the TV with the remote. He spent hours watching programs that on the TV, mostly repeats of shows. At the end, Mike fell asleep.

 Mike suddenly woke up; saw that the time was 9pm. He sat up and found the can he was drinking from laying on floor with the beer all over the floor. “Ah dam it!” snapped Mike as he jump from his seat. Mike stuck his hands in his pockets and found the leaflet he picked up earlier. He knelt down and used the leaflet to scrub the spill of beer. As he was scrubbing, he suddenly remembered that the leaflet he was using said something about a secret project. With the now wet leaflet, Mike as carefully as he can, placed it out as flat as possible and saw that the volunteers would be paid large amount.

Still thinking that it’s a con, Mike thought to himself that he got nothing to lose, saw that there was a telephone number to ring to be part of project. Mike got up with the leaflet in hand, made his way towards the telephone and input the number that was written on the leaflet.  

The number was, 1981891411

Once he pushed the last button, he let the phone ring till he heard that it was connected to other line. He waited for some sort of greetings but all he heard was the sound one would get when one listens to phone when internet was still on. He listens to the sound for over minute when he suddenly heard that the line hung up. “Knew it, bloody hell knew it” said Mike to himself as he hung the phone back. As Mike was making his way back to his sofa to get to watching TV, he felt a sudden headache which grew so bad that Mike turned the TV off tried his hardest to make it his way to the bedroom. He was stumping along the way till he made it to the bedroom.

Mike took a few steps towards the bed but felt the strength in his legs suddenly left him. He fell with his body above waist landed on the end of his bed. His legs he just couldn’t move. Slowly, everything went all dark and Mike knew that he closed his eyes. He hoped he would feel better in the morning.