"Turn down the volume of that shirt!", I cackled at my supervisor who looked at me with quiet disdain. It was another late nighter upgrading the company servers for the Windows 8 roll-out site wide and I was in the silliest of moods. Actually I'm always in a silly mood, for all intents and purposes. My supervisor, Phil, said I could "use some deference" while in the work place. Clearly he hasn't been in the business long enough to understand that when IT is involved, one needs a great sense of humor. If you didn't have one, you'd probably collapse from over exertion or worse yet, have your undies in a bunch, ala Phil's current state.

I was just about ready to close down my station when the dreaded question came from him: "So, you will be in here tomorrow night as well?". Well hell...I hadn't planned on it. "Of course I will. Who else will help you with the god awful choices you make with fashion?", I smirked. This roll-out is taking a lot longer than it should because the company is being el cheapo with hiring other folks for the install. Ugh, corporate politics are ass. I am definitely looking forward to getting home now.

My job isn't bad. Being the assistant IT Manager means I have opportunities to try new toys and call them sexy and no one judged me...to my face. My life was pretty routine. After work, I always headed to the gym for a workout. I don't have the rock hard abs yet but give me a few more months and I'll be your personal washboard. I'm the short and thick Southern bred black woman. A shower and dinner is almost always followed by the ceremonious unwinding courtesy of one of my favorite games: Mass Effect. My love life was non-existent and I am comfortable in that space. After having several failed relationships due to my...non-monogamous dealings, I decided the break was necessary...had to get myself together because that essentially is the cause of those problems.

I feel a vibration underneath my thigh as I'd just settled in to replay the Mass Effect trilogy with my custom femshep,
Adewale Shepard. She's a Vanguard and a boss, if you're wondering. The aforementioned rumbling under my skin is a phone call. It is Erica. "Surprised you answered. I know you're about to play Mass Effect again" she muses. "Yeah you know me. Always routine", I say. Simultaneously, I'm wondering just how she knows to call me exactly when I'm sitting in my chair. For awhile, I started looking outside of my window when she called just to make sure she wasn't parked out there somewhere. "That's precisely what I mean. You're always working or at home. When the hell will you take a vacation?! I know you have the hours saved up", she adds as an afterthought. "Yeah I do but I have always subscribed to the adage that there is no place like home". "Well I'll let you unwind. I know how important your ME time is...at least it was when we...just yeah, go enjoy your nerdly things", she quips. "I will enjoy them and thank you to not use the word nerdly again, darling", I say laughing. "I'll check on you tomorrow as well. Someone has to do it since you've become so much of a recluse. Peace". Erica deserves some words here. She would have been the perfect woman for me in a perfect world but I am nowhere near close to perfection. She loved me in spite of myself. I just couldn't take hurting her anymore knowing my reputation for being a lady's woman would not die anytime soon. Not while I am in my comfort zone of just being alone. Enough of that though. Time to take Adewale on a mission.

Libations: check. Wireless remote controller: check. Copious amounts of herbal essence: no check. Where was my device? I check the arm rest on my chair and I'd somehow stuck it between there. That was odd. I'd better be more mindful of things in my home. I begin my walk-through with all important items accounted for and noticed that it started to rain. I also hear thunder. Didn't see anything about rain on my weather app earlier so this is strange but welcomed. Rain makes me feel a sort of peace. Storms are ok but lightning? I despise it. I'm more keraunophobic than I care to admit. I'm absent-mindedly playing with my one of my 'locs(as in dreadlocks) when I hear a resounding BOOM! This wasn't in the game because I am on the part where Shepard has just defeated Sovereign and what the hell is it 11:30 already?! Time gets away from you playing this game. I search outside via my front windows for the source of the sound. As I approach my living room window, I see nothing. "Must have struck something", I say to myself. Then the lights in my apartment flicker off. Great. I hadn't even saved that game. Hopefully the auto save had my back. Suddenly in the darkness, my PS3 displays a weird purple light. "What the hell is THAT?!" I scream out loud to no one in particular. My nerd senses are tingling and telling me something is wrong. That light is getting bigger and starting to fill my living room. "Shit if this transports me to Mass Effect somehow, I just better not be anything other than a strong black woman in it", I jokingly state. Soon the joke is on me as the light encompasses my home and I see nothing but darkness. Well hell...that escalated quickly.

End Chapter 1