Deep inside apartment 703 Ray's alarm clock shrieked and he tossed in bed, trying to find a position that would shelter him from its assault.

"One more minute of sleep and I'll be ready" he thought in the intoxicated logic of a person teetering between conciousness and slumber.

It had been a long night, not because Ray had hit the bottle again or run into any of his former associates, but merely from the worries. The worries that haunted his every waking moment. They've been keeping him up for days and his body was begining to show his exhaustion.

Suddenly a thump came from the wall behind him.

"No sense in making Ms. Sylvia anymore mad"he reflected as he heard the old woman moan through the wall.

He shook his lazy limbs and hoped out of bed giving the clock a shove to silence it. His feet were tangled in his bed sheets as he fell toward the bathroom turning on the light to wake up even more fully. The bright bulb blinded him but he managed to slap himself with some cold water from the sink.

"Thats better....now I'm awake" he thought.

But Ray wasnt nearly as aware as he would have liked as he stumbled out into the short hall that led to the small room that was a sad imitation of a kitchen.

His right hand grabed the crusty bowl and dirty spoon from the counter as his left reached for the bag of cold cereal. He gave the bag a violent shake and quickly poured some milk into the mix before taking a swig from the jug himself and throwing it back in the fridge.

He slid into a chair and began working on the heap of stale and somehow soggy cereal all the while staring blindly off into space. Then for some reason his eyes focused onto the clock above him.

"8:30...Hoofta I'm late!!!" he panicked as he realized how long his fight with his alarm had taken.

He bolted from the breakfast and quickly put on some jeans and his garage jacket from the top of his dirty clothes pile.

"I'm never gonna hear the end of this one!" he thought as he slammed the door and ran to work.