5 - : Hell Is Other People

The toddler began to scream, a sound like a hawk being fed into a woodchipper. "C-one-one-four!" the speaker barked.

The fluorescent lights in the DMV waiting room didn't just hum; they vibrated at a frequency designed to loosen tooth enamel. Elias sat on a plastic chair that had been molded for a body type that didn't exist in nature. 5 : Hell Is Other People

He looked at the exit. He could leave. He could walk out into the fresh air, forget the registration, and live as an outlaw. But as he stood up, the egg-sandwich man sneezed, a fine mist settling over the back of Elias’s neck. The toddler began to scream, a sound like

Elias closed his eyes and tried to find his "inner temple," as his therapist suggested. But the temple was being invaded. A teenager three seats down was watching TikToks at full volume without headphones—a relentless loop of high-pitched laughter and distorted bass. Behind him, two elderly women were having a shouting match about their respective gallbladder surgeries. Elias sat on a plastic chair that had