The fluorescent lights of the grocery aisle hummed with a frequency that vibrated through his teeth. As he reached for the scattered coins, his fingers betrayed him, trembling with a rhythmic, uncontrollable violence that felt like a physical sob. The man in the chair leaned in, a jagged grin cutting through the static of the room, his finger pointing like a branding iron at the wreckage of a human being. In that moment, the world dissolved into neon sparks of noise, and he realized he was no longer a person to them, merely a piece of meat struggling to make it through checkout three.