An arrow whizzed through the air, embedding itself in the door. Ignoring it, Dave pushed the door open and stepped inside. Behind him, there was an offended hiss of indignant breath.

"Told you." The angel put a hand on the archer's shoulder. "Come away now. He is beyond our realm."

The archer shook their head. "He can't be. No one is. You should know that. Every wretched being is created as entertainment fodder, prey to our stories. I will make contact, and when my arrow pierces whatever secret armours he possesses..."

The angel sighed. "Suit yourself." In a whirl of feathers, she departed.

Oblivious, Dave picked up a shopping basket and began his slow, bored trudge around the supermarket.

In aisle nine, two men in dark suits were battling to the death. Both had lost their guns under the shelves, and had had to resort to hand to hand combat, occasionally punctuated by someone seizing a loaf and battering his opponent. As the agents fought for the darkest of secrets, bystanders gasped and gaped. Innocents ducked and dodged.

"Excuse me, where are the eggs?" Dave's voice cut through the tension, as he tapped a young woman on the shoulder.

"What?" She stared at him, baffled.

"The eggs. The wife's making a cake and there'll be hell to pay if there are no eggs," He shrugged, almost apologetically.

"But... The future of the city is at stake! And the hero..." She clutched her heart, "my hero is--"

Dave rolled his eyes, "Just say you don't know next time. I'll find them myself," He pushed through the fighters as though they were mist and continued down the aisle, throwing the young woman a dirty look. "Bloody love interests," He muttered.

By now, he had figured it out. All through his life, everyone else had acted like a movie cliché. Heroes. Villains. Love interests. People so determined to be background characters that they didn't even have names, who shuffled away awkwardly when one tried to make small talk with them. Everyone was part of a story, on some small level.

Except him.

He didn't know why, but, he mused as he ducked past a wizard who was trying to block the vegetable aisle with his staff, he was getting bloody fed up of all this drama.