Ch. 2 - The Office

“9:02. Let’s just hope she hasn’t noticed…”

I never understood how Joshua is able to see the clock on the wall. I can’t even see the other people. You can only hear the never-ending sound of the keyboards. And you can only see the light from the monitors. Who even thought candles would be a good idea?

“You’re late!”

“AAAAHHHH!!!“

A tall figure emerged from the darkness. Joshua’s scream made the noise stop and everyone turned to see. You could only see the eyes: a stare that looked into your very soul; one that seemed to know every sin you’ve ever committed.

When will he learn?

“Who, who are yo- Oh… I’m… I’m so sorry, Boss! Its just that, in the dark, like…”

“Shut it! And be grateful that you’re normally a model employee, otherwise I’d have fired you on the spot! Now, you, and I mean all of you, GET! BACK! TO! WORK! DID I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?”

“Y-Yes, Boss!”

Everyone returned quickly to their assigned task, making sure not to meet her stare. Joshua made a deep bow and run towards his desk, forgetting to hang his coat and almost slipping with his slippers.

That is what scares them. They can see someone die in front of them and be just fine, but the prospect of being fired is where they draw the line. I don’t get it. Like everything else, I don’t get it. Better go to my spot, before she remembers that I was late too… I’d hate to have a one-on-one with her again…

“Not you, Marcus. I need to have a word with you.”

Shit. Fuck. No, maybe it’s about… So we’ll talk here, right? …no. She’s going to her office… Fuck! It’s not that… Did I screw up something yesterday? Not that I know of…

Shit! I even need to be careful not to go bumping into some piece of furniture, in this darkness! If I did that too, she’d have my head for sure! She already fired to guys for that! ‘Ruining the atmosphere of the workplace’ my ass!

Why candles? Like, it’s obvious: the Eye is bad, we must keep working to survive as a society and we can’t do that at night because ‘Night is for sleeping!’, or so the Mayor says. But it’d be enough to roll down the shutters and turn on the lights! But noooo, the Mayor say we have to cut costs and we all happily do so. We use electricity anyway for the computers, for fuck’s sake!

Calm down… Calm… down… Deep breaths… You’re already in the den of a lion, you can think about all of the Mayor’s bullshits another time.

“You know why I called you here, Marcus?”

Might as well try… I know it’s wrong, but…

“Is it possible that the new intern I should tutor arrives today?”

“Good guess, but wrong. There has been some confusions on the part of the employment agency and they had given me the wrong name, so this matter will take a little more time. But, it’s not that what we’re about to discuss today. Care to try again?”

Every time she’s getting annoyed, she gets closer to the window at the back of her office. The Boss. We all call her that, because I believe none of us actually know her name. Always lightly made up and walking on her trusty heels. I’ve got no clue how she’s able to go out while wearing those. Maybe she takes them off when she goes outside, but she doesn’t strike me as the type. Then again, I don’t believe I’ve ever seen her outside this office.

If I had to guess, I’d say that the Mayor, in his everyday life, is kinda like the Boss. A professional that handles situations with a type of logic us mortals can’t even begin to understand, while shouting nonsensical orders. A bit like the King and the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland… I should read it again, next day off; it seems more relevant than ever.

“I’ll take your silence as a ‘no’. Do you happen to remember, Marcus, those very important documents that you handled that should have been delivered to our branch in the neighboring town two days ago?”

“Yes, Boss.”

“Then, care to explain why they are STILL ON YOUR DESK?”

“B-Becuase our usual courier is ill and no other one is interested to take the job…”

“And then?”

“T-Then… The town is quite a ride from here… A couple hours on foot at least… And the pay we offer for the job is not that great…”

“And THEN?”

“W-Wha-“

“Did you not understand how important it is that these documents reach our branch as soon as possible? As someone who has worked with us for almost an entire year now, I thought you would know better…”

“B-But I do, Boss! I really do! It’s just that, until the courier gets better, we have no one who can make that trip!”

“Oh, but those documents will get where they should be today. This afternoon to be precise.”

“This afternoon? But it’s impossible! Who could even get there that fast?”

“You.”

“M-Me? But, how…?”

“Oh, it’s quite simple, isn’t it? You’ll just have to take your car.”

car. Car. Car. C-A-R.

Just one letter in common with “Death”, and yet they mean basically the same thing.

“You want me to DRIVE?! Are you completely insane?”

“Tone. It. Down. Immediately.”

“I’m sorry, Boss, but it’s a suicide! Even if I, in some way miraculous way, was able to turn it on without the Eye noticing me, I’d have to drive so slowly to not be heard that it’d be faster to just go on foot!”

“And that’s why you won’t drive slowly. As I said, the documents will arrive at the branch before the evening. End of story.”

Does she actually expect me to do this? Has she completely lost it?

“Boss, I… I won’t. I just won’t. You can’t make me do this something like this!”

“…I’ll act like I did not hear you properly, Jones. Care to repeat?”

“I said I won’t d-“

“Vwwwrrppp!”

WHAT THE FUCK SHE JUST D-

“Thump!”

Threw myself on the ground without even thinking... Almost blind… So much light… I wasn’t wrong… She really did it… She really rolled the shutters up!!!

“And I said that YOU will make this delivery THIS AFTERNOON, AM I BEING UNDERSTOOD?“

The Eye… For a second, for just a split second, I think it looked through the window… She was actually trying to… Is this why she always goes to the window when she’s annoyed? Has she done it before??? Did somebody… The carpet! Could this carpet be here to hide the mark of the strike?”

“If you want, you can fire yourself off AFTER you’ve done it, clear?”

“…y-yes, Boss…”

“Vwwwrrppp!”

She was in a precise point of the room where the Eye wouldn’t have been able to see her from the window… She knew exactly what she was doing; it wasn’t improvised…

“Now go, and if the branch doesn’t receive the documents by the evening, don’t bother coming back!”

“SLAM!”

Didn’t even notice that I was out and she already shut the door…

Quitting, right…? I’m still in time before trying to die for a dumb job…

Idiot.

I’m an idiot to even think that.

I’ve already quit two jobs since all this begun, and this one is the one where the requests are more reasonable…

They’re all the same.