When 45-year-old Theodore Narrator gets fired from his job as Employee 528 at a large company, he is at a loss for words. His life is already going down the gutter, and this feels like it will be the straw to break the camel's back. But one fateful...
The trio walked into Lovebug's apartment. Artificial moonlight was streaming in through the windows. A small kitchen was settled on one side of the room, and the other half of the room was a comfy living room with a navy-blue couch and a grey carpet. There was a door on the right side of the room that presumably led to Lovebug's bedroom. It was a fairly nice apartment, other than the random superhero posters messily taped up to the walls.
"You guys can stay here for the night," said Lovebug. "It'll be just like a sleepover! Maybe we'll forget about the fact that we aren't allowed to leave."
"Yeah, sure. Forgetting that we're trapped in our office and not allowed to go home and see our families," grumbled Cura. "What I find weird is that The CEO didn't tell me why we had to stay. He usually tells me these things, especially when it's something so critical." Lovebug and Theo looked at each other nervously. They were fairly sure that they were the main source of the problem.
"Well, I don't know what it is, but I am going to sleep," yawned Theo, changing the subject. "I'll sleep on the floor if you want the couch, Cura."
"Sleep is for the weak. I'm going to do work all night." Cura took out her laptop and sat at the kitchen counter. Lovebug started to laugh. Cura glared. "What?"
"Oh, you're serious," realized Lovebug. "Okay but can't we do some sleepover things first?" Cura and Theo groaned simultaneously. Lovebug went into his room and closed the door defeatedly. "Point taken, point taken."
Theo grabbed a blanket and lay down on the couch, looking up at the ceiling. Cura dimmed her laptop screen substantially, and continued to type on her keyboard. Today had been a very odd day. First, the CEO's strange announcement, then the dictionary, the table, and suddenly everything was spiraling into chaos. Supernatural, uncomfortable chaos. Theo was more than willing to fall backwards into a deep sleep.
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Falling. He was falling. That metaphor in the previous paragraph was taken literally, apparently. He fell right into a chair, spinning around until he was facing his boss at his desk.
"This is the story of a man named Office Drone," the CEO said, menacingly. "He was named this way because he would never be anything more than a pathetic little white-collar worker. He would most certainly never amount to anything. Sure, he was a bit special. A tiny bit different from all of the others. He knew useless facts about shrimp. He had salt-and-pepper hair. He had a curious scar on his left palm, from the index to the wrist. But otherwise, he was completely the same, just more manipulatable. Weaker. Just another dull old Theo, placed into a mysterious position at a mysterious company. He was an underling, an employee, a well-paid slave to a supposedly superior version of himself! How crazy was that?
"He was assigned an office. A nice one, a corner office in a round building. He had a job he enjoyed and was well paid for, two good friends, that was a record, and a nice life. Until one day, he decided it was a good idea to do things a little bit differently. He wanted to make his boss' life MISERABLE. He started causing mischief, spots on the company record. He decided, 'you know what? Instead of respecting my company and my boss, I might as well cause a path of reckless destruction! Yes, a perfect alternative!'
"But of course, every criminal should stand trial for their crimes. And that's why you're sitting here now, Drone!", the CEO stood up. "You broke the basic rules of the plot, and now you'll realize how much you really matter."
The CEO walked over to Theo's side of the desk, crouching in front of him.
"Your punishment, that is," he said calmly, as he grabbed Theo's neck with one hand, lifting him off the ground. Theo struggled against his cold grip, his feet dangling mere inches above the floorboards.
"You know, drone, it's really impressive, your knack for getting fired." His grip tightened, Theo heard a snap, and then everything went black.
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Theo woke up, panting. He grabbed his navy blue tie that was still tied tightly around his neck, and flung it halfway across the room. It was all just a dream.
"Whoa, what happened to you?" asked a calm Cura from the kitchen table, where she was still working. The clock on the oven said it was 2:58 AM, an ungodly hour. "You were tossing and turning in your blanket for the last hour. It was annoyingly noisy."
"Sorry, just a... bad dream," he said, squinting in the bright light of Cura's laptop.
"Must've been, with that much of a reaction," she said, not looking up from her spreadsheet. They sat there in silence for a minute, Theo trying to get back to sleep.
"You know, you've been acting a bit off today," remarked Cura, finally looking over at Theo. "The headache, the table, and now... this. It's a bit concerning, actually."
Theo felt a pang of nervousness in his stomach. Not just because Cura was concerned about someone else's safety for the first time ever, but because he wondered what would happen if she found out about today. Cura was a smart person. If anyone could tie two and two together, it'd be her.
"Have I?", he said, innocently. "I'm sorry, it's all from the CEO's announcement, if you could even call it that."
"But breaking a table, though?", she grinned, still brimming with suspicion. "Normal office drone behavior. Absolutely normal." her grin turned into a glare as she narrowed her eyes. "You know, I'd almost think that--"
A muffled yell came from Lovebug's room. Theo bolted up off of the couch and ran over to the door, panicking. What could it be? Had the guards found Lovebug? Were they going to fire him? How did firing people work in this company? I mean, certainly, they couldn't just let people go, could they? It's an interdimensional corporation, surely word would get out--
