Deaths Fate

Chapter Two

Present- Thirteen Years Later

I fiddled with the plastic mini Starbucks cup that was attached to my keychain, turning it slowly over in my fingers as I glanced at the computer monitor in front of me. The email from my manager sat there looming back at me. Words pulsating on the screen and even as much as I tried to focus on what they said I couldn't get myself to read them. I was in one of those midday slumps, unable to push myself out of it, even with the fresh iced coffee that I had on my desk from the Starbucks in my corporate office. I let out an annoyed sigh and pushed myself back in my chair. My weight making it swivel back and forth before coming to a halt after a few seconds.

Maybe I needed some fresh air. A walk around the building might put me into a better mood, but then again maybe it would just make me more depressed because it was so nice outside and I was stuck at work. It wasn't like I disliked my job, I loved my work but at this moment I felt an ominous foreboding feeling wash over me like something bad was going to happen but I didn't know what. I dropped my keychain onto my table, it cluttered loudly onto the fake wood, and I picked up one of my pens before putting the edge of it against my lip.

I sat there deep in thought but not truly thinking about anything, not knowing how much time had actually passed before I felt a tap on my arm. I glanced up, breaking out of my revere. My coworker and team mate Zack stood there looking at me with raised eyebrows. His skin was dry with small flakes falling off his equally dry scalp, and onto his blue shirt. He had his headset on and they rested around his neck precariously. Zack leaned forward slightly, resting his arm on my desk as he looked at me.

"Howdy friend," He began in his always vibrant voice, "The fun committee is hosting a meeting next Thursday, are you going to be able to attend it in person or are you going to be working from home that day?"

The fun committee was something Zack had set up and created himself and a few of our team mates were also apart of it. I didn't know how many times they actually met up to discuss doing fun things. I had only known them to hold a meeting or two but those didn't have exact definite dates on them. I had always assumed that he just liked to be able to own something on the team and was proud to talk about it as much as he possibly could.

I used one of my toes to push against the ground to turn to look at him and let out a groan before tilting my head back and closing my eyes.
"I think I am going to take a rain check for the rest of the year," I grumbled out, and Zack let out a dry laugh but didn't let my mood get him down. Nothing ever seemed to bother him.

"I'll take that as a potentially and we can connect back about this next week on Tuesday," Nothing could ever deter Zack when he was on a mission to bring fun to the workplace. All I could do was groan an agreement and he chuckled, before he gave a quick pat onto my desk. "Right-e-o, I am going to go check with Savannah to see if she'll be here for it. Bye friend!" I opened my eyes as he finished waving at me and headed towards Savannah's cubicle to go and bother her now.

I had never understood how Zack was always so energetic, it didn't matter what time of day it was or what he was doing. He was always too cheerful for his own good. I envied someone that was always so excited to take on the day, when I could barely even get myself to read the email I had received twenty minutes ago from my manager. I shook my head to try to clear it before grabbing ahold of my desk and forcing myself forward into my chair. My stomach hit the edge and I was back to looking at my monitor.

It took me a few tries before I was finally able to read and understand my mangers email fully. I groaned aloud for what felt like the fifteenth time in that hour.

What could possibly be wrong with the Corporate orientation that I needed to change? I clicked out of that email and went to my spreadsheets and metrics that I had for Corporate, trying to find the correct tabs. When I finally had all of the information displayed on all three monitors in front of me, I skimmed through the new hires that were supposed to start next week. Checking through them carefully for what might have been wrong with the associate numbers and the cost centers. Everything looked exactly as it should have been, there were eight new people starting on Monday and all of their information was in the system correctly. I went to a google tab and pulled up my Corporate Communications email to see if there was something wrong on the correspondence.