Err0r

Chapter 13: Alarmed

    Pixal let out an audible sigh and focused her attention to the desk in front of her. Her neat freak kicked in and she moved the pen in front of her the slightest bit so it was lined up with the other pens nearest to it. Satisfied with her work she looked towards the front door. The doors seemed to almost light up as if they were reflecting something. Pixal moved forward and strained to see the reflection. It was a pair of glowing yellow eyes. She became fixated on the doors in front of her ready to get up but she didn't. She was too focused on the doors. The lights above her started to dim and then they went out all together. Shocked, she stood up almost immediately. The lights flickered back on for a minute before they turned back on altogether. She looked back towards the door and it was normal once more. She focused her attention to the lights above instead. Standing on the desk she had previously cleaned she took off one of the light covers. Looking over the structure inside she noticed nothing seemed damaged. She stared at it for quite a bit to make sure that everything was fine. After she finished with one she pushed her desk chair over to do the same to the next. It also seemed to be fine. She continued this process until she had checked all of the lobby lights surrounding her desk that seemed to go dark for a bit. They all had one thing in common; they seemed fine. No issues were apparent to her even after she scanned them all for malfunctions. She figured it might've been the power but she definitely would've noticed if it shorted out for a second, she was connected to it after all.

Pixal ended up blaming the lights on her eyes and was satisfied that nothing was wrong. She sat back down at the desk. She waited to see if the lights would go out again and some would say it was unnecessary. Pixal did not think so. She thought anything was necessary just in case. After about thirty minutes she glanced back towards the front doors again. She could see something that looked like it could be a smudge from where she was. It looked that way but not quite she didn't know what it was. She walked towards it with nothing but curiosity filling her mind. She could see her reflection staring back at her. It moved when she moved and blinked when she blinked. She narrowed her eyes and her reflection did the same. It felt odd, to her anyway. If anyone were to see the same scenario unfolding they wouldn't have noticed anything different. Pixal thought she did. It was as if she was being paranoid. Maybe it was the atmosphere of the previous flickering lights, or the night sky outside the doors. It made her uneasy. So uneasy that anyone who walked by would think she looked insane staring out a glass door. Looking at practically nothing. But she wasn't looking at nothing. Peering closer at it she noticed the bright red eyes on it instead of her green ones.

Her chest automatically started pounding but she was fixated on the reflection. Her breathing became heavier with every new intake of breath. She was so distracted she didn't hear the ding of the elevator that signified it was open.

"Pixal?" A confused voice mentioned from behind her.

Whether it was the combination of the creepy reflection or the previous light incident Pixal let out a shriek. She immediately turned around and faced Borg in his spider-like contraption; she must've been extremely spaced out because coming face to face with the contraption made her scream again and slip. She groaned, pulling herself up from the tile and opening her eyes to face Borg. She looked at his expression but he didn't seem particularly amused by her situation. In fact his face had some sort of concern to it.

"Are you alright?" He whispered, as if anything else might startle her again.

"I- I'm fine." Pixal replied

"What happened?" He questioned.

"It's nothing, I just scared myself. Do you need anything?" She monotonously mentioned.

She turned her back to the glass doors before staring at them one more time. In the commotion she forgot about the other night and the chaos that followed. Her brain was too fixated on the awful experience a few seconds ago.

"Oh um I was wondering if you uh...completed the-"

"I did." She cut him off.

Pixal already knew what he was going to say. She still wished she could delete more than just that. Part of her still wanted to delete the whole conversation they had but she didn't. The other part of her wanted to remember it for what purpose she couldn't tell you. She hardly even knew herself but she knew it had something to do with knowing Borg wasn't the most amazing being in the city. He acted like he was half of the time the other half of the time she acted like he was. Of course she was lying or faking it to feed his ego but she did it anyway. She didn't mention anything else from last night to make their conversation less awkward.

"I also wanted to um say-" He paused.

Pixal peered up at him. She wondered if he was going to apologize for what he said last night. Her chest was pounding again. He had never apologized to her- well not really anyway. He did after he told her they weren't related last time but it seemed so forced. Like he wanted something from her, which he did. He wanted her to stay out of his business which is what she found out later. Or rather last night as he so 'nicely' put it.

'Was she bitter? Of course she was bitter about the whole thing. It might've been her fault for bringing it up and speaking against him but he practically made her mind explode with all kinds of human emotions. She wasn't going to tell him that though. She didn't want to feel those intense emotions and the door thing surely wasn't helping her keep her cool either. She felt as if she would explode again.'

She waited and waited for him to finish his sentence but he didn't. Her hopeful eyes found his and she tried to cover them as much as she could but it was no use. Borg let out a small sigh, his expression changing from one of remorse to one she couldn't tell.

"-Thank you Pixal, I know I don't say it enough." he quickly covered up the fact he was going to say something different.

The hopeful glint in her eyes dissipated and returned to their same monotone. She nodded and put on a fake smile to show she was grateful. The lights began to flicker again and the speaker on the side of the wall began to announce something. Pixal felt a chill up her spine as the words came out. Borg seemed to step in front of her almost immediately. If she noticed it she would've stepped back and felt a bit uneasy, but she didn't notice she was too focused on what she heard next.

"Cyrus Borg please report to floor -10."

The voice was raspy and Pixal half recognized it as the one she had heard before. It was when Borg was on the phone with someone. She wondered why this person was talking over the loudspeaker but the voice itself still made her skin crawl. That is if she had skin. She shook off her worries and looked towards Borg.

"I'm sorry to have to cut our talk short, Pixal." he nervously laughed.

Pixal narrowed her eyes. She was suspicious of all the weird things that happened tonight but this wasn't helping her worry. He seemed uncomfortable, he swallowed and made his way towards the elevator. She caught sight of his expression and recognized it from when he was working on...something. She couldn't quite remember what he was working on but she did know he seemed the same level of uncomfortable. The elevator doors slowly closed and his expression didn't get any more comfortable. Her chest was pounding for around the fourth time today and she didn't like how startled she was already. It was a mix of startled and concern she checked online and described her emotions as alarmed. She let out a noise of shock as the gears in her mind connected. Floor -10 was where Borg went to work on his spider-like project. She had seen him go down there a few times now that she thought about it. The weird part was none of the workers ever needed to go that far down. Of course the elevator was mostly for anyone Borg gave strict permission to but it was still odd. She looked towards it and the numbers above it seemed to be taunting her. She connected her mind to the security cameras but as she went through each one she realized something strange; floor -10 didn't have a camera.

Considering Borg wanted his tower to be as high tech as possible and as secure as possible this was incredibly strange. It was almost as if he didn't want anyone knowing about what was happening; whatever that might be. She peered over at the door and she saw her reflection but it looked normal this time. She tried to ignore everything that happened. It had to be a coincidence, a trick on the mind or eyes. She kept telling that to herself. Even when she pushed those thoughts away different nagging ones arose. Ones that wouldn't shut up about the elevator and the others wouldn't stop bothering her about the horrible experience she felt last night. She mentally tried to shove past them all and walked to her room. Forcing herself once again to recharge and ignore everything that went on. She would've liked to forget it but perhaps the information would prove useful eventually.