PLATO'S STEP-DAUGHTER I FLYNN CARSEN

The CEO Who Spurned Me

The CEO Who Spurned Me

"Umm, why would the HR department be down in the basement?" Clara asked nervously as the lift shuddered to its final stop. Franklin had escorted them to the elevator, pressing the button for them, before ushering them inside and walking away without a backwards glance.

"Because I abandoned Karen Willis at the altar several centuries ago," Archie said gloomily, startling them all.

"What!?" Flynn exclaimed, doing a double-take. "And you chose to deliver this blow now!?"

"I didn't recognize her at first," Archie protested, "she's taken too many trips to the Fountain of Youth."

"Then how do you know it's your former betrothed?" Jenkins said impatiently. "It might be some other CEO you spurned."

"It's the way she looked at me," Archie explained, "like she'd love to send me on a holiday to hell for a few millennia, just to top up my tan you know."

"Where you a goat when this happened?" Clara asked hesitantly, secretly wondering why the lift doors weren't opening.

"No, Bunty," Archie said, examining his hoof, "I was young and handsome and human, a right ass-wipe. A bit like your buddy here," he said, jerking his horns at Jacob.

"Where is my walking stick!?" Ezekiel boomed, waving it at Clara.

"It's in your hand," Clara said slowly, all but spelling it out for him.

"Oh," Ezekiel said, wrongfooted, staring at it.

"Can't you just sort this whole thing out with that wand?" Clara said to Flynn, turning to him.

But he just shook his head, destroying her last hope. "I used up the last of its magic with the collecting cans," he said tiredly, "and it takes twenty-four hours to recharge."

"It's a wand though," Clara challenged, "it doesn't run on batteries."

"No, it runs on magic," Flynn snapped, "and magic is like energy" -

- "Uh, guys, the doors are opening," Archie said, making Flynn falter, but only for a moment.

"One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," Flynn intoned, before taking a balletic leap into the unknown.

I am falling into grace to the unknown
to where you are and faith
makes everybody scared
it's the unknown
that keeps me hanging on...

~*~

"Nothing like a brisk walk to clear the cobwebs away," Flynn said, linking Clara's arm through his, as though they were taking a Sunday stroll.

"I am getting a bad feeling about this, Flynn," Jenkins said, glancing round at the Grecian frescoes they'd been following fruitlessly for the past ten minutes. It was literally like being in a labyrinth, wandering passage after passage, setting Jenkins's suspicions off like fire alarms.

"We're on the right track, Jenkins," Flynn said acerbically, losing his good mood, "this has Circe stamped all over it."

"I think this has been modelled on her holiday home actually," Archie said thoughtfully. "That touch of decay just brings back so many fond memories."

"This design is Hellenic," Jacob said, pausing in front of one particular fresco, "you can see it in the curve of the chin, just right here."

They all stopped, staring at him like he'd suddenly started speaking Swahili, Ezekiel half raising his walking stick, unsure whether to strike Jacob or not.