Chained to Me

3: Berxley Times

"Hi, my name is Candle Lister. I'm here to volunteer." I said as I saw the receptionist.

She began flipping her small notebook filled with appointments. "Yes, here you are. Please have a seat, Mr Quinn will be with you shortly."

"Thank you." I said before heading towards the waiting area consisting of two burgundy sofas facing each other and a small black rectangular table dividing them. I began fiddling with my sweater, trying to imagine what they'll have me do. None of what I had imagined were good.

It wasn't long before the elevator doors across the room opened, revealing an old man, who was well in his sixty's and a woman dress in a white shirt tucked in her black pencil skirt, with her blonde her done up in a bun. They walked towards me. That must be Mr Quinn and a colleague perhaps.

"Ms Lister?" He asked. I immediately stood up uttering the word yes.
"I'm Pete Quinn and this is my assistant, Nina Quinn." His voice was soft, saying every word with a wrinkly smile. Then we all sat down, Nina opened her black file and gave it to him. He quickly observed the papers.

"Here it states you had went to a psychiatrist. Will it effect your work?" He asked, closing the file.

"No. Of course not." I smiled. Of course, I had no idea if it would effect my work or not. I couldn't control it. And not to mention, how did they know I went to one?

"Very well. Then, follow us." They both stood up and walked to the elevator, so I followed them, trying to keep up with their fast pace. As soon as the doors closed, Mr Quinn pressed the button for the third floor.

"We'll show you where you will be working from. You'll be assisting the editors by proof reading, doing some minor research and keep everyone organised when it comes to interviews, papers and deadlines." He said, still looking at the closed steel doors. Then he looked down at me, suddenly noticing how tall he was. "If you need anything, contact Nina." Then he straightened his head again.

The doors opened, revealing an orange wall with a giant clock in front of us. Nina led the way, leaving Mr Quinn to go back to work. I followed closely behind going around the orange wall blocking the office which only consisted of ten desks. Most of them unoccupied but they still had piles of papers on top of each. 

Nina stopped at one of the desks, where there was a young man, maybe a few years older than me, eating a bowl of noodles. She immediately glared at him and cleared her throat. He put the fork down and stood up to shake my hand.

"This is Luke Turner. One of our editors." She introduced him. He was quite a looker. His hair was short at the back and had a bit of a length at the front, and his big eyes were dark brown with long lashes. As he looked at me, he smiled revealing his white teeth. 

"Is that the new girl?" We all turned to where the voice had come from. A girl rushed out from a room which might have been the kitchen, with two mugs. Her long ginger curls bouncing behind her and so were her huge boobs. She placed the two mugs on a desk and pulled me in for a hug. 

Then she held me at arm's length, "Are you the one transferring to our school?" I slowly nodded. So, she must be a student. "That's great! I'm Penny. I'm a writer for the entertainment section."

"Cool." I replied, trying to sound calm and collected. Everyone in that office knew exactly what their purpose was, and most probably they also knew what their goal in life was, hence the job. My only goal, for now at least, was to figure out a way to get rid of my sight. And I could feel that it wasn't going to be so easy. Let alone how to get rid of it.

"So shall I show you what we do?" Luke said. I was about to reply, but something awful got me speechless. Behind Luke, there was a huge window, having the view of the entire town due to the company being on higher ground. Everywhere I looked, the streets and homes, abandoned or not, they were all infested with the dead. It was as if they had sensed me and gathered up. I had never seen more than five at a time, and back then, they were only shadows.

*****************************

Thank you for reading Chained to Me.

This was a much calming chapter, just talk and character introductions, I didn't reveal what the characters look like from head to toe as I prefer give description throughout the story.

Anyway, this was an updated version of my comic going by the same name, which has now been unfortunately discontinued, but you can still check it out in the link below:

tapas.io/series/Chained-to-Me

other links: linktr.ee/erica_mallia