Kill Me, Kiss Me

FOUR

Past the sliding doors was a long rectangular hallway with a set of double doors at the far distance that stretched all the way from the ceiling to the floor. The name plate nailed into the black lacquered wood shone silver in the steady shine of sunlight: Alexandr F Hew, President, Chief Operating Officer.
   
Theo lifted an eyebrow, irritation scratching up his chest to his throat. He tried to convince himself that it was only a game, but it still gnawed at him from inside that such a fellow was at that position at that age. It was illogical.
   
"Here," Mariah tapped a long glass desk placed close to the wall, "This is your station, in case you've forgotten that also."
   
He swept his gaze over the work space. It was near empty except for a few scattered pens and a computer, unlike the file scattered table opposite. He swept his finger over the smooth surface of the glass and watched Mariah as she set down the files carefully.
   
Sitting back into his soft leather chair, he tapped his jaw, watching the busy woman flick through various papers, "Is there anything I can help you with?"
   
"In a moment," She replied nonchalantly, jotting a line down on a post-it note.
   
Theo smiled faintly and unlocked his phone again. 11:30, there wasn't long before he could return home again, and looking at how things were, this woman didn't seem keen on giving him any work. Dialling through all the numbers he knew, he confirmed his suspicions once again; none of them were in service. The only ones that seemed remotely the same were the emergency services.
   
Leaning back, he searched the web for DGB. None of the correct results came up. It really was as Setton had said, he was completely cut-off in this world. The web, the phone lines, everything had been modified, and as for his own personal history... He was no one in this world.
   
A faint musical melody rippled through the silent air. Theo slid his phone back into his pocket and glanced up. The woman placed the papers back onto the table and took her phone out from the inner pocket with an impatient air, but it seemed that the moment she saw the number, she froze as if there was something forbidden on the screen.
   
She turned her back towards him, but that didn't stop him from seeing her furtive glances in the direction of the double doors. The melody continued to ring like a siren's song, and she took a small half step towards her table but stopped mid-way. Staring at the ground for a halting moment, she hung up on the call and headed for the exit, grabbing her coat from a peg behind her desk.
   
"I'm going to get some documents." She called back; it wasn't hard to detect the slight tremble in her sonorous voice.
   
He gave a barely negligible nod and tapped the table with his fingers. Thud, thud, thud. He stared at the simple grandeur of the door. At least, he was better at something than this Alexandr; that man wouldn't be able to continue being COO for long if he was this poor at reading his staff, not to mention his own PA.
   
The weight in his chest lightened somewhat, and just when he was about to spin in his chair, the shrill cry of a phone disturbed his small victory. Rubbing his brow he waited for three long seconds. Trillll, the phones on both desks continued to ring, and there was no sign of that Mariah coming back.
   
Expelling a small breath, Theo picked up the receiver, "Good morning this is—
   
"Bring me the monthly report." The man's voice seemed even deeper over the phone, so deep it flowed straight through his chest like an arrow.
   
"Mariah isn't— Beep, beep, beep.
   
Theo set the receiver down with a thud and pushed off from his table heavily. Leaving now seemed so incredibly attractive right now, but... no, that wasn't an option, he refused. It was just eight hours in front of that man.

He strode to the woman's cluttered desk and analysed the different piles. Putting his hand on his hip, he flicked open the yellow file at the top of the left pile. He scanned the contents quickly and grasped the file alongside with the post-it note stuck to the table.
   
Straightening his suit, he knocked on the lacquered doors.
   
"Come in."
   
Theo fixed his expression and entered, closing the door silently behind him. The first thing that entered his sight were the ceiling to floor windows that took up the entirety of the wall opposite, next was the heavy wooden desk and the man sitting behind it, face more handsome and colder in the gloom.
   
"Good morning Mr Hew." He walked forward until he was only a metre away from the desk, "This is the monthly report," He extended the yellow file into Alexander's powerful hands, "And the meeting at four pm today with TRNT has been slotted forward to two pm." He said, crumpling the post-it note discreetly in his hand.
   
Alexandr flicked open the file and raised his gaze sternly from the paper.
   
The words to leave stuck in Theo's throat.
   
"Where's Mariah?"
   
The woman's cold distaste flickered through his mind, "She did not say."
   
"Tell her to see me when she returns."
   
Alexandr glanced down at the papers, but the remnants of that gaze chilled Theo's stomach. He wasn't as incompetent as he'd thought.
   
"Yes."
   
Ding. That electric pulse clicked through his head again, and something twisted between his chest and abdomen. It couldn't be... the relationship status rose? Just with this? His feet itched to turn around for a look at that transparent little heart.
   
"Oh, and since Mariah has yet to return, please prepare the documents needed for the meeting today."
   
He gritted his teeth, half turned with his curiosity and nodded, "Yes."
   
Just one look wouldn't do any harm; his gaze flickered upwards. Fire and ice thrummed through his eyes. Those black orbs dragged him further and further away from his safe haven, and he couldn't seem to sense the ground.
   
Speak! Theo's mind commanded through the spreading numbness. Do something! Anything!
   
The man's dark eyebrow arched upwards, haughty, arrogant, unrelentless with its disregard, "You may take your leave."
   
Theo whipped away without another word. It made him sick, this crackle, this burn that radiated from his head to his toe. It made him sicker to know that he couldn't win. Clenching the freezing door handles, he wished that he could melt the shape of his fingers straight through the metal.
   
He couldn't.
   
Slam.
   
The doors collided together again behind him.

It hadn't been hard to find the documents, but the dull rustle of paper against paper was driving him insane. 10 copies more, he tapped his hand against the hard plastic of the photo-copier. Thump, rustle, thump, rustle, thump. Each beat of the wheezing machine wormed through the tightly wound cogs of his brain.
  
Clack, clack, clack.
   
He didn't even need to turn to know that the woman in red was approaching.
   
"Mr Hew wanted to see you." He said, leaning against the wall.
   
Mariah' s lips pressed together into a trembling line, and her hand floated towards her inner pocket like it had a will of its own.
   
"Right this instant."
   
The words seemed to shake and strengthen her at the same time. Her hand dropped from her blazer, but it only made the shake in her fingers clearer. She made no comment, only nodded and walked slowly to the door as if it was the edge of a cliff.
   
The rap of her knuckles against the door spoke of some strength, but even that seemed to seep out of her the moment the muted "Come in" leaked from within. The door opened, the door closed, and she was gone.
   
Thump, rustle, thump, rustle.
   
Theo tapped the side of his face, the woman's strained face bubbling to the forefront of his thoughts. It made him uncomfortable, he hated seeing that expression on women and children. And it made him think that this wasn't just a simple problem. What is the need for such an expression within a game?
   
The photocopier wheezed to a stop, and silence crowded into the emptiness. Nothing radiated from the other side of the doors. There was not a single word or murmur; there was nothing. His ears tingled, and he collected the papers from the tray, feet treading towards that silver plate.
   
Still, the only thing he could hear was the faint buzz that lived in silence.
   
Thump.
   
The door flew open, and the woman fled from the room within. Not a hair or wrinkle was out of place, everything was the same as they were before, but her skin was drained of all colour. She couldn't stop shaking, from her face to her neck to her shoulders, she seemed an untethered kite in the wind threatening to blow away forever. Maybe, she's already been blown away, lost.
   
Her fingers jolted away from the door as if they had burnt her, and she ran from the place, feet screaming for away, away, away.
   
Theo's arms deadened like lead, and he couldn't help but look back at her fast-disappearing back. Like that girl, just what...
   
"Close the door." The man's voice surged from inside, tone as still as ever.
   
Tightening his jaw, he turned slowly, and a jolt grated through his chest.

He was smiling, Alexandr was smiling.