"Please forgive us, the matter is more complicated than we thought." The man said. The woman beside her nodded in agreement.
"Okay," the Master took a sip from his glass, "I understand." He stood up from his chair and moved from behind the table, "How long have you been working here?" He looked over the rim of his glass.
"Six months." They said.
"Six months, hmm," he scratched his chin and sighed, "long time. A fucking long time," his grip on the glass tightened, the glass not being able to withstand the force, shattered into pieces. "I'm sorry." He said politely.
"Please understand. We will work harder. We promise. We will not disappoint –" the man was lifted into the air, the woman shrieked and fell on the ground.
"Fucking six months. I give you fucking everything and all I get is failure. Years, it's been years since I've waited and watched and when I can finally have her, you fucking losers are getting in the way." He glared at the woman on the floor and she started to choke.
"Your kind is nothing but parasites, living off of us." He looked at them, their struggle had lessened he let go, the man fell down on the ground with a thud, gasping for air, the woman coughed, trying to ease her breathing.
"Reason. Give me a damn reason." He snarled at them.
"Emotions," the woman coughed, "her emotions play a major role. We have to attack her at her weakest."
"You think it'll work."
"That's the only way," the man added.
"Lay down for now and attack when she's at her lowest." He looked at them with disgust, "I was right to call you parasites." Walking to the door he looked at them on the floor and their bodies started to writhe, a scream escaped from the woman's mouth followed by the man's. The room was filled by their screams and then silence followed.
He looked down at the lifeless bodies with disgust and left the room.
**** * ****
Nora walked inside the tall building, the first day of the internship programme finally arrived. She was confident about herself, but nervousness had managed to creep in. The woman from earlier, today in a green suit, introduced herself, "I'm Miranda Summers, you can call me Miranda. I'll be the first person you approach in any kind of query. For the coming time you'll explore all the departments in the company under their respective heads, after that each one of you will be appointed to a department on the basis of your performances. There are 20– I'm sorry, 21 of you here and only 10 will be selected, so make sure to take this seriously. Any questions?" She looked around, "Good, so let's get started. Follow me."
They went to the fifth floor, the woman called out another guy, he was short, with a balding head, "So you are the newbies. You will be divided in groups of five, as I call out the names please step aside."
The names were called out pretty quick and the groups were made, each group was handed a schedule with the departments they'll be part of over the week.
"So, you guys got the schedule, get to work." Miranda said.
Everyone was on their heels. "You made it." It was Jeremy, Nora turned away from him and walked off, "I'm talking to you."
"But I don't want to talk to you." She shrugged. He glared at her and then moved away. Nora sighed in relief, it was best for her to stay away from him over the week, which kind of seemed impossible, given they were in the same group. She was appointed to the financing department which was on the sixth floor.
Their group was greeted by the head, a man probably in his mid-forties, he looked at all of them and appointed the day's task. Nora got assigned to making balance sheets and was partnered with another girl from her group.
An hour into the work and she realised it was no child's play. It was much more difficult than she imagined. "Hey how you doin'?" The girl beside her asked.
"Not good." Nora sighed.
She smirked, "Why do you worry? You already have a trainer by your side, he'll get you anywhere but people like me have to work their asses off to get here."
"Wait what? What the heck are you talking about?" Nora turned in her seat.
"The truth. Everyone knows how you got in." She shrugged.
"That's a lie. Who told you that?"
"It's all over the place dear. Now if you would, I have work to do." She turned back to her computer.
Nora was furious and disappointed, she had no idea who went on spreading these rumours but she knew they were wrong and she had to show it to them, she deserved to be here. She sank herself into her work and didn't look up from her screen.
The day came to an end and the man greeted them again, "We have today's results, we saw each one of yours work and your work ethics. Two of the people in the group who performed well were, Jeremy Hamilton and Nora Williams. Keep up the good work. See you all tomorrow." And he was gone.
While everyone congratulated Jeremy for his work, Nora was overlooked. She started for the elevator. "Hey you. Where are you going? To thank your benefactor?" Jeremy laughed.
"Does it matter to you?" She snapped. "I know I deserve to stand here and I don't give a damn what you think."
"Think? It's a fact you got in became of your connections. And as for today, you were just lucky." He exclaimed.
Nora looked around at the group of people that had gathered around, none of them spoke anything and seemed to agree with him, it was useless saying anything. The elevator dinged open, she stepped in and pressed the button for closing the doors. No matter what she did it was impossible for her to remove the idea from their brains. She was angry but sadness took over.
Her phone rang, Luke, she didn't respond and let it ring, she knew if she picked up the phone her emotions would get the best of her, she switched off her phone.
Autumn was round the corner, and looking at the falling leaves always helped her lighten her mood, she leaned back on the tree trunk and closed her eyes.Today was a bad day, that's what she thought and tomorrow might be worse. Her mind drifted of to a thousand things that she could face tomorrow, her line of thought was broken by the rustling of leaves beside her, "It was easy finding you."
She opened her eyes and looked beside her to see Luke. "You?"
"Yes me. May I know why your phone's turned off." He asked.
"It's dead." She said bringing her knees closer to her chest.
"Really?" He sat down beside her. "How was your day?"
"It was fine." She mumbled.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah I'm fine." She pulled her legs closer to herself. He looked at her, her face giving it all. He sighed, "Nora, please tell me what's wrong?"
"I'm telling you it's fine." She said frustrated and stood up, "I'm going to my dorm. I'm tired."
Before she could take a step, he held her by the wrist and pulled her down to him, she squealed. She landed in his lap, facing towards him. He held her waist and looked into her eyes, "Tell me." He said.
Looking into his eyes, her emotions took over, that was it and her barrier broke, "No matter how much I try I'm getting called out for getting in through connections. Everyone thinks this. They think I don't deserve to be there. It is upsetting."
Luke smiled softly and pulled her into a hug, "Nora this is the corporate world, you will be called upon a lot of times. People will look down upon you and if you're good at something, some might even try using different tricks against you; some can even hate you because you're better than them. But you can't help it. You have to deal with it."
She buried her face in his neck, "But why me? Just because I got in through a recommendation?"
"Maybe. Maybe not. It's not easy getting a recommendation but you did. You were praised today by the head on your first day which is a good thing. How can you even think you don't deserve it? And you know what's more," he pulled her away, "you don't have to prove yourself to anyone." He kissed her forehead.
Nora nodded and then leaned onto him, resting her head on his shoulder. Luke sat there in silence and rubbed her back with one hand while the other held her hands. "Thank you." She whispered.
"You don't have to thank me for anything sweetheart. Just promise me one thing, you will never bottle up your emotions, just say whatever you want. Just tell me how you feel freely, I'm always here for you. Please Nora promise me."
"I promise." She smiled at him, "But I might seem like a kid like that, wouldn't I? Running to you whenever I have a problem"
"No you will not. I want you to fight your own battles and I will always be behind you. But obviously I wouldn't mind if you run to me every time." He shrugged. Nora lightly slapped on his shoulder and then wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly, "Thank you for saying that."