Lind suddenly found himself back in the street. He had blinked and it was as if the conversation with his heart demon never occurred. Further, he was now walking with the flow of the crowd. He could not stop or he would cause a pedestrian accident, thus he let his old instincts take over.
It was only late morning but Lind's feet never seemed to forget the long beaten path back to the towering office tower. His memory had almost completely recovered from what he could tell, but Lind found there were still gaps. There were words that became jumbled, the context at times helped him fill in the blanks but there was one word he was frustratingly not coming back to him.
"*****! You are late!" A friendly voice called out and Lind's head swiveled to it. There was a black uniformed guard at the security gate. Fred, his name was Fred! Lind smirked and suddenly realized he was still in control to an extent of his body. He had feared he would be stuck seeing this moment over and over, but he moved his body naturally.
"Yeah, Fred, I lost power last night." Lind recalled this day easily. There had been an animal that took a look into a transformer and basically destroyed it. It cut the power to the apartments, but places like his old job were a priority to get power back on.
"I told you to charge your phone before bed!" Fred playfully yelled at him as he took Lind's ID. Lind suddenly stared at the card. It was his photo, and it clearly had text on it, but it was all jumbled. Lind glanced at Fred's badge and could read it clearly. Why was his jumbled?
"Don't let Tristan catch you, get going." Fred smiled as he waved Lind in. Fred had a wife that was ill but recovering if Lind recalled correctly. The fact the man kept smiling even when he had to be worried or stressed always made Lind respect him. A frown crossed his face as he looked back at Fred. The rest of the memory ensued.
Lind pinned his ID on and waved at the receptionist at her desk. She only stared at him but it was not a hate filled one. It was just the usual weight of corporate life weighing on her. Lind could not recall her first name but her last name was Higgins. Lind kept pushing his memory and was stunned at how he easily tapped in his entry code for the elevator.
Lind hoped randomness would work, but the memory played out as the right elevator opened up. Lind cleared his face as a young man exited the doors to smirk at him.
"Finally here, *****, luckily the upper office gave an exception for the power outage." LInd hated this man. He felt rage surge but he swallowed it as he smirked back.
"Tristan, I am on deck for the reports, but I just need to finalize them and they will be on your desk in 15." Lind was telling the truth. He had worked late last night so he could come in and just push it out to the group email, but Tristan only smiled wider.
"Excellent! Here is the thing, I need you to copy that to me too in the email." Lind wanted to punch him. It was not how it was supposed to be done. The group would review it and then the final copy would be given to Tristan, but the sleazeball with slicked back hair and way too white teeth changed it that day.
Lind wanted to change events, but his control vanished as he saw things unfold as they did before.
"Eh, but it needs to be reviewed before it gets to you. We can't finalize until the others sign off." The words were true but Tristan frowned at him. Lind was pulled into the elevator and 25 was pushed.
"I know that, but you are late. It will take too long or it may not get done. The others are working so copy me on it so I can go to the meeting ready to go." Lind slowly nodded but inside he was screaming. He should not do it. It was a trap. He could only watch as his old body went through the motions.
Tristan smiled at last as Lind got off on his floor and Tristan ascended up to his office. The sea of cubicles were full of the sound of clicking keys and the mumble of people either on the phone or just talking in remote meetings.
Lind finally got control back but felt enraged. He could not change the memory. What was the point of all this? Why was he so powerless against this heart demon?!
Lind slowly looked around and felt a bit of nostalgia and sadness looking around. He wished his feet would find a hole and stop him from unleashing what was to come. Even so, he knew he could not stop.
His cubicle was not the first thing that caught his eye as he turned a corner at the last aisle right up against the windows. Not many people liked the window cubicles due to the steep drop and the sun, but Lind had loved the view.
The first thing he saw made him really smile. A few models were peeking up over the top of the cubicle. They were in vibrant colors but so long as they did not disturb others and work was done, the higher ups did not care. No tour ever came over to this side.
"Good Morning, George." Lind called out and a large hand waved before quickly pointing at a new addition. Lind looked at the revealed model and smirked at it. George was the epitome of an otaku, or as close as an American could come, but his skill with models was amazing. The base things he received from boxes were later modified with battle damage or stressed to look more real. Lind counted and knew there were 8 Gundam models sitting there.
Lind glanced to the other side, but his other neighbor was gone. Still, he saw her photos and smiled at them as well. Everything was so clear but as expected, his desk was partially obscured to his sight. Lind began to suspect his memory was not lost but being actively blocked for some reason. It was not just for this moment, but he had to skip it as he was compelled to power up his terminal.
Remote terminals technically could be logged into anywhere but they had severe restrictions for more complicated functions. George, for instance, had a full laptop due to his job requirements, but Lind was more of a number cruncher and data entry job so he had a remote terminal.
Lind had to login by memory as his name was obscured, but most corporations autosaved that anyway. Lind saw the reports he had compiled but he had not understood them. He had simply been doing his job and not realized what he was bringing together. That had likely been the point of having a group do that so that no one had all the data. All Lind had done was clean it up and make it more organized without understanding the context until much later.
Now, he could clearly see what the report was and why Tristan wanted it CCed to him by email before the group approved it. Tristan was afraid. The company was no doubt afraid too that the workers would understand what they were doing, but it was too late. Lind could not change anything.
He let the compulsion take over as the file was finalized and no error was found. An email was typed up and Lind noticed only his information was again blurred out to him. It was annoying but he just accepted it at that point. The final thing was adding Tristan. Despite letting things unfold, Lind's hand shook. He resisted adding that snake to this email.
If he changed it, so much would change, so much could be altered, but Lind was forced to follow the script. Tristan was added and the email was sent. Lind resumed control and swiftly clicked 'UNDO' on his email. Sweat broke out on his face as he suddenly felt something strain inside him.
He could finally do it! He had to follow the script but he gambled that like the other vision, he could find a loophole in his understanding. Tristan was removed and the email was sent out to the group. Lind smiled at last! It was done, he had changed it! He expected the memory to shatter but instead, it just kept going.
Not even a minute after the small window disappeared confirming the email was sent, an instant message came from Tristan demanding to see him. Lind frowned as he did not understand what was going on. Nevertheless, he got up and went off to the elevators once more. George simply waved as he walked by.
Lind rode up to the 75th floor and got out at a much more posh floor. Instead of the cold white light and empty feeling of cubicles. Instead, warm wood paneling lined a plush carpeted entrance leading up to a curved reception desk manned by a well endowed woman who only glanced at Lind before returning to her computer screen.
Her name was Chelsea and Lind recalled how she was not a bad person at all, but he also remembered that she went to quit and was instead fired 2 years from now. Lind had never learned what happened, but he waved at her for now.
Tristan's office was far back from the elevator, showing he was not that high up, but he still had a luxurious office compared to anyone on 25. Lind knocked and was allowed in easily. Tristan was looking at a rather fancy display resting on his desk as he looked at something. Lind suddenly realized what it was and felt shocked. How?! Lind had finally changed things, how was Tristan reading it?
"Nice try, *****, but I thought you might try to skip me so I had one of the addresses made into mine." Lind bonelessly sunk into a chair. Failed. It had been hopeless from the start, that was why he was allowed to change it, because it did not matter. This heart demon was indeed mean.
"Why? Why are you all doing this?" Lind still had a job in the future but Fred, Higgins, and over half of 25 were about to lose theirs. Lind had been devastated once he figured out he had been part of this horrible process. Tristan smiled and shrugged in his leather chair.
"It is a fact that our profits are not going up as much as we would like, but we could free up some leverage by removing excess work force. Automation has made massive progress thus some antique roles can be replaced now." Lind shook as he finally looked up at Tristan in anger but the man did not even seem fazed. "You are fine, your job is still very much needed but you need to know where you stand."
Lind wanted to punch him. He wanted to channel his cultivation but nothing was there, he was only a mortal man. No, he was not even a mortal man, he was just a gear in the corporate structure. He had no value beyond the profit he generated or caused to occur.
"That does not mean you just remove them in a week!" Lind finally screamed and Tristan sighed at his outburst. Lind tried to lunge across the desk, but since it never happened back then, it could not happen now.
"It was always coming. We have a responsibility to our shareholders and partners to stay on track for profit. This is the world. Surely you are not that naive?" Tristan then waved him out and Lind found himself stomping out of the office before he took over his body. Chelsea looked at his face and frowned but she took no action. It was all a play.
It was not just this memory, this was reality. People consumed money and time to live. They understood that, but the reality was they consumed people as well. Companies made it obvious that they valued money more than the people they employed.
Lind understood why his heart demon was born this day. It was not the fact that a company screwed over their employees, that was standard for America back then. It was standard for the world, but the countries elsewhere seemed to actually care about their citizens to some extent. Lind was raging because he had done it. He had compiled the report.
When it was revealed what had happened, Lind had been thankful that his job was safe. He felt bad outwardly, but inwardly he was relieved. He was guilty. Lives were destroyed but his was fine so he just moved on. He stopped getting close to new coworkers and even just stopped caring about what was in the reports he assembled.
He became the very thing the company treated him as, a component. The rage vanished and coldness filled his soul as the elevator dropped down. Instead of opening on floor 25, he saw something that made him fall.
It was the hospital. It was the hospital where Lind knew his world came to an end.