Hero Next Door

More smashing follows, then his office door swings open and Mr. Jones lays his eyes on me. Delight springs across his face because he finally has a target to take his temper out on. All I want to do is run.

“You’re here,” he growls. “At last. You have come to help me sort this shit out. And so you should.”

“What… what do you want me to do?” I stammer back, terror lacing my tone. “I’m here to… to help…”

“Get the Stark files from my office, then follow me in to the conference room. I need a plan and now.”

He takes off for the conference room, hurricane of storm clouds off with him. The thunder and lightning might be gone, but the after effects of the tornado are still rampant, including the shards of glass all over his room. I know that I will be expected to clean this up without being asked and I figure it better to do it sooner rather than later. I’m sure that Mr. Jones won’t want anyone to know about this hissy fit. I would rather people be aware so that we all know who and what we’re up against, but I can’t. I can’t resist snapping a photograph on my cell phone though, but that’s just to show Delia later. I want someone to get the hell of my job. Honestly, it’s a nightmare.

I get the glass cleaned up as quickly as I can, only cutting my finger once. The band aid covers up any potential blood spillage, so at least I’m not adding to the mess. Then I grab the files and join Mr. Jones in the conference room. I feel like I’m walking in to the lion’s den, a lamb that is ripe for slaughter. Of course, I get my yelling the moment I am inside the room for taking too long to find the file. I know time is of the essence, but I decide not to mention the cleanup I just had to do. It just doesn’t seem worth it. I sit in silence and take the yelling instead.

“Okay, well let’s get on with it then,” he eventually sighs once he has run out of things to shout. It’s taken longer than I’m sure it should have done. “I suppose we need to plan out how to make this work somehow.”

He would be better with a production manager or someone on the assembly line, but it’s me always. If I didn’t know any better than I would think that he has a weird obsession with me and that this is all to do with that. I’m sure it isn’t, but sometimes that concept creeps in to my head. Although if that’s the case I don’t know where it will lead…

“Woah, that is fucked up,” Delia hisses as she pours over the picture of Mr. Jones’ office that I took for her earlier on. “That dude is getting weirder by the day. What the hell do you think is going on with him? I can’t work it out. He’s unhinged, isn’t he? Not a normal person. Do you think that the power has gone to his head?”

I shrug my shoulders hopelessly. “God knows. I don’t know what is going on with him at the moment. He certainly isn’t like he used to be when I first started working here, but I wouldn’t want to speculate what that means.”

“I would,” Delia shoots back grumpily. “And it’s that he is a massive asshole. Sometimes, I think that we should all just leave this place. Leave him in the lurch, but then I know guys like him never fail, never fall. They always find a way and I’m sure he will just have a staff force to replace us in seconds and we will be the ones to lose.”

My shoulders sag forwards because that’s exactly how I feel about it all. “I know. He has that way about him.”

“Urgh, let’s stop talking about him anyway.” Delia shudders. “He takes up enough of my life without me needing to spend my whole life discussing him. I hate him, but I have to work for him, that’s the end of it.”

Huh, if only I could be so blasé about it all. But then it isn’t as easy for me to turn my back on my boss because I am his target, the one who is attached to him all the time. I don’t get any kind of escape. Not even when I’m at home. He has me worried about every phone call, every email, every message, and I have nightmares about this place.

I was already in the middle of a horrible dream about work when I got that dreaded phone call this morning. So, it made it even less welcome. The mood that the whole thing put me in was horrific. I was also confused and sleepy.