Johnny moved quickly, cutting through the plain, drab corridors of the office building. He knew where he needed to go, and took the many winding turns sharply, almost without even looking. Soon the hallways opened up into an equally drab room with the same speckled dark green carpet as the rest of the building. There, seated at a wooden table, sat three serious-looking individuals conversing quietly among themselves.

  They looked tired and humorless, clutching coffee cups closely to themselves and clad in dark formal attire that clashed against his loud slate gray suit. Johnny was serious as he approached, unceremoniously laying a plain black briefcase on the table and working at the latches.

  “You may be wondering why I called you here.” He said flatly as he undid the first latch.

  “Johnny.” A young woman in a navy dress started, but he continued.

  “You’ve all been selected out of all the employees at this company to-”

  “Johnny stop.” The woman cut in. “This is the breakroom, and it’s too early for this.”

  “Fine.” Johnny grumbled, crossing his arms huffily. “I guess you don’t want free VIP tickets to the convention, then.”

  “What? I thought they were all sold out. And you got them for free?” A scrawny man in a brown tweed suit inquired incredulously.

  “No, but they’re free for you if you want them. There’s enough for all of us. Just, don’t ask how much I paid for them. It hurts me just to think about it.”

  “How much?” The tweed suit guy asked, a sly grin on his face.

  “Matt, I told you not to ask me that.” Johnny berated, wincing dramatically. He clutched his chest and fell exaggeratedly into a chair. It almost fell over as he landed, and he had to stretch his hands out rapidly to catch himself and keep from making a scene.

  “Anime, Johnny? Really?” The third table member asked, another man, this one muscular and clad in a plain black suit. His arm was wrapped gently around the woman’s shoulders.

  “Oh, come on man. Don’t act like you’re too cool for anime. I’ve been to your place. I know what you’re subscribed to.” Johnny retorted coolly, adopting a sly grin of his own.

  “That’s not for me. OK.” He spluttered, his face turning slightly red. “That’s for Rachel. She’s really into that one anime…what’s it called again?” He turned his head to look at the woman next to him, but she just grinned at him.

  “You know, Mark.” She chided, “You’re the one who introduced it to me.”

  Mark’s face turned a deeper shade of red and he grumbled, “I just stumbled across it okay, and I kind of liked it. That doesn’t make me a weeb or anything.”

  Rachel patted his arm soothingly as he huffed before replying, “We’ll talk about it later, but we’ll consider it. Until then, I think we need to actually get to work.”

  She and Mark stood up to go, but the other two made no move to follow, still lounging as comfortably as they could in the hard breakroom chairs.

  “Are you two coming?” She asked, but Johnny shook his head.

  “We’ll catch up in a second.” He returned nonchalantly, giving a smile and waving as they left.

  When they’d left the room, the two remaining occupants looked at each other for a moment, both wearing a serious expression. It didn’t last long before they both cracked, and Matt slowly dipped a hand in his pocket, pulling out a twenty dollar bill and handing it to Johnny.

  “You win. Take it. I didn’t think it would be so fast. I don’t think I’ve ever seen his face so red.” He spluttered between childish giggles.

  “I know, and over anime of all things.” Johnny responded, giggling just as childishly. He took the twenty and pocketed it, before reaching into the briefcase and handing a ticket to Matt. Matt took it in both hands, holding it out and staring at the thing in amazement.

  “I don’t know what’s more incredible, how easy it is to get under Mark’s skin or the fact you actually got one of these.” He stated in wonder.

  “One of those?” Johnny inserted incredulously. “I got one for each of us, remember? And I had to practically pay my right arm for them, too.”

  “You’ll be alright.” Matt retorted casually and threw up a dismissive wave. “It’s not like you need it or anything.”

  “It’s still nice to have.” Johnny responded, clutching his shoulder.

  “That’s your left shoulder, you know.” Matt snarked, but Johnny just nodded.

  “Of course. I don’t have the right one anymore.”

  “Whatever, let’s go. We can’t sit around here all day.”

  The two men got up and shuffled out of the room and down the hall. It quickly opened up into another, bigger room filled with cramped drab cubicles. It all looked very similar in the dim lighting of the old office building, but the two men didn’t even blink as they wandered into the maze of nearly identical spaces.

  After passing several, Johnny suddenly stopped, waving for Matt to go on without him. As casually as he could, he leaned up against the frame of a cubical and coughed dramatically. There wasn’t much in the cubicle, just a desk completely unadorned except for the pictures of a muscular man and another of a labrador and a computer, and a large, uncomfortable-looking office chair that didn’t turn an inch at the noise.

  Sighing, Johnny reached his hand into his briefcase. Pulling out two slips of paper, he gently placed them in front of the picture of the lab. Still, the chair didn’t budge, all that could be heard was the gentle tapping of keys on the computer’s keyboard. Johnny turned to go, but before he could step out, he heard the high feminine voice of Rachel come from behind it.

  “I’m sure he’ll come, you know.” She sighed. “I’ll make sure of it.”

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  “He better, sis.” Johnny returned with just a slight edge of hardness to his voice. “I spent a lot of money on those tickets. They weren’t easy to get, and I can’t get a refund.”

  Rachel let out another slow, long breath and slowly turned her chair to face Johnny.

  “I know. I’ll talk to him after work.” She promised with a reassuring smile. “He doesn’t like to show it, but he has a lot in common with you guys. He just needs to get comfortable. You’ll see.”

  “That’s what you’ve been telling us since you two got together, and we’re still waiting for it to happen.” Johnny retorted glumly, a deep frown etched on his face.

  “But you haven’t given up on him yet, and I appreciate that. It means a lot to me.” Rachel smiled, and Johnny felt his demeanor soften somewhat.

  “Of course not, sis. You want us to give him a shot, so we’re giving him a shot.”

  “And like I said, I appreciate that, but…I’m not your sis.” Rachel retorted, crossing her arms indignantly.

  Johnny just grinned, throwing up his hands in surrender.

  “Fine mom.” He shot back sarcastically. “Whatever you say.”

  Rachel threw him a look that said clearly she didn’t approve of that one either. She opened her mouth as though she was about to tell him off when she was cut off by the appearance of a strong hand clasping Johnny’s shoulder accompanied by an equally strong voice.

  “Shouldn’t you be getting to work?” It asked gruffly.

  Johnny’s head whipped sideways to reveal the broad face of a burly middle-aged man. His skin was wrinkled and loose, as if it didn’t fit properly on his skull, and on his upper lip was a bushy and graying mustache. His face twitched constantly in a forced, uncomfortable motion. It wasn’t a pretty sight.

  Johnny jumped a little when he saw it and grabbed his chest.

  “Is that not where I’m at?” He inquired in a panicky voice.

  “Apparently not. I certainly don’t see you doing any of it.” He shot back, without the slightest hint of expression beyond discomfort and disapproval.

  “It’s because I’m sick.” Johnny explained with a slight cough, twisting slightly under the man’s grip. It didn’t budge. “In fact, I think I need to go home.”

  “You don’t seem so sick to me.” The man growled. “What kind of sickness is it?”

  “The kind where you’re sick of working.” Johnny insisted, laughing hysterically.

  Rachel laughed too, but the man’s scowl only deepened.

  “Just get to work.” He sighed, loosening his grip and turning to leave; his head shaking in exasperation. “It’s what you’re paid for.”

  He left without another word, and Johnny watched him go; a deep smirk etched on his face.

  “The nerve of that guy.” He sneered to Rachel. “Can you believe him? With the way he treats people, it makes you wonder if he is one.”

  “Not this again.” Rachel sighed, turning back toward her computer.

  “No. I’m serious.” Johnny interjected flatly. “It’s like he’s a robot who can only obey the prime directive or something. Combine that weird twitching thing he does, and it really makes me think he’s a lizard man.”

  “Johnny, you can’t say that!” Rachel said, whipping her chair back around and waving her hands out in front of her. “He has tourettes.”

  “What, that disease that makes you cuss?” Johnny inquired, waving his hand dismissively in front of him. “I don’t believe it.”

  “You’re either joking, or you’re an idiot.” Rachel sighed. “I don’t believe for a second you don’t know what tourettes is.”

  “Fine.” Johnny agreed, raising his hands in defeat. “You got me. But still, you can’t tell me that that guy’s got problems up there.” He punctuated his statement by raising his index finger to his temple. “And it goes way beyond some twitching.”

  “You just don’t like him because he’s always onto you.” Rachel snorted obstinately. “And he’s never wrong. Like right now, you aren’t working.”

  “That’s because I’m talking to you.”

  “And you can stop that, and go get some work done. We’ll have plenty of time to talk later.”

  “Fine.” Johnny huffed in a childish voice, simultaneously crossing his arms and sticking his lower lip out. “I know better than to stay where I’m not wanted.”

  With that, Johnny turned on his heels and stalked out of the cubicle, his briefcase clutched tightly under his still folded arms. He breezed his way once more through the winding halls between the cubicles, stopping only briefly to shoot Matt a quick grin and thumbs up before ducking into the space across from it.

  It was cluttered, with wires branching like a kraken up-and-down the desk connecting to multiple monitors and several unnecessarily large and definitely not work appropriate speakers that were couched next to them. Combine this with the gaming mouse that he’d brought from home and the whole setup glowed a psychedelic spray of vibrant neon when activated. He’d wanted to bring an old PC that he had lying at home and a gaming chair, but that was a line too far and he was forced to rely on company issue; much to his chagrin.

  Amid the mess of colors and wires was tucked a single picture in a basic frame that stood starkly out-of-place from the rest of the scene. It was a simple shot of three teenagers, two male and one female. Both boys held bunny ears over the girl while she tried to push the both of them away, a wide grin etched on all of their faces. Johnny smiled softly as he settled himself into his uncomfortable office-approved swivel chair and pulled himself up to his desk, starting the setup and getting lost in his work and the frenetic lights.

  The rest of the day passed uneventfully. The slog of office life ticked slowly by until it was finally time to go. They were late, something about department-wide mandatory overtime, and by the time it was over everyone was exhausted. It was dark by the time they all made their way to the parking garage beneath the office building. Cordially the four gave their goodbyes, with a hug from Rachel to Johnny and Matt before they left.

  After they’d gone, Matt gave Johnny an exhausted look.

  “Take care, man.” He said, throwing out a short wave.

  “You too.” Johnny returned and headed deeper into the garage, where his car was waiting. It was an old beater without automatic locks, so he always had to hunt for it. Rachel and Matt had told him for years that he should get a new one, but this one worked fine and didn’t really see the need for it. Besides, it was good exercise searching for where he’d put it on any particular day.

  The garage was dim, with poorly maintained industrial bulbs bathing everything from the cars to the dark cement in a yellowish glow. There weren’t many vehicles in the garage, but in the glow many of them looked pretty much the same and Johnny had to examine the vehicles closely to see which one was his. As he stalked through the spaces, he heard something that made his ears perk up and caused him to pause from his search.

  It was a voice, low and serious; and talking very fast. It echoed off the cement walls, but Johnny thought for sure that he recognized it. Carefully and quietly, he snuck his way to where he thought the source was. It cleared quickly, becoming louder and stronger, and Johnny recognized it instantly as the voice of his old nemesis. It was harsh and rough, with a slight quaiver, though Johnny couldn’t tell what that meant. Was it anger or fear?

  Carefully, he crept closer to the source, keeping his head down and ducking behind vehicles so as not be caught and interrupt the conversation. It was at the edge of the lot that he finally stopped, crouched behind the cover of a sleek black car.

  “What do you mean they’re here?” The voice barked into what Johnny imagined was a phone, because he heard no reply; only a brief pause before it shouted again. “If they catch us here we’re cooked, do you understand? Do whatever you can to steer them away. They cannot come here. It would be the end of everything for us, and we’ve worked way too hard for this. Make it happen.”

  With that, the speaking stopped. Johnny stayed crouched behind a car for awhile, waiting for it to resume, but that seemed to be it. Cautiously, he backed his way back to the garage and continued to search for his car. It didn’t take long. It wasn’t far away, and as he got in and turned the key, he found himself mulling over the conversation and parsing the possible implications.

  He didn’t know what any of it meant, not really. Still, it was interesting, and that was enough for his imagination to run wild as he put his car in drive and pulled it out. Slowly, agonizingly even, he made his way home, his thoughts in a different world; a world of possibilities.