I was dreaming.
At least, I must have been. As far as I know, you don't just wake up in a pitch-black room with no recollection of having got there. Well... not unless you had a more 'exciting' nightlife, but I most definitely didn't. All that I'd been doing the entire weekend was staying inside and playing video games, but I don't think too much screen time would give you dreams that felt so... real.
I was stuck in a place so dark that I couldn't even see my hands when I waved them in front of my face. But there was something that stood out even in the pitch-black darkness: a few feet in front of me was a circular object as big as my head, outlined by an eerie purple aura.
Under normal circumstances, I would have started to panic, but I somehow forgot all those emotions as I was drawn in by the orb, mindlessly advancing towards it.
I reached my hand towards it and the space around me began to rumble. When I pulled my hand back in a panic, it immediately ceased. I didn't know what would happen if I touched the orb, but I did know one thing...
I had to have it.
I did my best to ignore the loud tremors that rose around me and reached out with both hands towards the orb. Once it was in my grasp I instinctively knew what I had to do. I brought it towards my chest and pushed on it.
It was hard, it felt like my body was resisting as hard as it could against me. But I didn't let up in the slightest, even when I felt the space around me distort in an attempt to crush me.
Something was happening, I could feel it. It wasn't just with the resounding thunders as the darkness twisted around me, but something much deeper than any physical senses.
With one final push, the orb was absorbed into my body all at once. Suddenly my vision was dyed completely white... but once my blurry vision cleared I realized that it was just the ceiling of my room. I vacantly stared up from my bed, confusion racking my mind as the alarm blaring at my bedside fell on deaf ears.
* * *
"You're late Jacob." The first thing that I heard once I walked in was the angry voice of my boss Alexa, standing at the door with her arms crossed.
"I'm sorry Ms. Johnson, it's my mistake." I averted my eyes from her gaze.
It wasn't that she was hard to look at, largely the opposite actually. She stood nearly a full head above me in the heels that she loved wearing. Her tight navy blue pencil skirt perfectly outlined her hips and ass like a pair of leggings. Her white blouse was practically bursting from the huge breasts they were covering, each of the buttons straining themselves to keep it closed. Her blonde hair looked like shining golden waves that went past her shoulders, and her beautiful face was only enhanced by her bright blue eyes and her soft pink lips. I'd overheard coworkers say that she used to work as a model, and with how she looked on a normal Monday morning, I'd be inclined to believe them. But there was still something that kept her from being the object of every man in the office's affection.
"Did you think that would be a solid excuse?" She spoke in a voice filled with irritation as her eyes narrowed.
Alexa was notorious within the office for being a huge bitch. She was a perfectionist, so she always found the slightest mistakes worthy of her critique. No one could count the number of people written up in the half a year since she'd inherited the company from her father. She would never give up the chance to reprimand someone who came in just five minutes late.
Usually, I'd just put up with her stuck-up attitude and take whatever punishment that she decided I deserved, but today I felt something strange when she glared at me like that: Anger.
"Ms. Johnson, it's Monday morning. It's best if we leave this for another time." The words left my mouth before I even realized. I didn't even have to look at her face to know she was about to blow a fuse.
I expected her to immediately erupt into a tirade about how disrespectful I was... but it never came. All she did was silently stare at me with a blank expression.
"... You're right, it's for the best. Meet me in my office in an hour." She said before turning around and walking away. I stood there with my mouth agape, completely astonished until I saw her turn around a corner.
I quietly walked towards my own small cubicle. I wanted to start on some work to distract myself, but my mind was in too much turmoil for me to focus on anything.
Alexa Johnson wasn't someone to take hits lying down. I'd seen several employees try to mess with her, only to have her return it to them with ten times the force. One unlucky new guy had decided to lay his hand on her shoulder, only to be slapped with a sexual harassment allegation the very next day...
I glanced up at my computer, only to see that nearly an hour had already passed. I didn't know what she'd do to me if I was late for a second time today, so I rushed myself upstairs to her office.
Alexa's office was the only one located on this floor, the only reason probably being to satisfy her ego. I knocked on the door and was soon answered by a muffled Come in from the other side.
"There you are, Jacob." Once I entered the office I was greeted by her spacious office with a luxurious wooden desk at its center. Behind the large desk was Alexa, looking as calm as can be. "Have a seat." She d gestured towards the pair of seats right in front of her desk.
"I commend you for making sure that you weren't late to this meeting." Once I'd taken a seat, she placed her hands on the desk and stared right into my eyes with her own piercing blues.
"But we are not here to talk about what you've done right, we're here to talk about your mistakes." She started in her pretentious tone which, as always, was irritating to listen to.
"Mistakes?"
As if she had been waiting to do so, she pulled out a folder filled with several papers from under her desk and slid it towards me. I opened the file and started flipping through it, each page causing my eyes to widen further.
"What is this?!" I couldn't help myself from shouting out.
"Calm down." Her voice turned frigid at my remark. "It is just a file for all of your infractions that I have on record."
I pulled out one of the pages I flipped to. "In what world is spilling coffee on the floor tantamount to 'threatening workplace safety?!' Everything else in here is irrelevant stuff like this." I slammed the paper down on the desk.
