In a place, ordinary and plain. A place with a bed a desk, a little TV, and boxes filled and scattered all around a room ready for a new home. A man sits with his head in his hands. Nicki felt like complete shit. He had never really thought about what happened after the Heroes were sent off. His job was done at that point. He had missed so much. I thought I could just send them off and go home. Even that annoying cultivator deserved more help.
So many of them were just children. Too young to even go to a park on their own let alone a new world. He couldn’t help but wonder how close he had been to being one of them. Sent to a strange new world alone with no clue what was happening. In a way he was but he knew it wasn’t the same. How could he compare his situation to there's? He was the one sending them. Not the one being tortured. Not the one taken away from their friends and family. He even had his bedroom and his family. All he had to do was just open a door.
Nicki was spiraling into a place he didn’t want to go. Quickly attempting to clear his head, he took in a long breath holding it until he felt his lungs burn then let it out long and slow. Repeating the action a few times he was only brought out of it from a drop of wetness on his hand.
Nicki wasn’t alright he knew it. What was worse was he felt bad for feeling bad, which made it feel even worse. Before he could start to spiral again Nicki heard a soft knocking on his door. He quickly tried to clean himself up, when the knock came again. With a quick cough to clear his throat, Nicki crack the door open to see his mother looking concerned. “Yeah?”
She seemed to pause as she looked Nicki up and down. “Everything alright? You came home pretty late and just kind of ran into your room.”
At that moment he wanted to tell her everything about the people he let down. The kids he cursed to become Heroes. Everything about the new job no matter how insane it all would sound. Instead, “Just the new job.”
His mother looked like she wanted to say something but after looking at her son's red eyes, “Getting to you already? It's only been two weeks.”
“Yeah.” Before he knew it Nicki was at the kitchen table explaining things. At least in terms that didn't make him sound crazy.
“And it turns out I've been doing it completely wrong for the last two weeks.” He said frustrated.
“And they chewed you out for it?” His father asked indignantly.
“You could say that.”
“Well, it sounds like the company didn't do their own job.” His father was shaking his head. “I mean who tosses someone into a position and just tells them: Go. No training or anything.”
“I know right. Apparently, there was some training for me to do they just didn't tell me.”
“Were you supposed to find it on your own?” his Mother asked a frown on her face.
Nicki shrugged. “I guess.”
“That's not very smart. But now that you've done the training you'll be able to help the kids.” She paused thinking, “You said you were helping kids right?”
“Yeah, it's essentially...social work?” That was the closest thing he could tell them what he did. “Or close to it, partnering them up with the right job.” He sounded like a temp recruiter.
“I have to say I am proud of you.” His father chimed in. “This sounds like a good thing...and I can understand there is a lot of pressure.”
“Yeah. It's a lot.” There was no way to convey just how much.
“Now, after the training did it make it easier?” his mother asked.
Nicki looked away, “Well...”
His mother narrowed her eyes as Nicki let the silence linger, “You haven't done it have you?”
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“Not yet.”
The woman let out an exasperated breath. “Just do it. Find what you're doing wrong and do better. It's all you can do.” She shook her head. “Though Nick I really don’t like that place. They take you for two days without any warning, then you get chewed out for their mistakes. It might not be the best place for you.”
“Yeah.” He didn’t know if it was the right place, and at this point, didn’t feel like he had a choice. He couldn’t imagine forcing this responsibility on someone else. Yet he didn’t know if he could do it. Might as well get this over with.
Nicki stood to go when his mother asked, “Feeling Better?”
He felt a lot better getting everything off his chest, at least his version. So he could honestly answer her, “Yeah.”
“So we're you going?” His dad asked as he noticed Nicki walking towards the door.
“Gonna do the Training.”
His father looked at the clock, “It's ten on a Friday. Is the office twenty-four seven?”
“Yeah, and I'll be getting paid for my time,” Nicki added on the last part hoping they would ask fewer questions.
“Oh. You didn't say you were on call.”
Nicki smiled. “Always am.”
#
He left and decided to drive downtown. While he could enter from any door something felt right about getting out and driving to work. It helped Nicki get his head on straight. Something about the drive just put him in the right head-space and he needed it.
Nicki stood in front of the tallest building and walked inside. He had chosen this place because it felt important and he always wanted to work in one of the tall towers. It was a completely selfish move by Nicki but he would at least work where he wanted. Even if it was a lie.
Normally he would gather a few looks, being the only one not in a suit, as he was wearing his most professional hoodie, Grey with a zipper down the middle, and made of some type of really expensive material. After all, he had paid designer prices for it so it must have been high quality. If only he could get that red stain fully off of it. With how late it was no one but the security guard paid attention to him until he passed through the security barrier with a beep. A trick he had accidentally learned when he started coming here to work. Of course, he originally panicked when he realized he would need some sort of key card, so he waved his hand over pretending to have one. To his shock, it beeped letting him through. Not so powerless outside the office I guess.
Entering the elevator he clicked forty-two, a nice fun floor to work on. The doors opened and even this late the offices all around were filled with people you could see through the windows. Each office was compartmentalized requiring a key card to get through. Nick ignored them all and headed straight to a door right at the end of the hall. The door was plain with no marking just wood.
His hand rested on the handle of the door, his heart beating fast because he knew it wasn't his office behind the door, but the tutorial. Taking a deep breath he opened the door and his tutorial began.
#
“Hello?” A man wanders in a strange place. An office Will swears he wasn’t in before. The place was strange, everything was just a bit off, cubicles too tall, a break room with a few too many coffee pots and microwaves. It was like a distorted dream, and when he would turn and find the place he came from had changed warping to appear farther away. Will was starting to freak out.
Was this a dream?
Why would I dream of an outdated office? Why wouldn't it be my actual office? He wondered. Will had been doing grunt work as an intern and that had plenty of nightmare potential. In fact, he had at least one a week ever since excepting the job. But something about this place felt too real. It was unsettling.
After a couple hours of exploring Will was able to determine this was not a dream. When he tripped and fell bashing his knee into the ground.
“Not a dream. Fahhh.” Will sat rubbing his knee. He took a few deep breaths. “Where am I?”
What was I even doing before? It was hard for him to remember like it was slightly cloudy. I was getting coffee, for my team, and had just got off the elevator. I was going to go straight in but needed to get something from the supply closet... And then I was in that office.
His heart started to beat fast. I need to get out of here. Will began to panic, running all around the building. Looking for something, anything that looked familiar. When he finally found an elevator he felt hesitant. Please don’t be another weird place, just let me go back. Will pushed the down button immediately after the elevator opened. Inside was just a simple elevator nothing strange. A series of numbers that seemed to go on forever, and one that had a “G” at the bottom. Ignore the impossible numbers Will. Pushing in the G the door closed then all to quickly opened revealing what looked like an empty lobby.
How? He hadn't moved the doors closed then opened.
Seeing the exit Will began to run until he noticed what was on the other side. A gray landscape of nothing and a blue orb that looked strikingly familiar, and caused an incredible longing inside his chest.
Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. He turned around denying everything he had seen. He was in a dream. Dream pain. Dream office. None of this is real. He kept walking and somehow found himself in-front of the office door he had started at. Remembering the drinks he left inside. Might as well have some coffee.
Opening the door he saw a man in a hoodie looking tired and drinking one of his cups of coffee. At the sound of the door, he looked up at Will. “Dammit! Did I leave the door open?”