As we were walking down the stairs toward the cafeteria, out of the blue, Dania told me something very unsettling “I can see demons you know” she said with a big smile all across her face.

Sitting for 8 hours is exhausting and extremely detrimental to physical health if there is nothing in the name of exercise in your life. In the name of physical exercise, all I had in my life were these stairs, and so instead of taking the lift down the cafeteria, I would often take the stairs.

“What about angels?” I asked half-jokingly, not realizing that even with that big smile across her face she was dead serious. She didn’t stop, didn’t flinch, didn’t pause, or take a deep breath for any dramatic effect whatsoever. At my question, her smile and all expressions along with her smile melted away. With a face now even more expressionless than that of a professional poker player she said “Demons exist. Angels do not”

This girl had always been kind of a nut job but this was just a little too much. There were a lot of rumors going around about Dania. I had heard that she was brash, often fights with the management, never comes on time, leaves whenever she likes, and doesn't work with anyone she doesn't want to, but never had I heard anything remotely related to this supernatural crap.

So far I was blessed and hadn’t been forced to work with her on any project. Rumors aside, the only thing I was sure of was her name. I don’t know why she decided to join me on my physical exercise today and I don’t know why she picked me to play her games with.

“This is a pretty intense claim, can you prove it?”

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“Maybe...”

“Why are you talking about this? Don’t you care about your reputation going down the drain?”

“Because for some reason you don’t have a single demon following you, and for your second question you're not the kind of guy who talks shit about, pretty much, anyone.”

I am a wallflower and a textbook example of a typical work colleague. I don’t talk or meet any of my colleagues outside work hours. I keep a low profile, standing out is just not my thing, it’s tiring and painful. I hate a lot of people in my office, and the only reason I don’t talk shit about anyone is because I don’t care about anyone, as long as I’m being paid for my services and office politics aren’t heavily against me, I’m perfectly fine with staying silent about pretty much everything and everyone.

“Your trust in me is misplaced, Dania. And you say that no demon is following me, so does that mean demons follow everyone around all the time?”

“Other than myself, you are the first person I’ve seen in my entire life who has no demons attached to them” Dania was intensely staring at me, her gaze was so piercing that I might have stumbled on a few steps if I wasn’t so accustomed to walking down these stairs.

“So, we are the chosen ones? Is this the start of a never-ending adventure?” I said incredibly sarcastically.

I think I went a little too far with my response, it came out more sarcastic than I intended. Dania never gave me a response. As soon as we were downstairs, 4 floors down to be exact, she simply started walking toward the team she was currently working with. I stood there for a moment bewildered by the conversation that just took place.

Weird. What just happened? It was extremely weird…. I thought to myself.

Lunch break was over and there was a lot to do so I went right back to work, after going up 4 floors, which was 10 times more exhausting than coming downstairs especially because of my damaged tar-riddled lungs. And what did I do after climbing 4 floors, I went up two more floors to the designated smoking area.

The conversation I had with Dania was a really strange incident but since Dania’s reputation was already that of a mental case I didn’t make much of it. I simply started avoiding her.

If it wasn’t for the fact that she was a beast of a programmer, I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t have lasted a single week in the company with that personality of hers. Prodigies get away with so much.