Damselflies And Dragonfly (3)
…Thud.
“…” Phesx Caolia leaned his back on the wall beside a door. His arms were crossed, and his eyes closed. When he heard a white noise in the office, he opened his eyes, releasing his arms and snapping his neck's bones. With half the objectives confirmed, Phesx walked away from his first murder of the night, leaving a letter of the red color on the door so the secretary wouldn't be untimely bothered.
Returning to the reception area, Phesx saw less students present, but the guards remained at their posts, although they had relieved in turns 3 times already. It was night, and soon to be 10 PM. The students would leave somewhere around 1 to 2 AM, while the guards would stay.
The latter have remained in this place the longest, even bidding farewell to their families a week earlier just to become used to the building. They were doing their jobs, and they were being paid well. Furthermore, who didn’t want benefits in case something horrible happened? Even if they couldn’t enjoy those things, their families would, at least.
It was something incomprehensible for most, especially the students who had long lives to live through, but Phesx particularly understood it. He walked to the desk and leaned over it.
“Hey, I’m hungry. Can I go up? They’re doing the tasting and all that stuff now, ya?” Phesx asked the tired, bored students behind the desk. One of them was the female that attended him when he first arrived. She lifted her eyebrows, “Oh you. Yeah, wait. Let me check if you can enter the kitchen.”
“The ‘poison testers’ are all refined, classy, and ‘the only ones’ with an elegant taste, so they just can’t be changed. But you can get something from the kitchen. The others already ordered from some diner before. You were nowhere so everyone ate without you. Don’t worry, others like you already went up. Let me just check if there’s any more things.” The female student checked a screen after speaking. Phesx cocked his head to the side, feeling she was a good receptionist.
“Nah, you’re fine. Go up. You did very well today, maybe you’ll get more food. Oh, try making everyone relax. The cookers are all stressed. It’s not just what if something goes wrong, but they have to do it perfectly and all of that… While those food testers just say whatever they want.” The female student added, clearly annoyed.
“Yeah, that’s what makes it obvious that they aren’t that different from each other, after all. All their bullshit on making a difference goes off when you just see it.” A male student said, checking down on his phone. He briefly commented before returning to his phone.
“So they’re all the same,” Phesx genuinely uttered. The female student scrunched her face up before giving him a white ribbon. “Tie it around your armband, and you’ll get to eat some plates. Remember, just don’t stress them out more, ‘kay?”
“Sure, no problems. I’ll even help them out if I can,” Phesx half-promised before getting off the desk. The female student grabbed his wrist. Phesx was going to retract it in time, but he didn’t. He looked at the small brown hands holding his wrist that were cold but felt warm.
“You really don’t have to, but thanks if you do. Sigh, you work so hard. I would really like to pin you down right now if it wasn’t because everyone here likes to eat the same thing between their legs and would boo me.” The female student said, putting on a hopeful expression.
“Hahaha!” - “Oh dear, hahaha…” - “Bwahahaha, heh heh…!” The others burst in laughter. Even those resting their eyes cracked up, holding their bellies and others blushing. But it wasn’t mockery, just a moment of laughter between colleagues.
Phesx politely nodded at the students before going on his way. He tied the ribbon around his arm before going into an elevator. Most of them were locked for safety purposes so late at night, with only 3 available. 1 down, 1 up, and 1 for emergencies or high profile personnel. Pretty simple.
Standing alone in the elevator, Phesx nodded at the students, of which some waved at him a little, still at work. The doors closed, giving Phesx time to think, as he had to wait more than 5 floors to get to the dining/kitchen floor.
‘It must be nice living such a life, being like that…’
The building was gigantic, not only up into the sky, but overall. Each floor was incredibly tall, with the main floor being of the smallest ones. The stairs were wide at first, but from the 1st upper floor to the top, the stairs were for personnel only, whereas the railing was metal and the steps incredibly durable.
The staircase between each floor wasn’t always connected, sometimes, one had to walk around for a few seconds before continuing going up. Other times, they were connected, immediately stepping into those leading to the next floor. This depended on the floor used, to regulate the flow of people and in case groups moved together, or those carrying important, delicate objects.
Phesx rested his upper back against the opposite side of the elevator until its doors opened. He came out and walked to a kitchen. Before the entrance were a couple of bouncers. Phesx turned his left shoulder to show his white ribbon, easing the bouncers whose chins went up.
Receiving a nod from them, Phesx entered a kitchen, one of many, and was welcomed by the sight of porcelain walls and ceiling, with reflecting, beige marble flooring. There were many kitchen stands inside, furnaces, small freezers, large carts with removable wheels, and tech kitchen tools, with students sweating, moving around and working their assess off.
“Oh, you came to eat?” A young, short woman asked, just placing her hairnet around her little, orange haired head. Phesx nodded. The young woman nodded in return before walking away, saying, “Wait for me here, I need to do something. I’ll bring you a dish from the remains.”
Phesx stood on the side and crossed his arms, waiting for his food. Others saw him but understood, not wanting to yell at someone. A couple of minutes later, the young woman exited a coolroom with a dedicated, structured cake with tons of measured semi-solid cream decorating it.
It looked like a dreamy apartment divided into 2 wings with bridges in between, not too tall, and smelled deliciously. It had a layer of cherry-like jam as its roof overall.
Pas- pst! Stomp, stomp… Just then, a white, slender brunette walked in with almost a full plate on her right hand. She slammed the kitchen doors leading to the diner open. She stomped on the floor, whereas a young man stopped her and worriedly asked, “Hey, hey, hey, what is it?”
“That fucking bigot,” the brunette started tearing up, fanning her face with her left hand as she sobbed. The short, young woman arrived with her cute plate near them. “He just said mine had too much sugar and non-solid for a high-end palate. My- he threw all the jam I put on it! It was barely anything, and it cost me 3 hours to prepare!”
“What?” - “My heavens, are you hearing this?” - “Woah…”
As the other cooks heard this and whispered, the short young woman looked at her plate and started trembling. She couldn’t decide if to bring her ‘baby’ into the diner, as she was serving the same table as the brunette, or to give it up.
Passs~. The kitchen doors leading to the diner opened again. Thin streams of steam went off inwards at the corners towards the center. A man wearing a chef’s hat entered.
He was a tall middle-aged man with short hair and cinnamon skin, looking strict, disciplined, and ‘artistic’. He had a chubby stomach and thick, fat-looking limbs, especially his arms. But his face wasn’t so obese.
The chef tapped his clock before yelling increasingly loudly further into the kitchen, still standing at the entrance. “How many more minutes can you waste for me? Huh? You think the people you are supposed to serve tomorrow won’t know the time required to eat the food they ask for? Where is the next cake serving? What are you waiting for? Huh? Isn’t it you?”
The chef looked at his phone before scrutinizing the kitchen, tapping its screen with annoyance, when he found the short young woman trembling with upturned eyes. He walked to her and demanded, loudly., very loud. “What happened here? Why haven’t you presented this? It looks fine! Do you need an invitation? Bring it out already!”
“Ah, si- chef. She already delivered it,” a young man walked forth and said, softly grasping the front of the plate. The young woman looked at him with tears threatening to spill out. He continued, “There was a guy who just looked at it and said that hers was no good, ‘any good', if I recall correctly. All because it had red.”
“Really?” The chef looked at the cake and was flabbergasted. Not just its appearance, but the natural scent it gave off already turned it into a delicacy. “Well… well… I didn’t know that…”
“Either way!” The chef shook his head after scratching it, feeling awkward. He hardened his face and ordered the young woman, lowering his head and right index-finger pointing at her face up close. “Throw it away then! Stop wasting time and create something that will at least look good enough to be eaten!”
“???” The entire kitchen looked with widened eyes. Nobody here was dumb. Even if they hated someone, if that someone created that cake, they could not say it was unappetizing nor not tasty enough.
“But, chef…” The young woman fearfully spoke out. “I have nothing else to work with. I made this all day, and I had to prepare most of its process the whole week. I can only do another once. If-”
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“It doesn’t matter,” the chef obnoxiously interrupted. “Do something else. Don’t waste time for others and the food tasters. Got it? Now, throw that into trash already! Who wants to see that?”
The chef said that before turning around to leave. But at this moment, someone stepped up and stopped the young woman, who turned towards a trash can with the young man that helped her just staring, not knowing if to interfere.
“No, don’t throw it. Why would you throw not only something like this, but when it hasn’t been eaten even once? Keep it. It might be useful later.” Phesx said to the young woman, touching her right forearm with his left fingertips. She stopped and looked at him.
“Hmm?! Someone dares to speak for me, ay, boy!?” The chef yelled. Phesx dropped his nice face and shoulders. The young woman pouted a little, widening her eyes, noticing the difference. Then, Phesx turned around and walked to the chef.
“Chef, yo no sé usted[don’t know about you], but I’m only a student. As a matter of fact, I’m not even of age. I also don’t work here, so what’s stopping me from shutting you up? Mn, even if you weren’t a fatass like now, I’d still put your pretty face on the floor, paint it with it. Now, that would be something no one would like to see. Too ugly a source.”
“…” The chef, who wore his typical frown and felt his chest rising, suddenly relaxed his eyebrows. He looked at Phesx like he was his long-lost child that couldn’t remember his roots. At last, the chef scoffed before exiting the kitchen, “Hah, kids say anything nowadays. What do I even care anymore…”
Phesx didn’t glance at the chef’s back, returning to the young woman who, like the others, looked at him perplexed. Phesx tapped her shoulder, saying, “Don’t throw it. Just keep it for now. Aren’t you supposed to help your fellow students and get us some ‘bad food’ to eat?”
“Ah! Right!” The young woman’s eyes glowed. Finding someone who could not only enjoy but just eat her food after the event made her so contented. She nodded, thanking Phesx before looking at the other young man, blushing. “Thank you. I’ll do something for you in a little while, okay?”
Phesx nodded and walked further into the kitchen. He found a person that others asked a lot for help and to ask some quick questions. The young man nodded at Phesx, willing to speak to a random after he spoke for the others, when not even he dared to.
“Do you mind keeping the plate that shortie was gonna make for me? I heard there was a situation in a janitor room 2 floors above and wanted to go have a look. Something about an amorous drama… I don’t know, similar stuff?” Phesx shook his head and shrugged. The young man nodded after blinking.
“Yeah, no worries. You go ahead. Don’t take too long, kitchens close at 12.”
“Yeah, thanks,” Phesx nodded before slapping the young man’s left arm. Then, he took the back door towards some auxiliary stairs for kitchens to use. They could move to higher floors using this one. It would keep certain odors from traveling into the diner or the hallways outside the kitchens. They also had adaptable temperature, so even if someone had to take the stairs from here to the top in one go, it wouldn’t get cold or melt.
Phesx walked up the stairs, but he couldn’t take them all the way up. At some point, guards were stationed every floor to stop anyone who shouldn’t be moving between these without immediate permission. With the one-time feature where Phesx’s information was in their system only the first time it was searched every 3 minutes, he couldn’t let them catch him. Otherwise, his evil non-look-alike twin would surprise the curious.
Similarly, there were other guards blocking some hallways and at the main stairs, while nobody could use the elevator higher from the kitchens if they weren’t high-profile folk. All in all, Phesx had to find another way to climb the building.
Thus, after going up 2 floors, Phesx exited the auxiliary stairs and walked to the janitor area. Some guards were surprised when he arrived, but it wasn’t their fault. This building was at saving energy mode, and it was gigantic, like in any other floor.
Phesx threw his arms back and forth, stretched his neck, and semi ran towards the janitors. The guards probably figured he was just getting to work late. Cursing the benefits of youth, the guards, most of which are near or in their middle ages, chatted among each other.
Everything was peaceful, soundless, and comfortable. Suddenly, Phesx had a strange ambition. What if he built one like this in the future? Just to walk around and stay. To have some moments of peace? He’d love to show it to Pheli and… Phesx shook his head and focused.
Opening the door to the only janitor room available in the system, Phesx could hear people talking close to each other, their mouths near one another. But what welcomed him was a pair of stressed, retarded couple in love.
“But, love. I can see the way you look at him only when you’re with me. Don’t think I haven’t seen you when I’m not around. Even when he approaches you, you ignore him, you always do. Tell me, why do that? Can’t we just talk it out?” The boy, a rather 20-something year old, said, grabbing his girl’s hands, who had a similar age.
“Ugh, you don’t understand. And, are you spying on me? Ugh!” The girlfriend shook her head, putting an impatient, dissatisfied expression on as she went on; “It’s not like you aren’t checked by other girls. The other day, I saw you being stared by 3 hotties. And you think I don’t worry?”
“But baby, I love you.” The boy said, his words turning soft on the letter half. The girl slightly narrowed her eyes, nearly crying. “Really?”
The boy nodded, forming a dashing smile. The girl suddenly slapped him, standing up with a furious expression, shouting, “Then why did I see you hugging my hot cousin?!”
“I- I… I was preparing a surprise for you, heavensdammit, Selena! What the fuck?!” The boy stood up at once. His red, curly hair combined with his reddened white skin. The blondie, a cute, clever-looking, but only looking girl, shook her head ever so little.
“What’s that surprise? Oh, let me guess! Maybe ‘hi, Selena, do you want to let me fuck your hot cousin’? Seriously, Daniel! What’s wrong with you?!”
“I’m not even saying anything! She’s nothing to do with the surprise, you fucktard!” Daniel responded, feeling nuts. On the other hand, Selena, who had gone nuts previously, became brainless. “Oh, so now you call me like that? How do you call her? Mistress?!”
“She’s a lesbian, you know it! You told me yourself! She tried to make a move on you! And when your male cousin tried, she was off! What’s wrong with you?!” Daniel walked up to her and lowered his head towards her, becoming flustered.
Selena gritted her teeth, still looking cute, crazy cutie, before getting back at him. “I should’ve let him touch me!”
“Heavens, Selena!” Daniel’s eyes widened. But he then softened. No way he would let her feel like this. Daniel stepped up to speak in a stern tone. “Stop those thoughts already. I would never hurt you, abandon you, or cheat on you. Even if you were to ask me. If you keep behaving like this, I’m gonna get angry! And if you don’t give me an explanation… the best is to give up this… this undying love we had!”
‘Why do I keep continuously getting into trouble? So much… drama everywhere I go… Nevermind that, being like them would just be torture. I hope Lore is different.’ Phesx thought, gulping and frowning, albeit a little.
Selena looked up at her boyfriend with glassy, watery eyes. Daniel looked down at her, not knowing how to salvage their relationship from this harsh, complex issue to solve and become happy forever.
“Ugh!” - “Sigh!” They walked off to different seats, just a meter and a bit further way from each other, facing the other direction and refusing to say a word.
At this moment, Phesx blinked and decided to close the door. The noise attracted them, but only for a second. They huffed and scoffed before staring far into the distance… to a wall another more than a meter distance in front.
“Where’s the janitor stuff?” Phesx asked, sweating and trying to not trigger any emotional responses. The crazy- no, cute blondie girl pointed at a corner. Phesx nodded, “Okay, thanks.”
Phesx walked to a thick, rectangular locker, but it had a digital lock where letters and numbers could be tapped to write a password to open it. The device also had multiple tabs to utilize different symbols, even images and straight out colors.
“What-” Phesx barely spoke a word, when Daniel stopped him and explained in a dull voice, “The password is kept together by me and… the other person in the room besides you and me.”
“Scoff,” Selena indignantly exclaimed. Phesx could even feel her roll of eyes as she swayed her head. Phesx licked his lips before walking to the middle between these 2 idiots. “Okay, look. You don’t have to do the work. I’ll do everything, and you can check on your relationship while I do, alright?”
“Why would you want to do that?” Daniel turned around and asked. Selena remained the same. Phesx looked at Daniel, “Because I need some time alone. My mother died just last year, and I’ve been trying to deal with this stuff. I’m from Preut, alright?”
Phesx doubted not in using his refugee victim card. He couldn’t afford to fight 2 emotional dummies at once. It seemed to work, as Daniel looked down before staring at his ‘ex’-girlfriend Selena. Daniel immediately looked up, “That’s okay, but you must convince her to giver out her part, too. You think you can? Just look at her.”
Selena’s body started trembling, but she held in and didn’t meddle. Phesx looked at Daniel, thinking, ‘Buddy… You aren’t helping.’
“Walking away from… the person you love to think instead of saying even worse things is wise. Many successful couples do that-” Phesx tried something, sitting cross-legged in the one-seater sofa behind him. But Selena turned at last and shouted, pointing at Daniel, “Then tell him to leave! I won’t go out like this. Maybe a man will look at me and steal me away, but that’s too easy game. I like it when they make me beg before I notice, crawling towards them….”
“You!” Daniel blushed with rage. Phesx slowly lifted his eyebrows. He thought about running, but things were just getting good. Daniel stood up and motioned to walk behind Phesx and exit the room. “Fine! Then go ruin your life, ruin my heart, too, if you dare!”
“Oh no. Don’t you dare!” Selena stood up as well, bringing her mighty feminine index fingertip to point at his face from below his chin. “You want to go out to meet those good sluts in bed, huh?”
“No!” Daniel yelled with a high pitch. “I told you! I don’t care about sex. I mean, it’s really good… But if it’s not with you, then it’s just a boring session of weird noises and barely any pleasure!”
“Oh, so you know it? How many times have you been bored, huh?!” Selena snapped out. Daniel did, too. “I had girls before I met you! We met at college and have been together for a few years! Heavens and nature! What is it with you? Are you a cuck, now? Just say so, then!”
“I’m not!” Selena indignantly shouted, showing a firm stance. “You’re so handsome and perfect, how can I not be worried?”
“Despite your stupid self, I can’t stop longing to hold you and whisper sweet things into your head. I can’t live without you.”
Both suddenly softened behind Phesx, who slightly jolted his shoulders whenever the other took their turn to speak. So loud and… ugh! He looked back and upwards. They were hugging, but a second later, Daniel said, “I’ll get us some drinks, okay? We can let this fellow-”
“So you do want to go out, huh? I knew it!” Selena snapped out again. Daniel held his head and roared, “AAAGH!”
Then, both retards in love sat on opposite extremes of the room and faced elsewhere. Phesx was wordless. A few seconds later, he hurried out. His footsteps sounded for a brief moment before slamming the door shut on his way out.
Stomp, stomp, stomp- SLAM.
…