Chapter 7 - How do you kill your best friend in the worst way possible?

NOTE:

- ' ' = thoughts during Third Person POV

- Story is set in 2020 and there is no pandemic

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POV: Third Person

Nerovsky (A/N I'm just going to refer to him as Nero) took about 10 steps inside before he stopped in the middle of the ground floor in awe. The place was bustling with employees and clients, making it lively but all Nero thought to himself was; 'this place is gorgeous!'  The first thing he does was look up to find the ceiling was about 9 metres tall, giving it a spacier feel. His eyes then fell on the light grey marble wall in front of him with the company logo MegCorp printed in the largest font possible... in rose gold. 'They have too much money to spare' was Nero's second thought. There was also a lot of potter greenery underneath the logo (as well as around the floor).

He continued looking around the wall and finds that to the right and left of the wall was automated entry gates that only let employees in with the tap of their ID. 'Fancy schmancy indeed'. Past the gates lead to a series the elevators on both sides. I recognised the elevator to the left, right at the back as the noisy rattly one. He looked to his right to find where the receptionist desks were located (also made out of white marble) and the wall behind the desk was a wood feature wall which gave it a bit more colour to the place. To his left was a seating area with small wooden tables and very comfy looking chairs, which were all currently occupied. When Nero looked past the seats though, he found himself looking at a modern yet quaint coffee shop (currently has a huge line protruding out its doors) and next door seemed to be an even smaller snack bar.

With a small smile on his face, he lifted his left wrist to look at the time (yes. He finally bought in a wristwatch) (A/N honestly... I forgot how third-person POVs work...) and found himself to be 7 minutes early. 'Perfect timing especially for someone who has a killer hangover. Anyway, if I'm not wrong, I'm meant to go to the receptionist and tell them I'm new?' With the mini-mission in mind, Nero advanced towards the receptionists. There was a small queue in front of the desks but it only took about 2 minutes for him to get in front. The receptionist emitted a friendly smile towards Nero and asked the standard question.

"Hello. How may I help you today?"

Nero returned a small smile back.

"Hi. Today's my first day working here and I was told to come to the front desk... and tell you?"

His response caused a mini internal conflict; 'OH GOD why'd I say the last thing. I'm so fucking awkward help me.'

The receptionist didn't notice his agony and continued.

"Right, can I please have your full name, date of birth and a form of identification?"

"Nerovsky Poston, 13th of September 1997 and here you go." Nero passes his driver's licence.

The kind lady typed everything up and did her thing on the computer, which ended up taking a while so Nero idly tapped his finger on the high desk and began zoning out.

"Here we go. Found you on the system. Everything is good to go."

The receptionist handed him a lanyard with a card attached to it. He saw the card is his ID and his entry ticket past the robotic gates. 'My photo is not too shabby. Although it's annoying how the light is kind of reflecting off my glasses.' His commentating was once again interrupted by the receptionist.

"What I just handed you is your ID and basically your lifeline around this building. You need to enter basically any room. Well, not any room. Some rooms are restricted and even if you tap your card, you would not be allowed to enter. I also noticed in your application that you said that you possess an Oddity? Manipulation of shadows was it?"

"Ah yeah... yeah I do." 'Although I did lie about what Oddity I possess. Shadows are the closest to what I actually have.' Nero thought to himself.

"And I assume you're familiar to the separate rules and regulations you have to follow in addition to the standard ones?"

"Indeed."

"Ok great. With that out of the way, I would like to congratulate you and welcome you to MegCorp. Today works as an orientation day for new employees and interns – 'interns?' – so you can get comfortable with the environment. More details will be given later. For now, go to the 5th floor on any of the elevators and enter conference room 4. There should be a group of people in the same boat as you." The last line was followed by a comforting smile.

"Thank you so much. Bye." Nero returned a smile and continued towards the elevators closest to the front desk. As Nero approached automated gates, he couldn't help but feel a little giddy. Which was funny because his best friend has made bullet shooting drones before to cure his boredom and he didn't find it as cool. It's truly the simple things in life that bring you joy. He tapped his ID and the glass gates granted him entrance, he felt a smile coming onto his face in pure joy.

He approached one of the elevators and found the up button had been pressed by one of the 5 people in front of him so he just quietly hummed while waiting. Mainly to calm himself down because his heart felt as if it can jump out of his chest and start doing the Renegade. 'Fuck man I'm not even this nervous when I'm about to stab someone to near-death... that came out more morbid than intended.' With that train of thought finished, the elevator arrived and all of a sudden, Nero found himself crammed in the metal box. 'When the hell did so many people arrive?'. Nero tried to look over to where the buttons are (which proves to be a bit difficult due to his slight lack of height) to find that the 5th floor had been already pressed so he relaxed a bit.

Once the destination had arrived, Nero had successfully pushed himself out of the floor but not without losing about half his energy. 'I think I just went to war.' He was lowkey traumatised. With a small shudder, the young man fixed up his glasses and dusted himself, fixed the wrinkles present in the suit. 'my hair better be fine.'

After all that, the new employee hunted for the dedicated room, which took a while to find because there are about 12 conference rooms on this floor alone but once he did, he found the door to be closed. 'oh fuck...' With one large inhale of air, Nero opened up the door. What he was greeted with a wide-open space with a large table in the middle and about 10 different pairs of curious eyes. 'This is exactly what I was afraid of when I saw the closed door.' With an internal sigh, he reclosed the door and walked to one of the empty (fancy) chairs (which happened to be furthest away from the projector screen which read Welcome!) with his head down in timidness.

The room was dead silent, with no one talking. Some people were either looking around the room and appreciating the interior design and rest were just on their phones. 'ffuuuuccckkkk this maaaaaan' Nero groaned inside his head. He was just staring at the projection. It wasn't long before the silence broke due to a very optimistic ('oh no') early thirties man entering the room and immediately began rambling loudly.

"Hello, new employees and interns. There seems to be 11 of you so everyone clearly found their way here. I'm Matthew Williams and head slash manager of Finance Management so anyone working under me, you have the best boss and are in the best department. I think I have one newbie and one intern. But I'm not here to be the Finance boss. I'm here to play the role of introducing you guys to MegCorp and how shi- things work around here. Call me your tour guide if you want. Orientation boss."

'Fucking great. Half my energy was going to be lost trying to keep up with the guy. Aiden was bad enough. At least he seems chill.'

"Anyway, our company boss here likes to introduce himself to the new staff and kind of just briefly meet everyone for ten minutes. You guys are going to introduce yourself to everyone then so, for now, sit tight."

As soon as Mr. Williams was finished, there was an outburst of mumbling and out of nowhere, everyone seemed to be friends with each other because they were animatedly talking to each other about Leonardo Covell. Nero on the other hand gave an internal eye-roll and got out of his seat. He went up to Matthew to ask a very important question.

"Um hi, Mr. Williams. Could you possibly tell me where the washrooms are?"

Yeah, so Nero really needed to go to the bathroom from all the nervousness and apparently sweating up three litres wasn't enough to get out all internal fluid. Cut the man some slack. Mr. Williams gave a small chuckle and gave an unexpected reply,

"How about I just take you there? I want to have a talk with you as well on the way."

'Great did I fuck up already? Was I also meant animatedly swoon over the very good-looking CEO? I had priorities.' Nero attempted to cover up his internal panic by simply nodding and followed the other man out of the room. Mr. Williams began small talk as they walk down the relatively wide corridor.

"You're Nerovsky Poston, right? You're the new employee working under me. Nice to meet you! I mean it when I say you have the coolest boss."

That gains a small laugh out of Nero. "Already raising expectations are we Mr. Williams?"

"Call me Matthew. Mr. Williams makes me sound old. I'm not ready for that. Anyway, I saw you have an Oddity. That's kind of sick."

Nero shifted uncomfortably. It's something he'd rather not talk about since first of all, it gathers a lot of attention and second of all, he's lying about what sort of power so he kind of feels bad.

"I... um... yeah yeah I do possess one. It- it isn't anything special though. Manipulating shadows can't really do much. Not very powerful unlike our boss."

Matthew didn't seem to notice Nero's discomfort and continued on.

"Hey, possessing one is cool enough. You're part of the 0.05%. Rare species. Even rarer in the company. You're like the only few around here. I also noticed a huge bandaid popping out of the left of your collar. Are you ok?"

Nero subconsciously put his hand over it and simply replied with a fake but convincing smile. "Um yeah no I'm fine it's nothing really."

"Hm ok. if you say so... Oh look we've arrived. I'll wait out."

"Ah yeah, thanks." With that being said, Nero went into the bathroom and dealt with his business. Once done, Matthew and Nero walked back to the conference in comfortable silence. As they approached conference room 4, they saw a tall and well-proportioned man with golden hair ('Mr. Covell?') walking ahead of them to the door. He was also followed by two others and by the time they reached the door, one of those two went ahead and opened the door on the left, into the room. This allowed Nero to see the side profile of the familiar man entering and Nero just froze on the spot and blanked out. The comfortable silence that was once present was about to be broken real soon...