One of those days

Angela parked her car as the first lightning bolt cut the air a few miles away. Shortly thereafter, a loud crack followed. The atmosphere was pregnant and in desperate need of release. There was going to be a storm. It had been building up for weeks; a delayed answer to one of the driest months ever recorded.

Any other day, she would have rejoiced at the prospect of wind and rain. The sheer chaos of thunderstorms never failed to spark something inside her. There was a raw quality to the dynamics of a storm, a wild echo of some primordial force.

But today was different. 

She walked into the sophisticated black building with an air of confidence, silencing every cell in her body that protested otherwise. 

The aquarium stood as tall and menacing as ever. Stepping inside it always felt like stepping into a different zone, an upside-down reality in which feng-shui had been applied in reverse.

The lobby was empty, with Sarah typing something quietly and almost hidden behind the tall wooden desk. As soon as she greeted the receptionist, a bald man materialized out of nowhere.

"Welcome Angela", said him with a familiar, baritone voice.

Something plunged inside her stomach. 

"Good morning, Hector. How is everything?" She replied. Her voice, an octave too low. 

"In good order", he said with a smile that did not reach his eyes. He was considerably thinner than the last time they spoke, which had not been that long ago. 

"Did you come to see Amadeus? He is in the morning meeting still, but I'm sure he'll be with you shortly."

"No problem. I'll wait here."

"Nonsense. I'll escort you to one of the rooms," he said, not waiting for an answer before confirming with Sarah that office room 277 was vacant. 

She nodded and let herself be escorted away. 

They walked in silence. He almost looked like a bull walking on two legs, she thought, even after having lost some weight. He had always been a safe haven for Amadeus, a bodyguard slash confidant slash partner-in-crime that could do anything and come to work the next day as if nothing had happened. At least, that was what she had always been led to believe. 

Had he ever killed anybody? It was a strange thought to be having and it said more about her fear of him than about who he was. He and her brother had always been so secretive about his employment history and what exactly it was that he did in the company. Of course, she knew his official job title, Head of Security. But there wasn't even a security team, not in their branch anyway, where mostly bureaucratic work was carried out by 23 employees scattered in a larger-than-life building. He stood there, an island of muscle in the middle of the constant flow of paperwork that fed one of the busiest contractors in the country. 

Had it been on Amadeus's command? The thought ricocheted back into her mind right when her phone buzzed. She glanced at the screen and had to take another deep breath as they entered a spacious meeting room with two glass walls. 

The fine leather chairs, the carpeted floor, the black marble surfaces, it all felt familiar. Not because she had been in that particular room before but because all of the rooms in that building obeyed more or less the same style. Every object was perfectly kept in its place, and yet their arrangement gave the impression of abandonment, like a house that was always overly tidy for the lack of inhabitants. You would expect the clean, smart rooms to give you a sense of comfort, but they actually oozed a melancholic feeling of emptiness.

She realized Hector had been saying something that she lost track of.

"Would you like me to turn the air conditioner on?" He repeated.

"There's no need, thank you," she replied, regretting it almost instantly. Confrontations always left her sweaty and devoid of energy.

"Very well. Do you want me to bring someone in before Amadeus is finished? I think you still have some time."

She shook her head, momentarily speechless. 

He nodded and proceeded to exit the room. 

"Let's just chat a bit while he doesn't come, shall we?" She said, finding her voice right before he had a chance to walk out the door. 

He stood straight, straighter than he had so far, and turned to her slowly. "Are you here to sack me?"

She stood there, staring at him. She wanted so badly to say no but that would be untrue, wouldn't it? That's exactly what her brother had ordered her to do just seconds ago, the third time since yesterday. 

The news of his redundancy would travel like wildfire. Everyone just assumed he belonged in the place, like an old piece of furniture that would remain no matter how many times the decoration was changed. 

She expected him to question her, to pace, to punch a wall, maybe, to show his frustration somehow. But he did none of those things. He just stood there, with a vague look in his eyes, a mystified expression. So instead of start informing him of his rights and reading the generous settlement the company was proposing, she simply asked "How long have you been with us?"

"Twenty years in July," he replied, sitting in front of her and depositing his hands on his knees as if his body weight was suddenly too heavy to support.

"I'm sorry, Hector," she said, empathizing with him. "We tried to argue him out of it yesterday," she swallowed with some difficulty before continuing, "but he is resolute." 

Hector licked his lips with his tongue. "I used to work for your father long before I came here to help your brother. Did you know that?"

She nodded because it seemed like something she should know. But in truth, she didn't. Had he been her father's bodyguard as well?

"It started before the lot of you were born," he said, with his eyes now resting on the floor. "The company wasn't what it is now."

"What was it?... What did you do?"

He faced her with tired eyes. "A bit of everything, really. Whatever your father needed me to do. There was a lot of money to be made back then. Especially with pharmaceutical pursuits. We started off as partners.."

"Pharmaceutical pursuits? I didn't know we had pharmaceutical pursuits..." 

"Not anymore, I reckon." 

"I... we are certainly grateful to you, Hector," she said. "He is too. I mean...," she started fidgeting in her seat, "I'm sure he would be. He is... not entirely conscious, as you know, but at any moment he might awake and... who knows, maybe undo my brother's..." 

"So... is everything settled already? Everyone happy?" Her youngest brother splashed into the room. "My old man..." he began, rubbing his hands together like a maniac. "We've had some road covered together, haven't we? What a long journey. I'm sure you just can't stand looking at our faces anymore."

Hector remained silent but started following her brother's movements with his eyes, like a predator locked onto his prey. 

Finally, his voice filled the room, slowly but firmly. "Not so fast, Amadeus. Not so fast..." 

And then the sweating began. 

***

It was a quarter to 4 p.m. when she finally exited the building. Three employees had been sacked, but no dismissal had affected her more than Hector's. A lawsuit would undoubtedly follow.

She still didn't understand why her brother was so bent on getting rid of him. He had argued Hector's paycheck was too expensive to maintain, but she knew that wasn't true at all. So much money was coming in every year they didn't know where to put it. Sacking Hector was not a decision based on any financial emergency, no matter what Amadeus claimed. She should have fought harder over this, instead of just getting sucked into her brother's twisted plots.

She pulled the car out of the parking lot as the first raindrops fell. The fresh, earthy scent of dry soil becoming wet didn't take long to fill the air. 

The storm had stalled while she was inside the building, but now it was falling quickly. By the time she got to the interstate, the rain was pouring down so hard that she was forced to seek shelter in a gas station. The sky rumbled in angst and retribution, sending down in minutes what it had withheld for months. 

She parked the car in front of the coffee shop and walked in. The place was packed with drivers escaping the storm. She ordered a coffee and returned to the vehicle. Almost instantaneously, the hot liquid filled the small space with its own scent, replenishing some of her energy as she sipped it. 

As she sipped her drink, she mulled over the many ludicrous situations Amadeus had staged over the years, dragging her into his schemes, forcing her to take the blame. 

Out of habit, she reached for her cell phone and dialed. As soon as her husband's black and white photo filled the screen, however, she pressed the red button. She didn't want to talk to him now, she realized. What she wanted was to take a nap. No, what she deserved after such a day doing Amadeus' bidding was to take a nap.

She deposited the now empty cup in one of the cupholders by the center console and allowed her eyes to close, feeling her body sink slightly forward as her forehead touched the driving wheel. 

It was already dark when she woke up. A thick fog had replaced the rain outside. 

Her cell phone buzzed while her clumsy, sleepy hands tried to reach for it without success. When she finally grabbed it, the connection cut. She sighed and noticed that there was someone standing outside by the door. 

She tried to lower the window, but the key seemed stuck in the ignition. She looked outside to show the bystander that she was trying to get the window to work. Only then did she realize who it was. 

"Laura?" she whispered, almost breathless from the shock. Laura, looking concerned, pressed her hands against the glass and said something, but no sound reached inside the car.

"Laura?" she said again, trying to open the door this time. But it was no good. Like the key, it too was suddenly stuck. 

Laura didn't seem to hear her either. 

Unable to get the engine to work, she touched the glass, mimicking Laura's gesture from the other side. Laura was getting frustrated and impatient, nearly screaming now. It looked like she was saying the same thing over and over again. 

As Angela grew closer to the window, the only barrier keeping them apart, something clicked and she understood what the screams were. Not because she heard them, but because she could see her sister's lips moving to pronounce three familiar, so very familiar, syllables.

Ma-thi-as.

A minute later, when the spell was broken and Angela did manage to open the door, Laura was already gone. The air was heavy with mist and damp.

In her pocket, her cell phone buzzed again.