Bankruptcy

"To think I would doubt the lord. He does answer prayers. Hehehe!" A man with an eye patch said. He had a bible in one hand and drooled over Emma over and over again.

"Sssssssh…" She hissed and cursed under her breath. For a brief moment, she wanted to go back into her room and take her chances with her mad roommate. At the very least, it would be better than having to deal with so many men. Some of them were actually drooling already.

She looked behind her and saw the mad roommate of hers coming out, this time with a shirt on, and immediately changed her mind.

"That one is even scarier." She muttered to herself. Quickly, she began to look around her, trying to find a way out of their slowly closing middle.

She found no gap to exploit. As soon as she realized that, she also realized that her last hope were the prison guards. They were the only ones that she could at least rely on to deter these lustful men.

Unfortunately, they were not showing forth. Just as Emma came to the further reality that the prison guards were probably not going to do anything, and was almost hyperventilating, she felt a presence stand tall and strong behind her. She looked behind her to see him, her roommate uncomfortably close to her. He still had that sad look from last night. He looked around at the inmates.

Emma looked around at the inmates as well and saw them begin to retreat one after the other. There were a lot of lingering looks, death stares, and murmuring from unwilling souls, but they all dispersed.

Only after they had moved their separate ways, did the prison guards come in and pretend to restore order, throwing their power around as given them by whoever was the administrator of the prison.

All the inmates were ordered into the chow hall for their breakfast, not that they needed to be told. Emma walked behind her roommate who walked slowly and with drooping shoulders.

As she walked, she wondered, not daring to ask loud.

'Why are they so scared of him? Is he even more dangerous than I thought?'

She looked him up and down from behind. No matter how she looked at him, he looked like a depressed addict going through the withdrawal syndrome.

'Even if he was originally dangerous, shouldn't his current visage encourage the others to stand up to him?' She asked herself. 

Not that she wanted them to.

She watched him move in a straight line, following closely behind, and saw how everyone blocking his path moved away without any nudging.

She also noticed how every person in there gazed and gaped and drooled at her, and she knew that if she as much as slipped away from protection of the depressed man in front of her, she was doomed. She would be raped and abused without end, until she died in the act or committed suicide. That was going to be her only two ways out.

She laughed bitterly. "I guess this is my life now, eh?"

*********

A week ago.

 William Taylor was seated in his office, looking through a long list of names, most of which had been crossed out. As he scrolled through them, he sighed deeply. They were the names of every millionaire and billionaire in the country and its environs. Or, at least, had a major branch in the country or surrounding countries. His late brother, had always kept a record of his dealings, meetings and even words that he thought held some hidden significance when they had just casual greeted each other. He kept tabs on all thirty-plus of them. He had been a meticulous man who believed that keeping tabs on your friends, competitors and acquaintances, was the best way to remain powerful and important.

William rubbed his temple as he recollected his brother's wise words that had helped him climb quickly through the ranks, bringing his company with him.

'The more you know, the more you can leverage on. Even the smallest of conversations can tell you a lot about what a person is going through, their thoughts and how business is going for them. One just needs to be observant.' His brother had said.

Too bad William chose instead to go on a merry ride around the world instead of staying back and learning like his brother intended.

He finally got to the end of the list. There was only one name left uncrossed.

It had an asterisk in front of it. 

It meant that he was still awaiting a feedback from the contact.

He clasped his hands together and sighed. He was desperate. Really desperate.

"This company must not file for bankruptcy." He muttered over and over again to himself while he waited for the message to come in. He repeated that sentence again and again as if repeating it would make the universe decide to help him save the company.

At this point, he could not count how many times he had regretted his bad decisions, his obstinacy and unwillingness to listen to the quality advice of his heads of departments.

"What was I thinking?" He asked himself and rubbed his balding head, ruffling the little hair still left on it. "They knew the company and the business better than I did. What business did I have ignoring their advices and threatening them the way I did?"

He tried to remember exactly what happened that could have warranted his attitude towards these leaders then.

Before he could make any significant progress in his reminiscing, his tablet buzzed and automatically refreshed to show the new message.

William immediately tapped on the message and read it.

"He wants to meet?" He was puzzled, not quite processing the significance at first. "Oh God! He wants to meet."

He burst into laughter, clapping his hands and bouncing on his chair like a little child. He, in his excitement, even wheeled himself from side to side, whooping as he did.

"Wooooooo!! Heck yeah! Finally! Someone with a vision. That is why he is a freaking billionaire while all this average scrooge my brother called close friends have remained mere millionaires." He said, throwing a fast one at all the other men and women that had rejected his request for assistance.

He eventually caught himself and returned back to the message. It was mandatory that he finished the whole thing first, before he began to celebrate.

"Oh!" He exclaimed. "The meeting is today?"

He looked at the time on his watch and the time stated on the message for the meeting.

He had only fifteen minutes to arrive at the venue. He looked at the venue again.

"That's a twenty minute drive. Sh*t!"