A Storm round the corner

'Project's going smoothly without much of a resistance. To be honest, the lack of a partner or rival is driving me to boredom.

I still wish you were here with me, even as an enemy you would have made great company.'

Sahej read the text first thing in the morning. Another outrageous attempt to make him contemplate his life choices. But he didn't bother himself with these charades anymore, he had spent his childhood doing the same, it was a mistake to let him in his head for once.

'Nah, I'm good', he texted him and got up to get ready for a new start in his life.

He started this monday, in the same position he left the last one, as a junior architect. The world had already started to pretend that mass killings never happened, looking after their perturbed finance markets and posting on social media about what a great, however brief time they had in having their small town families over in the big city. Everyone seemed to have the opinion that the one conspiracy theory they believed in was correct, with a common theme that the videos of his flying and some rare ones of the massacres were all faked, by whom? Sahej didn't care to take note of that.

He was introduced to his new colleagues upon entering, but his mind which hadn't caught up with his deprived sleep couldn't remember much. As for the new co-workers, they were pretty ordinary for the big firm, both in terms of personalities and talents alike. A couple of oddballs made themselves apparent during the introductions, the rest were just the type of people you expect in a workplace. The work ethics, team routines, client meetings, everything had a close resemblance to how he remembered his last firm to be, more or less.

"I believe I will fit in no time", he told his superior.

"Sounds good, so here's your desk, I'll see you around", and she left him with that. Sahej examined the new desk, a victim of the soul sucking procedure in the workplace, or popularly referred to as, beigification. With the exception of the arcade room meant for recreation, the whole office had a really lifeless color scheme, people had done their best to change that with decorations and stickers everywhere, but they just looked ugly and out of place to Sahej.

Architecture was a creative field, and it was common practice to have a stimulating environment to get the juices flowing. Given the size of his desk and the large monitor, Sahej estimated it would take 3 days for a vibrant, unchanging clutter to form, he would roll out his desk mat tomorrow, and customize the computer's controls today.

He had only put up the wallpaper when the guy on the other side of his tiny wall got up with a heavy file in his hands, Sahej assumed they were meant to be forwarded to the senior for checking, but the guy just blankly looked into Sahej's eyes.

"These are for you, pass it through the Lumion, I have sent the soft copies of the pages available."

Sahej felt it strange to get dumped with work so early into his first day, but couldn't complain. The maps were simple enough, meant for a vacation home in the neighbouring town. He started on it immediately, but halfway through it, another one from the end of his row walked over to his desk, though emptyhanded.

"I have sent you the files for the Anobis project that our team is working on, we need you for its interior design, could you go through the details before 3 PM today?", Sahej stared blankly into his eyes as he thought over what was just requested from him.

"Sure.", he wasn't sure if he could do it in time though. It was still his first day, and he didn't feel great about saying no to anything as a bottom tier worker.

Sahej poured himself a strong cup of coffee in the cafeteria after skimming through his pending work, he knew he was going to need every single molecule of caffeine in that cup to get it done today itself. just as he was about to leave for his desk, someone whose handshake had stood out during the introductions walked in. The guy wore a plain polo orange shirt and dark blue jeans, and a rather upright posture. Sahej ignored his presence and just walked on, but the other person spoke up.

"Not getting a very good first day, huh?" he said warmly.

"Sure is looking that way" Sahej answered as he leaned on the counter, he had the feeling that this person wanted to talk.

"You do get more of those here than anywhere else, but they aren't everyday," he said as he poured a cup from the decaf pot, "but you will get used to it before you realize."

"Thanks", those words made Sahej feel a little less overwhelmed.

"Ishan, by the way."

"Sahej", they shook hands and left the cafeteria together.

Ishan suddenly swung his arm over Sahej's shoulder, "You smoke?", Sahej gently shoved his hand over with his finger before replying with a straight 'no'.

"Just come to the balcony if you ever feel like it, it's better than the cafeteria." Ishan said as they parted ways in the office, heading for their cubicles. Sahej looked back from his seat to confirm that a lot of the people here were indeed avid smokers, their numbers for eleven o'clock suggested what the circumstances for the rest of the office would be. So that meant the balcony wouldn't be that much of an attraction to him, except possibly the early half of the lunch break.

His phone chimed with a customised sound indicating a message from someone specific. 'How is it going?'

Sahej smiled at the message. 'Not that great, been dumped with hella work right now.'

'Oh. Well, I guess that's how it's supposed to be at the big ones, still, not very nice, are they?'

Another message popped up right after.

'Don't worry, I will be back tomorrow afternoon for all the emotional support you will need.'

Sahej didn't reply to the text.

'Okay??'

Sahej finally replied, 'Yeah, okay.'

'Bye then, gotta finish my work here if I want to get back in my honey bunny's arms ;) '

'Bye', and Sahej resumed his work, but something was different now, talking to Ria didn't let him notice it as it formed, but there was an uneasiness in his chest, similar to one he used to feel whenever he thought about whether he did the right thing or not, but this was seemingly milder, like one that is experienced by teenagers when battling similar questions of right and wrong, only with milder consequences.

Sahej thought it must be his reaction to having such a workload after slacking off for months and decided to soldier through it, and he did, working restlessly to avoid noticing the feeling and giving it any thought. His speed was too much for him, and he would probably suffer a burnout the moment he stopped, but he wanted to do it.

Break time came and Sahej felt he could finally relax, he would have called Ria right away, but decided against it, she was in the final stages of her work in Mumbai and would probably be occupied for a major portion of her lunch break. He stretched in his seat and flexed his arms, attracting attention from the trio chatting at the cafeteria door, feeling awkward, he immediately got up and walked in the opposite direction, to the balcony where someone might still be smoking. The fresh air and passive smoke might ease his mind.

As luck had it, Ishan and some guy he didn't know were having a conversation while blowing their lungs out, was that an acceptable way to refer to someone smoking, maybe, Sahej didn't grow up with people who were much into smoking or any kind of dopamine kicker substances. He politely greeted them and went ahead to stand near the railing, concerning himself with the cool pre-winter air and the sweet smell of cigarettes gently tickling his nose. But the uneasiness he felt was still there, and in a minute, it started growing, so much that Sahej rushed to the restroom to vomit, but even that didn't help, it just kept on growing by itself in his chest like a vacuum of air, threatening to make his chest collapse any second, no matter how much he gasped, it didn't work, his solitude in the washroom was becoming unbearable, until...

Sahej punched the toilet seat without any restraint, crumbling half of the seat to dust, there was an impact on the floor below the destroyed portion, but the seat destroyed itself without getting the time to send the entire shockwave through the building, which could have been hard to explain to whoever was going to question him. Despite the dust still hanging in the air, Sahej found himself breathing heavily through the mouth. He immediately left the small cubicle, hoping no one would enter for a few minutes. He could bear the emptiness in his chest again, a little better than before, inhaling and exhaling loudly with his mouth as he stood alone on the tiled floor, his hands on his knees.

His gasps became longer and quieter, and he started breathing normally, sweat dripping from his face. He took his left hand, the one that hadn't touched the toilet, to wipe it off his face. The emptiness was still there, but now it felt like something sitting in the background of everything. Sahej thoroughly washed his hands and face, but his pants were still soaked in toilet water, and his shirt smelling of sweat. All this happening on his first day back in the field, his eyes welled up. This was no time though, he had to go back out, if only to ask for a half day looking like a deranged homeless person. He got out of the bathroom, expecting to be met with questioning eyes and hateful looks, but found the office to be empty, not a single person was visible anywhere, what was happening?

He soon found his answer as he approached the balcony he was on before, everyone seemed to have gathered there, and despite this being his best chance at leaving without anyone's notice, he walked forward, gently, he felt as if something outside the door was calling out to him. He came out in the open, everyone seemed to be the way he was a few minutes ago, sweating, nervous, and out of breath, the conversations were too rapid to discern what was happening, Sahej approached the guy at the end of the crowd, someone he didn't remember the name of.

"What's happening?" Sahej asked him normally.

"It's the death angel! It's coming this way!" the guy wailed on top of his lungs.