Emara Stone

I slap my murderous face on the rectangle screen, and the door of the elevator opens.

Tapping on the digital panel, I drift my gaze towards the girl in the mirror.

She is wearing an off white satin shirt, navy blue skirt, hair sleeked back in a ponytail with her eyes empty from inside and her face frowned down like a certified psychopath.

I close my eyes and inhale a deep breath, then exhale while reciting a mantra, "Do not kill anyone. Do not kill anyone. Do not kill anyone."

*Ding*

The doors of the elevator slides open to the 7th floor and I step out into another unknown floor with vast lobby, numerous glass cabins and people striding here and there with papers in their hands.

Do not kill anyone.

I breathe in deeply and step off the elevator, ready to tackle whatever opportunity awaits for me in this enemy kingdom.

"Emara?"

I stop dead in my tracks after hearing a familiar Indian accent. I turn around to see.. "Hardick?"

The only friend in my class who always saved me a seat, helped me pass those tricky exams, bailed on assignments and been there for me as a silent supporter for all those four torturous years.

"Hardick!" My face lights up, and I launch myself at him without thinking.

He stumbles back a little as I squeeze him in a tight hug like he is the last lifeline on this sinking Titanic.

I thought I was about to die here alone!

"It's good to see you here, Emara." His voice cracks a little under my compressed hug as he says, "You look way so happy!"

I pull away, grinning like an idiot. "I just didn't expect to see you here."

I notice he is wearing formal pants, a shirt that looks bigger than his size, topped off with a tie which probably came from his dad's closet.

"So.. Are you like forced to work here?" I ask him casually, "Or blackmailed?" Too.

Hardick laughs, and I think that is the first time I have seen his teeth.

"Haha! No, Emara. I was selected as one of only three interns from our college." He informs me, proudly.

"Wow! That's unbelievable. Me too." The coincidence is undigestible, but then my curiosity kicks in. "Wait, who is the third intern?"

"You remember Stacey?"

"Stacey?" From Boobie Bungalow Strip Club?

Just then a shy girl beside Hardick waves at me. She is wearing thick glasses, a skirt with sheer black leggings, a shirt and a suit jacket on top, looking like she already works here.

"Hi, Emara!" She flashes me a smile, before giving me a surprise hug.

Her head rests on my boobies due to height difference, and she hugs me tightly, how I hugged Hardick earlier.

Okaaayyy...

"Hi, Stacey!" I pat her back, counting the seconds until she lets go.

"It's good to see you here too!" She finally lets me go and asks me, a bit excited. "We were together in C++ and Java lab, you remember?"

"Right, of course!" I nod, having no clue or shit from Sherlock.

Truth is, this is the first time I have ever seen her in my life.

"I always wanted to be friends with you." She tells me, shy like a deer.

"That's so sweet. So.. What are we doing here?" I ask her, then glance at Hardick for answers.

"We were waiting for the third intern to arrive, which is you, before starting the onboarding session." He informs me politely, that I am late.

"Let's go then." I exclaim, and we head to the HR head department, where a man dressed professionally as fuck greets us all with his corporate charm. He then ushers us into a room with chairs facing the projector, ready with presentation.

"Congratulations, interns. For being selected to work with the leading AI company in the USA. My name is Parkson Sol and I am the head of HR department at HighBars." His tone way too proud to be just an HR.

"Started in 2020, the company has achieved 18 national awards and 7 international awards.." Parkson points at the moving slide, while boosting about the company, its achievement, employee numbers, and branches in the States and overseas, like a promotional video for his promotion.

I try not to roll my eyes, when he mentions that the company is close to joining the Billion Dollar Club, probably from suing other people's pants.

"We do not tolerate bulling here, or any kind of political gambet that harms the office environment.."

Oh, yeah.. Tell that to your boss. The biggest manipulator I have ever met.

Even the Devil is scared of him, he is that evil!

"My favorite part of being an employee of HighBars is the perks list." Parkson excitedly talks about all the amenities under the roof, another reason for us to feel lucky to be here.

Oh God! Somebody just give this guy a promotion already.

"These are your Meal Cards." He says, handing a shiny green plastic card with golden chip and my name printed on it.

"Bella will take it from here and give you a mini office tour, and will also inform you about the amenities under your position." Parkson points to the woman as tall as Taylor Swift and blond as well.

"Hi, I am Bella. Please, follow me." We all follow her like minions as she takes us on the tour of this corporate zoo.

Starting with the ground floor, she demonstrates how to use our Employee IDs at the gate pass robot which flirts with you as you enter in.

That's not weird, after all their boss is the King of flirtation himself!

Moving on to the 1st floor, she shows us the place where I will be found for most of the time. That is Cafeteria.

An entire floor is dedicated to AI bots which are either serving the food, making juices, blending shakes, or preparing a bowl of ramen.

Are there any humans cooking here?

"You can use your Meal Card to redeem points here. As you are interns, the starting points provided are 3000, which will gradually increase with promotion." She informs us.

This is the only good news I heard in all day.

After we leave the cafeteria, we wander to the next floor which is dedicated to corporate wellness, that is their state-of-art gym.

"Here at HighBars, we believe in keeping our minds and bodies in top shape." Bella states, cat-walking in between the gym equipments that looks shiny and new as if they have never been touched.

Next floor got this huge collection of books and an arrangement of a Havard style library.

"This is where we encourage everyone to expand their minds. You can find books on artificial intelligence, machine learning, data science, and other cutting-edge topics."

Where are my possessive Mafia, Ruthless Alpha and Malicious Devil ones?

I am only reading those AI programming books if there is smut in it. Period.

Moving on to the next floor, we witness a luxurious lounge area on one side, with gaming zone on the other.

"Meet PingPong Bot." Bella says, pointing at the robot sitting at the end of the table-tennis table, ready for a match.

"Wow! This is something I have dreamed of." Hardick says excitedly beside me, while I blink with wide eyes. He dreamed of playing TT with a robot?

I thought only I get weird dreams.

Bella continues her tour, and honestly, the more she shows us around, the more I want to nuke this building.

Seriously, I have no idea why everyone is adoring his idea of having robots replace people in everything, even table tennis.

It's bizarre, just like their boss!

I hold my head while exploring other floors such as theater, auditorium hall, testing floor, hardware department, marketing department and last but not the least, software department on 10th floor, where we will be working.

Bella shows us the intern seats, which is basically just an open space with a large L table in the middle, some chairs and a bunch of computers.

"Please be seated at your allocated seats. This will be your designated place for the entire internship."

I sit in front of the desk with my name on it, Stacey sitting next to me and Hardick beside her, all in one line.

"If you have any inquiries related to your position, salary, or how to apply for leave, contact me directly. For everything else, please consult your project manager." With that Bella promptly exits the room, ending the tour.

Looking around, I notice a sleek wireless monitor, keyboard and mouse on the desk. I open the drawer curiously, and as soon as I see a pink rose lying in there, I instantly close it.

I blink a few times, confirming with my brain that I wasn't daydreaming, then slowly open the drawer again.

I see the rose is still there, pastel pink with droplets of mist on its fresh petals, lying on top of a small handwritten paper which says..

'Happy First Day, Love'

🐈‍⬛ ྀི

Super tried. Will reply to all comments tomorrow.

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