Author Note: Hello! You may notice that this story seems to be a duplicate. WELL, after being away from FF for years, I tried getting back into my old account, Cerabellum's Matrix, and couldn't remember the stupid email I used to use. I attempted to contact support on FF, but I haven't gotten any replies about what I should do to recover my account, and I really wanted to bring my stories back to life. Thank goodness for me having stored them on my old 12th grade History class flashdrive, lol. SO, I made the new account Cerabellum's Matrixx, and am currently revisiting old stories, fixing errors I come across and a few holes I left. All my stories will be re-uploaded in time, and hopefully my old readers are able to find them okay. Ugh. I feel so crappy about the whole situation, frfr. Thanks for your patience, errbody.
…...
Celia Bailey lived a life of absolute perfection. In her extravagant apartment that her father paid for, everything was neat, and tidy. There was no dust in the surfaces, and nothing was out of place. The books on her shelves were catalogued, and the magazines were stacked by order of arrival date. Even the condiments within her refrigerator were assorted by size and popularity. Not a single stain blemished her white carpet. Everything was in order.
Perfect.
Her job hours at her father's successful company were the exact same every day; nine a.m. to four p.m., and she arrived back home at exactly six p.m. to prepare dinner for herself and her pet beta fish, Monty. After dinner, she would watch her favorite soap opera, All My Children, from eight p.m. until nine p.m., after which she would shower and go to bed, ready to begin her routine all over again the next day. This was her life of perfection, and she was perfectly content with it.
Then something happened that fucked it all up.
…
Celia woke up at six a.m. to the sound of her alarm clock. She groggily hit the 'off' button and sat up, her powder-white hair in a silky mess atop her head. After allowing herself to adjust her eyes, she slid out of her comfortable bed and padded to the bathroom. She looked at herself in the mirror. Her slightly tan skin that didn't quite go with her white hair was smooth and unscathed, save for some freckles that dusted the tops of her shoulders. Her large, golden brown eyes had no bags under them, and her full lips were shaped into a bow. A single beauty mark was located just under her left eye.
She looked down in the mirror at her chest. B-cups.
"Hmph. Not everything can be great." She mumbled, and brushed her hair out. When brushed, the straight hair reached just below her ear, and curved inward at the ends. She didn't bother with using makeup; it took too much time to fuss with and required too much attention throughout the day. Chapstick was all that she kept in her purse, along with her phone and mini sketchpad.
She went to the kitchen and began to prepare herself an omelet, making sure to keep her area clean. When it was finished, she sat at the plain white table and ate while silently planning her routine day.
"Okay, let's get this over with." She said when she was done, and cleaned her mess up before she walked back to her room to her closet. From it, she picked out a simple white blouse and a black skirt. After changing, she walked into the living room and fed her black and blue beta fish. "There, Monty." She said lovingly. Fish. Cute enough to enjoy, and clean enough to keep. The perfect pet.
"I'll see you when I get back." She said, and headed for the door. She took her purse from the left prong behind the door and took her jacket from the right one. After grabbing her keys, she left for work.
…
"Hey, Celia. What's up?" one of Celia's colleagues, Matt, greeted her as she entered the elevator. She smiled kindly at the handsome man with wavy brown hair and tanned skin.
She despised him.
"Same old, same old, Matt. How are you?" she asked, then pushed the button to take her to floor twenty-six. Matt shrugged and flashed her a brilliant smile with shining white teeth. If she wasn't so short, she would like to reach up and knock them out of his head…
"I dunno. That depends." He said. Celia sighed, and gritted her teeth.
"That depends on what, Matt?" she asked politely.
"That depends on whether or not you'll finally go on that date I've been asking about for the last two weeks." He said. Celia shivered inside. Gross. He may have been good looking, but he was a completely self-centered idiot who had to make sure his hair was 'okay' every five minutes. Plus she suspected he really only wanted to be with her to get close to her father, the owner and CEO of this company.
"I'm terribly sorry, Matt, but I'm just too busy to be going out on dates." She lied. "I have so much take-home work to do every day, and all." Matt laughed.
"Haven't you figured out yet that you can just dump your work on one of the 'lower-level' employees? They'd do anything for you." He said. "I can share my guy. He does most of my work. A few more folders won't hurt him." Celia forced herself to keep from throwing up her omelet.
"Um, though that's a great offer, Matt, I must decline. I like working." She said. Matt's eyebrow rose in disbelief.
"You're a weird girl. Whatever, you'll see things my way soon enough. You got my number if you want to do anything fun." He said. The elevator door opened at floor twenty-four, and he stepped out. He waved to her as the doors closed again to take her upward.
"Creep." She muttered.
When she reached her floor, she made her way over to her large office that overlooked the Gotham Park. She set her keys down in the catch-all and started to work filing and double-checking the company's profit margin so she may check off the prices necessary for next quarter. After that, she makes it into a neat little presentation to show her father and his associates at the end of the month.
Yay, powerpoints…
After three hours of working through the sea of manila folders, she finally decided to take her lunch break, which lasted for about fifteen minutes and consisted of her eating a power-bar.
"Why does bait have to be so complicated?" she asked herself. She meant the subject that her father's company manufactured, which was fishing bait and tackle. The 'Fisherman's Friend' bait company was the leading industry when it came to bait, topping all the other companies easily. It manufactured everything from simple bobbers to the little slimy rubber fish that was drenched in gook that fish apparently loved.
The oddest thing about all that is her father didn't even like fishing. He only did this for the money. He thought it was the perfect opportunity, and he took it. The company ran like a well oiled machine thanks for his ridiculously high standards.
"Always strive for perfection, accept nothing below par, and never let little issues keep you from reaching perfection." He would say repeatedly to her when she was a child.
"Perfection…" she muttered to herself as she stared out the large window, still chewing on a piece of the 'mega raspberry' power-bar.
"My dear! Hello!" the sudden booming voice of her father made her jump, and drop the other half of the bar to the floor. She hurriedly picked it up and threw it in the trash before turning to see Joseph Bailey, CEO, walk in. He was a large man, balding, with large glasses over his eyes, making them seem a little larger than they really were. He smiled at her, and she smiled back to him politely.
"Hello daddy, how are you?" she asked.
"'Daddy'? Cute." Someone else said from outside. Bailey 'herumphed' and scolded his daughter.
"Remember, Celia; refer to me as 'sir' in the workplace." He said. Celia bowed her head.
"Yes, my apologies, d-sir." She whispered.
"I have someone I would like you to meet." Bailey said. Celia looked up to see that a tall man walked in. He wore a black coat and white dress pants. He had broad shoulders, from what Celia could see, which wasn't much at all; his entire body was covered in clothing. His hands were gloved, and his face was wrapped in a type of white scarf. Dark glasses covered his eyes. No skin showed.
Celia caught herself staring, and quickly cast her eyes away. The man chuckled under his cover.
"I have a rather severe case of Photosensitivity; I'm allergic to the sun." he said. Celia looked back at him. His voice was very calm, almost dark. There was something else about it…
"Ah, yes! You must have found that strange, Celia. I apologize for not explaining right away!" Bailey said. Celia nodded.
"It's fine. Is there something you need?" she asked, suddenly very aware of all the light shining through her wall of a window.
"Oh, no! I'm just showing this gentleman around the building. He works for another company in Metropolis, and they are interested in partnering with us!" Bailey explained. Celia smiled.
Yay, more paperwork…
"That's wonderful." She said. Bailey nodded.
"Yes, this gentleman was sent to review our work place for the company. He's making sure that everything meets the other company's standards."
"So far, I am impressed." The man said quietly.
"Yes, of course!" Bailey said, and gestured to the room. "As I have always told my employees; Strive for perfection-"
"-Accept nothing below par, and never let little issues keep you from reaching perfection." Celia finished almost robotically. Bailey beamed at her, and the man simply looked at her.
"What do you do with things that aren't perfect, Miss Bailey?" he asked.
"I perfect them." She said. Bailey nodded encouragingly. The man still only looked.
"And if it cannot be perfected by any means?" he asked.
"I throw it away." She said. The man nodded slowly at this, and there was a moment of awkward silence. Bailey cleared his throat to end it.
"This office is where the money issues are taken care of! Miss Bailey, my daughter, serves as the primary worker that deals with it all." He said. The man looked at Bailey in surprise.
"Isn't there usually a team of at least three to five?" he asked. Bailey nodded.
"Yes, but my dear girl has so much time on her dainty hands, she's able to get more work done in a week than an entire team could in a month!" he said. Celia felt her cheeks become warm. Her father basically just said she had no life in front of some guy…
The man looked over to Celia and seemed to smile under the scarf.
"Impressive." He said, then turned back to Bailey. "I trust you know the percentages this company brings in, sir? See, my company would like to know exactly how much of a profit they would make when partnering with you…" he said. Bailey chuckled.
"Sadly, I don't know the little things. Miss Bailey only gives me the important stuff at the end of the month. She's the one with all the details in all of these files you see." Bailey gestured to the room again. The man looked back at Celia. A shiver crept up her spine. Even though she couldn't see them, she felt his eyes bore right into her skull…
"I see…" he said in a hushed whisper. Celia had to change the subject.
"I'm sorry, what was your name, sir?" she asked quickly.
"Oh, my deepest apologies!" Bailey said loudly. "This gentleman's name is William…er, what was your last name, son?"
"My name is William Doe. A pleasure to meet you." William gave a small bow to Celia. She couldn't help but feel a shred of flattery.
"N-nice to meet you, too." She replied. She really wished she could see under that scarf.
"Well then! We ought to be going! Much more to see here!" Bailey said. "We'll be out of your hair now, dear! Goodbye!"
"Ciao." William said to her. Celia nodded.
"Yeah, bye." The two left, and closed the door behind them. Air rushed back into Celia's lungs, and she lay her head down on her desk. She took a few deep breaths before finally sitting back up and fixing her hair.
"That guy is so weird…"
…
"Hey, did you have the pleasure of meeting the over-clothed freak today?" Matt asked as the elevator slowly made its way down to the first floor. Their workday was over, and it was time to go home. Celia kept her eyes straight forward.
"Yes, and isn't that a little rude? He's Photosensitive."
"Photo-what?" Matt asked. Celia took a deep breath.
"It's an allergy to the sun."
"So, he's a vampire…"
"No…"
"Great, now we have the undead roaming the floors. I see he's already gotten to you." Matt said. Celia looked up to him.
"I'm sorry?"
"He's gotten to you. You look dead tired. Told you, you should have dumped your work on someone else. Hey, you say you have all this work to take home, but you never have anything but your keys with you when you leave…." Matt said suspiciously. Celia held up her keys. A flashdrive hung from the loop.
"Flashdrive." She said. Matt huffed in defeat. She really didn't have any work on their; she wasn't even allowed to take the documents she worked with home. She was only thinking ahead. She knew he would become suspicious sometime.
The elevator opened, and the two walked out. Celia moved briskly towards the exit, Matt walking next to her. When she was out of the building, she walked toward her little yellow car. Matt stayed next to her. She became annoyed.
"Is there something you need, Matt?" she asked. He shrugged.
"Just walking you to your car. Don't know what kind of freaks could get you at this time of night."
"The sun is still up."
"Don't matter."
When they reached the car. Celia turned to him and told him goodbye.
"Hold on. Have you thought about it?" he asked. Celia sighed.
"Thought about what, Matt?"
"That date. You gonna say yes now?" he asked, swaggering his eyebrows.
"I'm sorry, Matt, but n-"
"Oh, c'mon, Celia. A good looking chick like you needs a good lookin' guy. It's the natural order of things." He said. Celia wanted to vomit horribly all over his suit.
"That's..."
"What?" Matt moved closer to her, a suggestive look on his handsome face. Celia backed up against her car.
"Matt, please…"
"C'moooon…"
"Miss Bailey!" Celia and Matt looked up to where the voice came from. It was William Doe, and he was walking over to them. A wave of relief washed over Celia.
'Thank God.'
"What do you need?" Matt said without a shred of politeness in his voice. William reached them and looked to Matt.
"I need to speak with Miss Bailey." He said quietly. Matt frowned.
"About what?" he asked. He sounded almost territorial.
"Company business, so if you could please excuse us. It's confidential." William replied smoothly. Matt gave him an annoyed look before leaving.
"See you, Celia. And remember what I said." He said, and walked off. Celia took a deep breath and turned to William.
"H-hello, Mr. Doe. What about the company?" she asked politely. William chuckled.
"I don't need to know anything for now; I just figured I would save you the trouble of enduring that pompous-ass for any longer." He said. Celia stared at him.
"You did that for me?" she asked. He rubbed the back of his covered neck almost sheepishly.
"Yeah, I figured you had someone at home waiting up for you, so I got rid of him. You're welcome." he said. Celia could have kissed this guy if his face wasn't covered.
"Thank you so much, but I live alone. You still did me a big favor, doing that. He is, as you said, quite pompous." She said. William's head was cocked to the side.
"You mean you don't have a boyfriend or anything? A dog, at least?" he asked. Celia laughed.
"No, no boyfriend and no dog. The only pet I have is Monty, and he's a fish." She said. William seemed to smile.
"Of course a bait and tackle company worker would have a pet fish. So, you prefer that animal?" he asked. Celia nodded.
"Yes, fish are so adorable to me."
"What's your favorite kind?" he asked. His tone of voice seemed to change, and Celia suddenly felt a bit uneasy.
"Well, um, it would have to be dolphins." She said. "Yes, they may be a mammal, but they're still a water creature. And they're powerful, too. Sharks are afraid of them." She said. She was babbling, and she caught herself and stopped. William seemed to go a bit rigid, and she feared she made him uncomfortable.
"Well, Miss Bailey. I'd hate to hold you up any longer. I may see you tomorrow. If not, then goodbye and good evening." He said, and turned to leave.
"Um, bye." Celia called weakly, and watched him go. Afterwards, she opened the car door and got inside. She griped the wheel tightly.
"That guy is so…." She stopped herself, and looked in the rearview mirror. She could still see him walking away, his back turned to her.
Celia Bailey couldn't describe this person.
Perfect….