"Hurry up Dany, we're gonna be late!" Charlotte Malelenil screamed up the staircase. The young woman grabbed her keys from the table, slid into her coat and sighed.
"I'm coming!" her best friend of twenty two years shouted back. Daniella Aeratail thundered down the stairs and pulled on her tattered red Converse, thanking Charlotte when she passed her coat into her hands.
"Why didn't you set your alarm?" Charlotte asked exasperatingly when the two friends dashed out of the door.
"I don't know! I guess I forgot to set it last night," Dany replied and ran to the stairs leading from the small corridor.
"Typical," Charlotte groaned.
"Hey, you still love me, don't you Charlie?" Dany teased and bounded down the stairs three at a time.
"I've known you all my life, but if we're late on our first day I won't hesitate to kill you," Charlie warned and playfully pushed Dany.
"Oi!" shouted Dany and they both laughed. The two women finally made it to the ground floor of their block of flats and left the building, shielding their faces from the light drizzle. It was another grey day in the city of London, which had been their home for the past four years of their lives. "If we get the Tube in the next two minutes we could make it on time!" Dany yelled behind her.
"If you had only set your alarm we wouldn't even have to run!" huffed Charlie and turned the corner into their local Underground station. They pushed their Oyster cards onto the buttons and the barriers opened, letting them pass through onto the busy platform just as a train slowed next to the platform and a crowd of darkly dressed workers swarmed into the already busy carriages, carrying Dany and Charlie with them. There were no seats left so the friends had to stand, still breathing heavily from their last minute sprint. Dany was chuckling slightly and Charlie shot her a look. "What?" Dany asked and Charlie rolled her eyes, making Dany chuckle louder.
The doors of the train opened and the two girls left the carriage and ran up onto another grey and bustling street, heading for the tall building opposite the station. They ducked under the doorway and went through the sliding glass doors and found themselves in a large and clean reception. "Do I look alright?" Charlie asked worriedly and ran her fingers through her light brown shoulder length hair.
"You look fine," Dany replied as she also tried to flatten her slightly curly and wild dark brown hair.
"No mascara running or foundation lines?" Charlie questioned and smoothed her hair. Dany shook her head and checked her reflection in the windows, satisfied that she didn't look too bad. Charlie strode up to the neat and tidy reception desk and cleared her throat. The blonde receptionist looked up from her computer and smiled. "How can I help you?" she said in a sickly-sweet voice.
"Uh, yeah, my name is Charlotte Malelenil and this is Daniella Aeratail, we're starting work today," Charlie replied. Dany wandered behind her, admiring the modern décor and the smooth marble floors.
"Oh yes, you're right on time. Dr Jacobs will be pleased to see you," the receptionist smiled and handed Charlie two name badges. "You have unusual names," the woman remarked.
"Yeah, we're not entirely sure where they're from, but we get that a lot," said Dany and put the badge around her neck.
"He's on the thirtieth floor," the blonde told them and the two girls thanked her. They stepped into the lift and punched the floor number in, shuffling nervously when the doors closed.
"Nervous?" Dany asked her friend.
"Slightly," Charlie replied and smiled. In truth, her stomach was doing flip-flops and she wanted to go home. Dany felt even more nervous than her younger friend, but she had always been the least confident of the girls since they were little. Even though they had met Dr Jacobs and liked him, this would be their first proper job (not including the Saturday jobs they had worked in college and during their teens) and a first taster of the working world. The doors opened with a ping and they stepped into a modern and expensive laboratory, making the girls gasp with wonder.
The smooth glass worktops were large and held touchscreens to record notes, and were spread throughout the large lab that took up the whole floor. Various tools were stored in a large glass case on the East wall, including simple items like screwdrivers and more complex items like laser saws. By the West wall there were many more pieces of equipment, like vacuums and larger saws to cut metal, and next to the girls was a rack of pristine white lab coats and protective eyewear. There was no wall in front of the girls, only a large and stainless window that gave a magnificent view of the many skyscrapers of the Capital. "Charlie! Dany! Welcome to LondonTech industries!" boomed a deep voice. Dr Jacobs appeared in front of the girls and eagerly shook their hands, grinning like an excited five-year old.
"Thanks, Dr Jacobs, it's an honour working here," Charlie stuttered as she looked around her new workplace.
"It's a pleasure! A pleasure!" Jacobs shouted. "There are coats over there, so put one on and I will give you the grand tour!"
Dany and Charlie put on the coats and Jacobs gestured to follow him. "It takes some getting used to, but by the end of the week you will probably know your way around," Jacobs began, "In this room there is research into cross-species genetics and stem cell regrowth," he pointed to a room on the left, filled with microscopes and other machines with more people in white coats rushing around. Dany and Charlie had both been offered by many universities to train in medicine but they had chosen sustainable engineering (both were extremely squeamish when it came to real-life situations). "I trust you're not into medicine?" Jacobs teased. Dany and Charlie both shook their heads with disgust. The Doctor led them down a long corridor into a long and thin room which had firing ranges and mats, where one worker was testing a Taser. "This is the test room, where you can test your creations and tweak them," Jacobs continued. The male worker shot the Taser and it struck the dummy with such high voltage it sizzled and smoke rose from the material, setting off the fire alarms. "Christ Jerome, now you've fuckin' done it!" A voice shouted from an overlooking glass box. Charlie and Dany covered their ears to block out the high pitched ringing, whereas Jacobs just laughed and turned the alarms off. A young man with dark brown hair, stubble and bright blue eyes galloped down the stairs onto the rage and fiddled with the gun, smacking his partner in irritation. "Jerome, you were only supposed to set it to 120 volts, not fuckin' 12000!" he screamed in an Irish lilt.
"Sorry Kev, don't know what came over me," Jerome replied and turned to Jacobs with a cheeky grin plastered on his face, and winked at the girls.
Charlie and Dany stifled a giggle as they followed Jacobs back into the corridor and up a set of stairs, passing more people in lab coats on the way. "This here is my own office, where my colleagues pitch new ideas to me," Jacobs told them and starting playing with a Newton's Cradle on his desk. Charlie and Dany sat down on the acid orange sofa, admiring the extensive book collection in the room. Abstract paintings were also hanging on the white walls, and another large window gave a perfect view of the small green park next to the building. LondonTech Industries was definitely not short of money. "So, have you got anything for me?" Jacobs asked and clapped his hands together.
"Uh, well, we've had these plans since we enrolled in uni…" Charlie began and rummaged in her handbag while Dany copied and brought out a folder filled with drawings, formulae, calculations and plans. She handed them to Jacobs who flicked through them, admiring the detail and intrigued by the idea. "So it's quantum field theory, so making quantum mechanical models with subatomic particles in the condensed theory of physics," Charlie explained while Dany pointed to the drawings.
"So a quantum field generator?" Jacobs asked.
"Exactly," Dany clarified.
"And you think this is possible?" enquired Jacobs.
"Yeah, we have an equation we've been working on for the past three years," Charlie pointed to a long and complex sequence on the paper.
"This looks… complicated," Jacobs looked at the paper, "Even by Oxford standards," he added and chuckled.
"But… you think we can pull it off?" Dany asked, doubting herself.
"Of course I think you can, you have everything you need here," Jacobs handed Dany the papers and leaned back on his chair. "I'll assemble a team for you right away. A project this size needs more brains." Dany and Charlie nodded in agreement. "And I know for a fact Jerome and Kevin aren't doing anything productive," Jacobs sighed, making Charlie and Dany chuckle.
"We'll set up straight away," Charlie told him and they dismissed themselves.
"Jesus Christ Jerome, don't put that shit near me," Kev sneered and shoved his friend away. Jerome was currently walking around the lab with a tub of toxic looking goo which he had to deliver to the BioTech room, but was finding great joy in grossing everyone out with the substance. "Good god, what is that?" said Dany and wrinkled her nose after catching a whiff of the stuff.
"God knows," Jerome replied and sniffed it and wretched in disgust. "Whoa, that's funky,"
"Come on guys, we need to get this all sorted," Charlie scolded while frantically scribbling numbers on both the touchscreen table top and whiteboard.
"Need any help?" A shy intern called Harry asked.
"Yeah, that'd be great," Charlie replied and smiled, handing her iPad to Harry to let him note down the equation. "See, Harry is being useful,"
"Shut up Charlie, we're being plenty useful," Dany teased. "Crap Jerome! You almost spilled that on me!" Dany shouted and threw her hand in the air. Jerome mumbled and apology and wandered off to the BioTech room to deliver the package he should had done half an hour ago.
"Right, what's the plan?" Dany asked and clapped her hands like Jacobs.
"First we need to refine the equation to make it as safe as possible before we start to test it," Charlie answered and finished writing the equation on the board.
"Oh shit, I, uh, need the toilet…" Kev declared and excused himself to go to the loo.
"Harry, Jacobs said you're the best here at numbers," Dany pointed to the young man.
"Really? Well, I guess so…" he started and pushed his glassed back up his nose.
"Yup, so you're gonna be our main man for the next few weeks," said Dany and she sat down on a lab stool.
"That'd be… great, I guess," Harry replied and he too sat down, having spent the last two hours chasing Kev and Jerome around the whole building complex. "This stuff you've written… I would have never thought of it," Harry almost whispered while he looked over the papers again.
"Thanks," Charlie cut in, "It was a bit of an accident when we thought of it,"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, we were messing around with formulae for A-Level and this happened," Dany answered and pulled a napkin out of her purple folder. She passed it to Harry who opened it up and read the short equation scrawled in purple ink on the slightly stained paper. "We wrote that in McDonald's," Dany added with a chuckle. Charlie smiled at the memory when she and Dany had a sudden brainwave while eating their fries during the summer they started Sixth Form College.
"That's brilliant," Harry mused and gave the napkin back to Dany who folded it up neatly and slipped it back inside the folder.
"Now, who's hungry?"
After a quick lunch of chips, Dany and Charlie were soon back to work in the lab, scurrying around the place with pens, paper and dictating Harry and Jerome. The next few weeks were mainly going to be refining the equation the girls had written, so Harry was extremely busy with punching numbers into his calculator and writing them down in a dark green school-style exercise book. Jerome was trying his hardest to be involved and to help, even though numbers weren't one of his strengths. Charlie looked over to Jerome hovering over Harry's shoulder and suggesting ideas to try, Harry clearly slightly irritated by the intrusion. Bless him, Charlie thought to herself and turned back to the whiteboard. Kev had not appeared since his 'trip' to the toilet, in which Jerome explained his disappearance. "Kev isn't one for numbers or equations," he had told them over lunch "He's much more into the making and testing," Dany understood this completely so didn't chase it up; Kev would appear when they really needed him. Dany herself was working on the plans for the generator and working out the scale. They would start at a medium size, so like the size of the touchscreen tables. Jacobs quickly turned out to be a very involved boss, constantly appearing at the work station to offer his knowledge and expertise. He would also wander off to other departments to lend his help, but engineering was his passion and 'true love' as Harry put it. Jacobs had earned his two degrees, doctorate and Master's at Oxford University during the late Nineties and began LondonTech industries to look for young and promising minds to support the future, but he kept on the older staff who had contributed so much to the company. Jason Matthews was one of these, and he had taken a particular interest in the ambitious project, though he had his own team of engineers to run. They were working on an even more complex sustainable energy project, and Dany knew for a fact that their paycheques had to be in the six figures. There was a lot of money in these projects, which was why the company had tripled in size during the last decade, along with demand from the Government to research new ideas. Jacobs joked that he was the Julius Caesar of the Roman Empire, before Charlie politely reminded him that the Emperor had been stabbed in his sleep, which had promptly quieted him. "Jesus, it's almost seven o'clock!" Charlie exclaimed. Harry and Dany looked up from their papers and glanced at their phones, cursing when they saw the time. "I think this is a wrap guys, great job today," Charlie told them and clapped Harry on the back.
"How about we go get some drinks?" Jerome suggested as he took off his lab coat.
"Sounds like a plan," Dany agreed and pulled on her leather jacket. Charlie and Harry nodded while they too put their jackets on and headed down stairs, waving to Jacobs who was having a discussion with a client. Jerome texted Kev to meet them at the local pub, The Prancing Pony, and to bring extra cash for the drinks.
The small group dashed across the road (narrowly avoiding being rundown by a taxi) and ran down a few side streets, splashing in puddles and kicking stones before they stumbled into the old doorway of the pub, where Kev had saved them a table at the back. He waved them over and ordered five pints of the finest beer they had, an import from The Green Dragon which was another pub across the city. "Whew, what a day," Dany sighed as she collapsed into the booth. Their beers were brought and everyone sat up and leant into the middle. "To new friendships," Dany held up her glass.
"And new adventures!" Charlie added.
"And to new ideas!" Harry contributed as he held up his pint glass.
"To new projects!" said Jerome as he too held his glass.
"AND TO BIGGER PAYCHEQUES!" Kev shouted and chinked his glass against the others while the group laughed.
"Cheers!"
Several beers and hours later the group began to disperse. Harry left first to finish a paper and to get some sleep for his lectures the next day, and Jerome and Kevin had decided to go on a pub crawl across the city. Charlie and Dany sat at the bar drinking their last pint, only just managing to stay together. "This is gonna be our big break," Charlie slurred as she put her arm around Dany. "I can feel it,"
"Me too," Dany agreed. "Maybe it's time to head back, it's fucking 2am," Dany groaned and slung her rucksack over her shoulder. Charlie picked up her jacket and bag and left a twenty pound note on the bar for the drinks. The two girls stumbled into the street and began the slow walk home, chatting about the latest episode of The Walking Dead. "FUCK!" Dany screamed.
"What?" Charlie snapped, startled at Dany's sudden outburst.
"I forgot our papers! I left them in the lab!"
"Aw Christ, Dany, why do you forget everything!" Charlie groaned. "Just be grateful that Jacobs works long hours!"
"I know, I know," Dany said with a wave of her hand. It had begun to rain and the wind was picking up speed when the girls sprinted back to the building, pressing the buzzer and declaring themselves. Surprisingly, Jacobs didn't answer, but the doors opened. Thinking nothing of it in their slightly intoxicated state the girls ran into the lift to get to the thirtieth floor. Muttering about her friend's irresponsibility, Charlie didn't notice the dark lighting of the building and the heavy rain outside. The lift opened and Dany ran over the table top where she had left her purple folder, murmuring her thanks to Jacobs who had not disturbed them. "Come on, let's go," Charlie said impatiently. Dany was about to step into the lift when a shadow in the corridor caught her eye.
"Dr Jacobs?" she called. The figure didn't turn around and proceeded to walk quickly down the corridor. Dany was about to follow when Charlie caught her arm. "Don't," she hissed. "Don't worry about it,"
"But it might be an intruder," Dany hissed back and yanked her arm out of Charlie's grip. She stuffed the folder in her bag and followed the figure down the hallway, the alcohol within her giving her more confidence, and saw the figure glide up another set of stairs. Charlie hesitated then ran after Dany, pulling her jacket and bag tighter around her body.
Dany silently followed the figure up four more flights of stairs, curious as to where this person was heading. Her blue eyes widened when there were no more stairs, only a door leading to the roof, in which the figure went through. "Oh shit…" Dany muttered when Charlie stood beside her, panting slightly from running up the stairs. Dany took her phone out from her pocket and prepared to dial 999, slowly edging up the stairs and onto the roof.
"Are you crazy?" Charlie whispered harshly, the smell of alcohol lingering in her breath. Dany turned to face her and pointed at her phone.
"If something goes wrong, I'm calling 999. You never know, it might just be a colleague who fell asleep and is sleepwalking," Dany reassured her, but Charlie wasn't convinced. Dany pushed open the door and the rain seeped in. The girls shielded their eyes as they shuffled out of the door, holding onto their bags and phones as if their lives depended on it. "Hey!" Charlie shouted at the figure that stood on the edge of the roof. "HEY!" she shouted again. The rain was coming down like no tomorrow and the wind was so strong the women had to cling to each other, yet the figure stood rock solid on the edge. "Who are you?" Dany shouted against the wind. Slowly, the figure turned around and lifted their hood from their face. Dany and Charlie gasped. Even in the poor visibility, the girls could tell the figure before them was an incredibly beautiful woman. She had clear, creamy porcelain skin, with high cheekbones and full pink lips, her hair was long, golden and silky, and parts had been braided away from her face, and she had eyes as blue as the sea. She was tall and slender, and radiated a grace that neither girl had seen before. Slightly taken aback, Charlie cleared her throat and yelled, "Hey, you might want to step away from that edge. It isn't safe," the figure ever so slightly stepped away, allowing the girls to get a clearer view of her. Something wasn't quite right, the woman had unusually pointed ears, and when she unclasped her soaked velvet cloak, it exposed a long and nasty red gash across her pale throat.
"Oh my God!" Dany shrieked, "We have to call an ambulance!"
The young woman fumbled with her phone but couldn't contact the emergency services. "What? We're in the middle of fucking London! Why isn't there any fucking reception?"
"Hush," The figure finally spoke, with a voice so melodic and clear it stunned Dany and Charlie. "Charlotte Malelenil?" She asked.
"Uh, y-yes," Charlie started. The figure smiled, showing a set of straight and pearly white teeth. The woman stepped forwards again, yet Dany and Charlie didn't dare move. A clap of thunder made them jump, and the figure silently laughed as a streak of lightning illuminated her beautiful features and danced across the rain soaked rooftop.
"Middle Earth is in great danger," the figure spoke softly.
Dany snorted, "What the fuck is Middle Earth?"
"Your home," the figure replied in her soft, velvety voice.
"Our home?" Charlie asked then laughed. "Listen, we'll get you to a hospital if you come with us,"
"No," the woman interrupted, and stepped backwards. "I speak nothing but the truth. Middle Earth is in great need, and your fate, here in this world, is tied to the fate of Middle Earth. The power of the Vanerian Elves are needed once more, just for one last time,"
Dany was speechless. This woman was really off her rocker, but she couldn't help the feeling of believing every word she said.
"What do you mean?" Charlie screamed into the howling wind, stepping forwards suddenly and striding towards the woman. "You need help! Let us help you!"
"It is not I who you will be helping," the figure replied.
"But who are you?" Dany shouted, also stepping forward to be side by side with her best friend.
"I am Amarel Tulith, Queen of Vana and the Vanerian Elves," the woman said with great pride.
"Screw this; you're off your rocker!" Charlie spat and turned to walk away when a strong hand locked her in place and she froze.
"Do not doubt me or yourself, pen tithen," the woman said softly.
"Get off me!" Charlie shook her arm but the woman wouldn't budge. "You're crazy!"
"Calm down Charlie, you'll hurt yourself!" Dany shouted as the wind blew into her face. "Get off her!" she screamed. A low rumble of thunder sounded throughout the city as the rain started to come down heavier and faster. The woman finally let go of Charlie and stepped back towards the edge. "Don't jump!" the girls yelled.
"Soon you will know your place in this world and the other," the woman whispered, turned, and disappeared.
"NO!" Charlie and Dany screamed and ran towards the edge, looking down into the park where there was no sign of the woman.
"Where'd she go?" Dany panicked and Charlie shrugged, tears streaming down her face.
"She can't have just disappeared!" Dany shouted exasperatingly. Charlie shook her head and Dany shouted, "We have to call the police!" Dany leant against the wall and tried to get her phone out of her pocket when a clap of thunder struck the metal tower on the roof, blowing Dany and Charlie backwards and over the ledge.
"DANY!" Charlie screamed as the metal as the two girls clung to the metal barrier.
"CHARLIE! I'M SLIPPING! I CAN'T HOLD ON!" Dany choked out as she desperately tried to claw her way back onto the barrier, but it was no use. With one final strangled scream, the two girls fell to the park below, the words of the Queen ringing in their minds, a final clap of thunder sounding before everything went black.
