(I)
Termination
Knock. Knock. Knock.
The three raps sounded dull as they limped into the room.
The man within looked up from his cold steel desk.
He seemed surprised, but mostly irritated.
"What. Is it?" he asked.
The piercing gaze accompanying these words was unexpectedly uncomfortable.
"I…I was wondering if you had considered my…"
It was a struggle to get the words out. They sounded distant and foreign, as if uttered by a stranger.
"Application?"
The man behind the desk stared back with an unintelligible silence. His eyes were the coldest blue, and set so deep into his skeletal head that it was a wonder they were visible at all. Finally he grunted and reached for the file folder on the desk in front of him. His motion was stiff and uncomfortable, as if his body was uncertain of how it should move.
He thumbed quickly through the pages and rigidly threw it back onto the desk.
"This…Is. The Best. You can offer me?" He asked, drawing out the 'S' like some sort of snake. The look of incredulity behind his gaze was nearly blinding as he continued, "I am not in need of someone of such a…meager?..skillset."
He stood up from behind the desk and paused to smooth out the wrinkles in his suit.
"And even if. I were…" He trailed off, straightening his tie and turning stiffly to face a large window that was crudely cut into the thick concrete wall.
The view outside overlooked an arrangement of massive concrete structures whose extremities had long since been worn down by the endless supply of dark red desert sand that composed the otherwise barren mountainscape.
The man clasped his hands together tightly behind his back and gently braced himself as a blinding white flash obscured the view. The ground trembled and tossed as the light condensed into a dull glowing orb on the horizon, rising slowly into the sky on a pillar of smoke and fire.
An advancing line of destruction could be seen in the distance, racing away from the blast and consuming everything in its path.
Very suddenly he turned away, as if indifferent to the scene and resumed speaking.
"Even If I were. You would have to consider the position…Filled, Hmm?"
He smirked at this, and in what was yet another of his uncanny gestures, displayed a bright red crowbar that had appeared in his hand.
"But, I…"
The man's expression flashed to fury as the weak protest crossed his threshold. Malice crawled underneath the thick rubbery skin stretched over his face like an ill fitting mask, and he drew in a breath with an uncomfortable sucking sound. The room began to rumble as he spoke again.
"Perhaps I am not making myself clear." He said, and began to step forward.
It was only a moment before he had crossed the room, in which he seemed to tower over all, and lowered himself so that his face was only inches away.
His final words leapt from his mouth in a snarl,
"Get out. Of my SIGHT"
The Piercing blue of his eyes suddenly disappeared as the shockwave hit and shattered glass sprayed from the windows. Darkness enveloped everything as the doorway to the world spun away.
Soon all that remained was the distant cry of the fire alarm, echoing through the void.
IL1-2
