Quest For Harmony

by destinedjagold

Chapter 2 - Beating

The bus arrived in Rentelbud City's Bus Station. It was useless to hurry, since I was already fifteen minutes late. The cause of the traffic was a road accident. Two private cars collided and were not to be removed until the police investigators were done with their investigation.

I took my umbrella from my bag-pack before I stood up and walked out of the bus. The usually-crowded city street was empty of people walking around, except for those who have umbrellas. I needed to stay near the buildings if I wanted to save myself from the watery puddles on the road though. Passing cars could splash water to me, and I don't want that.

The rain was really heavy, and the wind was strong and chilly. Lightning was still blue, but I still don't understand why I was the only one who noticed...or better yet, who ‘sees’ it as blue. I shook my head. It wasn't my job to figure that out.

The city was full of tall concrete buildings. Not much to say about them, but I like the fact that the city added indian mast trees on the streets. On normal days, the birds' chirpings reminded me of home. It at least added something to smile about as I walked towards the office.

I gave my I.D. to the security guard after I went inside the building of where I work. As I dried my shoes on the mat, I hung my umbrella on the umbrella rack near the guard's table.

“You know you're late, right?” he asked me as he handed me my punch card and my I.D.

I smiled and shrugged as I handed him my bag-pack. After he saw that there was nothing that could cause harm to other people, he handed my bag back and I walked towards the elevator. I pressed the up button, waited for the door to open, went inside, pressed the eleventh floor button, waited to arrive, and the elevator's doors slid open.

My middle-aged boss was standing on the other side, with a very scary look on his face. I gulped. I'm sooo dead. He stood straight and tall, arms crossed, an angry look on his face and a pair of deathly glaring eyes.

“Tsk,” he...tsk'ed. I think I was starting to sweat all over. My knees were shaking a bit. “If you're going to be our branch's new assistant manager, I suggest you practice punctuality,” he spoke in a very dark, calm, deathly and scary voice.

I blinked...

...Wait, what?

I tilted my upper body to the side to see the office behind my boss. Eeyup, the place was decorated with balloons and a little bit of confetti.

“If you want, I'll let you have the elevator as your office,” he grinned as a few of my co-workers snickered. His large left hand then grabbed my shoulder and pulled me out of the elevator. I stood no chance against my boss' strength. He pulled me beside him, turned around to face his employees, and brought his palm and gave me two painful pats on my back. Ouch... “Congratulations, kid!”

I'm a little bit lost at the moment as my boss dragged me to a table with food. There were spaghetti with meatballs, cake, pasta, buttered chicken, muffins, and soft-drinks. No beer, which I was thankful for. Well, we do need to get back to work after a few minutes of celebration. I don't think the boss would like having drunk employees during the working hours.

As my friends and co-workers congratulated me, I finally realized that I was promoted. Never in my dear life did I dream to be promoted to a high position. I mean, well, I liked simplicity. I work and do my job in a simple and quick manner. I tend not to leave any tasks undone, unless of course if the deadline is still a few days away.

I noticed a few of the guys on the back of the crowd weren't really looking happy. I think the word ‘pissed’ would fit their expressions, or maybe it was just me. I smiled nonetheless, as I thanked my boss and my co-workers before I took a paper plate. I think I was going to have a bad night later when I head back home. I recognized those guys earlier, and they've been working their asses just to get promoted. I don't really socialize much to my co-workers though. I quietly sighed. Well, at least I can still have a few hours to enjoy being alive.

I was about to have myself some spaghetti when a loud thunder roared through the city and the power went out.

“Great,” I said, my voice cutting through the silence, “assistant manager for a few minutes, and nature's already against me.” I earned quite a lot of laughs from my co-workers. I smiled and joined the laughter nonetheless.

After a few minutes of enjoying the food, we went back to the usual working atmosphere, with a few plates of food on the work-desks. My boss dragged me to my new office. A small room, beside his. He explained my new job as I eyed the flat-screen monitor on my new desk. Yep, I'm going to be using a wonderful computer now. He planted his palm flat on the piles of paper on the left of my new desk, and he told me that I need to check the things from the papers on the server, or whatever. It was an easy task, he said, so he assured me that I won't be having any problems. I pointed the fact that the power was still out, and he chuckled slightly. He then left me alone so I could settle in.

Well, at least I have a window now. And strangely, I could see the island where I live. Yep, Sun Ford is a small town on the island. A large bridge connected the island to the mainland. At least I won't be feeling lonely every time I go to work, that is, if I'll survive my upcoming beatings...

---

...and to finish it off, the guys threw me on the metallic garbage bins. It was really difficult to stay conscious after what they just did to me. I wasn't able to avoid them when I got out. One of them swiftly stood beside me, and secretly pulled a really sharp knife as he whispered that if I wish to live, I'd follow him and make no resistance. At that moment, I wondered what the security guard was doing, since he apparently failed to notice. Anyway, he dragged me to a nearby dark alleyway, where three others were waiting for us.

Punch, kick, knee, elbow. Every single blow they gave me was too painful, and I was glad that it was over. They said something, but I couldn't make out the words. Soon, they left, leaving me lying on a small dirty puddle surrounded by garbage. It was a good thing that the stormy downpour was nothing but a drizzle now. But the dark heavy clouds were still high above, and lightning bolts were still occasionally breaking through and low thunder roared in the city. Still blue, by the way.

I was startled after I felt someone touching me. It was a she, and she helped me up. In all honesty, I don't want to get up just yet. My aching body was...well, aching. She took one of my arm and rested it around her neck to easily carry me to a standing position. My knees were still too weak to support my own body.

“Why did you let them do this to you?” she asked as we both took a few slow starting steps forward.

How could I not let them? They were muscular and stronger than a skinny little me.

“I-it's fine, Claire...” I assured her, and predictable, she didn't believe me. Who would?

Anyway, Claire's my co-worker, and a friend of mine. She has long black silk-like pony-tailed hair. She's almost as tall as me, and she's kinda beautiful. Not really very beautiful, just, simply beautiful. Our co-workers were always teasing the two of us, saying that we should go and make out already. It started as a little friendly gossip that she liked me, until it reached the teasing point. I kinda liked her as well, but I was pretty good at hiding my feelings and act neutral. That was how I survived the temptations during high school and college. I'm not ready for a commitment, yet. I promised myself to work my hardest to see my youngest brother graduate both in high school and in college. Back home, I'm known to never break any of my promises, and I plan of keeping it that way.

We earned quite a few worried stares from the people who happened to be walking on the street as we stood and waited for...

“Wh-where are we going?” I managed to ask. Talking really hurt my jaws at the moment.

A taxi stopped in front of us.

“The hospital. Where else?” she replied a little too loud as a concerned citizen quickly went and opened the taxi's door for us. She nodded her thanks and helped me get inside.

I'm starting to get dizzy. Probably from blood loss. I lifted both my palms in front of me, and indeed, there was blood all over. Claire sat beside me, and closed the door. As the taxi headed to a nearby hospital, Claire placed a hand on my shoulder. I turned and saw her worriedly looking at me. I tried to smile though.

“You didn't deserve this...” she whispered.

I sighed as I leaned back. I closed my eyes and took calm breaths to ease the painful numbness of my body. Suddenly, I felt my cellphone vibrating. I slowly pulled it out, but my hand no longer had the strength to grab and lift it as it fell on the seat. Claire picked it up and was about to read who's it from when she quickly turned to look at me.

“May I?” she asked and I slightly nodded. It was a chance to divert her attention from me, at least for a few moments.

I really hated it when people were concerned about my well-being though. It's probably caused by my mom. When my brothers and I were younger, and one of us get sick or hurt, mom would go all-paranoid mode and tries to heal us up quickly before it worsen and could kill us. Yeah... The thought made me smile.

“It's blank...” Claire whispered as she turned my phone so I could see the blank screen. After a while, she looked at the screen again, pressing the down button, and up. “Nothing...”

I was really losing my consciousness now. Maybe because of blood loss, tiredness, and how comfortable I was seated on this very comfortable seat.

As I slowly closed my eyes, I let out a quiet sigh as I heard her voice. “Help...us...?”

The second before I totally lost my consciousness, a loud thunder roared through the city.

Author's Note:

Edited On January 21, 2013
Edited Again On July 3, 2013

Comments

[CartsBeforeHorses]

I think it's an okay story so far, and I will go ahead and keep reading and give you a thumbs up.

One thing I do have to recommend, though, is that you pick a tense and stick with it. It's kind of irritating to read a story where the tense keeps shifting. Just some advice