Healing Incorporated

His coffee cup was empty about ten minutes later, and he got up for a refill.

The line to the barista was long, and he understood why. It was not just the excellent coffee. Women of all ages, coffee drinkers and not, flocked to his corner of the office. Zackary was tall with wide shoulders and always wore tight-fitting dress-shirts over an athletic frame. The sleeves were always rolled up to show off sculpted forearms covered in tattoos. The designs looked like eastern religious imagery but Eli had never dared to ask.

Zachary, or Zack as he demanded everyone calls him, had a bright smile for everyone, and with his long, blond hair and chiseled features, he was everything that Eli was not. Eli wanted to hate him for it, but the guy was just so friendly and nice that it was impossible. Instead, he stewed in jealousy until it was finally his turn in line, following a bunch of women who whined about pumpkin spice season still being months off.

"Eliiiiiii!" Zack said, spreading his arms in welcome. "Did that first cup do the trick? Headache gone?"

Eli grinned back, basking in the warm atmosphere Zack always, so effortlessly, created. "Almost!"

"We'll just have to keep pumping you full, then! Another black brew?"

"Thanks," Eli nodded.

Zack filled another paper cup from the advanced looking contraption on his counter. It hissed and shrieked, pouring the coffee so strong you could hear colors. He handed it over and then looked deliberately at his wrist, as if checking the time on his non-existent watch. "See you in about thirty?"

"You know it!" Eli half-shouted, doing finger-guns of all things before catching himself and accepting the cup, mortified.

Zack didn't seem to notice, as he was already greeting the next person. "Robeeeeeert, my man!"

Coming back, muttering about finger-guns, Eli saw an email sent by the CEO and board of directors, calling all upper-tier managers to the boardroom. This unexpected invite forced Eli to rearrange The Dragon’s schedule for most of the week. The agenda spoke of lean processes and agile solutions in the marketplace. Eli groaned when he saw his own attendance was required, along with all the other secretaries. Dammit, now he was saying it too. Other administrative assistants, he corrected himself.

Janus came by Eli’s desk after he was done, holding out the old laptop. "You want to keep this?"

"Keep it?" Eli asked. "Don’t you repair them?"

"Nah," Janus said. "Takes too much time, costs too much money. We just toss them, usually. I got three at home myself. And like I said, I’ve only been here a few weeks."

Eli frowned. "That sounds like such a waste."

Janus shrugged. "It’s company property. Live a little."

"No thank you. It'd feel wrong."

"Suit yourself," Janus said with a grin, before leaving through the elevators.

Finally alone, Eli scoured the web for more information about the launch happening that very day. The news was full of protesters hoisting their signs at the many photographers outside the building. Eli leaned in, narrowing his eyes. Is that? It was.

"What the hell is my sister doing there?" he muttered.

Her black hair and dark eyeliner, paired with bright red lipstick, were unmistakable. Jaquieline, Jack, Eli's younger sister, was always finding causes. Apparently now, she was against clean energy, too. The letters on her sign were painted with what looked like the same lipstick she used for her lips and read, "Event Horizon Sucks!"

He tried calling her, but the call wouldn’t go through. "Stupid piece of crap," he grunted, just as Mr. Thomas returned.

"Did you have a productive meeting, sir?"

"Did IT come back with a new laptop?"

"They did," Eli answered. "They just left your new one. Hope this one lasts longer."

"It better."

Mr. Thomas stepped into his office, and the door had just had time to shut behind him when he let out a loud guttural roar. "Elijah! Come in here this instant!"

Eli entered and narrowed his eyes, looking at the laptop screen sitting there on the desk with brightness turned up all the way. "Is that?"

Mr. Thomas bellowed, pointing at the screen. "Erotic imagery!"

Eli groaned.

"I want that insubordinate madman fired on the spot! Bring him here right now so I can give him a piece of my mind!"

"I'm sorry, but we've been called into a meeting with the CEO and the board. I'll make sure to close all the browser windows when we return and you can deal with Janus then, sir?"

"Janus, eh?" Mr. Thomas asked, seething with ill-constrained rage. Eli had never seen such a display of emotion from the man before. Then again, no one had ever treated him with such disrespect before, either. Finally, The Dragon reined in its anger, huffed once more, and then left the office. "I want to see him right after this meeting. What is on the agenda?"

Eli followed, snatching up his computer as they passed his desk. "Honestly, sir, I'm not sure."

The room was one of the larger ones in the building with a single large, oval table in the middle, ringed with chairs. It still felt cramped, with occupied chairs lining the walls as well. Almost half of the table was occupied by the HR-ladies. They all wore dark gray, navy, or brown skirts with matching suit jackets and a white blouse underneath, like it was an unspoken dress-code. Most of them kept their hair in either a bob-cut or at shoulder-length, and they all wore thin glasses with see-through frames. It was like looking at a cult. And, honestly, hearing them speak, he wasn't sure they weren't in one. Such a cliché, HR being evil witches.

They were ringed by people Eli recognized from sales, finance and accounting, public relations, and even legal. Whatever was happening here, it was a big deal. The administrative assistants sat with their backs to the far wall with their computers in their laps, nervously tapping away.

Mr. Deere was by the main table, but Amy didn't have to attend meetings with him on account of her guide dog, Rufus. Management felt 'having pets', as they called it, in the meetings made them appear less serious. HR had not mentioned the possible legal ramifications of barring someone due to their support animal, and Amy was just happy to get out of the meetings.

Only one spot amongst the assistants was still empty, the one by the window. Eli sat and glanced out, seeing the people, small like ants at this height, milling about far below, in front of the building across the street. Event Horizon Dynamics would start their machines any moment now, while he was stuck in yet another soulless corporate meeting.

The CEO, Travis Harn, a new, external hire from the military, leaned forward in his leather office chair, clasped his hands together before him with elbows on the table, and asked, "How can we promote synergy between divisions to keep on our feet? We have to shift our mindset and think like a start-up. We have to be hungry."

His words hung in the air for a moment, the silence deafening. Then all of management began nodding, looking back and forth between each other, echoing Mr. Harn's words while adding a few sentences of corporate speech themselves. HR sat stiff-backed, their eyes glittering with joy.

Eli sighed inwardly, rolled his eyes, and looked out the window again. Those words from the CEO marked the exact moment Event Horizon Dynamics were set to begin. The laptop on his lap went dark. He blinked and pressed space and return a few times, but the thing would not turn back on. Not even holding the power-button made any difference.

The assistant to his left, Danielle, Dana, a woman in her early twenties with light brown hair and freckles, nudged Eli, then gestured to her own screen. It, too, was off. Frowning, Eli surveyed the room and saw the same thing over and over again. All laptop screens were dark.

"What is this?" someone asked.

Eli's phone didn't work either, and come to think of it, the ceiling lights were off too. Looking out, the traffic lights weren't signaling with their green, yellow, and red glows either.

"Power outage?" Dana whispered.

"No," Eli shook his head, showing his phone. "Our laptops wouldn't be affected by a blackout, neither would my phone."

She pulled hers out. Same thing.

"Is this a cyber attack on Infinite Innovation Solutions?" Mr. Thomas bellowed.

The HR-manager, Barbara, a woman in her late forties with pink, thick-rimmed glasses and bright red lipstick, and far too many bracelets and necklaces, raised her shrill voice. "Someone go fetch the cyber attack folder! Does anyone know how to buy Bitcoin to pay off Anonymous?!"

Eli did not think this was an attack, at least not a deliberate one. Looking out across the now silent city below, he saw the windows of Event Horizon Dynamics bulge inward. His mouth fell open, and he gave off a small whimper when they shattered into what looked like a million pieces each. A bird flew past, and he witnessed it being sucked into one of the open windows, like with a giant vacuum.

"Something is very wrong," he told Dana, pointing out. His voice sounded weird, like it was slowed down and slurred.

"Why do you sound like that?" Dana asked, before putting her hand to her mouth. Her speech sounded just the same. Slow. Muddled.

When Eli moved, it was like the air was syrup, hindering him. Everyone had noticed now. In the corner, one of the assistants was laughing, slowed until the sound became an eerie, almost evil bellow.

The windows of Infinite Innovation Solutions bulged outward then. Eli moved his head in slow-motion to look out and see empty streets around the building with no sign of either protesters, reporters, or cars anywhere. The walls of the Event Horizon Dynamics building now strained inward, on the verge of collapsing. Dread filled him at the disappearance of his sister. What'd happened to her?

Windows everywhere broke. Not just the ones in the board room, but all windows in all buildings around, and there were quite a few since they were downtown. The air outside filled with glass that thankfully didn't rain down onto the street below. All of it shot toward the building that was now just a mess of concrete, metal, and debris spinning around an ever growing maelstrom.

A hum was coming from the epicenter, loud enough to vibrate Eli's bones.

"What is happening?" Eli asked, the words taking forever to leave his throat.

He asked, but already knew the answer. The black hole. Had Janus with his tinfoil hat theories been right? Was this the end?

Dana was holding up her hand in front of her, looking at it intently as it moved, and he saw why. The fingers left an after-image, drifting behind at first, lagging more and more until it pulled away from her, along with an after-image of the rest of her, like a half-transparent ghost version being pulled toward the window. No, not the window. The black hole.

The building of Infinite Innovation Solutions groaned and bulged outward, like the whole thing wanted to cross the street. One of the adjacent skyscrapers bent at the middle, the top leaning in towards Event Horizon Dynamics.

Eli's vision shifted jarringly, and he found himself looking down on, well, himself. He sat there in the office chair, like frozen in time, as he drifted away through the air and out the window, following the other half-transparent forms of management, HR, and everyone else.

As he found himself being pulled into the dark vortex forming at the center of Event Horizon Dynamics, Eli wondered if he'd be remembered by anyone, or if his short time of only twenty-eight years spent on Earth would pass by unnoticed.

He wished he'd done more with his life than work a series of dull, gray office jobs and then spending his nights barely doing anything at all. He'd never lived, only existed. Now that it was coming to an end, he regretted the life he should've had, mourned a future in which he might have changed from the meek, wimpy administrative assistant to someone a little braver.

Still, despite his regrets, Eli felt peaceful as he and all other floating forms coalesced and fell into darkness, swallowed by the ever expanding black hole.