The clicking of the pen was the only sound that could be heard in the room. The two men occupying it were silent. No one said a word yet their heads were filled with a thousand loud voices.
One man was standing, his hands folded in front of him. He silently watched the other man who was occupying the l leather chair behind the huge mahogany desk, his face completely void of emotion. His right hand was occupied.
Miller was used to this scene, but it was unnerving for him. He would always wonder what was going on in his boss's head. Nothing good he knew. He looked at how the boss toyed with the silver pen in his hand, clicking it on and off. And like always he was staring at a painting on the wall.
The assistant knew his mater's fondness of dark, disturbing painting. It seems it distracted him from his own darkness. His grey eyes was cold and empty. It was hard to know what he was thinking.
Miller knew of what happened in New York. The assistant could only wait in the silence and darkness of the study. It felt a little drafty, it was chilling.
Miller would never be able to get used to this, the darkness, it reminded him too much of his past.
His boss seemed to relish in it. They had been in there silent for over forty minutes. Miller tuned out the sound of the clicking pen.
The assistant knew it was only for his boss. He always wandered if the sound distracted his demons. He knew better than to pity his boss, the man was not broken but shattered. He became a devil long ago. No one can pity a devil.
"Susan". The name snapped Miller out of his thoughts.
His eyes went back to his boss, and for a second his heart raced.
The boss had echoed the name ringing in his mind. The dark mind of hell.
The assistant watched as his boss's eyes lightened by a shade, the green steaks noticable. The assistant felt paralysed, dumbfounded. The girl was supposed to be a short entertainment, he had hoped, or a small time fuck buddy, but it seemed his boss wanted...more?.
And like that, the air carried Susan's name, taking with it a message.
************************
"HE'S COMING FOR YOU!".
That sentence wouldn't stop echoing in Susan's ears, she had an idea of who this he was and she dread it.
She was back home, but she didn't feel like she was home. The home where she found shelter and safety wasn't safe anymore.
She felt watched, and no matter how much she tried to dismiss the feeling she couldn't. Having getting dropped off by Mr Marcelo's driver a week ago, she finally decided to take a leave from work. She knew she was never going to be the same again. Susan wasn't the same again.
Her boss was a psychopath who relished in others suffering. Susan knew this and she decided to stay away. But a part of her could feel that this wasn't the end of Marcelo King in her life.
Susan parked her car at the front of her regular bar. She, Leo and Aisha decided to meet here today. When she entered the bar. She could see the back of Leo and Aisha, Leo was drowning shots down her throat while Aisha seemed to be sipping on a margarita, but Susan needed more than shots, she wanted to get drunk and fast.
She walked to the bar and took the bar stool that was beside Leo.
"We thought you weren't going to show up" Leo said in annoyance immediately she took her seat.
Susan has been ignoring them since she got back from New York and took a leave. They would sense something wrong with her, they always do and Susan wasn't ready to defend explain anything mostly because of the fear of getting them involved.
Her life was better when she didn't confirm the rumors about her boss, Susan didn't want to ruin theirs.
"You ignored our phone calls and texts, you completely shut us out when we came to see you"
Susan couldn't deny what Aisha just said, she had really shut them out. Susan felt more comfortable dealing with stuffs on her own.
She dealed with her mom's death on her own. She dealed with her dad's neglect after they lost their mom. She dealed with making sure her brother was fine on her own and she felt more comfortable dealing with this on her own. She felt involving those she loved and cared about would only hurt them and her.
"I'm sorry guys... things are a little different."
Aisha rolled her eyes at Susan's excuse of an apology.
Susan saw that they weren't buying it. She sighed. "I'm sorry".
Leo turned to look at her friend and she could see how different she was. She looked Shaken, scared and Leo knew Susan well enough to know that she wanted to handle it alone and she knew for a fact something happened in New York.
"Something happened in New York, didn't it?" Aisha voiced out Leo's thought.
They could see how Susan went still at the mention of New York. It only confirmed their suspicions that something really did happen in New York and hightened their curiosity to know what it was.
"I'm going home"
They were at first confused by her statement, but then realized she's going back to her home town.
"For how long?"
"I don't know... I'm sorry" Susan apologized to Aisha.
"We're worried about you love, that's all. We'll always be her if you need us"
Susan smiled at the reassuring voice of her friends. This was what she needed, her friends.
Susan handed keys over to Leo.
"You guys are taking me home course tonight I'm getting drunk"
With that they ordered shots after shots, drinks after drinks with the intent to numb their feelings.
***********************
Sue didn't look good, she was suffering from a severe hangover, her eyes were blood shot red and were very sensitive to light.
She had a black shade on. She was in grey sweat pants, and a black over sized hoddie, a white shirt underneath the hoddie and her long brown hair was up in a messy bun.
Her head and joint ached. She hated getting drunk because of the aftermath but her current life situation warranted getting wasted. Her radio was blasting with Ava max sweet but Psycho.
She was on the road and she was going home.