I made a chance to catch up with Mysti at work. She was in the kitchen, a plate of rice and some deep orange sauce over it with some bits in it. The pungency of it was rife in the air and filled the whole room, it was like someone vomited on a chicken. Mysti looked up at me, her grin widening as our eyes met. I used to find that grin annoying, but now it made me sick – and given the stench from her food it was making it even more difficult to breathe. I just hoped my guts could hold it in long enough.
"Afternoon, Adam!"
I smiled back. I held back my rage just a bit further, trying to stifle my nose from the appalling smell. "Afternoon, Mysti," I replied. "How's your day been?"
"It's been wonderful," Mysti said. "Adam? Are you ok?" Her expression changed.
"Yeah, I'm fine," I replied. Why was everyone asking me that?
"Are you sure you're getting enough sleep?" she asked.
"Yeah," I replied. I mean, admittedly my sleep had been a bit broken of late, but it was getting better – I thought it was anyway. "What you got for your dinner?"
"Just some home-made curry," Mysti laughed nervously. "It's my family's recipe, sorry about the smell."
"Nah it's ok," I lied. I reached into the fridge and took out my slice of apple pie, taking a bite out of it. It went down like a treat, filling my stomach and my soul.
"Is that all you eat, Adam?" Mysti asked, concern in her tones.
"Yeah," I replied, focused more on my food than her talking to me.
"That can't be healthy for you," Mysti said. "Think of all the sugar you're putting you in your body?"
"What are you, my nutritionist?" I joked. Mysti seemed to slump back slightly after that, I guess she was only looking out for me. "Anyway, how is Miss Big-Time-Author? Still spending time with us grunts?"
"Oh, I would never stop doing this job, I love it here," Mysti chirped. Her face turned bright and her eyes widened. "That's something I was going to tell you. My agent arranged a talk about my book this weekend – here in the museum!"
"Really?" I said, overdoing my interest of it.
"Yeah, isn't that great? We're going to have a lot of names in the publishing industry there, I'm so excited that I can hardly wait!"
The Old Adam would have whined and cried about hearing this if he was still around, but I was past that. I took a final bite of my pie, letting the juicy apples go down my throat. Now I had the energy, it was time to rip this bitch apart.
"Your agent you say?" I asked. "You mean your mum?"
"Sorry?" Mysti asked, halfway through chewing her disgusting meal.
"I found out yesterday that your mum is an agent," I replied. "Pretty big shot if her profiles are correct. Didn't she represent – oh, what was her name. You know, that writer that got kicked off for being a supposed TERF – whatever that means."
"Oh, don't get me started on HER," Mysti growled. I think that was the first time I saw her get angry. "But yeah, my mum is an agent. How did you know?"
"I only found out by chance to be fair," I replied, "looking for agents. And I see that you're one of her clients."
Mysti nodded, clearly not trying to hide that fact. "Mum's been so supportive of me. I couldn't have done any of this without her."
"Well," I said. Target sighted. Mission objective: Rip to fucking shreds! "You got that right."
"Sorry, Adam?" Mysti asked, moving her fork to her mouth.
"Let's face it, no publisher with any self-worth would have brought your book if your mum hadn't sucked them off."
Mysti paused in her spot, as if turned to stone. The fork fell from her hand, landing in her curry and splashing small drips onto the table and on her top. For the first time, her idiotic smirk had vanished and her dumb mouth was left hanging open. "Ex-excuse me?"
Her voice carried a tone of surprise and horror that filled the depths of my dark soul with ecstasy and pride the likes of which I had never expected to feel ever. It was beautiful, just beautiful. All this time she was laughing in my face and expecting me to suck it up, but now she was about to be hit by the real world.
"Mysti, your book was garbage," I didn't hold anything back. Constructive criticism was the only way she was going to grow as a writer. "It read like someone used an AI to write it – and the main character was just the most unlikeable bitch I've ever known of. Correction: Second most unlikeable bitch I've ever known!"
Mysti's mouth dropped lower. She looked like a spoilt child that was used to having everything given to her, now someone had refused her something and her tiny brain just couldn't process it. "I... I... I worked really hard on that!"
"Hard work!" I scoffed. "Please! Don't talk to me about hard work! You haven't slaved for years trying to write something with actual substance, having to face rejection after rejection – only to see no-talent imposters jump to the top and take the easy way in! You only got this job because the company needed more diversity hires, it's not for your work ethic that's for sure! Always walking around with that – that smile of yours like your shit doesn't stink. Well let me tell you, you wouldn't last ten seconds in the real world!
"Oh, and for the record, how about you eat something that doesn't stink up the place for hours afterwards?!"
"How dare you!" Mysti jumped from her table and looked me right in the eye. It was the first time I'd seen Mysti get angry, but it was kinda funny to watch. "Don't you DARE tell me I've had it easy! I've had to work for everything I got, all my family had to. It's because of people like you that made my life so difficult, but I thought you were one of the good ones-" Mysti moved her hands to her mouth as her fake tears burst from her eyes. "You're just a spiteful, hateful man, Adam!"
Before I could think of a good comeback (and believe me I had a REALLY good one planned), Mysti bolted out of the room, probably to cry to others. I shook my head – it was a convincing performance from her, even I was surprised by it. Hell, even I'd nominate her for an Oscar.
Honestly, I thought I'd feel better for telling her those things, I've wanted to say those things for ages now – but truthfully, I felt a little bad. Could it be that I felt... sorry for Mysti? That maybe she didn't deserve that attack on her character?
Nah, it could be that.
"Adam!"
Oh Christ.
I turned and saw Lara. Her hair was frizzier than usual and her face looked like an overcooked burger. "What's all the shouting about?" she bellowed.
"Nothing, Boss," I said with a sarcastic smile. "Just a bit of friendly banter."
Lara waggled a finger in front of her. "My office, now!"
Even in the times where Lara was most angry, she never called me to her office before. My stomach started to churn, I knew straight away this was not going to end well. I plodded towards her office, where Lara was already sat at her spacious desk that almost took up the entirety of the room. This was honestly the most expensive thing in the entire museum; and gave more of a corporate vibe than a museum one. It was well lit, with walls that gleamed in polish. Her furniture was the most expensive one could afford, right down to the leather chair that she sat on. The chair in front of her desk was a simple metal one with loose padding that was certainly not comfortable to sit in. The plant in the corner of the room looked a little neglected and was starting to flake, but I doubt Lara cared much about that.
I closed the door and moved towards the chair in front of her desk. "Don't bother sitting down, this won't take long!" Lara snapped. Wow, she must be pissed with me. "What the hell was that all about out there with Mysti?"
"Not sure what you mean," I replied, shrugging my shoulders.
"Don't play coy with me," Lara shouted, her jowls wobbling as she spoke. "I heard everything from there. Mysti is one of our top employees and I won't have her talked to like that!"
Top employees my arse, I thought to myself.
"Further on from that, I've had complaints from two other members of staff," Lara continued, "saying how you've bullied and abused them in and outside of work."
I was assuming she mean Gavin and Ron, those were the only two I could think of. Ron I wasn't surprised about – but Gavin? Give me a fucking break! What happened outside of work stayed outside of work as far as I was concerned.
"Just what the hell is wrong with you, Adam? You can't just go around talking to staff like that. I won't tolerate it!"
"Hey, if people aren't good at their job, surely I should be the one to tell them," I shrugged.
"Maybe you shouldn't be so quick to pass judgement."
I narrowed my eyes a bit. Lara pushed a paper on her desk towards me. I picked it up. "It's a safety report," I said.
"We scored poorly on it," Lara snapped. "All because of an unsafe fire door that doesn't open!"
What the actual fuck, she was putting that on me? "I told you about that ages ago!" My voice constricted as I tried to talk – or shout – some sense into Lara.
"All this is bad enough," Lara continued, completely ignoring me, "but this... oho, THIS is what really pushed me over the edge."
Lara opened up her laptop and slammed her finger on a key with such force I was surprise her keyboard didn't shatter. She turned the keyboard around to me, showing a newspaper article from The Protector. It had a picture of that woman who tried to put the poster up in the museum the other day. It showed a picture of her with a dead-look (seriously would it hurt to smile once in a while) and a headline that read Feminist Author Anita Kennedy Decries Eden Museum As "A Breeding Ground For Misogyny.
Well shit.
"'Renowned feminist author Anita Kennedy was left shaken and appalled after a recent visit to the Eden Museum of Knowledge,'" Lara read from the page. "'In a recent interview with The Protector she stated how she went in to simply put a poster up in the museum, only to be faced with a barrage of hateful comments towards her upcoming talk. Ms Kennedy was due to give a talk on the weekend about the gender pay gap in sports – a topic of which she is very hot about – but on coming into the museum, she was greeted with a 'Brutish alpha male' that refused to put up her poster and even mocked her for her mission. The whole experience left her shaken and horrified.'
"Really, Adam?" Lara said, putting the laptop down. "Now you're attacking the public as well."
"Hey, that is all bullshit!" I shouted, barely able to keep my anger in check. "I never gave her hateful comments! I simply was just trying to give another point of view!"
"I don't care!" Lara shouted back. "Adam, I've had it up to here with you! Attacking our members of staff and this report is bad enough – and believe me, I've had to kiss so much arse to sweeten this! But you've been slacking off on your duties. The boiler hasn't been vented yet, and you haven't even completed your cleaning rota yet. This negligence is something I can't afford. I want you gone by the end of the week!"
My heart leapt out of my chest, allowing Lara to crush it beneath her toes. I narrowed my eyes and glared towards her with all the hate I could muster. "You're... you're firing me?"
"If it were up to me, I'd get rid of you now!" Lara shouted back. "But we have an event this coming weekend and Clive is still on his holiday."
"You can't do that to me!" I shouted back. "YOU'RE the one that negligent! I told you about that fire door weeks ago, and you told me to leave it alone! I could take you to the courts you know, the amount of crap you've pulled!"
"Try it, I dare you!" Lara snapped back, her head tilted to one side like an angry puppy. She opened her laptop again. "We're done here, you can get back to work. And don't you dare make anymore fuck ups, not unless you want me to dock your pay as well."
My head swam, all I could see was red. My skin was burning, like it was on fire. My legs buckled and I almost tripped leaving the room. I had to use the wall to hold myself up so that I didn't tumble. My breath came out like shocked gasps of pain and suffering.
Fired!
And for what? For doing my job? For standing up for myself? Or just to cover up my bosses screw up?
Where was the justice in that?
Fired?
Maybe this job wasn't the best, but it was a job. And I needed a job to pay my bills. Without it, how could I live? I couldn't go back to Mum in Julie, not how after I left it. And I somehow doubted I could get another job, given that how Eden was on the news thanks to that bitch author lying about me. In just a few seconds, my entire world crumbled around me. Everything had fallen apart.
Standing up for myself hadn't done anything. Being quiet hadn't done anything. It was like I was doomed to fail at every opportunity. Every single stepped I took was just another step into failure. I would never know the joy of happiness.
At least I still had a job for another week. But after that... who knew?
The rest of my day went. I went through my usual procedures, and when the time came, I locked up, ending by closing the big wooden doors at the front of the museum.