Caroline sits staring out the window of the swiftly moving city bus as the blurred forms of multi story buildings and people passed by outside. Shifting uneasily against the somewhat uncomfortable seat, she tried her best to keep her eyes open. She was also trying to keep herself from leaning against the oddly dressed man sitting beside her.

Again and again, she’d brush the messy brown hair from her eyes, and straighten her glasses only to feel her lids fluttering closed. Then she would be awoken minutes later, dazed from her lack of sleep- by the grunting and shifting shoulder of the heavily perfumed, crisp suit wearing man.

Wiping the drool from her lip she apologizes and halfheartedly mumbles about her workload from the night before, while chuckling up at him.

“Ah- I-I’m sorry. I ended up having to do the entire quarterly report by myself since my coworkers… oh, ha... well you know how work can be... I’m sure...“

Trying to gaze under the rim of his hat she smiles weakly, her freckled cheeks blushing slightly as her bushy hair bounds around a set of frail-looking shoulders. Expecting some form of recognition or understanding from the fellow bus passenger she attempts to meet his gaze. Instead, she feels a cold tingle run down her spine as he looks back at her. His gaunt face is set into a thoroughly disgusted scowl deeply inset with a set of piercing, eerily focused and uncaring looking, sea colored eyes.

Shaking herself from his almost serpentine gaze she realizes the man’s appearance was stranger than simply being more well dressed than expected for the city bus. Finding herself a bit uneasy in the presence of his uncanny, angular, and almost lifelessly pale visage she retreats a bit. Reflexively grasping for her things spread across the seat around her she quickly snatches up her purse and the shopping bags she had picked up throughout the morning.

Pulling her parcels together she piles them against the windowsill on the other side of her body and apologizes again to the quiet, unblinking man. Shuffling uneasily, she tries to give him a far wider birth on the shared seat beside her. The strangely dressed fellow shuffles a bit himself, grimacing and collecting his own belongings. He shifts them onto his lap as he rigidly resets into his straightforward facing position and stares infinitely ahead once more.

This bit of social awkwardness effectively shakes her of the morning drowsiness. As she tries to distract herself from the statuesque suit man beside her, she finds her mind wandering towards the original anxiety which had kept her up in the first place.

Checking the illuminated sign flashing above her displaying the next destination of the packed bus she sees that there is still a few minutes till her stop, and she grinds her fingers against the shopping bags at her side nervously. Today was her boss’s birthday and she was already sure it was going to be a whole debacle for the day at the office.

Scott, her coworker and an athletic and boisterous young man who was up and coming in the company, had foisted most of his work for the week off onto her. It wasn’t exactly out of the ordinary for her to be used as the office work horse whenever someone wanted a day off. Or when they needed someone to cover for them, or needed extra paperwork done over the weekend.

After all, like everyone was always so quick to say, “It’s not like Caroline has anything to do anyways, right?” She didn’t even bother to argue with them, the extra pay was always good, and they were... somewhat correct. She didn’t really have anything “better” to do, technically. Besides work, her nights were pretty much filled with binge watching series online, playing games, scrolling social media, or heavy sessions of… reading.

It wasn’t very exciting, but it was the life that she was comfortable with and what she had managed to carve out for herself in this seemingly ever-shifting inner city economy. Yawning, she sees the block where the office lies approaching in the distance and watches the destination display shift above her. Her pulse quickens slightly as her mind starts to roll in anticipation of arriving at the cloistered den of cubicles. Her coworkers had seen fit to use her for not only their “bitch work” throughout most of this year, but had also taken to teasing and belittling her practically en-mass as well.

Comments on her appearance and how she dressed or the way she talked and presented herself, had become commonplace uttered throughout the office under the breath of everyone around her whenever she was around. She was afraid of what was said when she wasn’t in earshot or eyesight, having already found numerous doodles and bits of text scribbled on things around the office which told her pretty much everything she needed to know.

As far as everyone else she worked with was concerned she was just some loser, a weak woman who was made to be pushed around and trampled underfoot without a second thought. Afraid of being put on the spot or used as cannon fodder during the party, she had even gone the extra mile and splurged a bit on her gift for boss’s birthday. She breathed in nervously hoping the fancy desktop holographic display she had got him would at least distract him enough from belittling or sexually harassing her for the night.

Shaking her head of the mess of thoughts she hears the sound of the bus chimes and the hydraulic breaks shifting into place as the vehicles shudders to a halt. The sharply dressed, strangely pale man grunts and exhales. As he shifts out of the way to allow her to pass, she steps around him carefully apologizing to him again. Seeing his long arms clutching his parcels to his chest, she recognizes that he has some of the same shopping bags as her and feels a slight sense of relief. Walking away she chuckles to herself uneasily while she steps off the bus and onto the pavement.

Maybe he was just another awkward, and anxiety ridden person like herself- with a weird face or something. As the bus begins to pull away and she checks to make sure she has all of her things one last time, she looks back towards the bus and notices the odd gaze of the pale, snake eyed man looking back at her.

Feeling embarrassed she simply reflexively waves back towards him, attempting to be pleasant as the bus shifts back into gear and begins to speed away.

Shrugging, she doesn’t think much of the odd exchange and starts off towards the tall slate colored building where she works. Moving past the corporate logos and through the large entrance door she nods to the doorman smiling and quickly walks inside. Making her way inside the greets the front desk assistant before carefully moving past the people coming and going into the elevator and up towards the office floor.

However, in her absent-minded rush to self correct her rude nodding off motions on the bus, Caroline had failed to realize the similarities between her own gift bags and the nearly identical bags of the odd, sharp faced man. It was far from on purpose that she took the pale gentleman’s package, instead of the one intended for her boss, when she quickly snatched it from the pile in between the two of them on the narrow public transit seat.

The bus was now long gone, she had left the stranger with a shopping bag containing an overpriced, pointless office decoration as she unknowingly took off with his mysteriously wrapped case instead. Without understanding it, she anxiously clutches onto what she assumes to be the gift-wrapped parcel within the shopping bag between her purse and lunch.

Unaware that she’s anxiously squeezing the container holding an object that would change her life forever.

The item inside appears as a chrome, nearly featureless ball at first glance. It could easily be mistakable for any number of other toys or decorations. But in truth, it was a highly advanced piece of technology. Humming to herself Caroline carries the experimental weapon past the front desk and up the elevators of the building.

Her arrival and belongings are hardly checked or noted by the receptionist or security, and the nature of her “gift” for the boss remains unrecognized as she goes about her morning business.

Simultaneously, multiple blocks away, still sitting aboard the city bus seat the well dressed and odd faced man clutches what he believes to be his own bag tightly beside him. His long fingers run along the case holding the round novelty ball shaped desk clock within, mistaking it for the familiar case holding the device, as he makes an effort to assure himself the machine is still in his possession.

Sighing to himself, he wonders if the annoying girl who was sitting with him could have been an agent, or if she perhaps had been aware of his mission in some way. However he quickly shakes the thought from his mind as mere paranoia while the bus continues to speed along it’s path. Steadying his mind, he steels himself for the important meetup as he nears the assigned location.

A few minutes later Caroline makes her way out of the elevator, taking a deep breath as she has to pass by the company break room on the way into the main office. Before she even nears the doorway to the small kitchenette and sitting room the loud chatter coming from within reaches her ears. Having obviously missed a portion of the conversation already, she hears Scott’s deep tone alongside high pitched laughter coming from one of the other female employees.

“God- did you even see her the other day? It looked like she hadn’t even slept or whatever, the girl is an absolute mess. I think she’s got a crush on me or something, which is fuckin’ gross- I’m obviously way out of her league. It’s whatever though, I knew she had nothing better to do last week so I did her a solid and let her take my workload for me. I’m sure she needs the extra money anyways.”

Scott says brazenly as he leans against a nearby counter, taking a sip of his drink. The girlish giggling cuts off as Jennifer, an attractive red-headed accountant tosses a chip into her mouth. Her copper colored hair done up expertly alongside her make up, she parts her painted lips to speak, carelessly sending bits of crumbs flying across the break room floor.

“That’s hilarious- Do you think she actually believes she has a chance with a guy like you? Maybe if she actually took care of herself at all she could actually get a date. I can’t believe she just lets her hair flop around on her head like she does, it looks like a dirty mop. Ugh, have you seen her nails too? I think the poor thing paints them herself, they’re always flecked and nasty looking- probably can’t even afford a proper mani-pedi for herself.”

Caroline reaches the edge of the doorway stepping quietly and feeling her body shake. She tries to ignore the hurtful comments being made by two of the only people in the office who even bother to regularly speak to her. Adrenaline rushes through her veins and she tries her best to be as invisible as possible standing with her mouth slightly open in disbelief while the two carry on not even noticing her presence.

Scott laughs at Jennifer’s cruel words and after another slurp of his drink adds another bit of his own taunts to the mix.

“Oh yeah? I didn’t really notice since I don’t spend too much time really looking at her if I can avoid it... the way she just stares when I’m talking to her or starts rattling on about whatever is annoying as hell.”

Jennifer smirks and finishes her mouthful of food before going on.

“God, yeah- she doesn’t shut the fuck up throughout the day when we’re working on things together. I don’t even know what she’s talking about half the time and I just nod my head and try to ignore her honestly."

Shoveling another handful of chips into her mouth, Jen chews away for a moment before continuing to gossip.

“Ew, you know what the worst thing is though? It’s when she kicks her shoes off when she’s working- I swear you can smell her feet throughout the whole area and she doesn’t even know it. It’s like she’s just so used to being so ALONE that she just goes around stinking, looking like shit or whatever and doesn’t even notice-”

As Jen’s rapidly degrading speech continues, Caroline feels herself becoming overwhelmed and forces herself forward. The sound of her rough footsteps powering past the doorway startles the two cackling coworkers within and they clear their throats heavily, looking towards the entryway in time to see her swiftly passing by.

Whatever they say next is muffled by the office walls as she continues down the hallway. Neither of them comes out to catch her and give an explanation or bothers to offer an apology. Instead she just hears another series of boisterous laughter coming from the two of them as she opens the inner office doorway and walks inside, shutting the noise out behind her.