Quickly, Caroline makes her way towards the mixed punch. Her previous reluctance to enjoy a bit of alcohol at work was entirely gone now. It had been replaced by a desperate need to silence her inner feelings, at least long enough to get through the rest of the party without the breakdown she was starting to experience becoming too noticeable.

As far as she was concerned now- there was no reason not to get a little buzzed, at least then she might be able to enjoy herself somewhat and maybe forget about things a bit. For the first half hour or so of the party she sits in a chair by herself on the outskirts of the area, near others who sit on their phones idly or chat among themselves. However Caroline just sits there nursing her drink, refilling it every few minutes while she sits in silence.

Scott and Jennifer laugh alongside Ralph and the others near the gift table, sipping their drinks and talking about where they plan on going out together this weekend for another of their bar hopping trips. At some point throughout the conversation, she could swear she saw them looking in her direction, glaring, talking in hushed tones and giggling.

Surely, she thought to herself- Ralph was going on about her situation to them, telling them about how she was getting laid off. They all looked happy, chuckling among one another while they went on with their conversation.

She tried not to listen to them as she took another sip of her drink and forced a laugh at a joke being read aloud off the phone of another employee sitting nearby. Another loud clap cuts through her thoughts, startling her dazed mind as everyone’s attention is directed towards Ralph and the others near the gift table.

“Hey everyone- Now that we all got some food in our bellies and a good buzz going how about I open up some of these gifts you lovely people all brought me, huh?!”

He says with an extra ounce of enthusiasm as his intoxication level is already rising steadily. Others around the area let out a series of hoots and cheers as some stand up and move over to the area, raising their drinks and offering another round of birthday wishes.

Caroline feels her head spinning, she didn’t drink often and as she stands up to join the others she watches as the room swirls around her- the distance to the group looking like it’s rapidly shifting as her stomach surges inside her.

Remembering she hadn’t really bothered to eat anything in her rush throughout the day, she instantly regrets the decision to drink so many cups of the heavily mixed fruity drink. Sweat starts to gather on her back and neck as she realizes that she’s probably going to be sick. Avoiding the gaze of the others she makes her way across the office away from the festivities and rushes towards the bathrooms down the hall.

No one notices her making her way out of the room with her hands over her mouth in a panic, since they’re all too busy pushing their way around the gift table, each of them vying for dibs on which gift Ralph is going to open first. All of them equally eager to impress their self absorbed employer with whichever item or accessory they bought him over the weekend.

Scott shouts above the others, insisting that Ralph needs to see his first, to which the middle aged man agrees. Reaching into the pile he grabs Scott’s gift and pulls open a small flat package revealing a heavily outdated novelty Tony Danza t-shirt. Holding it aloft he shows the crowd the image of Danza’s smiling face with his fingers pointing at himself emblazoned across it’s chest, with the words “I’m The Boss” in colorful bursting font.

The group bursts out in laughter as they continue to go through the presents. Each knick-knack, desk decoration, meat and cheese package, mug and card set getting a similar reaction out of the drunken workers as they cheer and shout at the collection of sundry goods building on the table. After a few minutes they finally come across Caroline’s bag, unmarked and unrecognizable.

“And whose could this be hmm?” Ralph says, picking it up and shaking it slightly mockingly. “Ooh- uh oh I can hear it rattling in there- sounds kinda fra-gee-lay” He laughs as Scott drunkenly snatches it out of his hand.

“Here, let me see it- uhh- Oh! This must be from Caroline huh? We haven’t done her’s yet right? The couple left have labels I think- this is gotta be her’s, whas’it even?”

Reaching into the bag, he pulls out a fairly weighty metallic case closed up with clasps and sets it onto the table. Ralph looks it over, rubbing his palms together as he reaches a meaty hand down towards the clasps.

“Ooh- whatever it is it looks expensive, this is nice packaging- I mean she could have wrapped it but this case looks pretty heavy duty.”

Opening the clasps the metallic box swings open with a small hydraulic release sound, revealing the chrome odd looking orb-shaped device seated in the center of the case surrounding by protective padding. A small screen is fitted across the surface of the device, along with a series of buttons surrounding it. Besides that it is almost featureless, save for some small ridges and vents running along it’s form and giving some segmented detail to it’s shape.

“Huh, looks like… some kinda clock or something? I think it’s supposed to be shaped like a baseball or something right?”

Ralph picks up the object and raises an eyebrow as it’s a bit heavier than he expected, looking it over he presses at some of the buttons on it and watches as numbers light up onto the screen and begin to shift with his button presses.

“Oof, more like a softball- feel this thing it’s got some heft, yeah?”

He says as he hands it to Scott, taking it in his hands he presses some of the buttons as well, trying his best to figure out how the time function works and managing to initiate some sort of timer.

“Damn yeah it’s pretty heavy, how the hell does this clock work anyways- Oh wait- I figured out how to put it in stopwatch mode, pfft. Not much use as a clock, I wonder how it is as a ball though, huh? Quick- go long!”

Scott laughs as he pulls his arm back in a pitching position, gesturing for Ralph to run out into the open space in the area beyond the tables and chairs. The rest of the employees laugh, some of them shouting to encourage the two men’s antics as they mockingly act as if they’re going for a long pass across the room. “Come on! I got this! Let er’ rip!”

Ralph laughs as Scott rears back and tosses the chrome orb into the air, numbers now flashing wildly across it’s screen as it’s been manipulated, pressed, turned and tossed. The device careens through the air over the heads of the laughing and cheering party going employees, sailing over the chairs and- directly past Ralph’s awaiting hands.

The older man lets out an ineffectual moan as his fingertips touch the surface of the sheen orb and it rolls through the air chaotically off to the side towards the nearby wall. A few gasps are let out as it smashes into the drywall and bounces off a desk- hitting the floor hard and rolling back towards the group. Ralph breaks through the immediate silence, cracking a joke to move past the embarrassing fumble as he moves to pick it back up.

“Hey- well I guess it doesn’t make much of a BALL either huh?!”

The middle age man scoffs as the group lets out a chuckle, relaxing as he reaches down to pick it up and seems unfazed by his gift potentially being damaged.

Before his fingers can grasp it though, the orb begins emitting a series of whirring sounds, followed by flashing lights beaming out from the ridges along it’s surface. People look from one to another, slightly shocked by the sudden bright light and loud noises coming from the ball, and a few laugh uneasily over the shrill siren it’s emitting.

“OW- HEY- What the HELL?! What kind of ALARM IS THAT?!”

Scott says annoyed as he covers his ears. Ralph, still standing directly over the device grabs it to attempt to disable whatever is making it react this way, furiously pressing buttons. The screen emits a series of numbers that rapidly begin counting down from 10 and his eyes go wide looking at the device, then back towards the others around him, then back towards the device again.

Opening his mouth, confused and overwhelmed by the bright light and noise he manages to get out a few words.

“Uh- hey- everyone, don’t panic but I’m not so sure this is a clo-”

However he’s immediately cut off by a loud hissing sound coming from the orb beneath his hand as it hurls itself roughly into the air. The device bursts off the floor propelled by some internal system- and marks the floor slightly with the force of jettisoning itself upwards. The shimmering ball spins in mid air for a moment, continuing it’s shrill siren as a bright light flashes over the area and a loud hissing sound emits from within it.

Some begin to scream, as others throw themselves reflexively towards the floor or begin rushing to hide under the nearby gift and catering tables- afraid the item might be some sort of weapon or bomb. Ralph falls backwards onto his ass, wildly crawling backwards away from it as it hovers at head level in the center of the area, basking the area in a bright red emergency light.

Then as suddenly as it started, the siren cuts off while the hissing noise increases in intensity. Out of the vents across the orb’s surface a thick glittering dust, some sort of vaporous mist- begins to spray out violently into the room. The strange substance begins filling the air throughout the area and spewing onto and over the people and surfaces surrounding it.

The shiny substance settles onto the flesh and into the lungs of all 24 employees in the room, filling their bodies with a tingling, which immediately becomes a burning sensation. Some drop to their knees, grasping at themselves and coughing- others fall twisting and turning in response to the effects of the unknown vapor filling their bloodstream and covering their bodies.

Pained cries are cut off and replaced by gagging, choking sounds. The party goer’s panicked movements churn the otherworldly mist into a twisting, swirling vortex of brightly colored glittering chaos.

Some rush towards the desks, others scatter towards the door to the hallway or Ralph’s office. Tables and chairs are knocked aside and tables are jostled while people clamber against, onto and over nearby objects in a blind panic gasping for air and grasping at their surroundings as they breathe in the full concentration of the vaporous serum.

One by one, then rapidly in large clusters, their bodies impact against the floor convulsing until they’re all still while the glittering vapor begins to settle. No one who was present as it was activated escapes the effects of the mist as it issues throughout the area.

In the center of the room the machine ceases it’s functions, wobbling to a stop and whirring gently. The hissing and lights fade and it’s tiny vents close as it reverts to it’s inert, simple chrome orb state while the numbers flash off the screen.

In the distance, Caroline finishes washing her face in the office bathroom, she wasn’t sure if she had just gotten sick for awhile or if she may have even passed out for a few minutes in the stall- the last few days of working non stop had really gotten the best of her. The water drains down into the basin as she stares at herself in the mirror, slightly sobered after getting rid of the sickness that almost had her falling over in the other room.

Unsure of how long she’d been in the bathroom she’s alarmed when she hears a banging sound come from the distant office- followed by a series of shouts, screams and stomping sounds. The noise is oddly muffled and distorted within the small tiled chamber. She breathes deeply for a moment as she readies herself, looking at the bathroom door leading back out into the hallway and beyond.

As she reaches the door, the sound dies down and she assumes the noise was just the party kicking up again as everyone’s likely gotten even more drunk by now. Still a bit buzzed but able to move about more easily and think a bit more clearly, she starts to make her way carefully back out into the hallway- keeping her hands near the wall just in case.

Her legs feel weak as she slams her aching soles against the ground and her body is exhausted, coated in a thin layer of sweat again after spending the time worked up and locked up within the bathroom. She couldn’t wait to just get home and relax but it seemed like a good idea to go drink something non-alcoholic, maybe eat something, before trying to make her way home.

Plus she wanted to see the look on Ralph’s smug face when he saw her gift, she had gone out of her way to get it for him and everything after all.

“Heh, yeah- right before the jackass decides to fire me-”

Caroline says muttering drunkenly to herself as she shuffles through the hallway while musing over her thoughts. Still somewhat in a state of dissociative shock from the days events, and now fairly intoxicated she surprises herself somewhat at the sudden aggressive commentary coming from her mouth.

However… she didn’t really feel the need to hold her tongue now. It may have been the added confidence of the alcohol but she realized there wasn’t really anything to worry about since she already effectively signed away her job. It felt a little good to let it out and say how she really felt, and with the booze running through her veins it even seemed like a kind of good idea.

“Fuck em all! Stupid fuckin- stupid sons of bitches! Ungrateful pieces of shit! No one gives a fuck about ME anyways!”

She laughs again at the absurdity of the situation, partially shouting while grasping the door handle back into the office and preparing herself to enter over the sound of the music playing within. Giggling girlishly at the echoing sound of the assertive tone coming out of her mouth and the feel of the vulgar insults leaving her tongue she pulls her hands back and clenches her fists.

Anxiously stomping her feet for a moment she erupts with nervous drunken laughter before trying to calm herself back down.

“Okay- Okay, alright, we’re cool. It’s cool. It’s just corporate bullshit- it’s no big deal. It’s cool.”

Taking a deep breath she grabs the handle again and pushes the door open, swinging her foot into the wide open office room and slamming it down against the ground. Blushing and trying to sound as cheerful as possible she slurring shouts into the room.

“HAPPYY BIRFHDAYYY!!”

Caroline’s voice trails off slightly as she finds herself yelling into an empty office room. The chairs and tables appear somewhat disheveled, and some kind of gray glittery stuff has been sprayed all over the party area as if they all let off some kind of party poppers or a pinata or something while she was gone.

There’s no sign of anyone though, just the bluetooth speaker still playing on it’s own, all the open presents and food that looks like people were in the middle of eating it, and a thin layer of the strange glittering dust covering the area.

Disturbed slightly by the sound of her own voice echoing into the sudden eerie atmosphere she drunkenly hiccups and giggles nervously as she enters the room, stepping slowly and looking around confused trying to figure out where everyone could have gone.