~ 8: The Morning of The Presentation - Part 1 ~

I was lying in a white room surrounded by many beds. My breathing felt a little heavy and tight. My vision took in the blurred view of a person in a long white coat, who pulled my eyelids wider to check my pupils.

"Miss, can you hear me or see me?" he asked, moving his hand in front of me.

"Yes," came my weak, feeble voice. "May I know what time it is and how much time has passed since I have been unconscious?"

"5 in the morning, and it has been barely two hours. You seem pretty stable for a person who saw something unfathomable."

I didn't respond to him as I didn't know if he knew about me having seen a were-creature. From what I remember, the beast had said that only authorised people knew about it.

"We have a few precautions and procedures to follow so we'll need to administer an injection," he stated taking out a syringe with purple coloured fluid in it. At first, I narrowed my eyes on seeing such strange coloured fluid in it when nearly all the manufactured injections had transparent fluids in them.

'The memory-erasing serum,' my mind deciphered and then my eyes went wide on comprehending that it was the very same thing that had been used in a horrid memory from my past.

"This is for the best," said the doctor on seeing the recognition in my eyes. "It is best if you forget and live your life as you were normally living. You'll be fine after ten minutes, so there is nothing to be worried about."

I couldn't move an inch as I was held by my arms and legs by many nurses in their green uniforms and doctors in their white coats. I felt the fluid move up my arm and could do nothing to stop it as the struggles proved futile.

Within seconds, my mind raced through the events before daybreak and I was shouting to myself, 'Remember it! Remember each and every second of it!

'That shall change this world,' said a gruff voice in my head.

A minute passed by after which I felt time stop around me as my vision blurred and my eyes closed due to the induced drowsiness.

~

"You look rather tired and a little untidy," voiced the devilish man.

I just pushed my glasses up the bridge of my nose and gave a small, tired smile. My day had indeed been very tiring and I had remembered the very reason for it, with each and every reason.

When I had woken up after a few minutes, the same cruel doctor checked my vitals and asked, "How are you feeling, Miss? Do you remember why you are here?"

"I am feeling much better than how I felt in my sleep. Something must have increased my low energy levels. About why I am here, isn't it because I had a fall in my sugar levels?"

He gave a nod and set me free, seeing that I had spoken the truth. That was indeed the truth, but the reason behind my sudden decrease in my sugar level was not because I didn't have dinner, but because I had suffered from the trauma of seeing a beast.

I had somehow not been able to forget it, though I partly felt it was due to the small prayer. I knew that my life depended on keeping quiet for if I couldn't forget, the next option would be to slaughter me and spill my blood on this earth.

I had run all the way from home to the office, after being driven back home in a black car given by the hospital free of charge and dressing up in a haste. My hair was definitely a mess as I hadn't been able to comb the long thing down and tie it up in a neat French braid. I had to leave it as a long loose plait and had to apologise for the informality as I had come from an emergency.

Even with all the fatigue and making up lies with a broken brain, I had managed to revise and give my best in the presentation, without missing a single detail. The CEO had thankfully come on time rather than keeping me waiting in the office for an hour when the office would be open to all the office workers.

"How did you land here so quickly dressed in those clothes," he said in a gruff voice, "but in a rather ragged fashion, and yet give a most splendid presentation? It is most intriguing to me."

"Let's just say that when time runs out quickly and you are faced with adversities," I responded with a polite smile on my face, "life pushed you to the edge and makes you do certain impossible things. I wouldn't lie about it not being tough, but, thanks to the Almighty, I made it here on time."

"That you have. But you have only ten minutes to fix yourself. Will that be enough for you to doll yourself up with just the right amount of makeup before we give this same presentation to some of the board directors?"

My eyes were about to pop out of their sockets at the shocking statement he had made in front of me. I placed my hand over my thumping heart and said, "Is that really going to happen right now?"

He hummed in affirmation and had me sent away to get myself ready for the big event that had come to me as a surprise. I now felt very burdened as I needed to do a good job in it so that I would mess up one bit.

'Is that why he complimented me on my presentation when he would rather say the wrong things about it?' I muttered under my breath and gave out a sigh of nervousness. 'This is really foul play. I wonder if I really did a good job or if he was just saying it so that I would be prepared to give a bigger presentation to a larger and more important audience.'

I rushed into the washroom, sitting on the seat for nearly the time I was given to show up in a presentable form. I sat on the toilet with the thought of getting to calm myself down by breathing in deeply and then proceeded with fixing my wrinkled red shirt and black pants.

Then I ran out of the washroom and went to the sink to tame the bushy parts of my hair. Then I fingered the strands of my hair to get a perfect braid on without any bit of hair sticking out like uncooked vermicelli.

My black heels clicked on the floor with great speed despite this morning's scrapes present on the soles of my feet. I felt the pain jerk up my legs, making them feel weak again as I had only gotten the time to drink one cup of heavily doused caffeinated coffee. That was the only thing that was keeping me alive for now, though the lack of sugar was slowing me down quickly.

I picked up the things from my desk again, going through the papers quickly and as thoroughly as I could before heading towards the CEO's office. But on the way, as luck would have it, I had to meet the two pranksters who had made life harder to live.

"Didn't you sleep, Riya?" asked Efrain in what sounded like a concerned voice but looked far from it. His insincerity irked me for some reason and I pulled my brows together to show my distaste.

"What do you think?" I questioned back in a snappy voice. "Just imagine whose fault that is now."

Yusra pulled her lips in a thin line and neared her hand slowly to pat her hand on my shoulder gently. I caught it immediately and gave it a violent twist, making her let go of the gum that she had made her mind on sticking on my back.

"Ow!" yelled the lady. "Let go, Riya! That hurts!"

"Try pranking a woman in a foul mood and that is what you shall get in return," I retorted, jerking her wrist away from my grasp. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I don't have the time to deal with your stupid, irritating pranks when I have a grand presentation to give."

I walked away from there, turning the corner but stopping immediately as I found something sticky on the sole of my shoe. I heard the giggles and knew that those two had put another prank that I hadn't seen coming. I wanted to kill the joy out of those two by ending them if I could for doing this on a day that was already off to a terrible start.

"Quit it, the two of you!" I screamed at them. "This is a life-threatening situation for me and you think it is 'funny' to destroy my mood right before meeting with the board of directors?"

"We didn't know about it," said Yusra in a plain, oblivious tone that I knew held a lie.

"You know about the CEO calling me but not about me being summoned for a grand meeting."

"We knew about it and just wanted to bring a smile on that serious face of yours," said Efrain in a calm, sad voice. "We really didn't have any other intention."

"If you didn't know already, your pranks tick people off and get them to curse at you! This honestly wasn't funny. You're making me waste time and end up late in front of them all. The last thing I need is another late nighter because of the two of you and your antics. I would be soon throwing you out of my department."

"Whoa, whoa, no need to be so annoyed and hasty. Here, I'll help you with it."

"No need. You shall only place another prank on me."

I took my angry self to the side of the office, near a glass wall. I leaned against it and brought up the heel of my shoe to check how badly it had been affected. By the looks of it, it seemed that the gum had made quite a big spot on the flat heel of my shoe.

I swore under my breath and looked about for a piece of paper that I could use to skillfully take out the big patch of the sticky gum. Sometimes, it made me wish that gum had been banned from the face of this country.

I couldn't stop cussing even when I reached the door embedded in the glass wall. My eyes met those of the secretary and I stepped back, clamming my mouth shut. The surprised look on his countenance was replaced with a big smile.

"Were you looking for something, Miss?" he asked as the glint of gold flashed in his hungry eyes.