The News

CREAAACKK

DINK.

The front door smacked open and woke Helomoto up like thunder.

WOOOSSHHHHH blew a current of air.

An amazonian woman dressed in all black attire and black gloves, enveloped in a brown mink coat and carrying a large Prada suitcase stood at the door. She had a waterfall of perfectly blown out red wavy hair falling from her head. She wasted no time standing and made a beeline to the third office.

"Arbey, Miska…my office, it's urgent!" she yelled without looking to see if they were complying.

Smith, was speaking with a few people huddled at one of the cubicles and Lucifer was pouring herself a cup of coffee at the Xerox corner.

Both of them suddenly look at each other worriedly, dropped what they were doing and ran to the third office.

"Was that the third partner?" wondered Helomoto, "she reeked of Cruella de Ville vibes," he imagined hard.

"Wow, Maleficent's here?" said a surprised Che, "something must be seriously up. Do y'all think they're downsizing."

"You need to purge your negative thoughts, Nose. Your thoughts affect your life trajectory," bleated Hector.

Che rolled her eyes, "not another lecture, Hector."

"It's actually a 12 step program to positivity," he corrected, "you would benefit from it."

"You guys it's November 15," said Melon, "Maleficent always comes by around this time of year to check in, it's probably just her routine visit."

"Yeah, Melon's probably right," responded Hector in support. He was blushing. Helomoto realized he never compensated Hector for his 50$.

"The 50$...the date with…

MIGGERY YOU DIRTY HOG!" Helomoto exasperated, "YOU DID ME DIRTY DIRTY DIRTY, YOU ANIMAL..YOU BASTION OF FEMININITY."

SMACK

Melon smacked him to put an end to the unnecessary stapling.

"Hey where did you end up finding your stapler?" questioned Che.

"The thief left it by the Xerox machine after I threatened to sue them on all my flyers. The audacity some people have," Melon rolled her eyes.

"It was November 15," thought Helomoto, "he'd been sitting in Miggery's cleaning cart for a whole week. No date, no nothing."

"I will have my revenge you nifty octopus," he murmured, "thinking of his object of affection."

RING RING

"Jaxley, Smith and Cone, this is Melon speaking, how may I direct your call?" Melon answered the call robotically.

She furrowed her eyebrows.

"WHAT? She yelled inadvertently.

Che and Hector's eyes doubled in size and remained glued to her.

Melon's face turned ghost white.

She shut the phone. "It-it was BP3 news," she said with a tinge of fear in her voice, "they requested an official statement from JSC."

"Melon," begged Hector, "remember the breathing exercises we talked about, just breathe in and out."

Melon wasted no time, walked over to the television in the seating area near the entrance and turned the television on. A picture of Samantha stretched across the screen. JSC was being discussed by the two news anchors.

Slowly everyone started peaking from their cubicles. A chain of gasps melodically inundated the room. The air turned stale.

Samantha Apple was dead.