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-preview?- Of Paperknives, Inscrutable Aim and Coffee Stains

Ejunknown

be creative
Hmm. So, yeah. This is either the prologue of a longer running fic, the first part of a two part one shot, or a lone ranger. I'm posting this as a prologue, as that is what I see it as. This is basically the introduction of one of the character's and the setting. The second main character will be introduced in the second section. The plot is not obvious yet as I have not told you it. xD

_________________________________________________________

Clink.

Clink clink clink. Clink. Clink clink. Clink clink clink clink clin-

There was a dull thunk as a paper knife thumped into the wood of the desk, the hand holding the idly angled and tapping pen now frozen and quivering as the owner, the newest secretary sent by the ‘bureau’, who insisted he have at least one, if not more, assistants to distribute the work load more evenly, or at least make his cover of Company CEO (which he was, practically, as he did run the business) more plausible to the public eye, stared in barely concealed horror at the weapon vibrating ominously bare millimetres from the offending hand, petrified glance awaking from its trance to only flick from the scene in front of her to the burning amber glare of the shadowed man across the room, rising scream dying in her throat as she was caught up in his dark gaze.

“If you would please refrain from making any unnecessary noise, Miss…” He paused, his silence expectant and demanding despite the polite connotations.

She blinked, mouth working silently for a moment before she managed to find her words, voice small and on the verge of a stutter as she spluttered out, “Sally Harkins.”

“Miss Harkins, yes, -then I believe we will have a very good working relationship. Do you understand, Sally?" After a second of stunned silence, he heaved a sigh, long fingers entwining lightly to form a light clasp in front of him as he leaned forward into his desk, intent on divulging at ny cost his shell shocked employee.

"Silence is essential to maintain concentration, which is essential in this field of work, as I’m sure by now you already know, and thus I can not afford to be distracted by anything, not in the least by the bored habits of new employees.”

Her eyes widened as his gaze darkened, hands detaching from their enclosed clasp in front of him to reach down to his desk, piercing gaze never breaking contact with hers for a second as he withdrew a second paper knife, to turn it lazily between his hands.

“As this is your first day, Miss Harkins, I understand you may not have known better, so we’ll let this one slide. But I hope you will learn from this mistake.”

He looked at her expectantly, and she gulped, mouth fluttering open once again to whisper a withered “yes”…

The knife’s rotations increased in frequency, shock fading in the woman as fear slowly crept up in its place – she had heard of this guys reputation, and thought it was just a lie in revenge for some petty argument with the man, but was there some truth behind it?-, catching her breath as she was sucked into a kind of trance by its deadly hypnotic whirl, fear steadily growing as it spun faster, faster, tilting up, up, and back- until he grabbed it securely in his palm, curved blade glinting in the fading light of the sun, and smiled, apparently oblivious to his assistants fear as he calmly slid it back into its draw, and she was finally released from his piercing gaze, quivering fingers causing the pen still clutched numbly in her frozen grip to tumble lightly from her grasp, where it rolled across the table, elegantly manicured hand moving quickly from the spot where the previous knife had stilled.

There was silence. Feeling a pang of pain in her lungs, she seemed to remember to breathe, breath exhaling in a whirling gust until, in a rush, everything that happened hit home, and, clutching her hand, she stood up quickly and backed away from the table, stumbling slightly over herself, until she hit the back wall. Breathe coming in faster and faster gasps as she bought each hand before her face and turned them frantically, she examined each finger, mouth silently mouthing the numbers as she counted them, before her whole body began to shake and she caught eye of the weapon, inch deep into the worn wood of the desk.

There was a clatter, attracting her attention once more to the sanctioned office ahead of her and its shadowed inhabitant, as she watched the man put down his pen and regard her calmly, the memory of that darkened gaze as he wielded that knife so impossibly skillfully sending another wrack of jolts through her body, and the room seemed to spin and her breath came even faster, panic seeping into every crevice of her being. She vaguely recognised the smooth voice of her employer lilting softly across the small space between them, but the world was darkening, her blood bubbling in her veins, any and all words and their meanings lost as all she could think of was escape, as far as she could away, from here, from this man. Hands starting to move through the shuddering and jolts and scramble softly at the wall behind her, she tried to think, think through the rushing roars pounding through her ears, along her veins, dredging through her brain as it permeated her very conciousness, until it was too much, and she heard a faint sigh as she crumpled, cold hands catching her shoulders just before she hit the floor, and the world went black.

___________________________________________________________


I am a little brain dead today, so I'm sorry if my replies come out odd. XD; And I haven't had the chance to completely edit yet. XD

And, a preview of the next part, if you are interested. 83

“…There was an… incident.” He closed his eyes at the smothered snort of the head of Security as he obviously tried and failed to withhold his laughter at the demise of yet another of the head’s many secretaries, the longest of whom had only managed to survive a week before ultimately going missing, the investigation towards the cause for her sudden disappearance still as of yet unsolved. The dying rays of the sun glinting dully off of the metal pole piercing his lip as he turned his head briefly to check the condition of the newest – and, to his annoyance, still unconscious - applicant, before after a moment of considering silence he continued.

“You do realise that every time they send another one of these so called ‘assistants’, we lose more money than we gain in hiring these damn fools."
 
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Smunkie

Di immortales!
Now, by paper knife do you mean letter opener? Because paper knife makes me think of a knife made out of paper, and I don't think that can be right xD
Anyway, this has me intrigued. You don't really think about the poor secretaries that have to work for the bad guys! I would certainly give a read-over to a fic that started like this. I like the title too.
You need to watch your sentence length, though. The first paragraph should actually be a paragraph, and not just one long sentence like it is. Don't be afraid to break everything up and take your time describing what you want to describe.
 

Ejunknown

be creative
xD Yes, bah, british terminology. XD;; 8D I'm glad this has you interested. x3 And I'm glad you like the title. XD Thank you fo the advice, gahh, I see that paragraph/sentence; breaking up paragraphs has always been a problem for me, I have to get better at it. xD;; I'll see what I can do to fix it. 83 Thank you for the review! XD
 

Smunkie

Di immortales!
You're British? Awesome!
Don't worry about it, practice makes perfect as they say. Your grammar is otherwise fine, which is more than I can say about half the other fics on here. Your description is also really good, as well as your dialog.
And you're welcome, I'm happy to help :D
 

Tadashi

kiss my greens
Wow, what an opener! xD It caught me right from the start and kept me reading til the end.

So far, you're on the right track, pal :D

Can't wait to see more!
 
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