With a familiar splatting sound, I tipped the contents of the metal bucket into the porcelain throne. The aftermath of my technicolor yawn stared back at me, revolting, as it laced the rim of the bowl. I closed my eyes and breathed out as I pressed the "flush" button, before leaving the bathroom stall with an empty bucket that still reeked of the retched contents of my stomach. I filled the bucket with tap-water; rinsing out what little remained.
I needed to develop a stronger stomach for this stuff.
As I filled my mouth with tap-water and swished it around, I tried to expel that horrid aftertaste to little avail. Covered in sweat, with breath now reeking of spew, the experience inside the machine had left me more of a mess than I already was - which I hadn't thought possible up until now. I'd have to change into my spares and clean myself up before my meeting with Ms. Waters, that much was clear.
Sighing, I took the semi-rinsed bucket outside, and passed it to the young attendant who'd helped me with the machine. She gulped a little bit, but the stench was at least somewhat palatable - I'd done a decent enough job of rinsing it out, and something tells me that bucket usually stunk of spew anyway.
"Do you need me to get you anything else?" She asked hesitantly.
"I'll be fine," I replied. "I can handle myself."
Grabbing the files I'd left behind from a small shelf, I tucked them under my arm as I left. About to walk away, I turned around to the young girl, and smiled.
"Thanks for your help," I said to her.
"You're welcome," she replied with a cold and suspect smile, one which betrayed both her appearance and her character.
With that, I took the file up in my arm, and left. Originally, I'd planned to go straight to the Alexandrium, but I doubted they'd let me inside considering my current state.
Wandering across the tiled floors to the elevator, I once again pressed the button and waited - alone with myself and my recollections of a life that wasn't mine. Using the machines felt kind of wrong to me - like peering into a place I didn't belong, but I had to stomach that. At the very least, I was using that information to help people: that was what mattered.
My thoughts were interrupted as the banal ding of the elevator rang out.
I stepped inside, the other occupants of the elevator slowly drifting towards the farthest edges of the elevator: eager to escape the malodorous miasma. As I got out of the floor, I dashed out of the elevator and to my desk - earnestly ensuring to evade others so I didn't embarrass myself any further. Bolting off to the bathroom, I grabbed the spare suit pants and shirt I kept in my top drawer, along with a toiletry kit and a plastic bag - before rushing across to the workplace bathrooms to clean myself up.
***
I didn't like the workplace bathrooms: they were skeevy and often shifty, among other things. Gargling the mouthwash as I buttoned up my new suit-shirt though, I found myself staring at the bathroom mirror for the second time this morning. The vivid memories of my client still harried my thoughts. Trapped in a life she didn't want to lead, and trying to make do in what little ways she could, a deep sense of empathy and rue welled up within me at the thought: as if I myself were the same, as if I had let myself willingly fall into the darkness that she'd spent her whole life trying to escape.
I shunted those thoughts to the back of my mind; they didn't help me help her, after all.
Stuffing my dirtied clothes in a bag and tying it up with a tight knot, I exited the bathroom, and as I passed by my desk - I pulled out my office chair and hid the bag in the corner of the leg space. Heading once more over to the elevators, I saw Vincent standing by the elevator doors, as he looked at his watch while waiting for that lifeless elevator chime.
"You going up?" I said.
"Yeah, I'm headed up to the Inspeculators," he replied. "I heard you had a fun time up there today, Malarie."
Evidently, gossip spread like wildfire here. No rumour ever escaped the reach of the infinite grapevine - each tiny flicker of information spreading from person to person like a disease, as the employees tried to punctuate their impossibly dull lives with a little droll trivia. I probably should've kept that in mind. I glanced at Vincent as I thought back. No rumour went unheard here: I'd learned that from experience, after all.
"You heard about that?" I asked, with a perplexed look on my face.
"It's hard not to," Vincent said with a smile. "Anyway, everyone has their bad trips with those things, I wouldn't let it get you down."
"I'm not worried," I said. "Besides, I don't have enough friends in this place that it matters, I'm not really worried about what people think of me."
"I guess I'm in the same boat there," Vincent added.
As we stood there talking, the elevator doors opened before us. Stepping inside the empty lift, Vincent went over to the elevator panel, and pushed the button for floor 44. He then turned to me.
"Floor?" He asked.
"27," I answered.
He pressed the button, the doors closing and the elevator rising with its same lethargic chugs.
"27's where the Alexandrium is, isn't it?" Vincent said.
"Yeah," I replied.
"You sure aren't being slack on this one, are you?" Vincent added. It was a question to which he already knew the answer.
"I'm never slack," I replied. "You know me better than most, Vincent. You should know that."
Ascending the floors in relative silence, I could see Vincent occasionally gaze over at me, a vague sense of anxiety crossing his expression. He looked like he was worried for me.
"I'll be fine, Vincent," I said, looking up at him with a half-cocked smile. "They won't black-board me yet. Just trust me, alright?"
As Vincent stood, watching the doors, the path to the Alexandrium opened before me. With a resigned sigh, he stood there, that concern unfading.
"Alright," he said with a sigh. "Only you can live your life, Malarie..."
I nodded, exiting the elevator. Behind me, I could hear Vincent finishing that sentence under a muttered breath - my elven hearing better than most gave me credit for.
"...Just try to make sure you can keep living it."
Thanks for the chapter!