CHAPTER 2 CONTENT WARNINGS
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stalking
blood
knife
power dynamic
abuse of power
drinking
~
Please stay safe and do not read if you will be affected by the content in this chapter <3

~~~

Martin walked into work the next morning to see Tim and Sasha laughing over their phones, however, when they were caught, the pair quickly put their phones away and started to sort the boxes of old statements into neat files. Tim smiled at Martin as he walked past and snickered when he saw Martin’s unkempt hair under his beanie.

“Rough morning, Martin?” Time chuckled as Martin attempted to tuck his loose hair under his hat again, glaring at the younger lad.

“I’m fine, just woke up late is all,” Martin spoke quickly and turned to go to his office when he noticed Jonathan standing in the hallway talking to Elias.

He tried not to be noticed by the pair of them as he walked quickly down the other hallway, hoping they wouldn’t be heading to either of their own offices. Sadly, they were and just as Martin entered his office, he saw Jonathan walking towards his own office. Jonathan’s office was two doors down, with Tim’s office in between. Martin only saw Jonathan for a few seconds total that morning, however, he noticed the shorter man had painted his nails a royal blue, which matched his blazer. It was a deep, rich color that complimented Jonathan’s skin tone well and made Martin get lost in the subtle lace pattern in a very slightly darker shade of blue that adorned the suit. For the second day in a row, Martin realized he was staring and was very quick to step into his own office again and shut the door swiftly.

“God damn it,” Martin whispered to himself as he placed down his bag, leaning back on his desk as he looked up at his large bookcase.

He reached forward, grabbing a book from the shelf just higher than his head, and placed it on his desk. The papers from yesterday’s book were neatly stacked on the paper holder, stapled, and placed in order of time and date. He opened his top desk drawer, his sharpened letter opener laying on top of a stack of papers, still slightly stained with blood. Martin sighed as he lifted the top piece of paper and pulled out a small stack of papers to write his notes on. 

Martin had decided to not record his findings today, as he was sure he would get it done at home when he finished work, where he would be much less likely to be interrupted. His hand glided over the leather-bound book, feeling the worn-down surface, frowning at the state of it. However, it was beyond repair and would have to have a brand new cover put on it. The title of the book was barely legible but he assumed it was a Leitner based off of the burn marks around the edges.`

Just as Martin opened the book, he heard a soft knock on his door and cleared his throat before he shortly answered and waited for the person to come in. He was pleasantly surprised to see Elias at his door, wearing a red suit with a black button-up underneath and matching shoes, making Martin have to concentrate a little harder as to what he was saying.

“Martin,” Elias slowly closed the door and leaned back against it, crossing his arms as he looked at Martin, who was still sitting in his chair, “Your clothing choice today is, somewhat questionable.”

Martin hadn’t really thought of his job as ‘formal’, in fact, he rarely brushed his hair and seldom wore dress shoes. Today, however, he had paid even less attention to what he chose to wear. A loose-fitting grey sweater over an old white button and a pair of black dress pants. However, he had a feeling that Elias meant his loafers and beanie.

“Listen, Elias, it was just today, I woke up late and didn’t have time to organize myself before coming into the office,” Martin rambled off his excuse as Elias smiled to himself slightly as he walked closer and placed his hands on the desk, leaning over enough to be in Martin’s face.

“You’re distracting Jonathan, don’t let it happen again.”

With that, Elias left his office, and Martin was left to sit in his thoughts, wondering as to what that meant.

~~~

When it came around to lunchtime, Tim had offered to shout fish and chips to the office and Martin rarely denied an offer for Tim to pay for lunch after all the times he had promised to shout around for the office at drinks night and ended up bailing before the end of the night. Jonathan offered to go with Tim to make sure everyone got what they wanted and not twenty minutes after they left, Martin received yet another knock at his office door, causing him to sigh and close his book, placing his head in his hands and saying to the person at the door to enter. He groaned internally when it was Jonathan who had brought him his share of lunch. 

“A piece of small chips with salt and pepper squid, correct?” Jonathan placed down the small bag of food in front of him, along with a white chocolate milkshake.

“Oh, I didn’t-”

“A specialty of the shop, I thought you could try it,” Jonathan cheekily winked at him and winked as he turned and went to exit the office before stopping in his tracks and looking over his shoulder and martin cleared off his desk of work materials to place his food in front of him.

Jonathan smiled to himself as he walked back to his office, having eaten his food in the car he almost immediately went back to work, sitting down his milkshake on his desk first. He sat in his chair and reached into the box in front of him, grabbing out a thick stack of papers and placing them in front of him when Elias entered his office, closing the door behind him.

“Hello Jonathan, how was your lunch break?” The older gentleman smiled at his employee, sitting in a chair in front of him.

“It was good, Tim knows how to pick good music, he also doesn’t shut up,” Jonathan chuckled to himself and shook his head as he sat back in his chair, “why did you come to talk to me, Elias?”

“Is it not enough to not just talk to my employees?” Elias smiled at him and mimicked Jonathan’s position in his chair.

“Not after this morning, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you shake Tim or Martins's hand, but you placed your hand on my shoulder,” Jonathan smirked at him, a smugness surrounding his accusation, “is there an alternative motive here, Elias?”

Elias stood from his chair and walked over to Jonathan, hands clasped behind his back. When Elias was next to Jonathan’s chair, he leaned down, resting an arm over the back of the chair as he leaned in to be close to Jonathan. He was now close enough for Jonathan to feel his breath down his neck, warm and making him shiver. 

“And what if there was, Jon?” He leaned in a little closer and chuckled into Jon’s ear, “Would you really have that much of an issue with it?”

Jon turned his head to look up at his boss, a blank expression on his face but the ice-cold eyes that Elias hid behind glasses were clouding his judgment and he couldn’t seem to form words before Elias started to back off and smile to himself. 

“Get back to work Jonathan, I expect at least four statements finished by five o’clock,” Elias looked down at Jon and changed his face back to a neutral expression before exiting Jonathan’s office. 

~~~

When Tim left the office that evening, it was way past when he was supposed to leave so he had the responsibility of locking up the Archives for the night. He checked his phone; 8:47 pm. It was bucketing down rain and there was one more bus out to his home at this time of night. However, he wasn’t willing to wait ten minutes to take a bus three minutes down the street. He started walking down the street, southbound with his eyes squinted to avoid rain clouding his vision. 

He was just about to give up and wait when he heard a familiar voice from behind him, and the voice was getting closer very quickly. He had to take a moment to recognize the voice however when he finally did, he was shocked to find a tipsy Elias, followed by Jonathan not far behind him. 

“Oh, hey boss, what are you doing down this side of town so late?” While he didn’t mean to sound judging, he was truly shocked that someone like Elias would be willing to spend more time than necessary in this part of town. 

“Jon… athan..” he looks at the shorter man next to him, who was slightly blushing and giving him a dirty look before continuing his sentence, “and I were having drinks while we discussed work, what are you doing walking home? I can call you a cab if you truly need it?”

“That would be great actually, thank you,” Tim did not like the way Jonathan was looking between him and Elias as if there was jealousy over something so simple. 

Tim and Jonathan stepped back to stand under a storefront to shield themselves from the rain. Jonathan was standing closer than Tim would have liked, but he put it down to the lack of space under the covering. The pair of men watched as Elias called two taxis, the smug man smiling and beckoning the pair over. Tim quickly thanked Elias, deciding against speaking another word to Jonathan as he stepped into the taxi. He told the driver his address and as he sat in the back of the cab, he thought about all the times Elias had purposefully tried to escape going out for drinks with any of the other employees. But Jonathan seemed very different, not just to Tim and Elias, but whenever Jonathan was around, the crowd seemed to always fall quiet enough that he never had to even slightly raise his voice. 

There was something about Jonathan that both concerned and intrigued Tim, and he really, really didn’t like it.