Free Web NovelChapter 40: Alien Food?
{FIVE HOURS LATER}
’’Why can’t I remember anything?’’ Stylie groaned. Lin walked up to her to distribute her share of bottled water and pain relieving tablets. She pressed her fingers against her forehead, massaging it repeatedly, trying to get rid of the dull aching pain she suffered from.
’’Me too,’’ Lin said, crossing his hands over his lean chest as he tried to think it through. The only memory he had was when he arrived at work and then he woke up beside his desk with the rest of everyone. No one could tell if they had been drugged or attacked but Grim assured them that it was nothing. He claimed to have arrived so early and met all of them sprawled out unconscious beside their seats with nothing left to trace back to the cause of their breakdown.
’’Everything since when I greeted that annoying Sassy fruit this morning has been blurred and it hurts so much trying to unveil it. I wonder why we all fainted earlier. Could it have been because of the heat?’’
Stylie leaned forward in her seat, giving her senior worker an exhausted look before she shook her head that she had no idea what could have happened to them.
’’Hmm,’’ Lin put on his thinking cap as he tried to piece two and two together. Were they almost abducted by aliens and their memories were wiped after the encounter? The temperature in the room wasn’t high enough to make all of them lose consciousness and suffer memory loss at the same time. All the while, Berry remained shaken in her seat as she slowly went through her phone. Her face was pale and disturbed as she read a bunch of messages she didn’t remember sending to anyone.
And it looks so much like a call for help.
’’It could be a heat stroke. The weather sometimes gets worse when it prepares to rain again...I guess,’’ Stylie shrugged as she took a sip of the bottled water, placing the dull colored capsule in-between her lips.
Lin scratched the front of his head, doubting whatever happened to them was just a mere heat stroke. Then he turned to the only person who had been conscious when it happened and found him sitting at his desk, looking the most disturbed out of all of them as he stared worriedly at something.
Lin followed what he was staring at and it turned out to be their Boss who had resumed working again. She also had no idea what happened to them and Boss seems the most disinterested in finding out.
’’It couldn’t have just been a mere heat stroke, right Grim?’’
Stylie turned in her seat to stare at their newest intern in concern, who has not uttered a single word since their revival.
’’Grim? Hey, newbie!’’ Lin called and Grim slowly moved his eyes away from his love to stare at his friend.
’’Are you alright? Still with us in this room as we try to figure out if we almost became alien food or their next top-secret experiment project in area 51?’’
Style pursed her lips together at Lin. She couldn’t believe he believed that was what likely happened to them.
Grim’s gaze flickered, losing a bit of color as his hands clasped on the table tightened.
He hated doing this.
He hated lying to his friends.
But most importantly,
He looked at her again and wondered just who his human was. What she must have endured being the child of a backwater demon. He tried to keep it together but at the same time he couldn’t.
It was like he could feel all her pain and shame at once. And he doubts she even knows who or what her father truly was. So far, his Anais remains pure with no form or sign of demonic energy in her. She was just human. One of the reasons he decided to steal their memories of ever encountering that creature and he swore to hunt that maniac down whenever he was sure his love was fine.
The bones in his fingers cracked softly, his eyes gaining a darker shade as he thought of the worst thing he could do to a demon that dared try to harm his human.
’’Grim?’’ Came Berry’s soft and assuring voice. It immediately brought him out of that darkness he was currently heading towards and turned to her in surprise. He has totally forgotten about them all and wondered if they were fine as well.
’’Yes?’’ he managed to smile confidently beneath her warm brown eyes.
’’Don’t think too much about it.’’ She said mysteriously and returned his warm smile. It was only after she returned to work he blinked several times trying to understand why she said that.
’’Everyone,’’ Corrine stepped out of her office, looking the most relaxed and chilled out of them. The dull aching pain in her head was there but it was nothing in comparison to the kind she suffers everyday. They all turned around at the sight of their boss.
’’I need all of you to stop worrying about what happened or what didn’t happen to us today and get back to our respective duties. The best thing is that...’’ She stared briefly at Lin, holding a smile. ’’We didn’t become alien food or subjects of sinister experiments in area 51.’’
Berry and Stylie smiled, glad to have their cheerful and loving boss back. Lin only stared at his boss in disbelief. How dare she make a joke out of something that could have been true!
Corrine cleared her throat, clapping her hands together as she took a more authoritative stance.
’’I have sent all of you a memo of what we are going to be doing today.’’
’’Seen it,’’ Berry waved as she continued scrolling through her phone. Corrine smiled, excited to do this with them. frёeweɓηovel.coɱ
’’I have read through the grey-colored folder and prepared the perfect story we are going to be submitting. The details of the story are all summarized in the memo and I would like all of you to go through it and come up with separate ideas of your own. Any idea, it doesn’t have to be perfect.’’
Berry and Stylie nodded their heads, reading through the story and feeling gingered already to work.
’’Lin.’’
They turned to each other.
’’Yes, boss.’’
’’I need you to come up with the best story synopsis ever. That’s what these people are going to read before they even consider going through a story.’’
’’Got it boss.’’ Lin nodded, already picturing a perfect synopsis structure he was going to be using.
’’It must be simple yet interesting. Don’t overcomplicate it.’’
Lin gave his boss a sheepish grin.
Corrine then felt slightly uneasy because she didn’t have to look to find him already staring at her. ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com
’’Uhm, and while you are working your masterpiece do help the newbie among us and don’t be stingy with your knowledge.’’
Stylie’s jaw dropped. Berry looked up from her phone in disbelief. Lin stopped smiling and Corrine felt weird when they were all looking at her as if she will forever remain a bully to their dear new intern.
’’Really, Boss?’’ Berry asked, trying not to celebrate so soon.
’’I guess if it is truly his dream to become one of us, I will hate to be the big, bad wolf that gets in the way of getting what he wants. As long as he continues to behave,’’ and stays away from troubling me. ’’I don’t see any reason why he can’t learn one or two things from us.’’
’’Yes!’’ Lin said, almost jumping. Berry and Stylie turned to each other in excitement. The mystery of their missing memories was quickly forgotten and replaced with having their new intern slowly being accepted by their boss by at least thirty percent.
Corrine moved, hiding her smile as she faced him.
He blinked.
He was so adorable when he looked at her that way.
She sighed and said, ’’Can I see you in my office for a moment?’’
The gold in his eyes softened through his false brown lens as he watched her leave for her office. He returned to his table with a faint blush warming his cheeks, feeling much better because she wanted to see him.
☆☆☆
He stood at the door of her office not knowing what to do. Corrine sensed him lurking. She turned her seat around and urged him to step in.
She even offered him a seat.
He blinked, feeling all this was too good to be true. But he sat before her anyway, hoping for the best.
Corrine turned to her laptop to type in a few things before she focused all her attention on him. Grim felt himself relaxing more in his seat, before her, slowly admiring everything about her.
Her shoulder–length hair, straight shoulders, her poise, her full plump lips that moved each time she typed a word.
Grim blinked.
He wanted every part, every inch of her to be marked as his. The fingers of his left hand moved impatiently.
Corrine finally paused after sending the mail. She turned around to look at him without warning and noticed how the strange feelings she had been feeling towards this creep intensified now that they were this close. Her green eyes flickered over to his hands and was instantly struck by guilt.
’’Does your hand still hurt?’’
She asked him without warning.
He paused in his hand movement and stared at it, wondering why she cared.
That strange invisible hand that slapped him once and urged him to use his brain returned and he found himself squeezing his face softly as if in discomfort.
That seemed to alarm her a bit as she stared at him in concern.
’’More than you can imagine. I could not sleep at all. You paralyzed me just enough that I could not even eat or drink,’’ he said, locking eyes with her mischievously to gauge her reaction.
And it worked.
Corrine immediately turned in her seat to rummage through the drawers underneath her table.
Grim smirked.
But the smirk disappeared quickly when his love pulled out a medicated hand cream and pushed it gingerly towards him to fix his broken hands by himself.
What followed after that was complete awkwardness. Corrine looked away as her new intern stared at her in disbelief.
’’It works like magic. You can rub it on your hands yourself three times a day.’’
She spoke like a doctor without human feelings. But Grim wasn’t giving up so easily like he did last night.
He moved, placing his hands before her on the table. Corrine turned to give him a weird look.
Grim sighed. She is definitely clueless. Cute but he refused to believe she was too heartless not to feel romantic once.
’’What are you doing?’’
’’Boss,’’ he began. ’’I can’t even pick up a spoon with these hands. I had people feed me last night and dress me up this morning.’’
Not entirely a lie.
Corrine felt a wave of emotion crash on her hardened heart towards him as she understood what he wanted. She stared at those hands calling to be caressed and rubbed with the medicated cream and for a moment she wanted to turn ice cold on him.
’’But if it is too much for my Boss,’’ he began pettily, feigning a sad look. ’’I can just meet Berry or Stylie to help me with—-’’
Corrine snatched the medicated cream before he could reach it, opening the cap so aggressively it startled him.
Corrine then hesitated a few times from touching him, frowning many times as she reached for his hands and withdrew.
’’They won’t bite you,’’ Grim said, not intending to anger her more. Her ice cold stare flickered to him briefly before she snatched one of his hands, her nails biting his poor skin even through the gloves he wore.
’’Ah,’’ Grim cried out when he thought she was going to be gentle. She removed his glove, tossing it aside. She poured a dollop of the cream on the back of his palm, pausing briefly to stare at the beautiful markings on them.
’’You like them?’’
Corrine answered with a glare before she began to massage his hand and fingers with the cream. Feeling so weird to have given in to him so easily.
As she did so, he felt like he had just won a once in a lifetime ticket to a special spot in paradise.
Once she was done, she released his hands and gave him the cream. He should take it as an apology for being mean to him.
Suddenly, the door opened and Stylie stepped in to announce the arrival of a guest.
