Zetsubou had been doing well. The office was great at first and she easily picked up new tasks. "Zetsy, you have been doing so well, do you mind doing this, too?" Her coworkers would ask her. "Sure!" She replied.
Finally, she was going to beat her depression! She had some coworkers that seemed to genuinely appreciate her talents. And she had learned a few tricks to keep her tail from having an effect on her day to day, as well. "I'm finally going to be happy again! My boyfriend should be happy about this, too." She thought, so eager to please.
As the weeks went on, however... that ray of hope was shrouded. Her boyfriend, despite her trying her best to please him and be happy around him, didn't seem to care and only got worse, ignoring her frequently. Not only that, but her coworkers kept handing their work off to her because she had earned the reputation of being a doormat. Being so eager to please is not always a good thing.
But, she was holding it together! It was tougher than anything she had experienced before, but she honestly thought she could make it out of the deep dark pit she'd been in most of her life.
I guess the world had other plans. She came home after a long stressful day to find her boyfriend had taken all of his possessions and left. He left no note. He gave no warning... He was just gone. The only thing he left behind was the gifts and card she had given him recently. She cried. Even if he was pulling away, she still loved him. The fact that he left nothing but her gifts was like a knife in the chest. She couldn't stop it.
The tears came and didn't seem like they'd stop. She cried all night. She was in so much emotional pain that it hurt her physically. When sleep finally came calling, it was well into the night and she'd have to work in a few hours. She had the presence of mind to set her alarm, at least.
Morning came with a painful chime, her alarm was going off and she'd barely been asleep. She was still an emotional wreck. She couldn't work like this, so she decided to call out. She sent a message to her direct boss first, not wanting to get emotional over the phone. Her boss gave her a bit of a hard time, mentioning that they had some appointments, but told her if she could make it at all, to let them know. That was okay with her.
She left her cellphone on her bed and went to take a shower, hoping to help clear her mind. It did help a little bit, but she was still distraught. Who wouldn't be? By the time she got back to her phone, she had three text messages and a couple of voicemails. They were from the office manager.
Text1: "Heard you called out? Call me."
Text2: "Your boss has a lot of appointments today, we really need you to come in."
Text3: "Call me ASAP"
Voicemail1: "Hey, Zetsy. I know you were calling out, but your boss can't get to her appointments if you aren't there to cover anything that comes up. We need you to come in. Call me."
Voicemail2: "Zetsubou, this is really unprofessional of you to send a text to call out. Call me, now!"
Great.
She called the office manager. "Hello."
"Hello, Zetsubou. This will reflect poorly on your overall performance if you don't come in. Your boss really needs to get to those appointments. Get in here as soon as you can."
"Yes, ma'am." She responded with a clear calm voice. She'd learned to hide her emotions due to her tail, so it was easy for her to sound flat and emotionless. Despite wanting to curl up into a ball and just cry... she got up and got ready for work. On her way out the door, she saw that her cousin, Higeki, was calling. Well, she can't keep her boss waiting... She decided to ignore it for now and head into work anyway.
The drive was the same as always, but it felt like only static was on the radio. She thought it was on, at least. If someone asked, she would not be able to recall a single song that came on. She made it to the office, clocked in and shuffled quietly and discreetly to her desk. She was only ten minutes late, but her desk was already piled with other people's work.
"Hey, Zetsy, there you are! I've been looking for you. Can you take care of this for me? Oh and I heard they were having some trouble with one of the computers over in the lab area."
"Zetsy! How are you doing? You don't look too busy, can you help me with my laptop? Thanks!" Her coworker threw the laptop in front of her, knocking a pile of paperwork onto the floor. He walked away.
She started to pick the papers off the floor, lips and nose quivering, on the verge of tears. "Zetsy, you have a call on line one. Zetsy, line one." She heard one of the operators page overhead. She finished picking the papers up off of the floor before answering the call.
"Hello, this is Zetsubou in Technical and record keeping, how may I assist you?" She answered. She could hear someone crying on the other end. "Hello? Are you okay?"
"Zetsy..." A familiar voice responded. It was Higeki. "Zetsy, it's dad... he got into an accident this morning. He... he didn't make it. He's gone." Higeki broke down into tears on the other end of the line. The one he calls dad is actually Zetsy's father. Her father was dead. Tears streamed down her face. Her mind went into immediate denial.
"Okay, Hige. Thank you for letting me know." She said in a hollow voice and hung up the phone.
"Hey, Zetsy, I need you quick, this thing is going crazy and I can't figure it out." A coworker stopped by her office in a tizzy.
She responded,
Art (c) Twilight-Goddess
Link
Parahuman
Amazing deep story.