Lucy
a short story by Hasan Zubairi Masud
Lucy felt as if she’d been going up this elevator for an eternity. There wasn’t much to look at, just the pristine almost surgical white walls, and looking at them for too long hurt her eyes. She sighed and pressed up against the wall. She began to lightly click her red ballpoint pen.
click click click click click click click click click click click Click Click Click CLickClickClickCliCKCLiCKCLICKCLiCKCLICKCLICKCLICKCLICKLCIKCLCIKCLCICKK
Her feet start tapping furiously to the same chaotic rhythm of the pen. Her left hand in a clenched fist. Being in the elevator was just getting her blood boiling. The longer she had to wait the more time she had to think about what was so very fucking wrong,
The elevator began to slow down.
Lucy quickly unclenched her fist and pocketed her pen. She fixed her red hair and stood up straight. Her mouth smiled, her black eyes did not.
Ding
The elevator stopped.
Two men in all white walked in. They both had golden name tags in contrast to Lucy’s dingy aluminium one. Lucy glanced at the name tags quickly. One read Michael and the other Gabriel. They gave a slight side-eye to Lucy as they walked in, Gabriel for uncomfortably long, but they both quickly turned their backs on her and went to select their floor. They soon realised their floor was already pressed to their puzzlement.
Silence.
In the rather awkward situation, Lucy couldn’t help but fiddle around. Nonetheless, she tried to minimize her movement.
“So Michael, how was work yesterday?” asked Gabriel.
“Messy, I spilt on myself while working on asset management, it took ages to get the red stain out last night!”
“Oh god, I can imagine. Why not send it down to the basement and just have them wash it?”
“Gabriel, you know you can’t trust them they’re absolute…” Michael trailed off while shooting a glance at Lucy. Lucy’s mouth smiled at him, her black eyes did not.
“Regardless… how about you Gabriel? How was work yesterday?”
“Real fun honestly. It’s not often I get to go out into the field and do some hands-on work with our clients.”
“I totally understand. As much good as we do through our work in administration, to be able to go out and physically make a change for our clients is truly brilliant.”
Both men straightened up, clearly rather happy with themselves. Lucy rolled her eyes but quickly resumed staring off in front of herself.
Lucy hated them. How they dominated over her and her people, ending their careers at a drop of a penny. Asset management, trying to minimize losses throughout the company. Lucy was forced to watch her best friend permanently removed from the department. Her friend had never done anything wrong in her job. No, it was only about dominance and power. A reminder of who held it. And it wasn’t Lucy and her co-workers in the basement.
“Oi, sweetheart!”
Lucy was startled out of her thoughts. Both men had their bright, white eyes shining onto her.
“I’m sorry, I was in my thoughts.” She brushed her red hair back in a panic but pricked her thumb on the points on her skull. A little bit of red blood came out, but she quickly wiped it away.
“Well I’d say so,” said Michael with a bellowing laugh. “So, what’re you seeing the man upstairs for?”
“I’m sorry?”
“You daft? Why are you seeing the CEO?” Gabriel gestured to the only button pressed in the elevator, the top one.
“Oh, uh” Lucy had to think of a quick excuse. “I’m honestly not too sure, he called for me you see.”
“Well, aren’t you a lucky devil!” exclaimed Michael. “Wonder what’s so special about you then?”
“Shall we find out?” Gabriel started moving his hand towards Lucy’s blouse.
Lucy had been holding it in. Everyone had a limit and she was well past hers.
Lucy clicked her red pen.
Gabriel’s eyes widened; a red sword penetrated his chest. Blue blood slowly dripped down it. Lucy pulled the sword out and he fell to the floor with an ever so ungraceful thud.
“You Bitch!” Michael exploded into action. Now enveloped in light, and with his wings out, he quickly materialised his ‘bow.’ Lucy never understood why they called them ‘bows.’ Maybe because it sounded nicer than ‘gun.’ Regardless Lucy was more experienced than most, and as such, found Michael’s actions rather predictable. She side-stepped him and cut his wings off. While he was still shocked at the loss of his wings, she then slit his throat. He collapsed to the floor as his blue blood spurted everywhere.
Lucy clicked her sword back into a pen. She gazed around at the elevator. She’d made a right mess that’s for sure. The elevator looked like a Jackson Pollock where he was particularly favourable to the colour blue. She felt a little better though; she guessed stabbing had more positive mental health benefits than most realised.
With the adrenaline wearing off, she noticed her face was also splattered with blue blood. She reached down into Michael’s corpses suit pocket and retrieved a handkerchief to clean her face.
“Don’t… Don’t touch him.”
Lucy glanced down and saw some movement from Gabriel. Guess she missed his heart. Did he actually even have a heart? Shower thoughts for later.
“Alive, are we? Want me to change that?”
“You fucking devil! You and the other little shits like you can go to hell!”
Lucy bent down so her deep, pure black eyes could stare him in the face.
“We already are.”
She glanced up at their current floor. “Ah almost there.” She stood up.
“You deserve to be there you know.”
Lucy glared down at Gabriel. “Like fuck we do! If I hadn’t fed his fucking creation, he’d have no clients, no one to worship him! I don’t care if it was his personal fruit tree, I saved this bloody company!!! One mess up and to hell you go! It’s fucking bullshit! And you privileged angels are only okay with it ‘til it’s you who’s the fuck up and you end up down there with the rest of us. I’m going to change this shit.”
“They need someone to fear.”
“Fear of God should be enough. It is for us”
Lucy clicked her sword back and sliced Gabriel’s head off. The doors opened, an intensely bright light shone into the elevator, illuminating the now partially white walls. Lucy stepped out.
“Oh, Lucifer my old friend, what brings you here?”
Hasan Zubairi Masud's Website 