Keep Stealing, Sister

On her first day, she wakes early, earlier than Cedric, who comes down the grand stairs to meet her while she is packing her bag for work. No pleasantries are exchanged, cedric watches glances at her coldly and she returns that cold glance right back to him, it unsettles him but he still silently makes his way out of the house. Without any expectation that anyone would give her a ride to work she begins making her way out of the manor gates when a black Rolls Royce stops in front of her, the windows roll down revealing cedric’s stern face. “Get in, don’t make me late”. Alara enters, slipping into the front seat. The drive was silent.

“Do not embarrass the family” cderic breaks the silence glancing at alara briefly before continuing “just do what you are told and stay away from places you are not welcome. I know this whole thing might be new and hard for you.. But please…. Just don’t cause any trouble like you always do, Diana isn’t here for you to blame so do your job”  the message was clear, ‘stay out of my way’. Alara did not answer, it was too early for her to have an answer for him, she glanced out the window at the city building’s blurring past. They make it to the grand company building where she gets out first and Cedric drives off to the car park, obviously not wanting to be seen with her. 

Upon entering the building no one welcomes her, amn older looking HR officer meets her at the entrance and shows her around. Starting from the Reception whispers to other departments in the company she can hear the whispers .

"That's the crazy daughter."

"Didn't she come from a psychiatric facility?"

"I heard she stabbed someone."

The rumors were everywhere, it did not matter where she looked or went she could not escape the harsh gossiping. And she did not care, Alara ignored all of it. She wasn’t here to win popularity contests, she did not care if these background characters liked her, her time in the facility had taught her that the opinions of people are fleeting and chasing their validation and love is a never ending, draining, time consuming struggle. Plus to be honest compared to all their whispered scrutiny she had heard worse. 

The HR officer finally brings her to the archives “here we are, your duties are simple, organise all these files, collect relevant files and add to the collection, recreate damaged documents, provide the executives access to the files they are looking for and make sure to document everything, anything goes wrong or missing its on you, so do not let that happen” he spoke firmly, “and always lock up after you are gone, here is your key” he hands her a key “i will be sure to forward you an email of your company access details, welcome pack and so on and so forth. Have a good day” he gave a small nod that she returned and then he left shutting the door behind himself. 

The archives is a vast basement file library with no windows, just fluorescent lights, the entire place is covered in dust from the papers to the shelves, and loose papers stuffed in the shelves carelessly. Forgotten files piled high on the chair and desk, leaving her no real place to sit. 

Perfect.

She begins working on organising the files starting with the ones on her chair, then her desk, then the floor and finally the shelves, she puts the loose papers back in their appropriate places and even wipes off the dust in the area. She wasn’t doing all this diligent work out of the kindness of her heart, but rather faking hard work to prove her competence so while everyone thinks she's filing documents.

What she is actually doing ...memorising everything. 

Old mergers, Illegal payments, Property ownership, Executive affairs, Offshore companies, Every weakness, searching for the type of thing that morrell corp would not want on display, she wants to have that knowledge on hand. Through this strategy she is actually mapping the field. 

Lunch time finally arrives and she is no where near done, but the sharp pains of hunger in her stomach force her to leave her work and drag her to the canteen, she picks up her food in tray a sandwich and an apple flavoured juice box sitting at the side in solitude she takes a bite and chews slowly, as the excited gossip of a few employees nearby could be heard as well as a familiar song playing from one of their phones. 

One says,

"Have you heard?"

"Miss Diana's newest album teaser is incredible."

Another responds,

"Those lyrics..."

"She's a genius…. She is calling this song ‘gravity’."

Alara pauses at the news. She does so for exactly one second. then continues eating, calm and composed as though nothing is wrong, stifling a laugh that threatens to be heard out loud. She has heard that song as well as every other song Diana has written, she knows every lyric, not just ‘gravity’ that she wrote last night, but every other song’s lyrics before that, not because she was a fan. Because she wrote every single one.

A few Years ago shortly after Alara was forced to stop going to school so she could act as Diana’s personal caretaker and assistant, Alara found solace in posting poems online anonymously. Around this time Diana’s new music career was tanking fast, with critics calling her average at best. Somehow Diana found out about Alara’s poems, at first she acted supportive urging Alara to keep writing and Alara thought she and her younger sister finally found something to bond over. Months later…. Diana secretly copied those poems and those poems became songs, Alara had confronted her sister about it, stating they were private, “this way more people will hear your beautiful work” Diana had said it with ease, however when those songs turned into Award-winning songs, Alara received no credit, even when she had tried to come out with the truth no one had believed her, not a single friend or family member, they called her bitter or jealous so she stopped trying to come out with the truth. Everyone called Dian aa genius and called Alara the family embarrassment. Back then she could have tried harder to uncover the truth but a part of her still wanted her sister to love her, and her family to acknowledge her without having to bring down her sister’s career in the process. It was a sweet sentiment, that's just who she was then.

Glancing at the enthusiastic co-workers, she smiles a tiny smile one she hides, it's not a smile of happiness but a smile from anticipation. She thinks to herself, “this is all going perfectly, keep stealing dear sister” she opens her juice box “the higher you climb the harder you’ll fall.” She sips her juice box through its straw, making her way back to the archives to return to her work. 

While working, someone enters, someone enters the archives, an impossibly handsome man with dark features, wearing an expensive suit clearly more expensive than anything any of the company’s executives could afford, cold grey eyes that were almost lifeless orbs in his flawless face. He doesn't belong here , not just in the archives but in the company, it doesn’t take a genius to tell that he isn't an employee of morrell corp. He walks up to her, not greeting politely, no pleasantries or asking her for what he is looking for, and for the most part she ignores him, lifting a box of freshly organised papers from the ground, as she lifts the box off the ground she raises her. Their eyes meeting, both cold eyes making eye contact. 

“Move” he says, his tone dripping with authority like he expected nothing short of obedience from her. She doesn’t, just looking at him with a thinly veiled expression of inconvenience. "You're standing in my way." He says his quiet voice sounding a bit more stern. She puts the box of papers away barely paying him any mind as she replies, "Then walk around."