Chapter Text
Chapter 1
Amy knew the day just couldn’t get any longer, well scientifically speaking however her work hours could and has unfortunately. An unforeseen accident happened with one of her co-workers and this left them one short for the evening. Fortunately, and unfortunately, Amy was a seasoned worker at the small café and could practically handle almost any task that came at her. However, this meant she was the first victim her boss Bill would go to in these times of need. So, when he made a B-line to her and basically asked her to stay, she couldn’t turn down the offer. She honestly did not mind time to time and her currently deprived bank account would defiantly thank her latter on.
“Amy, have you thought about my proposal?” Bill asked as he was currently counting down a drawer for her to use for the remainder of her shift. She had put grate effort into thinking about the promotion and how it would help her out financially, however school was her first priority, and she didn’t like the idea of going to school and working a forty-hour week especially this year do to it being bombarded with labs and intern hours.
“I have and you know I would love to, but school is picking up now for me and this year is going to be hell. I don’t feel like working forty hours only to have to go to school for forty hours.” Amy couldn’t help but to massage her temples at this thought. Thinking about the labs that were coming up and the extra study time she must make room for in her already crampet schedule was already giving her a headache.
Bill hummed as he thought to himself for a moment. Putting the last of the cash into the drawer and putting the rest in the large black safe that laid under the desk, he turned to look at her with his warm brown eyes. “You know I’m a father of two boys that just started their collage life this year. I know how tough it is to balance a work and school life without going mad and yet you come into work and do your job well. Never once did I have an issue with you. You are my best worker here and I see grate potential in you. So let me make a deal with you. You become my assistant manager and you tell me when you’re available.” He said as he calmly looked up to Amy who was currently leaning against the old white doorway that led into the closet size office, they were currently in.
Amy’s blue grey eyes looked at her boss for a good long minute. Despite her knowing her boss to be a true and honest hardworking man, she couldn’t help but to wonder if there was something more to this then met the eye. Growing up in the Bronx she learned many hard life lessons and one of these was no one did anything for free. Everything had a price, an equal trade. You scratch my back and Ill scratch yours. It was New York after all and no one was outside that unspoken rule.
But as she looked him over she could not find a single hint of anything but his genuine fatherly nature and of course his tough love. Sighing Amy knew she wasn’t going to win this war. “Fine. Let me look at my schedule and from there we can make plans.” A beaming smile spread across his face, a smile that only a kid on Christmas morning would know. “Grate. Let me know and we will get things going. You won’t regret this Amy I promise you.”
Amy couldn’t help but to roll her eyes and smile at her boss. “Yeah yeah. You better keep that promise boss.” Bill laughed as Amy took her register drawer to the front and plop it into the cash register. Closing the drawer she couldn’t help but to look out into the café and get lost in her thoughts.
Huge windows gave an almost panoramic view of the city that laid just outside. The hustle of the busy people in expensive work attire could be seen walking briskly across the area. Being close to the epicenter of the trade and financial industry of the world made the café a gold mine to them as well as to themselves. Never a day or night goes by that the café wasn’t used as a haven to the masses of businessmen and women as well as the occasional collage student or tourist who thought to stop by to see the mythical trading hub that was only known as The Trade District. Being located only a hop away from the infamous Wall Street, it was definitely the right place for such a quant café.
The day went by without a hitch. Soon the glowing sun sat behind the towering skyscrapers and buildings that seemed to act as glass walls around the café, threatening the small shop with their ever towering presence. Night soon followed and with it the late owls of New York. Where there was money to be made there was people. Never an hour goes by that a single person wasn’t on their fancy Bluetooth or their computer doing some type of work well into the late hours.
Currently a hand full of people could be seen in the café, going about business as usual. Amy looked at the clock that displayed on her register to see it was nine o’clock. Seeing that no other customers were coming in she quickly made way to the office to be released. A few minutes later and an annoyingly slow to count drawer later, Amy found herself exiting the café and headed to the subway to return to her dorm.
Fortunately, the subway entrance was not far from her job, only a five-minute walk which to a born and raised New Yorker who was used to walking and commuting, it was a blink of an eye walk. After boarding the train and heading back to her dorm which really only took forty five minutes, she had taken a seat next to a window and decided to listen to some music.
One good thing about taking the train she didn’t have to worry about the crazy traffic or the overpopulated amounts of laws. She could just sit and relax after what seemed to be a dawn to dusk shift. Amy couldn’t help but to let a sigh escape her lips as she looked out the dark windows. Night had come long before her shift had ended. The only light there was came from the tunnel that they were currently in or the lights of the train cars themselves that would be reflected from the dark windows that looked out into the darkness of the tunnels. Most people were heading home from the office at this time or the odd person that was out around this time. Given New York as a city that never sleeps, it was hard to say what time was not normal to a city that ran on coffee, money and of course the workaholics of the big fortune five-hundred companies.
Playing around on her phone in an app game to help pass the time, Amy looked to see her stop was next. Gathering her things together, the train came to a stop following an announcement over the static filled speakers. Getting up to hop off the train she saw someone quickly leave the train. Normally she wouldn’t pay any mind to some random person who just left in a hurry, however as they left, she saw them drop a black USB stick on the ground. Looking around and saw what little people were on the train was either face deep in their phones or just not paying any attention to what was going on. Amy quickly picked up the stick and debarred the train just as the doors closed behind her.
Looking around in the dark subway, she looked around for the person who she only knew had on a dark blue hooded jacket. As she looked to see if she could spot them she couldn’t help but to wonder if she made a mistake on picking up the USB. Yet she also thought on how it probably was better than a random person though granted she was just that, another random person. Taking another look around she didn’t see them and decided it was best for her to just go back to her dorm and turn in the stick to the cops in the morning.
Returning back to her room she turned on her lamp and kicked off her shoes. She was fortunate that they had private rooms for students as early as year two at her school. She didn’t mind sharing but after living with a younger sister and a dorm mate who just left everything like a aftermath of the third war from her weekend parties, Amy didn’t care she had to spend extra for her own space. It just meant she had to be less picky when it came to food. ’It’s only temporary.’ She would only tell herself when she once again had to eat noodles for the fourth day in the row for dinner.
Deciding to take a shower and slip on her comfortable PJs, Amy gathered her things and headed to the shared shower room. As she entered the girls bathroom she heard voices of a few girls that were also getting ready for the night. She couldn’t help but to over hear a few bits of gossip of the party coming up and some girl that was dating some guy they knew. Despite them no longer being in high school, somethings simply don’t change such as bathroom gossip. Amy headed to a free shower and quickly scrubbed down.
After her shower she returned back to her room and sat at her desk. Turning on her computer that was sitting quietly in its sleep mode, Amy decided to brush up on some studying. However this didn’t last to long as she kept looking at the mysterious USB stick that was just laying a few inches away. She couldn’t help but become a bit curious on what it could hold in its tinny plastic body. But she knew it would be a breach of personal privacy let alone the chance that it could have a virus or some type of spyware on it. But being a good literary student with a tad bit of experience with coding, she kept a cheap laptop just for that reason.
Pulling her black hair up into a messy bun, Amy grabbed her small laptop and powered it on. Once logged in she picked up the small stick with her right hand. “Let"s see what you are hiding.” She said to herself as she plugged in the stick into her computer. They say curiosity killed the cat, but cats have nine lives right? She smirked and honestly wasn’t worried about giving out her location on her computer in case there was a tracer. She specifically turned this small Dell into the perfect exploratory device with the best protection software and some small programs she had made herself as well as her friend Micheal who was just a pure genius at Computer Engineering. He often asked her why she didn’t just major in more of a computer-based degree and her answer had stayed the same. Her love for books and simply just learning new information was her passion. As she saw the unknown folder pop up a thought came to her mind; “Damn maybe I should have waited to crack this open. Micheal would have a field day with this.” She thought as she navigated to the USB folder that now read on her screen. “Eh well. I"ll show him tomorrow.”
Before going on with the mysterious USB, she texted him about it and then continued with opening the file that felt more like opening a mysterious box of goodies or possibly Pandora’s Box. Will this be filled with money? Or will it be filled with explosives? Maybe kittens? How about all three, kittens with money that set off explosives as soon as the box was opened. Amy couldn’t help but chuckle at the thought as she opened the main folder.
Inside was a whole host of different folders with numerous random files. Each was labeled and categorized based on letter and number. She also saw that none of them really held any real info on what each folder contained. She clicked on a random folder to open it only to see numerous files pop up. Clicking on one she saw it was purely code and nothing more. “Weird.” She thought to her self as she went to open another. As she stared at the computer screen like trying to read a foreign language, which at this point she may as well be, her phone buzzed on the table. She picked it up to see it was a text from Michael letting her know he was on his way and for her to not start without him. ‘Opps.’ She slyly thought looking back at the numerous founders and files opened in a way it looked like a dog had jumped into a box full of the styrofoam peanuts. After a few more minutes of reading though a few pages of documents talking about the plan of action to the Sabbat and who would be doing what, a knock came from her door.
“One minute.” She called as she closed her computer and went to answer the door. Opening it she was greeted with a green sparkle eyed boyish face with thick black glasses and a derpy smile. “Micheal! You made it.” She said as she let her old friend in. “Of course I made it. When you told me you had a basically unknown USB stick from the subway, I couldn’t help myself.” Amy laughed as she walked back over and sat at her desk. Micheal pulled up an extra chair that she kept when he came over on their hang out nights that normally involved nerd stuff and snacks. “Aww you started without me!” Micheal said in a mock pout face. “Sorry I couldn’t help it.” Amy replied with a wry smile. “But hey check this out.” She said as she opened her computer. The screen lit up and with it all the files she had opened along with lists of other folders with documents just waiting to be read.
Micheal’s mouth opened in awe at the sight. “Amy. Dude. This…is…epic.” Was all he could say as he took over and looked around at a few files. She could basically see Micheal drooling over the documents that displayed on the screen. “Well shit. If I knew all of this would be code, I would have brought my computer with me.” He said as he took another look into a different folder. She laughed as he took in what he was seeing. A true nerd he was. "It is a shame! This is like Pandora"s Box but well digitalized." Micheal chuckled at her reference but had to agree, who knows what really was in here. While one file could just be a simple code to a program another could trigger a computer melt down. But as they were about to call it a night Micheal clicked on a separate folder and in it contained an image that looked like it was taken from a security camera. “Hey whats that?” Amy asked as she pointed at the image. “Don’t know. Let’s see.” Micheal clicked on it to blow up the picture only to see it was an old Wearhouse of sorts possibly a factory. “Hey its that old news paper place that’s like what ten minutes from here?” He asked. “Oh yeah it is. I remember we use to go there all the time to snoop around for leftover bits well until they hired that asshole of a guard.” She remarked. “Oh yeah. I remember him.” Micheal replied as he rolled his eyes at remembering the suppose security guard that got hired by the property manager to make sure no one would break in. He understood though, given the drug addicts and homeless would often times brake into places around there and ruin it for people like them who only want to look around and maybe find something useful that was remnants of the old News Papper factory.
As they looked at the picture of the old factory the window went white. “What the fuck?” Amy said at the sudden disappearance of well everything that was in the window. Everything but the USB drive folder that clearly was still being read by her computer, just none of the contents. “What the fuck just happened?” She asked Micheal who closed out the window and opened it back up to only be greeted with a blank white screen. “No freaken idea.” He replied clearly equally as lost as she was. “Well fuck. And here we are about to get the popcorn .” Amy said, crossing her arms as she looked at the computer screen. “Well, that was interesting.” He said as he stood up and stretched. “But hey, if you find any more you know now to wait to open them.” Amy laughed and nodded her head. “Yeah, now I know.”
Micheal looked at the time on his phone. “Well, it’s getting late and I got a major test in the morning.” He said as he got up and stretched out. “But hey. If I can take this with me back to my room I could try and see if I can retrieve the info from it if you like.” Amy looked up to him and grinned. “I have a feeling your taking this as a challenge?” “Damn strait.” He said. “Its cool by me but hey, you get anything let me know asap ok?” “Got it! Also text me tomorrow, ok?” He said as he took the USB drive from the computer and shove it in his coat pocket. “Right.” She said giving him a mock salute. Micheal chuckled and opened the door to head back.
After Micheal left Amy took her hair down and turned off her lamp. She padded her way over to her bed and slid in. Pulling the covers to her chin she couldn’t help but to wonder more on the USB and why it was someone who would program it to just wipe everything from its memory especially if its such detailed info that they may need. Perhaps to make sure no one could copyright infringement it? Or was it really something more than just some well thought -out outline of a video game? Losing the battle, Amy allowed her mind to wonder about what she read as she drifted off to sleep.