Vincent, happy to taste such tasty food, simply walked away from the shop, was following Alexander and Megumi carelessly, focusing only on eating his kebab, feeling like this was the epitome of his life, or death, depending on the lens. He wasn't even aware of where he was going, as he only followed Alexander's lead, so definetely, he didn't notice that the trio had gone back inside the building, only when Vincent's face met the metal doors of the elevator, he went back to reality.
" We're back to elevator? " He asked, quite confused, looking at Alexander, with a crumb on the corner of his mouth;
" We still haven't seen the lower part, plus, someone has to send Megumi to work " Alexander said, adfter staring at Vincent for three seconds;
Megumi only whined, being held captive by Alexander, who held her by her shirt collar, like a kitten, this made Vincent giggle a bit, the two looked like bickering siblings, just like Vincent5 and his own sister. Upon thinking of his sister, Vincent's face instantly held a gloomy expression, she was still in college when he had died, Vincent asked himself how she was now. Suddently, the 'ding' of thge elevator sounded, bringing Vincent back to reality, the three of them, alongside with some other employees, all boarded the elevator, filling it with endless chatter.
" What are the lower floors for? " Vincent asked, finishing his kebab and placing the wrapping on his pocket, instinctively;
" Afterlife subscription visitation. " Megumi answered, playing a game on her phone, now free from Alexander's grip;
" what? " Vincent said, confused, as it sounded like a travel agency thing and not an afterlife thing;
" The believer's souls come through the main office, which is on the first floor, then, we calm them and explain our policy, helping them to fill a requirement and questionary about their beliefs and data, we then send them to a floor so they can see their afterlife options and where they'll end up with " Megumi explained, quite bored and annoyed, only confirming that this, indeed, looked like a travel agency;
" don't worry, Vince, we won't be visiting all the floors, the luch time is almost done, and we need to take Megumi back to her workstation " Alexander said, trying to sound sweet to Vincent, while holding Megumi's collar again, making both Vincent and her frightened;
A shiver ran through Vincent's spine as he heard the radio-man voice of Alexander with a barely contained anger, he made a mental note to never piss Alexander off himself. Vincent also wondered other thing, in between of instinctly moving to the sides for some employees to step out of the elevator on most diverse floors; he then turned to Alexander and Megumi.
" Alexander is there holding you and guiding you to your workstation my your collar, this makes me wonder... Megumi, how old are you? " he asked, suddently, cooking a theory;
" Vincent, pal, it's severely impolite to ask a woman's age, ya know... " Alexander started to say, cold sweat running down his forehead as if he was embarassed;
" shush, Alex! " She said, to Alexander, with angry eyes; " I'm nineteen!! Or was when I died... " Megumi added, striking a pose, then started to wander around her mind, spitting a bunch of nonsense;
Vincent, on the other side, got as pale as a man could be, like he was some sort of ghost or victorian child, he could not believe his ears fully and only could do some weird static noises.
" NINETEEN!? You are that young!? " Vincent shouted, surprised, attracting some stares from the other eployees, but he didn't mind as he was trying to cope with the fact that this flashy woman was almost a teenager;
Megumi and Alexander looked at this chaotic and in panic Vincent for ten whole seconds, befor bursting into laughter, leaving Vincent speechles and feeling totally and utterly pathetic as EVERYONE was now staring at him, he wanted to die again and bury himself in a hole. Alexender, then stepped foward, letting go of Megumi and placed his hands on Vincent's shoulders.
" There are a lot of young people here, Vince, calm down, she's alright, calm down " Alexander said, trying to calm a dreading Vincent while keeping himself from laughting;
" But she's a teenager, Alexander " Vincent said, feeling his soul leaving his soul body;
Alexander laughed a bit and brought back Vincent's soul back to his soul, and started stroking Vincent's shoulders, calming him down. The elevator rang again and Alexander quickly grabbed Megumi's collar, then thre trio walke out of the elevator into a grand hall full of employees and some sould, the walls were full floor-to-celing windows with a large glass door, on the sides, two large balcons with some cheerfull looking women talking with sould, it was, exacly how Megumi had described, packed with seamingly lost souls and endles chatter, like a hotel reception, or Travel Agency reception. Alexander dragged a whining and unhappy Megumi, followed by Vincent, to one of the balcons, attracting the attention of everyone there.
" Good Afternoon, I am here to bring Megumi back from her lunch break, I hope ya'll can take good care of her. " Alexander said, with his perfect voice, and showed his perfect smile to the poor receptionists;
" Thank you, Mr. Hawke! We will take care of her " The women said, grabbing Megumi and sitting her down, they all looked like teenagers in love, Vincent found it pathetic;
" No worries! I'll be taking my leave now, Goodbye, ladies! " Alexander said, sounding and looking perfect, waving as he went towards Vincent; " Let's go, I need to train you too " Alexander said, looking at the irritaded Vincent;
Vincent left out a confused sould before being whisked away by Alexander, who had grabbed his wrist and dragged him to the elevator, leaving no room for Vincent to even fathom what had just happened.
" You seem popular, Alexander " Vincent said, trying so hard to hide his envy and mockery as the two stood on a mildly crowded elevator;
" Oh, yeah, those women sure love me " Alexander said simply and almost bored, leaving out just a small chuckle dismissively;
Vincent wanted to punch Alexander in the face right now and there for his careless behaviour towards the women. He said like it was easy and simple, something that Vincent himself knew he was not going to experience that easily, just like he didn't in all of his life. What kept Vincent from disfiguring Alexander's very handsome and perfect face was: a) Alexander was too tall; b) Vincent wasn't as strong as he needed to be; c) the elevator doors had just opened up to their floor. So the two men simply stepped out of the elevator and into the 187th floor and it's gray scenario, Vincent thought about how monochromatic this world was and almost laughed.
" Here we are, to end your tour, here is our new home, the Call Center " Alexander said, looking at Vincent with his arms open wide, smiling like a very convincing salesman;
" Ooohh what a nice place to finish our tour, Alexander " Vincent smirked, and said, giggling as he walked towards Alexander;
" Hah!! Bet. Here are the cubicles, inside you can see tired looking employees on their workstations, they've talking with insufferable believer's lost souls, it's a very common species in the company " Alexander said, sounding like some sort of exotic life journalist or tour guide as he guided Vincent, who was now laughing as he followed Alexander, smiling and covering his mouth, through the corridors of cubicles;
Alexander then, keeping the 'zoo guide ' vibe, showed Vincent around the (main) part of the floor, showing where the coffee machines and vending machines were, some cubicles and explaining a bit of the company Policy. According to Alexander, the cubicle was owned by the company, so no changes besides glueing or taping things to the plastic-like walls, just like the computer, headphone and telephone, which was linked to the headphone and computer, for 'better connection ', which made sense, the wallpaper could be changed, on the other side, as long as it's something not offensive or religious. Vincent found it reasonable. At last, Alexander stopped on an empty cubicle and lead Vincent inside.
" Here we go, it's our last stop of the tour, your workstation " Alexander said, as if he was presenting some sort of product, which, in a way, he was;
" Thanks, mate. Mind to introduce me to the setup? " Vincent said, stepping inside the cubicle and walking towards the chair;
Vincent sat on the chair and pulled himself forward, pressing himself on the chair against the desk. Alexander then stepped forward and stood beside Vincent, leaning against the desk, before stating to point where everything was.
" From left to right, you will see: the pc, you can put a disc if you want to save some data and it's where you turn your computer on and off, there is also some ports for you to plug the telephone and your computer monitor " Alexander said, pointing to an old PC setup, probably from the nineties, on the floor, then pinged to the computer screen, which was a beige box and old type, in front of Vincent; " This is the monitor, you turn it on by pressing the bigger dot, the other are for sound and other configurations, there is also your keyboard... You know, computer things... " Alexander added, showing the computer setup, and making Vincent giggle for his inexperience with computers; " last but not least, this is your phone, it's plugged into the computer and onto your headpiece, you will hear it ring, click on the main button and the call will start " Alexander ended, showing a headpiece, a very clishe one with a microphone and plugged into a red telephone;
" Oh, I got it, I got it " Vincent said, nodding in agreement; " that's all? " He asked;
" No, turn the computer on " Alexander demanded, Vincent just clicked on the big button of the pc, making a starting sound, then turned the monitor on;
From the computer, an old Windows logo showed on the screen doing that classical opening sound, into a lockscreen. Vincent looked at Alexander, who simply did a signal for Vincent to click on the screen and it opened into a password screen.
" What's my password? Does the company give you one? " Vincent asked, confused, looking at Alexander as if he had all of the answers;
" You make it, just put anything you want now, it will be your passcode forever " Alexander said, he was sounding quite apprehensive and even unhappy, as if he was doing something hard;
Vincent then started to think about what to put as his password, after some seconds, he decided what to put, and quickly typed some numbers and letter, pressing enter when he was done. Alexander then, sighed and placed his hand on top of Vincent's, on the mouse, and started pointing with the other hand to the screen as he guided Vincent to log into the Company system, making an account for him and setting everything in.
" All set, now, for the work itself: you will get a call from your phone, click on the big button and it will go directly to your headphones; done that, you'll open the file, where you'll put the caller's information, that are: Full Name, Date of Birth, Local of Birth, Faith and a personal information, then, the system will automatically open on the person's file, then, you'll hear their complaint or doubt, in the end, you'll give the caller the information to solve their problem – if you'rein doubt, there is the manual right beside you – " Alexander pointed to a large book sittin beside the computer; " if you can't help, just forward it to other section. Got it? " Alexander said, and smiled as he finished his tour and guidance;
" I think so... " Vincent said, looking confused as there were so much to get and understand;
" Good. Now you're ready, good luck, Vince! " Alexander said, winked and walked away, waving dismissively;
Before Vincent could understand what had just happened, Alexander had vanished from his vision; desperate, Vincent stood up fastly and tried to look for Alexander's perfect curls between the sea of gray cubicles, and failed. To worsen his despair, the phone started ringing, signalling a call, Vincent whined and sat back on his chair, put on his headpiece, adjusted the microphone and clicked on the phone's large button.
" The Other side Call Center, I am Vincent, how can I help you? " Vincent said, reading from the manual, confused;
" WHERE AM I?? " Said a feminine and very desperate voice on the other side of the line;
" Calm down, please, What's your name? What do you see? " Vincent asked, also freaking out from the despair of the lady on the other side;
" Maria Silverwood. I am on a white place, it's so bright and so cold, there are many people here, and a river in front of me, I found this number on a pole. What's going on? " The woman said, sounding calmer, but still very afraid;
Vincent typed the woman's name on the computer, and what she had said on the complaint part, as fast as he could, while she spoke.
" Miss Maria, please calm down, you're on the afterlife entrance, what were you doing before you ended up here? When and where were you born? " Vincent tried to sound calming and reassuring, while interrogating the poor lady;
" Afterlife entrance!? What do you mean!? " The lady said, screaming scared into the phone; " Well... I was born in Seattle, June 15th 2001. I was just at home, cooking breakfast, now I am here. I am not dead, am I? " The lady was very nice and gave her information, while being very scared;
Vincent placed the lady's information on the computer and quickly her information showed up on his screen, she was a young woman, living alone in Paris, died while making breakfast because of a gas leakage.
" Miss... I am sorry to say... But you're indeed dead, the Ferryman will come get you in a moment. Tell me - " Vincent started saying, trying to deliver the news on the best way possible;
" Dead!? Ferrymen!? Is this some sorta joke? Are you pranking me!? I'll sue you!! " She screamed, scared and desperate, not allowing Vincent to speak;
" Miss Maria! Do you believe in God!? " Vincent could ask at last, between the lady's screams;
" Yes! Of course I do! I am an avid Christian girl! " She said, angry and confused;
" So, you died, today, 8 AM, while making breakfast, from a gas leakage on your apartment. You'll meet God as soon as you arrive on the afterlife. " Vincent half lied, trying to calm her down; " please, calm down, the Ferryman will get you, you'll step on the boat and then step out of it, then, you'll be escorted into your afterlife. Alright, Ma'am? " Vincent added, explaining everything, by reading from the guide book, to the lady, who seemed to be calming down;
" Will I see God?... That's okay, if it was God's will... Alright alright... Thank you, Vincent " she said, sounding way calmer and starting to believe on her reality;
" You're welcome, it's our job to help you and solve your sorrows on this very difficult moment " Vincent said at last, trying to sound cheerful and calming;
The lady on the other side thanked Vincent and ended the call, Vincent then edited the file, adding how he helped her solve the problem and saved the file on his computer documents. After all of this ended, Vincent started to breathe rapidly, scared and confused, as if he was the lady, and started to think how she was scared and how he was scared when he first arrived too; before he could freak out, the phone rang again, starting another call.
" The Other Side Call Center , my name is Vincent, how can I he- " Vincent started, trying to not sound as in panic as he was, but a sudden shout came through the phone;
" I don't care what you fucking name is! Why am I in hell?? I paid my 10% every month! I should be in heaven! " A male voice screamed through the headphone, almost making Vincent deaf and making him jump on his seat;
' Maybe because of your life choices? ' Vincent thought to himself, but just sighed and put on a smile on his face, opening a new file.
" I am sorry for that, mister, please answers these questions, so I can check on the system " he tried to sound as calm as possible; " What's your full name? When and where were you born? What's your belief system? " Vincent asked, calmly, but as quickly as possible to not allow the man to question;
" What kind of bullshit is that? Fine... My name is George Ashton, I was born in Dundee, Scotland, on November 5th 1977. I am a Catholic, I've been since birth. " The man answered, sounding irritated, and Vincent typed all of the answers;
George's file showed up quickly, just as the answer to why this man was burning in hell despite paying his thithes everyday for a long time. Vincent read it all quickly, smirked and sighed.
" Mister Ashtor, the reason of why you ended up in hell is simply because you didn't qualify to go to heaven, because of your actions, which includes many types of violence against many demographics and by the fact that you weren't, apparently, a 'real believer'... " Vincent answered, finding that last part ironic and confusing;
" That's total bullshit! What if I beat my wife? She was a whore anyways! I went to church every Sunday and paid 10% so I could be in heaven. That's total bullshit you're telling me, I'll be beating your face when I see ya! " The man said, screaming and threatening Vincent;
" Mister, it's what the system says, if you're unhappy, you can talk with the Afterlife Setting department. Better, I'm redirecting you there right now " Vincent said, and quickly pressed a button, redirecting the angry man cursing at him to another department;
Vincent then sighed, took of his headset and stared into his cubicle wall, trying to let everything that has just happened sink in before someone else called him.
" What the actual FUCK!? " he screamed into his hands, confused as hell;
Vincent started at the nothing for a few more seconds, then typed his solution to the man's problem and closed the file. Then, another person called him, pulling Vincent back to his reality, and when he was done with it, the phone rang again, and again, and again, in a seemingly endless loop of unreasonable questions and answers.