Total pages in book: 46
Estimated words: 43197 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 216(@200wpm)___ 173(@250wpm)___ 144(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 43197 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 216(@200wpm)___ 173(@250wpm)___ 144(@300wpm)
I had made myself a vow never to go back in the pool, and I was determined not to. I had developed a phobia about water that grew daily by leaps and bounds.
Meanwhile, my health was getting worse. There was my white hair then my skin which turned as gray as ashes. My eyes were sunken in my head. I thought I must have some kind of aggressive cancer or wasting disease, but the doctors couldn’t seem to find any problem.
And every day, my mother went hungry so she could buy medicine and food for me. It was intolerable, so I loaded myself in her car one day and drove to the State Unemployment office to see if I could find some kind of job.
That’s where I first met the “lovely” Dragon Lady.
On this particular morning, I was sitting at the Dragon Lady’s cubicle, so sick and weak from my unidentified disease I could barely hold up my head. I had been begging for some scrap of a job which I would no doubt be unable to perform if it called for much more than napping throughout the day. I glanced down at the job description the Dragon Lady had just handed me. It most definitely didn’t look like I’d be napping.
I hadn’t gotten far yet, but the job so far described a mansion of eleven-thousand-square-feet, so I’d venture a guess that nobody who worked at that house ever napped. Or slept. Or allowed deathly sick, wasting-away-to-nothing, hair white as snow weirdos to even walk past the huge metal gate protecting the big estate known as Magick Hill.
It was a stupid-ass name for no doubt stupid-ass rich fucks. In my opinion, the gate with the name on it in the picture she slid across to show me was both obnoxious and ostentatious. Overkill too, since their so-called sanctuary was located near Knoxville, which was a decent sized city, but not exactly a huge metropolis.
Pushing the paper holding the job information back across the desk to the Dragon woman, I sighed and weakly asked, “Is this some sort of sick joke?” I was so tired of my fucking life. Too sick to be employed and too stubborn to just go ahead and die already. “We both know I’m not qualified for whatever these rich folks need, so why even dangle this opportunity in front of me?”
She gave me the look she always did—no empathy and totally bored with having to assist with my job search. “The only joke here was that another agent must have slipped your resume into the stack I scanned and emailed to Mr. Magnus, the employer. If anything, I’m all too well aware of your…” she looked me up and down, “many shortcomings.”
“Dying isn’t a shortcoming,” I snapped. “Being ill in this country without healthcare is a fucking bitch. Try to at least pretend to have some empathy.” She merely pursed her orange lips. Her eyes didn’t soften at all.
Leaning forward, she said, “I get a bonus whenever I get a good match, Mr. Theos. Let’s be honest with each other…you aren’t going to be a good match for any employer. In other words—you are a waste of my time and this state’s resources. Facts are facts. It isn’t my fault you’re in this situation.” She shrugged. “Have they tested you for AIDS?”
I gasped and was completely shocked into silence. Surely I’d heard her wrong? Even as uncaring and politically incorrect as she’d been from our first meeting until now, I would never have thought she would actually say something so cruel and personal out loud.
Completely humiliated, I slowly turned my head to see that every eye in the room had fallen on me and Dragon-face.
“Why would you ask me such a thing?”
“Well, considering your…lifestyle, I thought the question was appropriate. If you have a diagnosis, I can get rid of your file and send you over to Medicaid.”
“My lifestyle?” I felt my face burn hot. With as much dignity as I could muster, I jerked up my backpack and grabbed my walking cane. When standing, I hobbled just a bit, but it was, all in all, graceful for me. “Yes, I’ve been tested. I appreciate your…concern. Have a good day.”
I needed to hustle—tears were threatening to fall, and wouldn’t that just be fucking peachy?
A strong hand wrapped around my upper arm, offering the additional strength I so badly needed but didn’t want. I intended to jerk away, but the grasp was firm—very firm. I glanced up, intending to give him a piece of my mind. I couldn’t stand pity, but for some reason my brain stopped connecting to my mouth. The guy was gorgeous. Tall. Dangerously good-looking—even wickedly so.
That was such a strange thought, I hesitated and let him hold onto my arm.
“Easy, Kailar,” he whispered softly. “I’ve got you.” He turned to Dragon-face, saying, “You think it would be a good idea to pack up your desk and leave this office immediately, don’t you?”