When The Stars Align ...

Mae was effortlessly typing on her keyboard at her desk, like a concert pianist playing the hardest symphony. There were small stacks of mixed folders and loose documents forming a paper city on the floor, but some paperwork still needed to be finished. The secretary turned to look at the stacks, tracking her progress, and she let out a heavy sigh.

I’m never going to be done by 5 'o'clock, thought to herself.

She pushed her navy-blue glasses tighter to her and re-tied her long brunette hair back into a French twist held by pencil. Stretching her neck side to side, she was winding herself back to the long grind.

“Mae! Where are those files?!” screamed Mr.Torero in his office behind her.

Frightened like a deer in headlights she froze, then gathered a stack of the files in her arms and headed to his door.

“Here they are!” and then gently set the files in front of him.

“What is all this?” he snapped.

“It’s all the supporting documents, copies of reports … even a detailed breakdown of the pitch for today’s conference. That’s what you asked me to prepare yesterday … Sir.” Mae retreated a step away from her boss’s desk, feeling like she was a child, guilty but didn’t know why.

“I never said that.” he arrogantly denied.

“I told you to prepare the briefing for today, not bring the entire file cabinet in here!”

“But you asked me to make the briefing and get everything related to Selene Labs and -”

“I know what I said.” he sternly cut her off.

He roughly took the file that was marked SELENE on top, waved to his secretary to make her hard work disappear from his desk. Discouraged, she took the stack away and moped back to her desk, chained again to work.

Urgh! Now I have to shred all of this, she thought .

I definitely have to stay late … again. And it had to be a Friday.

Slowly she dropped her head close to her desk, and gently banged her head on the wood surface multiple times.

Mrs. Selene closed the business proposal, while the screen projector rolled itself up and the lights gradually turned on in the conference room.

“So what do you think?” he confidently asked Mrs.Selene, twirling his office chair a bit. Mae sat off to the side, quietly and obediently note-taking.

“This is impressive.” Mrs. Selene boldly replied.

“I put my heart and soul into the project to be the best, worked on it all night.”

Snap!

Mae’s pencil tip broke on her notepad, full of anger that her boss took all her credit.

Ugh! Right ‘cause he worked on it so hard that he left early with his “friend”.

“Selene Labs needs more innovative ideas like this, if you can give me a detailed layout of your proposal next week I will sign off on this.” said Mrs.Selene.

Mae keeps her nose to the notepad, frustrated but powerless to the situation because no one will believe a secretary did her boss's job. Mr.Torero smiled and nodded, but leered at Mae as a sign. That's code for her to stay late tonight.

It’s hot and arid, the sky is clear and the sun is blazing. Mae finds herself trapped in a rustic and dusty arena. Where am I , what is this place?

Rotating around the ring like a rogue dust devil until suddenly… she hears a faint bellow that stops and freezes her in place. The bellow rumbled from deep within the arena ... then grew louder ... and stronger.

Mae quickly turned and behind her was a monstrous brown bull, with piercing eyes of red hot fury and horns shaped like two scimitars. It’s crazed eyes fixed on her.. she was truly in the bull’s eye. Fear parlayed her legs, anxiety clouded her thinking and a feeling of dread washed over her. The bull trotted towards her quickly, picking up his speed and snorting angrily like a car engine revving up to top speed. It was going to charge right through Mae. She was horrified but had no choice but to accept her fate, she shut her eyes tightly and just as the tip of the bulls horns reached her the beast … it dissolved into her, washing over her like a wave of fog.

She opened her eyes and in the distance was a man in a flashy scarlet red suit, embellished with flamboyant sequins and glittery gold knots that the detailing blinded Mae and irritated her. He commanded the arena as he flapped his red cape to an invisible crowd, cheers echoed and roared so much that it shook the ground. She tried to lift her hands but they were heavy, beefy hooves stomping on the ground. Then she realised the bull wasn’t attacking her … she was the bull and the man in the distance was a bullfighter.

He was arrogant and cocky,goading Mae to charge him with his cape and waving it around him more like a baton twirler than fighter. Despite the weak display it made her furious, and the fury grew like wildfire. Was it the spirit of the bull controlling her, or was she truly in control?

Only wrath and the idea of revenge occupied her mind amidst the growing rage inside her. Then, she charged at the bullfighter kicking up dust and just as she reached him he stepped aside. The cape grazed her horns, but no impact, she missed.

Smash!

Mae crashed into the wooden frames, shattering the wood barrier. Mae’s head was dizzy and saw doubles of the slippery bullfighter, she slowly walked aside to regain her sight. She had to wait for her chance. Maybe while he was distracted by the ghost crowd cheering for their false idol, she bolted after him again!

Swish! Swish, Swish!

The bullfighter thrashed his red cape and thrust a sharp spear into her back, the pain serving only to fuel her rage.

Missed again.

Argh! This ridiculous, egotistic, pathetic excuse of a bullfighter is making a mockery out of me!

The crowd ate up the bullfighter’s flashy arm work and screamed with adoration, the wails and cheers deafened Mae’s hearing.

The rage building inside Mae was not giving her more power, only making her weaker like a parasite. Mae desperately tried to disarm herself from this dark emotion, her mind filtering the toxins to aid herself to think.

She watched the bullfighter closely to find a sign of weakness. With a great flourish, the bullfighter drew his sword to boost his ego with the cries of his ghostly fans. Mae kept her distance to form a strategy, she only has this one last shot. The crowd loudly begged for more theatrics from the bullfighter, and he was happy to oblige them. He waved the cape from his one hand in a swooping figure eight, then slicing it side to side while he posed. This was it! Mae catapulted herself forward with as much force as she could muster, while the bullfighter was distracted playing to the worship from the crowd. By the time the bullfighter could react, it was too late. Caught on Mae’s horns, she lifted him high above her and slammed him into the ground like a professional wrestler. Until Mae held the fate of the bullfighter under her hooves.

Victory was Mae’s.

The crowd erupted, across the area with triumphant roars.

Slowly … she felt her body break into pieces … then into particles. The wild heat and loud surroundings disappear immediately, morphing into a beautiful starry night. Mae could see and feel the pieces of her body glow. Spreading further and further away, lacing itself within the galaxy of stars. The silence of space calms Mae’s temper like water dousing a campfire. Mae felt … boundless. Looking at the bigger picture of the universe and how small Earth really was, reduced to a freckle in the grand portrait of the night.

Beep, Beep, Beep!

“Mrgh!” Mae croaked faintly, as she struggled to open her eyes and wake from her lucid dream. She was still sitting in her office chair, half her body hunched over her desk filled with paperwork. Drool formed a puddle of spit on her desk, while some of her makeup rubbed off on the documents. She rolled her face around the pile of paper a little bit, then on the keyboard until she slowly lifted herself upright. She rubbed her eyes, dusting the dream from her eyes. Focusing on the clock, she had quite a shock when it read 1:15 AM.

“I’ve been here all night?! My fu-” she started to get frantic until one of the documents in front of her caught her eye. Picking it up for a closer look her eyes widened like a camera lens. Her hands rapidly flipped through more papers, sniffing out any more eye-catching records. Like wildflowers they popped up more and more in the lake of paperwork and detective Mae was piecing the clues to the big puzzle she never knew was right in front of her.

It’s Monday afternoon and as usual, Mae was at her desk. Her long flowing hair was left untied to hang, like a waterfall down her scarlet red blouse. Typing away on her keyboard, she patiently waited for Mr. Torero's late arrival.

Finally passing by her like he owned the place, Mr.Torero quickly went to his office, then shut his door.

Once he seated himself, he noticed a couple of plain brown envelopes on his desk, marked Confidential which had no return address. With no hesitation, he opened one and pulled out a thick neatly stacked and stapled document. His mood changed from indifferent to surprised, anxiety shot through him like a bullet. Examining each page, his eyes grew wider with each line he scanned. Violently, he threw the papers aside and ripped the second envelope open, finding another stack of stapled documents thicker than the first. Like a sinner in church, face beat red and sweaty, his adrenaline consumed him. Hysterically flipping through the new package of paper he dropped it on his desk, and grabbed as much of the mail as he could and began jamming into his shredder.

As he was destroying the evidence, an email notification appeared on his monitor. He rushed to open the email sent from someone named TORRO, there was only a file attached to it that was titled JEN. He swallowed what was left of his pride and opened the attachment. Photos, screenshots of text messages and chats, receipts from different hotels engulfed his display. Mr.Torero stared in disbelief, paralysed with fear and guilt.

Beeeep! Beeeep!

Mr. Torero answered his phone,“What?!”

“Mr.Torero, the shareholders called down this morning and said they wanted to see you immediately,” said Mae.

“Fine!” he replied and was about to hang up the phone.

“Oh wait! And your wife called too and left a message. Katherine said she needs to speak to you ... urgently.”

He had no words to say, and hung up on Mae.

Mr. Torero’s office door flew open and he stormed past Mae, frantically fixing his tie and tucking in his shirt on his way to the boardroom, shutting the door behind him. Mae returned to her work for the first time, a smile crept across her lips that quickly morphs into a devilish smirk. She opened her word processor to a new document and began typing like a musician composing her own song.

Dear Mr. Torero,

I’m informing you of my resignation ...