The Office

The man stood proudly in front of two automatic glass doors.

"My friends! Welcome! I'm sure that you are all very, very excited to check this place out, but before we do so, let me just talk a bit about this company here."

As he spoke, he paced about, and made a lot of animated hand gestures. For a man in his 30s who was dressed sharply in a business suit, it's as if he was a kid explaining how his new toy is the best one around.

"That's enough about me. Now, shall we proceed?"

As he ushered them into the building, the crowd slowly entered. One of the guests took notice of his nametag, which wrote 'Stan'.

"This here, ladies and gentlemen, is our beautiful receptionist Lily!"

He waved towards a blond woman in her early 20s, talking to someone on the phone. Hearing Stan mentioning her, she looked up and waved towards us and flashed a sweet smile.

"Sorry, we're always getting calls, so she's a bit tied up. She's really sweet though. Now, as you probably know, this is where most of our guests wait, while the proper representative comes and meets up with them. However, seeing as you are all my very own special guests, we shall proceed immediately."

Stan then led the group of people past the receptionist's area, and into what appears to be an office. The area was packed with desks, each with their own computers and stacks of papers. The faces of the employees could barely be seen, what with all of the stuff on their desks. Their voices, though, were a whole different matter.

"Hey! Where's the form I gave you just now? Is it processed yet?!"

"Quit shouting at me about that! I'm working on it!"

"Would you two ladies please shut the hell up?! I'm trying to work here!"

Men were shouting at each other across the entire floor. However, the moment one of them saw Stan approach, he shouted,

"The Boss is here!"

Instantly, there was silence across the floor. Stan turned around to face his guests, and explained,

"Do excuse the noise. Things can get very chaotic, with the amount of work that we have to do day in an out."

He then turned towards his employees.

"Keep up the good work, guys! You guys are my soldiers out in the field. You are my eyes,  my ears, my arms."

The instant he said that, everyone could see a look of pride swelling up within each and every one of the employees. Suddenly, another employee approached from a small room at the side, holding a stack of papers.

"Hey! Which asshole asked for this stack of forms? Wait a minute, why all the silence?"

As he realized that Stan was in the office, there was a look of fear in his face. Stan pointed at him,

"You! What's your name?"

"I-I-It's Lee, sir."

"Lee!"

His voice echoed throughout the silent office.

"You're doing a great job! Keep it up! Folks, you better keep up, otherwise Lee here will be grabbing Employee of the Month! Now, back to work, people!"

The employees sat back down almost immediately, and the next second, the shouting started again. Stan looks at his group of guests, smiles, and shrugs his shoulders.

He then proceeded to an elevator, and the group followed suit.

"This here, ladies and gentleman, is the express elevator. Goes straight to my office! You need a keycard for this, of course. This little guy here."

He fished out a black card from his pocket, and pressed it against a device attached to the wall next to the elevator.

DING! That familiar sound signalled the arrival of the elevator. Before he got in, Stan checked his wristwatch.

"Oh my! Is it that late already? We better hurry then! Please, ladies and gentleman, this way! This elevator can hold all of us!"

He pressed the highest floor available, the 7th floor. However, instead of going up, the elevator started moving in the opposite direction.

Sensing the confusion among his guests, Stan started to explain.

"As probably heard during my introduction, this company is very unique. Instead of expanding upwards, it goes downwards. The good thing is, we can all avoid the glare of that dang sun. The bad thing is, less ventilation."

The elevator descended slowly. The glaring lack of the standard elevator tunes made the silence all the more obvious. Then, a sudden sound within the elevator breaks the silence.

"Boss! Boss, you there?"

The PA system within the elevator boomed with the sound of a man, who sounded like he was trying to contact Stan. Acknowledging this, Stan headed to the panel of the elevator, held the comm button, and responded.

"Lucas! Where are you? I wanted to introduce you to these fine folks I'm guiding here!"

"Sorry boss! I had some things to do outside, and just came back! Good news though, we might have new people coming in soon!"

"Alright, great to hear that! I'll be seeing you in the 6.30 meeting later then."

As communication with Lucas ended, Stan once again broke the silence.

"Lucas is kind of like my right-hand man. He's our lead headhunter, and also does a lot of other stuff on the side," Stan said with a proud smile on his face.

DING DONG!

The elevator has reached its destination, the 7th floor. Without wasting a moment, Stan brought them over to his office.

"And here, my friends, is my private office. Let's talk business, shall we?"

He pointed at a middle-aged lady within the group.

"Shall we start with you?"

Nervously, she approached his desk, and took a seat.

"Hi...I'm Lucille. R-Recently, I realized that my husband is having an affair. I-I want to get back at that fox!"

She broke into tears. Comforting her, Stan provided her with a handkerchief, and spoke softly to her to take her time, and explain further.

"You have to understand that this is a one-time transaction. It's not something that we can do multiple times, you see? The payment can only be done once. So, I need you to calm down, and tell me slowly what exactly is it that you ask for."

On his desk, there was a nameplate, bearing his official position :

'Stan, CEO of Hell".