First Light

I despise work. Who doesn't? The daily grind, laboring and wasting away in an office while your boss laughs in your face. Your so-called “co-workers” treating you like you’re second best. I work in a news tower for the First Light Insurance corporation, on the corner of a packed street, on the 18th floor of 26. Laughable really; their name shrouds their failures with promises of enlightenment, of a better life. It's not so much the workload that irritates me, mind- more the looks of happiness and content upon everyone else's faces. The way their eyes light up when they get ahead of you in some way. When you’re on your way to get some hard-earned coffee after working for 7 hours straight and they point you out to the boss, and the next day you’re being called in to discuss why you’re “slacking.”

They live happy lives. Content lives. Free from pain and suffering. They’ve got a home to go to filled with joy and love, full of bright smiling faces upon their wives and husbands and children. Their families.

I had a family once.

They laugh, and they jeer, and they snigger when I slither past them. But I’m not so different to them. They go about their lives, making their rational decisions, making no false moves and owing everything to their conscience.

I had a conscience once.

They go home after a hard day’s work, driving back to their houses and apartments in their flashy cars and cacophonic motorcycles. They sprawl out on their couches, watching their televisions and reading their newspapers. They’ve got time to relax.

I had time to relax once.

<span lang="EN" style="color: white; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-themecolor: background1;">I live alone. You might have guessed that. But of course, you people would. You haven’t seen the light. You haven’t felt the warm glow that it provides, pleasing all the senses and satisfying every little need. It’s truly the only perfect thing in this world of imbalance.

<p style="line-height: 15.75pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: white; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-themecolor: background1;">I thought I was perfect once. No longer.

<p style="line-height: 15.75pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: white; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-themecolor: background1;">I’ve got nobody to waste my time on, and I’ve never needed anybody except myself. I’ve deceived so many in my time, and you’ve been no more of a challenge than the rest. To you, I’m just some crazy office worker.

<p style="line-height: 15.75pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: white; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-themecolor: background1;">How wrong you are.

<p style="line-height: 15.75pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: white; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-themecolor: background1;">First Light think they have it all. But they’re far from “first.” They came early on, yes, of course they did. Took all the glory too, and they’ve kept it ever since.

<p style="line-height: 15.75pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: white; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-themecolor: background1;">But it’s only a matter of time before we take it back.