The lift made a sound before opening. Ishanvi could hear the rapid beating of her heart. Her mind was ceaselessly compelling her to turn around and leave. The thought of walking reverse way and going back sounded tempting.
She couldn't. Defying her boss's command meant kissing the job goodbye. She couldn't afford that.
Even though there was nothing to be nervous about, he was her boss he could call her, he might have found some errors in the spreadsheet she prepared and had plans of chastising her.
The thought that was supposed to be comforting or fill her with confidence contradictorily filled her with immense fright as the flashes of him lashing onto her for her mistakes, pointing out the smallest mistakes made appearance.
Her feet walked on their own accord leading her to the destination she was dreading to reach. The nameplate "CEO" was now visible to her eyes causing her to shiver inadvertently.
Stockpiling every ounce of courage that had left her body the moment she was informed about the CEO wanting to meet her, she sighed heavily. For the sake of her job she had to face him.
'Darr ke aage jeet hai' She thought 'par yahan toh aage kuwa aur peeche khai hain' Her own thoughts were a contradiction to herself.
(Victory is beyond fear)
(but I'm between the devil and the deep blue sea) [ Both the statements are idioms with the same meaning, this is not the literal translation ]
Shaking away the negative feeling she had been getting since a while and rubbing her right eye which was flickering every now and then since morning she knocked on the door.
"May I come in sir?" The silence around the floor was deafening, she could easily hear the ticking sound of the clock. How was he able to stay somewhere so quiet, quiet as dead.
But considering how frightening he himself is it might not be a big deal for him to spend a night in a haunted bungalow as well.
"Yes" She closed her eyes one last time, preparing herself for a long admonishing session, a session that was going to include insults thrown by him at her, taunts that would make her feel worthless and a disgust filled warning.
She had an idea about how mad her boss was, thanks to her friend Evan, who made sure she knew the intensity of the situation and bid bye to the ounce of confidence she possessed.
She slowly sat foot inside his office, the feeling was quite familiar, same as how she felt when she had to enter the principal's office during her school days. The only upsetting difference was, this time she did not have her best friend to push inside first.
Entering into his vicinity, she felt suffocated. There was nothing wrong with the room or the air surrounding them but his presence was suffocating her. The aura he possessed was causing her to stiffle.
He was reading a file with his attention fully devoted to the file. She gulped inaudibly, a lot of scenarios began playing in her mind, may be that file contained her spreadsheet.
"You called me sir? How may I help you?" Shivaansh upraised his head from the file to her, fixing his gaze on her, he surveyed her, staring at her intensely.
Ishanvi shifted her weight from her left foot to her right one. The way he was staring at her had started to make her uncomfortable and conscious about herself. She fixed the sleeve of the shirt she was wearing with uneasiness clouding her vision. She felt her right eye twitching again.
She had heard somewhere that the twitching of an eye brings either good fortune or bad fortune but she did not know if the twitching of right eye brought good luck or the left one.
"Yes Miss Aacharya, please sit" Shivaansh smiled gesturing towards the seat in front of his desk. Something about the smile he falshed felt odd to her. It did not look real but not fake as well. The smile seemed deranged, filling her with fear.
"You must have heard about the things going on inside the company, right? Miss Aacharya" He closed the file, keeping that on the table swiftly. His eyes were still fixated on her face, surveying all her facial expressions knowing his incessant staring was making her feel discomfited he made no attempt of moving his eyes away.
"Yes sir" Confusion made an appearance in her brain, did he call her to gossip about the things going inside the company? The way she and Evan used to do?
Was the CEO of such an enormously spread business so free, so vegetate, so vehla (totally free/ unemployed) that he had to call one of his employees to gossip about the happenings inside his company inorder to pass his time?
"You were called here just to answer a few of my questions. Do you know anything related to that matter? You are an employee you must know the things happening behind my back" He asked calmly, very calmly to be precise, as if they were some long lost friends and he wanted to initiate a conversation.
But Ishanvi was oblivious to the fact that he was using each an every word with cautiousness , so as to not drop any hint, if she was the culprit she shouldn't know about him suspecting her and if she was innocent, she must not have a reason to resign.
"No sir, as you know the team chosen for the project are senior in position than me and the employees I know were as oblivious as I am" Shivaansh nodded, observing her carefully if she showed any kind of hesitation or any sign of making things up. He found none.
"So any suspicion? Any one you think who could be behind this? You might get a reward if your suspicion comes true" Ishanvi stared at roof of the room, trying to recollect her memory and remember if she noticed someone behaving suspiciously but remembered nothing.
"No sir, I cannot recall anyone being suspicious, I'm clueless" Shivaansh nodded warily, he did not find anything suspicious about her or a sign of perfidiousness. Instead he found her to be innocent and clueless about the whole situation but looks could be deceiving. He couldn't pass a judgment on the basis of one meeting.
"Thankyou, Miss Aacharya, you may leave" Ishanvi quickly stood up from the seat, all ready to leave that room and run to her cubicle, she was happy that the meeting was over and prayed to god that this should be her last meeting with her boss.
'May be twitching of right eye brings good fortune' She thought smiling internally, scurrying away from the room with a happy heart.
"Advik" Shivaansh called his Personal Assistant when Ishanvi was out of sight. His gaze was fixed on the door, staring intensely. Advik settled and glasses and stood near to his boss.
"Yes sir?"
"Interrogate the security gaurds, check all the CCTV cameras and keep an eye on Miss Aacharya, I will not jump into any conclusion until I get some more clues against her" He said, his eyes had morphed into a darker shade, his once grey eyes appeared almost black as he gazed at the door, the path she walked away from.
If she was the real culprit she must start watching her back because he gave her a chance to confess, she did not. Now it was his turn to punish.
He smiled, the same deranged smile, tilting his head a little he closed his eyes, the smile did not fade but increased with each passing second.
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