if something chases you | l. cruthers

chapter 1

By the end of the third week, she was back to enjoying the job. There was a woman, Claire, the Park Operations Manager, who she saw most often. While she wasn't exactly being mistreated, Claire was definitely taking advantage of her position. Even with her own personal assistant. As usual, it was coffees, fetching papers and files, delivering messages.

It seemed as if she never got to do what she was actually there for; helping with the IT department. Not that they really needed the help, Simon Masrani hired the top minds, so why would he need a 21 year old poking around and getting in their way?

So she stuck to the coffees, the cleaning, and the spreadsheets.

On her sixth week, Leon sent her to the control room. She'd never been up there, and she was terrified. The elusive and mysterious control room, where men in black suits and sunglasses ordered each other around and spoke in code over the radios, watching the whole island on hidden cameras.

She stepped into the elevator and selected the top floor. Taking deep breaths, she waited for the ding that indicated her arrival. As the elevator doors slid open, she barely caught a glimpse of the room before one of those very men in black suits stepped in front of her. "You can't be up here."

She tried to explain herself, but the guard wouldn't let her speak. She finally got the courage to interrupt him. "I'm the intern. Mr. Aldridge has a message for Mr. Masrani. I was told he was up here?" She tried to look past the guard, but he was built so broad and wide that he blocked her vision. She was growing seriously frustrated with him.

An unfamiliar voice cut in. "Oh, let her in."

The guard begrudgingly stepped aside and allowed Melody a full view of the room. It was very much not the mysterious, dimly lit scary room she'd been stressing over. The room was fairly wide and open. The employees were in what was just barely business casual. The only thing remotely close to her suspicions was the large screen that showed everything there was to see about the park. She hadn't even gotten a chance to explore the park, being run so ragged by her superiors. That is, everyone here was her superior.

A man stepped closer, clearly the owner of the voice that had spoken before. "I'm Simon Masrani. What's your name?"

"Melody Halstead, sir. I'm the InGen intern."

"So you've said."

Melody's cheeks went pink. She was already losing this interaction. God, could she be any more pathetic?

"Mr. Aldridge has important news regarding a mild, um, problem between InGen and Masrani Corps."

Mr. Masrani nodded slowly, then turned towards the elevator. "Shall we, then, Miss Halstead?"

She smiled weakly, following him back to the exit. Before she stepped inside the elevator, she cast a last look over her shoulder at the control room.

When she and Simon reached Leon's office, she waited outside. If Leon hadn't told her the details before, he clearly wasn't planning on it. Whatever it was seemed to be solved, because Simon emerged minutes later with a smile on his face. "Not to fear, Leon. Things always work out. That's why we have brilliant minds such as yourself and Miss Halstead over there."

He gestured to Melody's tiny desk, causing her to sink a bit lower into her seat. She was focused in on a weekly report and was trying not to lose her momentum.

Simon Masrani clearly didn't realize that. He approached her desk and leaned against the wall next to it. "Miss Halstead, I'd like to monitor your progress more closely. Mr. Aldridge tells me you're getting on very well and I want to see for myself. I'll be checking in on you more often."