if something chases you | l. cruthers

chapter 1

Melody just nodded, smiling up at the man. After he left, Leon asked her into his office.

"You're an intern so you probably aren't supposed to know this, but I couldn't care less because I know you don't talk to anyone but me."

Melody knew she should be offended, but he was right. She had no friends here and probably wasn't going to make any.

"Besides, I need to vent and I don't particularly like Hayden enough to tell him this. InGen is on Simon's ass right now about the attractions and he's not taking their threats seriously. It's all falling to me to calm them down. Hoskins isn't exactly being helpful about the tensions. He shouldn't even be in the office."

"Mr. Evil Nightmare Freak." Melody whispered to herself. Fuck Vic Hoskins. He hadn't been bossing her around as much lately, but that was because every time she saw his greasy head she turned a corner and hid.

Leon perked up, a small smile gracing his face. "I suppose you could call him that."

Melody flushed. She didn't think Leon's hearing was good enough to catch the rude nickname.

"Anyway, they're trying to come after Simon's job and I'm the only one who seems to care."

Melody nodded, not really sure what to say. It wasn't her place to say anything, actually. Leon vented some more and blew off all the steam he had pent up. He realized what he was doing and apologized, letting Melody get back to her work. While she was somewhat grateful to be freed from conversation, she also wasn't too excited about being chained to her desk again.

She hunkered down for the rest of the day, calculating the recent increase in guest injuries she was to be presenting the next day.

She was extremely terrified. Public speaking and the like had never come easy to Melody, which was why she had decided to apply for the IT internship. They clearly didn't need an IT intern, so here she was writing a script to be delivered to the top dogs of InGen and MasraniCorps the next morning.

When she went home that night, she practiced her presentation in the shower and later in the mirror. She'd done the math and spreadsheets and graphs easy enough, that was her specialty. What was taking hours was working up the courage to look herself in the eye in the mirror as she delivered her words.

She allowed herself to sleep only when she was sure she'd done the whole thing through without saying 'um' once. The meeting was at nine, so she  was sure to have plenty of time in the morning to prepare.

•

Melody's first few alarms did not wake her, and she had almost no time in the morning to prepare.

She dressed, grabbed her bag, did her makeup on the monorail, and hurried into work at 8:30. When she started to unpack at her desk, she realized her cue cards were on her kitchen counter. Frantically logging into her desktop, she printed new cards and walked to the printer to meet them.

She tapped her foot as her notes printed, sheet by sheet.

"In a rush?" A voice sounded from behind her. She turned to see a man clearly not dressed for the office with his hands in his pockets, standing just a few paces away.

"Yeah, I, uh..." Melody stumbled over her words at first, as usual, but regained composure. "I have a presentation in..." She checked her watch. "Thirteen minutes and I forgot my notes at my apartment."

"I'm Lowery." The man held his hand out to shake. "I work in the control room."

Melody shook his hand. "Melody. IT intern. I always thought the control room was full of scary people in black suits and sunglasses working twenty-four seven."

Lowery chuckled, leaning on the wall. "Only the second part, they've got us on around the clock up there."

Melody paused, frowning. "Why are you down here?"

He stood straight up, checking his watch. "I shouldn't be, that's for sure. I'll see you around, Melody." He smiled sheepishly, hurrying to the elevator.

Melody snatched her notes, grabbed her flashdrive from her desk, and hurried to the meeting. She was there early to set up, and thankfully Leon had already arrived to keep her from spiraling. He gave her whatever pep talk he could, and settled into his seat as the others began to arrive.

Claire Dearing, Simon Masrani, Vic Hoskins, all the big names were there.

She knew this presentation. She'd done all the research herself, and studied her script for hours. She took a deep breath, and once the last person arrived and got settled in, she began.

"Hi. Um," Already a horrible start. She looked to Leon in a panic, and he gave her a reassuring smile and nod. She closed her eyes as if to clear her mind, and began again.

She made it through with minimal stutters and hyperventilation. Simon seemed pleased with her work, which was a relief. Claire and Hoskins only cared about the data, which made sense. It was concerning stuff, especially since a lot of the injuries were dinosaur-related.

Once the presentation was over and she was dismissed from the meeting, she grabbed Leon's arm. "I blacked out, what happened?"

"You did well, Melody. It was absolutely perfect."

The girl sighed in relief, but some of the anxiety stayed behind, wondering if Leon was lying to her to make her feel better.

She went through the motions of the rest of the day — coffee, printer, Simon's office, lunch, et cetera, et cetera. At five o'clock, she headed out as fast as possible.

Immediately facetiming her best friend and former college roommate, Holly, Melody unlocked her apartment door and pushed it shut with her hip.

The two caught up on the week since they'd last talked, and Melody let herself talk about the cute boy she'd met. Well, cute man. She had no idea how old he was. He seemed young-ish, but he was clearly older than herself. She didn't care.

Holly, ever the pervert, had many wild things to say about the 'older' man. Melody shut that down real quick. It wasn't like he was ancient. Maybe thirty, thirty-five.

Tomorrow was her day off, and she had very big plans to see the park.

•

an awkward ending i fear but we'll get there