Chapter Text
Caleb headed down the busy London street, feeling the slight autumn breeze caress his face and tousel his hair. He kept his eyes closed behind the red lenses of his glasses due to the intensity of the afternoon sunlight that could not quite be filtered by the special lenses. The hustle and bustle around him was quite audible to his sensitive ears and provided a little bit of anxiety, but also a small comfort in that he wasn’t fully alone out here. He was among other people. What gave him the most comfort was the lead he held in his left hand and the long, pale cane in his right. He had Mercury, his guide dog to help him to his destination, the Magnus Institute. He was an intern there through a deal his rich, donor father had made with the owner of the place. He just hoped he wouldn’t disappoint them.
When he felt his cane bump up against the stone steps of the institute, he stopped, Mercury stopping with him. He took a deep breath and let out a heavy sigh before taking in a few more deep breaths to calm his nerves. The 17-year-old adjusted the messenger bag he had on over his shoulder since he’d just come over after a full day at his secondary school. New places and people made him so anxious, but his boss was supposed to meet him soon inside at his office so he could have a tour of the place and try to map it all out in his head as best as he could. He’d only ever been to the main waiting room or office since he would accompany his father sometimes when the man had to look after him and still go to business meetings. He’d just be sitting and reading so quietly that the staff often forgot he was even there.
He remembered the first time he’d been there, barely 12 years old since it was the year 2011. He’d been clutching his book so tightly under his right arm as he held his father’s large, cold hand with his smaller left hand. He was then led to a quiet room to a chair where he sat, his father sternly telling him to keep quiet. Caleb knew better than to make a peep even if he had to use the restroom or if he got thirsty or hungry. He had to remain in that chair and wait as long as it took even if he was uncomfortable the whole time. The staff forgot he was there as he ran his fingers slowly over the small bumps that were speckled in organized positions in lines across the pages in his book. His feet dangled off the chair since he’d been a rather short child until reaching his growth spurt, but kept still since kicking them was improper.
He remembered the disgruntled sigh of a man who sat down next to him, muttering about having to wait for an interview. Against his better judgment since he’d been told to be absolutely quiet with the intent of not bothering people, he turned his head towards the man to say, “O-Oh um…H-Hello, sir. A-Are you okay? Y-You sound upset…”
The man groaned and gave a sigh as he replied, “Yeah…I’m fine. I arrive here on time for an interview, and the man I am interviewing is stuck in a meeting…” The man’s voice was crisp, proper, reminding him of rustling parchment. It was pleasant sounding even if the tone didn’t reflect that.
Caleb frowns at the man’s words before he replies, “That’s not very considerate…What are you interviewing for anyway? What kind of job is it?”
“I’m supposed to be interviewing for a research position here,”the man grumbles, which causes Caleb to nod slightly in reply.
“I hope you get it, sir. I’m sure that you wouldn’t have been asked to interview in person if you weren’t at least a little qualified. I’m waiting for my father right now since he’s in a meeting with Mr. Bouchard….I-I was told that I had to be quiet, but um….I um….I haven’t talked to anyone in a few days, haven’t been allowed to… and um…I k-kind of m-missed it I guess? D-Don’t tell anyone o-okay? I um…don’t wanna get in trouble with my father.” He turns his head to have it face down towards his lap where his book is laid as his face heats up, turning bright red. He wasn’t able to see the shocked and concerned look upon this man’s face. Before the man could say anything, he heard his father’s footsteps towards the two which made Caleb’s jaw tighten. He tried not to shake.
“Oh…I hope my son hasn’t been bothering you, sir,” came his father’s deep, heavy voice that was like a weight on his chest, hitting him like a hard, uncaring ice cold ocean wave would hit a rock on the shore. Caleb could hear the slight tone of displeasure in it. His father wasn’t happy. This made the boy shrink down in his seat, wanting nothing more than to disappear at that moment. “He can be a right nuisance when he gets chatty.” The clipped t’s in his father’s speech made Caleb swallow hard. Caleb could feel tears starting to sting the corners of his eyes.
“No…I didn’t even notice he was there,” came the stranger’s voice in an even tone. He heard his father hum softly, seeming to relax.
“Oh…Good then. Well, have a good interview since Mr. Bouchard told me to tell you he was ready for you since I was just heading out…I assume you’re Mr. Sims? Well, if you are, he’s ready for you. Now, come on Caleb, we can’t keep your mother waiting.” When Caleb heard his name, he got out of the chair and stood up, feeling his father grab his hand and squeeze a bit too hard which caused him to wince. He just walked away though with his father, leaving the stranger, Mr. Sims, to his interview with Mr. Bouchard.
He jumped back when he felt a hand on his shoulder and he raised the hand with his cane immediately which caused it to drop from his hand a little bit. Since he had the loop on his cane around his wrist, it didn’t fall to the ground. Mercury kept Caleb stable on his feet with her large size being a standard poodle.
“My goodness, Caleb. You’ve certainly grown since I’ve last seen you,” came a familiar voice that Caleb would describe as having the texture of thick oil, crude oil to be more exact. He involuntarily shivered a little bit, nose wrinkling a little. He could vaguely smell it. It smelled faintly like petrol. “I’m sorry that I startled you out of your thoughts, but I was afraid you’d be stuck like that as a new statue for the Institute’s art collection.”
“I-It’s okay, Mr. Bouchard. Um…I-I’m so-sorry that I’m l-late.” A wave of fear rushed through Caleb, slithering up his throat like a snake. Oh god, he was late, oh god, his father would know. “I-It won’t h-happen again, sir. I-I promise!”
He heard Mr. Bouchard laugh softly and pat him on the shoulder, “You’re fine. Hell, relax a little bit. You’re not all that late…” He waited a few minutes for Caleb to fully calm down. “Now, I promised a tour, yeah? I want you to start getting your bearings since I’m planning on sending you to different departments eventually. First, you’ll be working around me and close to my office. We’ll gradually ease you into other places.” He felt Mr. Bouchard lead him up the steps, hand on his upper back. Caleb had to get a grip on his cane as he followed, making it collapse against his thigh for easier transport since his new boss would be leading him around.
“And you may call me Elias even if your father thinks of it as disrespectful.” This didn’t put Caleb at ease as his mind was screaming for Elias to stop touching him. However, Caleb didn’t voice this out loud and just kept walking with his new boss as he was led up the steps to the doors of the building.
“Now…We’ll start in the entrance hall and work our way to my office. I’m sure this is the most familiar route since you’ve been here with your father years ago. Not much has changed since then, so it hopefully shouldn’t be too difficult for you to navigate, Caleb.” Caleb just nods after Elias speaks. He thinks he can hear the man smile since the place is fairly quiet as he is led inside, doors closing behind the two. Caleb smiles shakily.
“O-Okay, s-sir, Elias,”he quickly corrects himself, wincing, flinching a little bit away from the older man.
“Alright, this is the main entrance hall.” As he spoke, Elias led him through the hall, making sure he didn’t run into anything. Not much to run into anyway since it was a hall mostly filled with chairs and tables against the wall. Caleb could feel how hard the floor was, and guessed it was marble or stone of some kind. It would probably be fairly slick if wet which made him vaguely dread winter for that fact alone. They were soon on a carpet of some sort, probably to keep people from slipping. He could hear more people in this new room as well as papers.
“We’re in the administrative wing of the building. Well, it’s more like a section. We have the main front desk here and the waiting area. This is probably what you’re most familiar with since your father would have you wait in here. My office isn’t too far from here. It’s close to the head of HR’s office and my assistant’s office.” He was led through the area, having places pointed out to him when they came to them by Elias stopping and having him face the direction of these places. When they came to Elias’s office, the man let him in and let him sit down in a rather comfortable seat with Mercury getting comfortable at his feet.
“For now, I’ll let you hang out in my office. After half an hour, Rosie will help you around since she’s currently preoccupied with her break. She’ll be assigned to lead you around for your first few weeks so you can get a good layout of this place. Then when you go to the next department, someone from there will be assigned to lead you around. You’ll mostly be transporting things from location to location within the building and reading/translating anything safe to handle that comes to us in Braille. We’ll also assign you a laptop to work from so you can do some minor paperwork since it’ll be able to read things to you through headphones…maybe you could do audio transcribing eventually when you get used to the key layout? I heard that you’re a fast typist.” Caleb nodded at this.
“W-Well, um…yeah. I s-suppose 160 words per minute is pretty fast…”he mumbled, not wanting to seem proud of himself since pride wasn’t a very good trait to have in the eyes of his overbearing father. He felt Elias pat his shoulder and heard him laugh softly when he heard this, sounding quite amused with Caleb’s statement.
“Oooh. We could use someone like you down in the archives eventually.” Caleb heard the man grinning as he spoke and it made Caleb smile uneasily and shakily nod. Caleb didn’t trust this man as far as he could throw a grand piano, but he would do as he said since he really didn’t want to get in trouble and make people angry at him. He needed this internship, needed this time away from his family, away from their suffocating presence. Before, this kind of time away from home was only accomplished by going to school. This was why he excelled at school and preferred to be there rather than be at home with people who really didn’t seem to care much for him. Sometimes he wondered if they were even capable of caring for him in a way that he wanted. Caleb let his thoughts drift as Elias worked at his desk. He could hear the older man typing at the keys of his computer’s keyboard. It was a rather comforting sound that Caleb enjoyed. He wasn’t sure why, but it put him at ease to hear the clicks and clacks of older desktop keyboards. He would sit there and think about things for around 30 minutes before he heard the door to Elias’s office open, hearing someone sort of shuffling inside with heels on their feet. This was probably the Rosie that Elias had mentioned.
“Hello, sir, um. I heard that you wanted me in here after my break?” He heard a woman’s voice. It was a tiny bit uneasy sounding. Honestly it reminded him vaguely of a pigeon and of custard if he were to describe it to someone else even if they wouldn’t quite understand what he was getting at. He’d keep these thoughts to himself though since it tended to weird people out when he described voices as how he perceived them. Yes, he heard the sound of the voice, but it also felt and sometimes smelled or tasted like something or just reminded him of something else he’d heard... It was difficult for him to really describe and put into words that someone would possibly understand since most people didn’t operate like that. He’d never really told anyone but his mother who dismissed him outright, telling him such things were complete nonsense, but that he was lucky his father hadn’t heard him talk like that. She was more gentle than his father in that she usually dismissed him and left him alone, never striking him. He didn’t know what was worse or better though between the two. Caleb just knew he wanted to go far far away from them where they wouldn’t be able to find him after he had left. Unfortunately, that desire was never to be a reality since they would keep a close eye on him somehow even if he had moved out. It was a scary thought. They would always keep an eye on him so they could make use of him.
He was snapped out of these thoughts by someone calling his name. Oh, it was Elias.
“S-Sorry…I was thinking again, sir,” Caleb mumbled, fidgeting a little bit in his seat.
“Well, you’re going to go around with Rosie as she leads you through your first tasks. You’ll be delivering mail to the different departments. I’ll apologize since the first department is the Archival department and it’s quite a ways from here. It’s downstairs actually,” Elias explains with a sigh, trying to sound like he was genuinely sorry, but Caleb caught a bit of a tinge of amusement? Was it amusement? It certainly wasn’t a genuine apology in any case. Or was Caleb just thinking too far into it, chasing things that weren’t actually there.
Caleb stood up and nodded, mumbling a soft, “Oh…um…that’s okay. A bit of a challenge wouldn’t hurt I suppose.” He could feel Mercury at his side which let him know approximately where her lead was so he could take a hold of it while his other arm would be preoccupied with a basket of mail. Felt like there was at least one small package in there, fairly good weight to it too. Well, off they were…to the archives.