Lazarus1

The Lazarus Towers stood in their symmetrical glory, bathed in the afternoon gloom, their tops unseen from the cloudscape hanging low over the city, blanking out the upper eaves of the towers and their top tier offices from view. The low hanging clouds were saturated gray from the heavy rain that scattered the pale pavement in puddles. The passerby’s from the tower filling the air with the opening of their umbrella’s as they stepped into the street. The corporate click clack of heels on pavement, the scattered drone of taxis and cars milling throughout the city, the choked hymn of the electricity in the wire from building to building snapping with electricity as the rain filtered down from the eaves of Lazarus Building A and continued down the sheeted glass of the towers to the ground below. The shallow dip from curb to street was flooded with rain water, despite the storm only having begun at noon, but now nearing close to three o’clock with little sign of the storm dispersing, the city had continued its miserable day.

The Lazarus Buildings were the pride of the city, no doubt, glistening off the side of the island were a long since torn down statue now stood, towering well over fifty feet taller than the French eyesore had ever done. Lazarus Island now, stood a long bridge stretching from city to island, and well used for travel by the city folk themselves the towers, though bathed in the drizzle of the day glinted beneath the cloudscape, their long mirrored windows visible for miles around. The towers, the Trifecta stood in a triangular shape making the most of the man made additions to the isle, each building matching in shape to their positioning, with a wide center between them, now called ‘the square’ by locals. A statue had been erected there, a gaudy piece that didn’t match the landscaping but none the less stood not only as a staple point for tourists, but a conduit travel point for those travelling between time itself. A portal as it were, hidden in plain site as a statuette not dissimilar from the “Atlas” Statue, holding the world on his shoulders, save for the change of the planet standing as a water bathed mirror of sorts. Otherwise the ‘square’ was surrounded in compact flowerbeds leading to each of the wide double doors of each of the individual buildings, all for separate sects of the company itself, but all identical.

the two hundred some floors of each of the office buildings opening to a wide foyer, front desk, stairwell to the above elevators and behind the front desk another elevator for ‘employees only’ donned as such by a gold plated sign upon their barred door, kept locked by a eye and fingerprint scanner, all in all each foyer looked comfortable, bathed in white marble, black veins running throughout the cold pale stone along the floor, a series of comfortable black leather couches sitting in front of the large entrance windows, false greenery placed here and there for aesthetic effected, the upper stairwell losing the marble for attractive black carpeting which extended to all the upper floors. A series of humans sat at the front desk, all attractive females dressed in the Lazarus Corporate attire, thin black pencil shirt, and smart white dress shirt, and small black tie around their necks, their hair in various shades, long and short some held up, and others let loose, all void of baubles around their necks and ears, some adoring wedding bands and others not, maintaining the front desk, a series of telephones whirring occasionally filling the cavernous foyer with the shrill ring, curtly followed by a murmur and then another, and so it would follow. The time only maintained by a large clock sitting at the apex of the upper stairwells elevator, five feet above for all to see, in a flat white clock with plain face, counting down the day. The only quirk of this clock sat in the main towers fact the clock was running backwards, a joke from the owner of the Company towards her husband and written off as a broken cog that stubbornly had not been fixed in many years.

Each of the floors within the Trifecta were similar, save for the top suite of the main tower which allowed it to stand above the rest by just a single floor, making it the top tier tower between them, containing Evadne’s office, as the President of the company it felt only proper.

The individual floors of the Trifecta were identical in lay out, opening to a small hallway, the elevators opening to a seating area facing out to the city itself and another desk for whomever was the administrator for that floor. To the left and right of each elevator entrance were the doors to the varying office spaces, and cubicles, filled with the whir of computers, typing of the employees, small chatter of those within between themselves and on the various phones which rang non-stop in a muted tone. The chest high cubicles were lined between themselves, all with computers, and simplistic desks, decorated sparsely according to each employee as one days in a cubicle jobs. The windows were free from the blinds they could have, which hung long unused by devoid from dust, due to the diligence of the cleaning crew, bathing each office space in bright natural light, only supplemented on days such as this by the fluorescent lighting bulbed along the ceiling in inlets which left the ceiling entirely flat, and free from the buzz of sound most lights such as this would make. The cubicles were a pleasant gray, the floors bathed in the black carpet from the front foyer before the elevators, the walls a comfortable muted gray like each of the cubicle walls, leaving everything bright and open. The individual offices were paned with clear glass, some masked by blinds for privacy of clients who so decided to enter the building. Pleasant black furniture within each of the offices allowed for them to be all identical and professional, and yet comfortable. Within the air, the pleasant smell of cleaner lingered in the air, the air supplemented with pure oxygen in small amounts to keep the employees well awake. Within the breakroom of each floor were the same chairs and furniture from the individual offices, brightly lit vending machines with freshly prepared meals, brought in and placed in the machines daily by the lunchroom staff to allow quick access for each of the employees who worked there, several high end coffeemakers whirred to life within the breakrooms presenting each of the employees with the best possible lunches Lazarus could provide, and so it was for each floor, on each subsequent building.

The top floor as explained belonged to Evadne Lazarus, a wide comfortable space, bathed entirely in opposite marble from the floors below, white furniture, black marble flooring and carpeting, the stark coloring standing in her precious Orchid collection within her main office. The wide space uncluttered by furniture, all bolted to the floor with heavy white bolts to allow little movement, her massive desk sitting within a room of its own, outside of the small front room, where her receptionist Lindsay would sit. The corresponding office a separate door away, allowing the two rooms to be entirely separate. Eve’s office was echoey, well saturated in the smell of her perfume, almost clinical in its layout, looking out with wholly open windows which cast the whole of the office in bright light, but unlike the usual menial sound of paperwork, the clacking of typing, the pacing of heels the office was barren of all life, the whole of the floor empty save for Lindsay sat quietly at her desk attending to her duties.

At the front of the Lazarus Building A, picketing around the Square were a series of young folk, all holding signs, banded together by a group of three, herded away from the marble steps by security in body armor, all beings of Eve, hidden in their true forms by entirely black Kevlar clothing and masks along their eyes, mouths hidden beneath a black cloth balaclava, standing in a line to bar the entry of the hoard of angry picketers who chanted in unison, a war cry against the company, against Eve. Standing a safe distance away were several news vans keeping an eye on the situation developing outside of the company, news anchors holding 24 hour coverage and offered refreshment by varying employees from the other buildings who maintained safety at the hands of security as they provided the care for those covering the riot which was slowly growing in the Square. Eve was demanded to appear, to issue a statement to the demands of lack of care for the employees of the company itself, but she had been gone for a near six months, having left her daughter Calpurnia in charge of the main hub of Lazarus, her son Mordekai under the watchful eye of Belphegor’s lackey’s controlling Bellum Reus in his absence, their other children, Hesperos and Hesperia, Cressida, Cordelia, Lavinia and Ophelia under the guard of Lindsay and Evadne’s other, Leviathon (lovingly referred to as Levi) unable to speak to the allegations against Eve herself no one quite knowing exactly where she disappeared to.