Percy kept his eyes down. The atmosphere was suffocating.
"Now serving: 1.0.5.3.1."
A mechanical voice announced from the overhead. Someone to his far right stood up and walked into the office.
'Just fifty-three more people to go.'
"Hell, I'd rather stab my eye with a needle at this rate." A candidate at his left grumbled, slumping lower in his seat.
It couldn't be helped. They were 'Hexes', the lowest rank of the agency- and there were only so many 'Shades'- much less 'Hues'- who could even begin evaluating their employment forms.
"Go ahead." A sarcastic voice to his immediate right clipped. "At least it'd be entertaining."
And like that, a tinder box had been sparked.
"What was that, you hussy?"
"I said 'Go ahead'."
"How about you screw right off, before my fists greet your face?"
Sandwiched in the middle of the two's bickering, Percy could only shrink in his seat.
"Haah-" He let out a sigh without thought.
And just like that...
"What, think you're better than us?" The uncouth young man accused.
"You're always free to leave, you know." The snobbish young woman retorted.
...He'd been dragged into the pointless squabble.
Little did the three know just how much they would clash with one another from that day forward.
i looove the composition