Specter

Markus continued his jog through the city, rushing to beat a clock which had already struck. He reached his destination and stopped in front of a large glass skyscraper located a few blocks from downtown. The tower was very clean looking, and as it reflected the sun light one might be lead to believe it was made of diamonds.

The inside of the building was even more posh then the outside, and immaculately kept. A large directory hung on the nearest wall, showing the various departments and corporations which held offices in the tower. Markus rounded the corner of the lobby desk making his way to the series of elevators. As Markus stood their waiting for next car he couldn't help but look around nervously.

He was afraid that someone would notice he was late that his boss might be hiding in the shadows, waiting for him. Yet, perhaps even more then his boss, he feared that she would appear again. At any moment she could pop out of the either and...

"Sir are you ok?" A strong dominate voice bellowed from behind him.

Markus jumped at the security guard’s question, spilling some coffee on himself in the process.

"What, oh yeah. I'm fine, just a bit late." He stammered.

The elevator door opened in front of him, but before he could make it in the guard stopped him.

"Sir, I need you to come with me." He spoke.

Markus could only sigh in response as he pulled out his office ID.

The guard looked over his badge, noticing that Markus was still darting his eyes around nervously.

"Mr. Kings, is there any reason for you to be nervous?" The guard squinted at him.

"Yes, I'm very late getting to work. I'm worried that my boss is going to catch me coming in late, and... look it's just not something I want to deal with."

The guard considered what Markus had told him and looked over his ID one last time before handing it back.

"I've got my eye on you." He spoke before turning around to find someone else to occupy his time.

Markus turned around just in time to see the elevator door close in front of him.

"Damn it", he whispered to himself, and pressed the button again.

Markus snaked his way through the cube forest, trying to hide from the ever prying eyes of his boss and certain coworkers. He was barely a foot from his cube when...

"Markus you're late again!" Markus' boss yelled at him from across the aisle. His boss had been waiting for him apparently.

"Sorry sir, I was just..." Markus couldn't finish before he was interrupted.

"I don't care what you were doing, you're late. I don't want excuses. Next time I'm going to fire your ass!" He finished yelling before descending back into his dark office to hide, plot and scream. Or at least that's what he wanted people to think. In truth, he just tend to his virtual farm.

"Man, Stark is in a bad mood today. Bad timing on your part Markus." Markus felt the sharp hand of Jordan, one of his coworkers on his back.

"Yeah..." Markus responded with a shake of the head, before returning to his cube to work. For a quick moment he thought he might have saw a green flash out of the corner of his eye. He shook his head and it was gone.

"So, you got the k-Teck report done yet? Stark wanted it by the meeting this afternoon." Jordan smiled at his puts of a coworker.

Markus looked around his cube for the flagged document he needed. His cube was a complete mess, filled with stacks of papers, despite being in he 21st century, Markus' firm often operated on older technologies, like fax machines and hard copies of reports. Not that it bothered Markus, reading these reports always seemed easier when they were on paper.

He picked up the top sheet in a near by pile. "Yeah, this is it." He spoke and handed it of to Jordan. Who seemed almost surprised.

"Wow, I'm impressed you got this done."

"Yeah, Stark was a bit slow in getting the paperwork to me. But I finished it last night."

"You mind if I take this over to him now?"

Markus nodded his agreement as Jordan walked away with the report. Making sure to take the very long way around so he could read it.

Having finished that, Markus dug though a large stack of paper work labeled "Mics. Inbox". He pulled a document from near the top of the pile, and glanced at the foreign characters over it. They looked to be a series of Chines characters, in fact the whole paper was in Chines. Markus squinted as he glanced over the top line again. "What is this shit?" he whispered to himself.

"Something wrong Markus?" He nearly jumped out of his chair at the sound of a female voice. A part of his mind feared it was her again. When he looked to the side of his cube he sighed in relief. It was just Karen.

'Just Karina' he thought to himself. That was hardly correct. Markus had a crush on the secretary since the first day he meet her. She was sweet, quite generous, and if he was going to be honest, fucking gorgeous.

"Markus are you ok?" He could almost hear Lyra speak. His eyes went wide as he tried to shake the phantom voices from his head.

"I'm sorry, what?" He responded.

"I asked if you were ok? I know Stark and the others kind of throw documents at you."

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine. It's just this report they gave me." He showed Karen who's eyes popped out a bit at seeing the foreign script.

"Uhhh... Markus I can't read this."

"Oh right." He grabbed the paper work from her.

"Well, basically it says that HunShu is going to be late with the environmental report and need another extension. They've had nearly a year to get it to us." Markus sighed.

"At this point that means we either we drop their contract and lose the seven figure payout at completion, or we can stake this company's reputation that their mining group is following environmental regulations. Spoiler, they aren't." He tossed the paper on the other side of the cube.

"Wow, Markus. I'm always impressed that you can read all those foreign languages. How many do you know again?"

Markus smiled and stretched his arms out in a subtle display of alpha dominance. Or at least that what most anthropologist majors would say. "Well, not to brag, but I was studying linguistics in college. Got seven languages. under. my... belt?" Behind Karen he saw the large smile of the mischievous green unicorn.

"Hi again Markus!" she yelled.

The sudden surprise of his specter caused Markus to fall out of his chair. Lyra quickly ran over to the fallen human. Sensing that this was the perfect chance for her to make up.

He could see and even feel the unicorn on his chest as she stared into his eyes. "Hey I just wanted to say I was sorry about earlier. I know I can make other ponies uncomfortable and I don't want you to feel that way. So are good now? Can we be friends?" Her smile was small, but full of hope. He could almost see her tail wag slowly.

There was something about her smile and voice and it's entrancing sweetness; Markus couldn't help himself when he said "Ok, can you please get off my chest?"

"Oh my god! Are you ok, Markus?" He saw Karen hovering over him at this point.

"You're not having a heart attack are you? Do you need me to call ambulance?" The concern on her face was touching. For a moment he thought he just might need that ambulance. Then he processed what she actually said.

"Heart attack?" He whispered.

"Yeah, you just said it felt like something was on your chest?" Karen look at him with concern as Markus tried to pull himself up.

"Oh yeah, I'm fine. Just under a bit of stress."

Lyra took that as her que to start going on about the lecture Twilight had her prepare. “Stress isn't good you know. It's something you really need to take care of. Maybe you could have a party! There's this pony in Ponyville who throws these great parties would make your stress just disappear! Oh! Or the masseuses Aloe and Lotus! They're great at getting rid of stress. Maybe you could find a massage parlor here? or...” Lyra started babbling on about Ponyville and the various relaxing places to visit.

Karina was visibly concerned about Markus, as his eyes seemed to focus on fixed point of nothingness. "Markus, why do you keep staring at your cube like that?"

"Huh, oh right... You can't see her can you?" Markus pointed to Lyra who starting to get upset that he wasn't listening to her.

"You know, I do have a name." She crossed her front legs and mumbled "Mr. Human." as an attempt at a simple insult.

Karen smiled awkwardly at Markus' antics. she wasn't quite sure if this was some obscure joke or not.

"Ummm, Markus. There's nothing there?"

"Right!" He practically yelled. "Of course there's not. Hey I've got a bit of work to do, so why don't we talk later Karen?"

Karen nodded her head and smiled before walking away from him. 'That guys is so weird' she thought on her way back to her desk.

Markus sat back in his computer chair as he kept staring at the unicorn in his cube.

"What? Why are you staring? I don't have anything in my mane do I?" Lyra began to fish through her mane looking for some non existent twig or other blemish.

"Why are you here?" Markus finally asked.

"Me?" She pointed to herself with her hoof, "I'm here because you need a friend, and my help." Lyra stuck her chest out in a motion of pride.

"Or do you mean how like in a mechanical way? Because you can thank Princess Twilight for that! She's the one who built the dimensional projector. It's a pretty big device she made in one of the empty rooms in her castle, used the same crystal as that mirror portal of her's...” Lyra continued to ramble on about the inner workings of what Markus knew was some fictional device from his subconscious.

"Uh huh." Markus nodded his head. 'I'm talking to my own hallucinations, I'm really going insane aren't I?'

"Well the projector isn't really complete. That's why I can only be with you for about four hours a day."

"Four hours." Markus continued to nod his head as his apparent hallucination continued to talk.

"Yeah, once Twilight finishes building it I could be here as long as you need me, four hours, five hours, twelve hours. An entire DAY!" Lyra's pupils contracted as she yelled. She appeared to be as crazy as Markus thought himself to be.

Markus put his face into his hands and began to sob slightly. "This isn't happening." He mumbled to himself.

"Oh, come on Markus it will be ok. Twilight will have the machine finished in no time."He could somehow feel her hoof tap on his back in a reassuring gesture.

"No! It's not all right!" Markus cried out in a half yell half whisper.

"Everything ok, Markus?" He turned to see Paul holding some file folders. Paul had this look of concern in his eye, that everyone seemed to share today.

“Yeah, I'm fine. Just going over...” He looked around for something to pick and show. “The HunShu report.” His smile grew larger as he became more embarrassed at being seen talking to himself.

“Uh huh.” Paul seemed unconvinced, but was unmotivated to pursue the matter further. Paul was Stark's second in command. A good guy over all, but no real ambition.

“Well I'm just here to tell you there’s an emergency meeting in half an hour. You need to bring you notes on K-Teck with you.” There was something in his voice that made Markus worry. Lyra felt it too.

“Hmmm... I think there's something going on here. Do you have your notes for this teck k... thing.” Lyra started to ruffle though Markus' notes.

He grabbed a small stack of papers away from the pony. “Yes, they're in here some... where.”

Markus pulled out the papers and started to look them over. The unicorn may not exist, but that didn't mean she wasn't right, Markus thought. He almost slammed his head into the desk at how absurd that statement could have sounded anywhere else. His next thought, was about how many handles of rum he needed to buy tonight.

"How about this one?" Lyra pointed to a random paper in the pile.

"No." Markus didn't even bother to look at her as he moved on to the next paper.

"This one?" She continued.

He focused on the sheet, trying to ignore her. It was imperative that he was prepared for the meeting that was about to start.

There was bing from his computer a reminder of the meeting starting in about five minutes. Markus sighed and gave up. He couldn't find anything in this mess of paper work. There was just too much, here. The whole K-Teck account seemed to be thoroughly messed up, through no fault of his own making.

Markus didn't know for sure what the meeting was going to be about, but given the state of this account it couldn't have been anything good.

He gathered up most of the K-Teck paper work and filled it in a larger beige envelope. As he got up, he noticed a few of his coworkers heading to the meeting ahead of him.

As he turned the corner out of his cube he bumped into his current boss, Mr. Stark, who seemed quite in a huff. As Stark walked by, Markus caught a quick glimpse at the top page of the portfolio he was carrying. He couldn't read or make out anything, but for some reason a chill ran down his spine as he thought about it.

The first thing Markus noticed in the meeting was that everyone was visibly tense. It's likely that they all knew that this meeting couldn't be anything good.

Stark stat himself at the head of the table and then powered up a conference screen across the room. After a few seconds the face of an older executive appeared on it. Markus wasn't sure who it was but he seemed very important, and judging by several surprised and fearful expressions around the table it wasn't a good thing that he was here.

The giant face spoke, "Gentleman, I'm a very busy man so I'm just going to get down to it. Our firm is being sued by K-Teck. They are alleging a breach of contract on our end for failing to deliver the PR report we promised them a earlier this quarter. This report as you know dealt with an accident in their Myanmar factory complex. I don't want excuses; I want to know why we are late with this report and if our company is the one at fault. Mr. Stark, you are in charge of this branch?"

No one at the table could see the fear in Stark's face or the rapid heartbeat he currently felt as he collected himself. "Yes sir. We've been handling the K-Tech account since last March as you know. We've never been late with a report till now. Unfortunately the individual handling the account has failed to file the report yet." He turned his gaze towards Markus who had sudden realization that he was in the hot seat.

"So Markus, do you want to tell us why we are going to be late with the K-Teck account?" The manager's eyes were full of fire.

"I-I uh..." Markus stammered about. The last message he had seen about K-Teck was from Stark last night, after he dropped some paper work on his desk. Before that, the only paper work he had seen was over a month ago. In truth he was surprised to see anything on that company. He had thought the contract had been dropped.

"Sir, I'm not sure why were late with the contract. I finished going over the Q-10 and T-1 paper work you gave me last night and made my report this morning."

Stark lowered his head and smirked. It was exactly the response he was expecting and hopping for. "If you were paying attention, you'd know this isn't about their Q reports. You haven't even started on that PR spin report yet, have you?"

Now Markus was truly confused, he had no idea about any 'spin report'. "I was never given any paper work on it."

Stark continued to lay out claim after claim on Markus. Going over more and more data trying to show that he was indeed the one who dropped the ball on this.

"Not only were you given the paper work, as this memo here shows, but you've actively ignored the email that were sent out about it." Stark feigned a frown, but in truth he was smiling on the inside.

"That's a lie!" Lyra shouted, and ran over to him.

Markus tried to focus on what he was saying but having the pony in his face made it difficult.

"Well you see..."

"No, don't tell him that. Tell him the truth! Tell him what I just told you. The paperwork he has is different from the ones on your desk. He never even gave you the paperwork!"

Markus quickly turned his head and whispered to Lyra, “Will you just shut up for a minute!”

"Markus, is everything alright? This isn't too difficult for you is it?"

He thought about what Lyra had told him. Her eyes were pleading with him not to condemn himself for someone else's mistakes.

"Sir, with all due respect. I never received any forms over the past month. The forms you gave me were last month and incomplete, and had nothing to do with PR spin that you're talking about." He said it. Markus bit hit tongue at the thought of what he had just done.

Lyra fished through his folder and found his incomplete copies for him. "Here, these are them!" Markus looked down at the stack of papers and pulled out the one Lyra was pointing at. He looked it over quickly. 'How could she have known where it was in the stack? Furthermore how could she have known what was in Stark's portfolio?'

Questions he could answer later.

"Sir. This is the report you sent me a month ago." He handed the form towards Stark, as It passed Jordan's hands he took just a few seconds to glance over it. A small smirk crossed his lips as he further handed it up to Stark.

Stark's face flushed with rage, as he realized he had nowhere to vent it too. For a moment Markus feared what he had said, and what his boss might do now.

“Sir, perhaps we could all see this memo you and Markus are referring to?” Jordan spoke in an appertain effort to protect his coworker.

“You should have your own copies.” Was Stark's only response.

“I don't...” The face on the screen interrupted him.

“Mr. Stark, I'm very busy, put the memo on the document camera so we can move on.”

Stark swallowed hard and turned on a second monitor. Once he put the document in front of himself an overhead camera projected the document to both parties. Almost immediately, Markus could see what had happened.

"Now I see why I'm not in these email chains, I've never even seen this work group till now."

Now it was Stark's turn to stammer about as he fished for something to explain this. He had no idea that Markus was actually paying attention to all those papers in that mes he called a desk. He thought he could get away with his mistake of not adding Markus to the work group. A bead of sweat rolled down his face.

The executive on screen remained stone faced as he listened to Stark point fingers at other people under him. His excuses got progressively more and more inane.

"I've heard enough, I'm excusing everyone from this meeting. No doubt you all have work to do. Mr. Stark, I expect a video conference call with you once you're in the manager's office." It was curious how the executive used the word manager in place of Stark's own name.

As everyone made their way back to their respective desk, hushed tones could be heard as some of the people in meeting disgusted what had transpired. The sound of whispers quickly spread around the office floor as more and more people were brought into the fold of what happened.

Markus sat down at his desk and stared idly forward. It felt good to stand up for himself, for a change. A small subtle smile escaped his lips as he looked at his green figment. She had saved him; Somehow. If she was just a figment, an illusion, how could she have known those things? How could she have seen the memo Stark had?

For a moment, Markus wondered if she wasn't real. If perhaps everyone else was crazy for not being able to see her. He shook his head that though laid the way towards madness.

“Lyra, how did you know what Stark's memo said?”

“Well, that's what the top of it said. Everything you see I can see. Remember? I'm pretty sure I told you that?”

Markus just nodded in agreement, the though not really making any sense. In fact nothing today seemed to make much sense. “Yeah...”

Lyra perked her ears up and started looking around nervously. Markus was going to ask her what was wrong but she spoke before he could.

“Hey I have to go Markus, I have something’s I need to do in Ponyville. I'll be back in a few hours. Bye!” Lyra didn't even give Markus a chance to say good bye before she disappeared again.

Markus was still unsure about what had happened. The green unicorn in front of him had just disappeared again. 'Was she even there to begin with?'

Markus, rubbed his temples trying to massage away the headache he felt coming on. This was not what he needed. "She wasn't real, she never was. It was all you." He whispered to himself as he went back to work.

There was a stack of papers that he had to get to by the end of the day. He sighed as he picked the top one off his master inbox pile and started reading. It was in Arabic, he didn't know Arabic.

"Son of a bitch."

The dictionary on the screen was full of squiggly lines and oddly shaped characters. Markus was jotting down notes on a second page of paper as he went over the Arabian document in his hands. He had spent the better part of the hour working on it, and was just over half way done.

*Slam*

A loud noise from the other side of the floor startled Markus out of his translating. He looked over his cube wall and gazed a small army of security guards in front of Stark's office. Stark came out of the room carrying a box of personal effects. There was a deep scowl on his face as he noticed Markus across the office space.

"Huh." Markus' next door cube mate remarked his surprise.

"Didn't think they would be so fast about removing him." Markus remarked.

"Yeah, he was apparently fucking over a lot of people here. Did you hear that Jordan is getting his position?"

Markus raised an eyebrow at that. "Jordan?"

"Yep. Well, it's not a for sure thing, but it might as well be. I mean Paul shore as hell isn’t going to take the position."

The small group of guards led Stark off the office floor to parts unknown. Everyone quickly went back to work, while Markus just stared at the now vacant office for a moment more. A sense of relief but also guilt came over him before he went back to work.

It was starting to get late in the day, the paper work at Markus’ desk trickled away slowly. Yet still, there as a large pile yet to even be touched. He grabbed another sheet from the pile.

“Hi again!” Lyra poped out of his monitor to his side, the paper in his hand was thrown in the air, along with several others.

“Ah, shit.” He looked over the papers around his desk now.

“So, I can’t stay quite as long as I wanted to, and… hey are you listening to me?” She cocked her head as Markus dug around his desk for the papers.

“No.”

“Hmmm… Is there anything I can do to help?” Markus sighed. There was no way he could get rid of her.

The hours of the day ticked by, but the constant distractions of the hyperactive mint unicorn made getting anything done difficult.

“Look, this isn’t going to work!” He half yelled at Lyra as she tried to nudged a pile of papers into the trash.

The sound of knocking could be heard just outside of his cube. It was Karen, “I’m not interrupting anything am I?”

“Oh no, just finishing up my paperwork.” He pushed the pile of papers away from the trash can, just in case Lyra could somehow push them in.

“I see… do you have the HunShu report done by any chance?” She asked.

Markus fished around for a pile of papers that were affixed with a large binder clip. He handed it off to Karen. “It’s done. Everything in the papers has been surmised in the first two pages, my recommendation is at the end. I think we should drop the contract and keep the deposit.”

She shook her head in disbelief and smiled, “Wow, you’re amazing Markus.”

He smiled at the complement and went back to looking through his papers.

“So, your plans for tonight are to hang out in your cube and finish your paperwork?” Karen asked him with a subtle smile.

“Yeah. I need to get these done...” A thought crossed his mind and he felt Lyra nudging into his side.

“Talk to her.” She whispered.

He swallowed and took a quick breath, “Do you have any plans tonight?” Markus asked Karen.

She shrugged in response, “I don't know. Probably go grab drinks with Darlene from Accounting, and the new intern Yu.”

“Well, sounds like fun. You girls don't want any more company, do you?” He asked hopeful. Lyra beamed at his sudden surge in a confidence. It was unfortunately short live.

Karen laughed a bit. “Sorry Markus. Girl’s night only. Besides I already have a boyfriend.” She gave him a smug little smile.

Markus blushed, “oh I didn't mean it like that...”

“Sure you didn't.” She turned to leave him and his cube behind. “Good night Markus~” She half sung and walked off.

Markus sighed. As he looked down at his unicorn companion. “Well it looks like it's just us then... I can't believe I'm actually talking to you.” He rubbed his face.

Lyra looked away from his gaze with a sheepish expression. “Actually, I have to go now. I'm sorry Markus, but like I said, I only have about four hours a day before Twilight has to power down the machine.”

She wraped her hooves around his chest and gave him a parting hug.

“Don't worry, I'll be back tomorrow.” With that she faded and disappeared once more.

A feeling of relief washed over him. Now that he was alone he could finally think and maybe put a dent in this work load. 'Alone.' For some reason that word echoed in his mind.

Markus looked to his now empty side as he rubbed the spot where Lyra previously held him. He pushed the intruding thoughts out of his head and went back to work. A part of him feared that she might show up again, but as the night went on that fear slowly changed to sadness as he started to actually miss the hallucination. At least she would have been some company; real or not.