Chapter Text
Proto-World
It was the end of the day. Nathaniel Demerest, a 22-year-old man who had recently signed a permanent contract with a company.
He was a young man in his twenties of average build, not particularly muscular, but not overweight either, with brown hair dyed gray and combed back in a style reminiscent of Hannibal Lecter, only a little more voluminous. He was wearing a professional outfit consisting of a shirt with a tie and a black jacket, all under his large, worn-looking dark leather coat.
As usual, he had greeted his colleagues, with whom he got along well. But that evening, his heart was heavy. Earlier that day, he had been summoned to his boss's office, and he knew immediately from the look on his boss's face that the news was not going to be good.
He sat quietly opposite his boss, who began one of his trademark long monologues.
"Nathaniel, Nathaniel, Nathaniel... How am I going to break this to you?" " Said the boss.
This was followed by terms such as "economic climate" And "restructuring." before ending with the old chestnut: "I'm going to have to let you go."
Those seven words brought Nathaniel, who had stopped listening a few minutes earlier, back to reality: he had been fired.
When his boss told him he could leave, he got up without saying a word, went to his desk, gathered his few belongings, put them in the bag he always took to work, said goodbye to his former colleagues, and began walking home.
He was in no hurry to get home. It must be said that his stepfather eagerly awaited each of his failures so he could rub them in his face and brag about his own success, beer in hand. So telling him that he had been fired would surely make the situation worse.
When he reached a bus stop, he decided to stop there, take the first bus that arrived, and enjoy the short ride before finally breaking the sad news to his mother, praying that she wouldn't tell him right away.
When he finished watching these moments, he returned to reality when a door appeared in front of him.
Guided by curiosity, Nathaniel decided to take a closer look at the door.
Once he was close enough, he could see a small sign that read: "Knock before entering." "
Finding this funny, even ridiculous, Nathaniel knocked on the door and opened it. And what a surprise he got when he discovered that behind the door was a room!
An office, to be more precise.
This office had red wallpaper with a few words here and there that looked like they were written in Elvish, straight out of Lord of the Rings, as well as some old-looking lamps hanging on the walls. Among the furniture was, of course, a desk with a chair in front of it and another behind it, but that wasn't all. There were also several shelves behind the desk on which stood various objects, all seemingly drawn from pop culture. On the other side of the room was a sofa and two armchairs, as well as a small table.
It was as if this room was both an office and a living room.
Sitting in the chair behind the desk was a man in his thirties or forties wearing a suit and tie.
"Nathaniel Demerest? Please, have a seat." Said the man in a warm voice.
Nathaniel entered, closing the door behind him, and sat down directly opposite him.
He noticed a detail he hadn't seen before: on the wall above the door was a clock, and the second hand was moving back and forth incessantly.
Tick, tock, tick, tock.
"Your clock looks broken." Said Nathaniel, attempting a little humor to overcome the strangeness of the situation.
"On the contrary, it works perfectly." Answered the man calmly.
"But can't you see that it keeps moving forward and backward by a second?" Said Nathaniel, surprised by his interlocutor's response.
"That's how it works, Nathaniel." began the man. "Everything behind the door belongs to another time. Time does not pass in the same way there, and space and time are variables that can easily be manipulated in those places..." He explained before returning to the main subject. "But let's get back to the matter at hand. You recently lost your job, if I'm not mistaken?"
"Uh... yes. How did you know that?" Nathaniel asked, surprised and now suspicious of the man.
"It doesn't matter." Said the man in the suit before holding out his hand. "You're hired."
"Wait, I'd like to know more, and... and then no, this is all too much for me, I have to go, my... my family must be waiting for me." Said Nathaniel, completely overwhelmed by events.
A door without a wall leading to an office where a man was offering him a job. Anyone would be at least alarmed by such a thing.
"Don't worry! When you leave this office, the door will take you straight home! And on the other side of the door, only three minutes have passed, so please stay here." Said the man, trying to reassure the student.
"Okay, fine, tell me what the job is." Said Nathaniel, seeing a possible opportunity to break his bad news with some much better news.
"No idea." The man answered simply.
"What do you mean, no idea?" Asked Nathaniel, not knowing whether to laugh or yell at the man.
"Well, I don't know, all I know is that you're very well paid and you have a nice office, I guess..." Answered the man simply.
"But maybe you know someone who already has this job and could tell me more?" Nathaniel asked.
"But this job is mine!" The man answered, pausing for a moment while Nathaniel stood there with his mouth wide open, stunned by the absurdity of the situation.
"Well, why do you want to give it to me then?" He asked.
"Because I'm tired of spending my time doing nothing, and on top of that, I'm not aging, you see, and that's quite annoying." Answered the man.
"What do you mean?" Asked Nathaniel.
"Well, how old do you think I am?" Asked the man in turn.
"Well, forty at most." Answered the young man.
"I'm sixty-two." Corrected the man.
"You're in pretty good shape." Commented Nathaniel.
"Yeah, well, let me tell you, my wife is getting old, and she's starting to wonder why I'm not." The man answered reproachfully.
"But how is that possible?" Asked Nathaniel, surprised.
"Well, you see, when you're on this side of the door, you don't age, you're not hungry, you're not thirsty, you don't need to pee, you don't need anything. It's as if the world keeps turning without us, and I'm starting to get a little tired of it." The man explained.
"But I don't understand, why are you looking for a successor? Why not just slam the door and never come back?" Asked Nathaniel.
"Because of the door, precisely. I told you earlier that when you leave here, you'll instantly find yourself back home. Well, when I leave my home, I instantly find myself here, and I can't leave until 7 p.m., otherwise I'm automatically thrown back into the office. If I want to get my life back to normal, I need a successor, which is why I'm offering you the job." Answered the man.
"What if I refuse?" Asked Nathaniel.
"Oh, you'll be stuck in this office forever." Said the man.
"How so?" Asked the young man, intrigued.
"The door won't open until you sign. You're stuck here." Explained the man.
Nathaniel stood up and tried to open the door, but the handle was stuck, making it impossible to open. He looked at the man, who innocently raised his hands.
"I assure you, it's not up to me." He said.
"Well, I guess I have no choice." Said Nathaniel wearily.
The man, by some unknown magic, produced a contract and a pen. Nathaniel began to read the contract very carefully, to avoid falling into a trap set by the man, whom he had come to distrust. He signed it, and the man, looking relieved, patted Nathaniel on the shoulder.
"Thank you, my boy. Thank you for setting me free." Said the man before walking out the door and disappearing, no doubt back to his home, this time for good.
Nathaniel looked at everything on the shelves and bookcases in the office and smiled. Not only had he gotten a job, but by reading the entire contract before signing it, he had found the solution to all his problems.
This man had lied to him about his job by entrusting him with the door... But by reading the contract, he knew that the man had given him a gift that would change his life... in the most beautiful way possible.