Chapter One: Adam, Christiana, Jason and Daniela

Adam
“So I’m walking down the street with her. Holding hands, everything’s fine. Except she won’t stop talking, I mean all the time. I don’t even know what she was talking about, but I know that it was a load of crap. She just kept on going on about something or other to do with shoes or dresses or bitchy friends, to be honest I’d tuned out about half an hour back. She hadn’t once stopped for breath and it suddenly dawned on me. If this continued, I would have to listen to this woman talk for the rest of my life. That was when I knew, I couldn’t listen to another word, the idea scared the crap out of me.”

“Nice, you’re a real gentleman.”

“You try it man, it was seriously crazy. I knew I had to do something, I had to stop her talking right then and there. I mean the sex was good but not good enough to mean I could listen to another second of what she had to say.”

“Okay, so what did you do?”

“What else could I do? I told her.”

“You what?”

“I turned to her and said, ‘enough is enough, I really don’t care about anything you have to say.’ She didn’t take it well.”

“What did she do?”

“She stopped walking, right there in the middle of the high street, pulling me to a stop and just stared at me for what felt like a century. The silence was nice I got to tell you, I almost didn’t care that we were holding up everyone around us, I just soaked in it. Of course it didn’t last long. It was like the calm before the storm, suddenly she just erupted. She started shouting at me, calling me every name under the sun. Seriously man, she was spouting out words that even made me blush. By this point, people stopped trying to get past us, instead they just stood there and stared. She didn’t even notice, her voice just got louder and louder, spouting out insults and crap that I didn’t even know she would be capable of. And she didn’t stop, didn’t let me get a word in, she just continued to shout. It was just like the conversation five seconds ago except she could now be heard five miles away. She did this for like five minutes before I sunk to her level. I had no other choice, I shouted as loud as I could to overrule her screeching and told her shut the crap up.”

“Did she?”

“She did, but I knew it wasn’t going to last so I started talking before she could start up her shouting again. I told her she was the most annoying woman I knew, she was a good lay but there was nothing else there. I told her that she would seriously need to learn to shut her mouth if she thought any man would want to stick around long enough to stand being within five feet of her. I told her that I was done and I started to walk away. I’m telling you man, it was the most freeing thing I had ever felt, walking away from her and leaving her standing there, speechless for the first time since I had met her and probably for the first time in her life.

“But it didn’t end there, apparently that wasn’t good enough for her. Apparently, her previous screaming at me wasn’t even the worst that she could get. All of a sudden, out of nowhere she throws herself to the ground, grabs my leg and just starts screaming. I swear, no words came out of her mouth, just a random ear piercing scream that was louder than anything I had ever heard before. It was ridiculous. People weren’t even pretending not to be listening anymore, everyone was just staring at us.”

“What did you do?”

“What else could I do? I tried to shrug her off. I started shaking my leg in a desperate attempt to kick the crazy off me, but she held on like a parasite and instead just shook around with my leg like a rag doll. I couldn’t believe that I wasn’t able to shake her, I have trained to kill and battle all kinds of crap and I’m good at that, but her? She was beating me and I didn’t know what to do. All the time, she continued with this screaming, telling me I was a prick and that no one would love me like she did. She had gone crazy man, seriously insane. That was when the police turned up.

“I got to admit, from their point of view it must have looked bad. A woman on the floor looking as if she was being kicked and beaten and screaming at the top of her lungs. They intervened and pulled her off. They then did the stupidest thing of their lives and asked her what was going on. She started again, screaming about how I was a bastard and accusing me of rape and molestation and everything else under the sun. They soon realised that the problem wasn’t me, it was her, her eyes were insane. It was like all sense had left her, she started beating against one of the policeman’s chests, ordering him to kill me on sight. She took all their attention as they both tried to pull her off him. I saw my chance and I took it. I ran.”

“You ran?”

“Of course I did. They were so preoccupied with the crazy woman that they didn’t even notice I had gone at first. Even without my training I could have outrun them, I had enough of head start. By the time one of them started to chase after me, I was gone.”

“Aren’t you worried that she’ll tell them where to find you?”

“Are you kidding? Do you think I was stupid enough to give her any of my real details? She hadn’t even seen my place. And it’s not like they’d be able to find me if they searched. Of course my boss found out and was pissed, but she got over it soon enough. After I was ordered to work night and day for two weeks. I tell you man, I am knackered.”

“That has to be the craziest story for why I haven’t seen you for my whole stay in England.”

“Crazy but true Ad. Crazy but true.”

“Yeah well, I have to get back to LA tomorrow so I hope she was worth it.”

“It’s a well-known fact, crazy women are amazing in bed.”

“Sometimes I wonder why I even hang out with you.”

“Because I’m awesome and your life sucked before you met me.”

“Yeah okay, I’m a multi award winning A list actor making millions of pounds a year. My life is nothing without you around.”

“Money only gets you so far my friend. Knowing me is priceless. Talking of which, how was she?”

“Who?”

“Don’t act stupid with me Ad. You have just spent 10 months working on a movie with the Anita Parker. The most renowned and stunning actress this world has to offer with a crazy streak a mile long, you have to have stories. Come on, I’ve told you about my insane woman, it’s your turn.”

“Not going to happen mate.”

“Why not?”

“Because nothing happened, and even if it did, you’re just looking for a story to spout out to your army mates the moment you get back on tour. I’m not interested in having my private life leaked into all the major papers.”

“Oh come on, it’s not like you’re not used to it by now.”

“Once again, not going to happen.”

“Wait, so does that mean something happened?”

“Duncan, I am not having this conversation with you.”

“You know what? I’m hurt that you wouldn’t trust me with this.”

“No you’re not.”

“You’re right I’m not, but I am disappointed. The possibility of hearing your sordid stories is the only thing that has got me through these past two weeks.”

“And on that note, I have to go.”

“But you haven’t finished your coffee, you’ve been here for 5 seconds.”

“Not my fault you were late, and now I have to get to a press conference.”

“Fine, meet you later for drinks?”

“Why are we getting drunk at midday again?”

“Because we have time to make up for.”

“And you’re hoping that if I get drunk enough I might spill some Anita stories.”

“That too. Don’t be late.”

“Like you are?”

“I’m serious mate, make sure you’re on time or I will come and drag you out.”

“Alright, calm down. I’ll be there.”

“Good, see you later Adam.”

“Later Duncan.”


Christiana

“Michael, I am standing outside Battersea Dog Home where they have had no choice but to put down 50 dogs in the past week following a surge of attacks from the pets in each home they were distributed to.

“This is following on from over 3,000 different pets that have had to be handed in to animal shelters all across the country over the last month following vicious attacks as the animals have turned on their owners.

“We already know that across some states in America, they have banned all new ownership of pets until this epidemic has been fully identified and controlled. Our Government are meeting today to discuss our country’s stand on this new and bizarre behaviour.”

“This world is getting weird.” Christiana muttered as she dug into her coco pops.

“Getting weird?” Kelly snorted. “We’ve been officially weird for decades now.”

“Yeah, but never ‘cute little puppies maiming toddlers’ weird, I reckon we must be nearing the zombie apocalypse.”

“Christie, you thought the zombie apocalypse was starting last month when our local ran out of Fanta Fruit Twist.” Connor said, slumping down onto the sofa next to Christiana.

“You can’t deny that wasn’t weird,” Christiana said. “We’ve lived here for 6 years and they’ve never ran out of Fanta Fruit Twist. It quite clearly meant that someone was stocking up excessively so as to survive the zombie outbreak.”

“I think it quite clearly means that you need to stop watching Zombie movies.”

Christiana stared at Connor for a moment, considering her retort. Eventually she decided that he didn’t deserve a reply and turned to Kelly instead.

“Kelly, your brother’s freeloading in our house again.”

“Stop sleeping with him and maybe he’ll go away.”

“Well that’s hardly my fault, he keeps on getting me drunk.”

“Oooh yeah,” Connor said, gyrating his hips.

“You disgust me.” Christiana said.

“You love me.” Connor answered, kissing her lightly on the forehead as he stood up and cleared away Christiana’s now empty bowl.

“If I ever fall in love with that man, shoot me.” Christiana said to Kelly as he left the room.

Kelly rolled her eyes.

“Well I’m off,” Connor announced as he walked back in the room. “I’ve got a briefing in an hour and I need to go home and change, don’t want anyone at work thinking I did the walk of shame this morning. Also my boss will thrash me if I don’t get there on time, and we all know what a bitch she is.”

“Too right,” Kelly said, “Don’t be late. Big day today.”

“Yes sir.”

Kelly turned to Christiana, “what have you got planned?”

“Oh you know, the usual. Get into work, sit and talk to mental health patients all day whilst secretly realising that there is no different between them and myself.”

“Don’t forget you’re meeting me for lunch.” Connor said.

Christiana groaned, “I had completely forgotten about that.”

“Nice to know you like spending time with me.”

Christiana laughed. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that, it’s just I have this meeting at 11am. It’s meant to only be an hour but the thing can go on for ages. I don’t think I’ll be free this lunch, can we do tomorrow instead?”

“No!” Kelly and Connor said at the same time.

Christiana gave them both a perplexed look. “What was that about?”

“Flakiness is a big no-no in our family,” Kelly said.

“Besides, I’ve already made the reservations.” Connor chipped in. “They’re almost impossible to get.”

“Since when has McDonalds had a reservation list?”

“Can a guy not treat his girl once and a while?”

“Okay, A: I am not ‘your girl,’ and B: I only get half an hour lunch.”

“That’s fine,” Connor said, “We’ll eat fast. See you at 12pm.”

“Connor, wait-“ Christiana started but he was out the door before she could get anything else out. “What was that about?”

Kelly shrugged, “He’s been planning today for a long time.” Kelly said.

“Why would he be going all out for lunch?”

“Just trust me on this one, you don’t want to miss it.”

“I don’t get why he’s making all this effort, it’s not like we’re a couple or anything.”

“Christiana, you’ve spent every weekend with him for the past 3 months and he’s around here every other night, I think you guys have been dating for a while now.”
Christiana opened her mouth to argue but then the penny dropped. “Crap, how did that happen?”

“Just enjoy it,” Kelly laughed, grabbing her bag and putting on her shoes. “You could do a lot worse than Connor Mayhew.”

“But Kelly, you know I don’t date guys from the army. It’s too complicated.”

“Oh my days! If I have to hear this speech again, I swear I will shoot you. And you know I have a gun.” She threw Christiana her bag. “Anyway, he’s been back from tour for 18 months now and, take it from a girl on the inside, he’s not going anywhere anytime soon. Come on, you’re going to be late.”

Christiana reluctantly took her bag and glanced at herself in the mirror.

“Am I dressed okay for whatever this is?”

“You look stunning as per usual, now get your cute butt out of the door.”

Christiana grabbed her keys and followed Kelly out of their flat. They walked in silence to the train station and Christiana thought through this new revelation. Connor did make her happy. Stupidly so. He was her best friend and she loved spending time with him. The more she walked, the more she realised, she had known for a while that they were a couple and, what’s more, she had been really happy about it. She smiled to herself, Kelly had said it herself ‘he’s not going anywhere soon.’ Maybe she could break her stupid rule with him at last. Maybe now was the time that they were both in the right place for this. With that realisation, she felt her stomach do somersaults and she realised more than anything that this was the best feeling she had felt in a while.

As they reached the station, Kelly turned to her. “Just promise me that you’ll meet Connor at 12 okay? It’s pretty important.”

Christiana beamed at her, riding on the high of her new revelation. “I’ll try my best.”

Kelly took her by both her shoulders and held her gaze. “I mean it Christiana, you have to be there, promise me.”

“Okay, okay! I promise!”

Kelly kept her gaze for a moment longer, searching for the truth in her promise. Once she was happy, she broke the gaze. “Okay, well I’ll see you later.”

“See you later, weirdo.” Christiana called back as they both headed to their respective platforms to wait for their trains.

Jason

The building didn’t look like anything special, in fact it looked pretty run down. He had been told that it was one of the most prestigious bars in the country and yet the place looked like it had been shut down for years. Jason checked his slip of paper once more, making sure that he had the right address. It was the right place. He looked around to see if there were any more impressive buildings nearby that he may have confused this one with. Nothing. Just this one shabby looking brick building. He took a step closer and noticed the door seemed a lot more impressive. It was stainless steel and had an admission panel that looked like it had come straight from the future. Perhaps this was the right place.

It wasn’t like it was hard to get this place wrong anyway. Years ago it had been the home of the world’s most famous games of all time. The Olympic stadium had once stood on this exact spot. Although you would never have thought it to look at it now. There were no impressive structures, no bustling of people running around the once Olympic village. It was just a shack with an impressive entrance. Somewhere in the recesses of his bag, he felt his phone vibrate. He fished it out and saw it was Mark. His face automatically softened as he pressed the call button.

“I’m not even inside yet and you’re already calling me.”

“What?” Mark’s voice came through the phone, automatically calming every nerve within Jason. “I’m just excited for you, you’ve only been talking about this job for a month! Are you there yet?”

“I’m standing outside, and I got to admit, it doesn’t look that fancy to me.”

“You and your high standards.” Mark responded, “For the money they are offering you to pull beer, there’s no way it can be any less amazing than we thought.”

“Unless this has all been a sham.” Jason’s stomach dropped as he let the words leave his mouth the moment they entered his mind.

“Don’t be stupid, of course it isn’t a sham.” Mark’s voice once again oozed calm into Jason’s nerves and he felt himself relax immediately. “You are the best barman I have ever known, every drink you make is like a little drop of heaven and don’t you forget it. You have been head hunted because you are the best of the best, this place is going to be amazing.”

Jason heard a whir of a camera and looked up to see the building’s security system hone in on him. “I think I’m being watched, I might have to go.”

“Call me as soon as you can, I’m so proud of you.”

Jason smiled, “Just try and stop me.”

“Good, oh and Jason?”

“Yeah?”

“I love you.”

“Love you too.”

Jason ended the call and placed the phone back in his bag. He looked around for a doorbell or knocker but couldn’t find anything. He raised his hand to knock on the door when it swung open to reveal a tall, unbelievably thin woman standing in the frame, platinum blonde hair tied tightly in a bun and a huge smile pasted on her face.

“Jason Parker?”

“That’s me.” Jason said, trying to match his smile to hers.

“Welcome to ‘Utopia’ we’ve been expecting you.”

Instead of moving aside to let Jason in, the woman walked out of the door and shut it behind her.

“My name is Michelle and I’ll be doing your orientation today.” She reached out a hand for Jason to shake and he took it. “Now, first thing’s first.”

She turned Jason’s offered hand so it was facing palm up. With her other hand she brought out a rectangular black device and held it above Jason’s fingers.

“We just need to scan your fingerprints, it will allow you entrance into the building at any point.”

The device whirred slightly as she scanned it across his fingers, thumb and ended on his palm. She then turned the device over so it revealed a flat shiny screen, big enough for Jason to place his palm over. Almost as if to prove this, she pressed his palm against the screen until it let out a small bleep. She tapped a few keys on the pad beneath and turned her attention back to Jason.

“Right, that’s all done. If you would like to follow me.”

She led Jason to the panel he had been admiring a moment ago and opened up the case.

“You will need to remember two four digit numbers. One you will type which will be 4102.”

Jason reached for his notepad in his bag but Michelle stopped him.

“I’m sorry, you can’t write any of this down, we can’t risk it getting into the wrong hands. You’ll just have to rely on your memory I’m afraid.”

Jason felt his nerves start up again as he nodded dumbly at her. What was this place?

“If you would like to enter the number onto the admission pad please.”

Jason did as he was told and pressed the numbers into the pad. The panel whirred into action and a hand print showed on the screen.

“Please press your hand on the pad.”

Jason again followed the instructions.

“Now, if you wouldn’t mind stepping closer and resting your chin on the small shelf under the panel.” Jason did. “Lovely, now if you could look straight into the panel and try to keep your eyes open for as long as you can, it can be a little uncomfortable but unfortunately it is necessary.”

Jason looked into the panel and automatically a thin line of pin point lasers scanned over both his eyes.

“We already managed to get your retina scans, which is good as it speeds up this process a lot more.”

The laser lights caused Jason’s eyes to water and it took all he had to stop himself from blinking the tears away. When it was done, he felt Michelle’s lips reach his ears.

“Nice and clearly now,” She whispered, “Please can you recite the numbers 6930.”

Jason cleared his throat and rather weakly did as he was told. “6930.”

Automatically the door buzzed open and Michelle opened it wide for Jason to enter.

“Lovely, if you would like to wait inside, the door only permits one entry at a time so I will need to enter my own code.”

Jason stepped inside into a corridor that was immediately thrown into darkness as the door swung shut behind him. The darkness didn’t last for long however as a beam of sensor driven lights started to turn on, giving the corridor a warm homely feel. Jason cast a glance down the corridor. Beautiful portraits lined up the walls and tall deep green plants stood in pots underneath them. The place oozed warmth and attraction. Despite of the daunting and terrifying feeling his admittance had given him, Jason couldn’t help but relax a little at the sight. He didn’t have long to take it in however, as the door soon buzzed open again and Michelle joined him in the corridor.

“Well, now that that’s sorted, there are a few things that I need to check in with you before I take you to where you will be working.” Michelle beamed at Jason with the same warm smile that she had been wearing since she had opened the door to him. “I noticed that on making your way to the building you were on the phone.”

“Yes, I’m sorry about that.” Jason stumbled, not wanting to get into trouble before he had even started. “My boyfriend is very excited for me, he was just checking in. He has been given strict instructions not to ring again until I call him so it shouldn’t happen again.”

“Not to worry. I understand, this is a very exciting day for you, of course he would want to find out how it is going. However, we do have a strict no phones policy. We can’t risk any of our customers feeling that their attention is not your main priority whilst you are working. As such, we do insist that you hand your phone over upon entrance to the building to as to ensure that no such tricky situation presents itself.”

Michelle held out her perfectly manicured hand and waited patiently for Jason to hand over his phone. For the first time since hearing he had this job, Jason felt a little scared, this all seemed far too intense for something he didn’t really know much about. He knew that it was a reputable company who owned the bar but that was all and right now he felt like he was handing over his life to these people without really knowing what he was getting himself into. Don’t be ridiculous, He scolded himself as soon as the thought entered his mind, You are in a completely different league now, of course things are going to be more strict than you are used to. Before he could talk himself out of it, he took out his phone, turned it off and handed it over.

“Wonderful,” Michelle said, and placed the phone in her pocket. “I promise to take very good care of it, and of course you can have it back when you leave. If you would like to follow me.”

Jason followed Michelle down the long corridor, gazing at the beautiful paintings on the walls until they reached a door at the very end.

“I have to admit Jason, we have been following your career very closely and we are very impressed with your work. Your personal cocktails are the best in the country, some might say the world, and the way your customers rave about your service and how at ease you make them feel makes us confident that you will fit right in, in our establishment.”

She opened the door to a flight of stairs leading down.

“We take the name of our home very seriously. The golden rule in order to stay in this place is to ensure that you make every customer who walks through our doors completely at ease. They are to feel that this is the most perfect place they have ever been in, nothing should ever compare to the peace and serenity that encompasses every inch of this building. Needless to say, this means that no other emotion other than complete and utter contentment and service should ever show on your face at all times, even when you think that no one is watching.”

They reached the bottom of the stairs and Michelle stopped at another door to turn to face Jason.

“Think of us as Disney World on crack. Nothing short of perfect will do.” She took hold of both of Jason’s shoulders. “Now give me your most dashing smile.”

Jason once again did as he was told and mustered the biggest genuine smile he could.

“Oh wonderful,” Michelle beamed, “Even better than I could have hoped.”

She turned and opened the second door to reveal an enormous room, shiny and sparkling and glistening new. Everything seemed spotless from the marble blue floors to the huge sky blue drapes hanging from the ceiling which seemed so high, Jason wasn’t quite sure where it ended. In front of him was an array of sofas and chairs surrounding luxurious glass tables on violet shag rugs. Large platinum screens, bigger than most he had seen in cinemas, lined the walls in different areas which were segmented and partitioned off to give a comfortable privacy to each sitting area. There had to be 12 of these areas at least.

Jason could count 8 bars in his sight alone, all stocked with every form of alcohol he could think of and lit up with such stunning lighting that he could barely catch his breath.

“This is the room that you will be spending all of your time, most of our clientele will be very fond of the drinks and have a tendency to lead incredibly stressful lives, as such it is your sole job to provide them with drinks, smiles, conversation and keep a sense of control. We do not accept drunken disorderly people. We expect you to keep an eye on each drink you serve and the people in which you serve those drinks to. If you feel that they are leaning towards becoming a little out of control, it is your responsibility to notify security who will then ensure that they are taken away to serve their drunken night away from others. We do not throw people out of Utopia, it isn’t our style, but we do expect the constant calm that we emanate to continue even after all our customers are intoxicated. If you do not report a person and they disrupt the calm in any way then needless to say disciplinary actions will be taken. It is important that you know, we will always know who it is who has let this disruption take place, we have eyes and ears in every section of this establishment.

“Now, let me show you your station. You will be pleased to know that of all the staff we have employed here, we are most impressed with you, as such you will be paid a lot more and have access to a lot more important clientele. With that however, comes the expectation that you will never slip up, make a mistake or struggle with any of the tasks that we give you. Ah, here we are.”

Michelle drew aside a curtain to reveal the largest bar Jason had ever seen. It was so large that he could not see the end of either side, only where it curved around the wall.

“This will be your area. You will be assigned 20 members of staff and we expect you to manage each of them. Judging by your record however, you should find this no problem.”

Jason stroked the smooth glass surface of the bar and breathed a sigh of exclamation as he closed his eyes and smelt the new and refreshing smell that surrounded him. He couldn’t even find it within him to stress about the new levels of expectations that had been thrust on his shoulders. In this moment, looking at the new place he would be spending his waking days, he was completely and utterly content. Nothing could hurt him here, he would succeed and he would be damn good at it.

“Ma’am,” a man dressed in an immaculate suit walked up to them both and addressed Michelle.

“The expected suitcases have arrived, shall I take them to his room?”

Jason shot a look at the suitcases in the trolley next to this man, he grinned, he knew that design of suitcase, he had ones just like them at home.

“Of course,” Michelle answered and very quickly drew her attention back to Jason. “If you would like to follow me, we have an orientation DVD that you need to watch. Our customer base are a very particular kind and you will need to be made aware of what it is that you will be expecting.”

“Lead the way,” Jason said, all of a sudden feeling a lot more confident about his new workplace.



Daniela

“If one more person gets in my way, I swear I am going to punch them in the face.” Daniela threatened.

“Daniela, it is rush hour, there are going to be more people on the street than you.” Lisa said.

“Well there shouldn’t be, don’t they know that I am the most important person here?”

“No one knows that, only you.”

Daniela stopped in the middle of the street as another person weaved in front of her and shut her eyes. Shaking her head very slowly she took a deep breath and started to move again.

“How much further do we have to go? My feet are killing me.”

Lisa smiled. “You do realise that we have only been walking for about five minutes right?”

“Your point?”

“My point is that if any one of us should be complaining about the journey it should be me, after all, you did drag me out of my home at this ridiculous early hour and make me come halfway across London just so I could show you where to go once you left the train.”

Daniela threw Lisa a massive smile and batted her eyelashes. “Oh please. You love waiting on me hand and foot.”

Lisa rolled her eyes. “Let’s just get there so that I can get home. This sun is burning into my skin.”

“Well that’s because you don’t have the dark beautiful skin that I do.”

“Yeah, yeah, so you keep telling me, and before you get all high and mighty, let’s not forget you’ve got white in you as well.”

“Barely.”

“I hope you burn as well.”

Daniela laughed. “You can hope all you want. You know it isn’t going to happen.”

“Remind me, why am I doing this for you again?”

Daniela linked arms with Lisa and pulled her along. “Because you love me.”

“Yeah, I’m still trying to figure out how that happened.”

Daniela laughed again. “Be nice, I’m meeting the man of my dreams today.”

“You don’t even know him, you loser!”

“Katie says he’s perfect and ridiculously rich.”

“Are you sure she didn’t say he’s perfect because he’s ridiculously rich?”

“Isn’t that the same thing?”

Lisa threw Daniela a knowing stare. She opened her mouth to retort but decided to let it go instead. “Is she meeting you at the restaurant?”

“Yeah, it’s a double date/brunch thing, Katie and Dave, me and Nathan.”

“Well just remember to hook me up with one of his rich friends once you’re official.”

“Of course!”

Lisa stopped outside a run-down building and they both looked at it quizzically.

“Are we here?”

“Yeah, this is the place. I thought you said that it was classy?”

“That’s what Katie said.”

“Well maybe it’s one of those places that looks more fancy inside.”

“It had better be, otherwise I am coming back with you.”

Daniela tried the door to find it locked.

“Is this the right entrance?” Lisa asked, “I’ll go and check around the side to see if I can see another way in.”

Lisa walked around the building, leaving Daniela at the door. She did a full circuit of the building, seeing no other entrance, only a large glass dome shaded over with a mirror finish so that all she could see was her own reflection.

“There’s no other entrance that I can see.” She called out as she made her way back to the door. However, when she got there, Daniela had disappeared. She pulled out her phone and called her. It rang twice before Daniela answered.

“Where are you?”

“I’m inside, I’m telling you Lisa, this place is amazing, you should have seen what I had to do to get into the building.”

“Please don’t tell me it was sexual favours.”

Daniela laughed. “Ha! I wish! No it was –“ Another voice interrupted Daniela. “Hold on, someone’s talking to me.”

After about 30 seconds Daniela came back on the phone. “I have to go, apparently we’re not meant to use phones in here.”

“No worries. Tell me all about it later.”

“Will do. Lisa this place is amazing! See ya!”

Lisa laughed. “Bye, have fun you loser.”