Infinity: Rising of the Soul Weavers

* Zedd, Elley Duhe - Happy Now *

AN: this was a 2.9K-word chapter so I cut it in two for the ease of reading.

***

Looking up at Liam, Lizzy hesitated for a second before following suit and introducing herself, "I'm Elizabeth... nice to meet you."

Just thinking about her own name made her remember her brother who had given her the nickname Lizzy, which only made her mood drop down a few notches.

"Are you powered by any chance?" Liam continued, "tell me what you're good at, and I might be able to find you a job. I work at a newly established construction company and we're looking for people."

Nodding her head, Lizzy was rather surprised that a man would go out of his way to help a girl he's never met before, but she dismissed it for now.

Talking a little bit about herself, Lizzy stopped to let Liam digest the information.

"Hm, so you're not powered, but you've got the brains, huh?" he said with a smile. "Are you good with math? And maybe talking to people?"

"Uhm," Lizzy nodded seriously.

"That's cool," Liam said, "how about you come with me now? My shift is supposed to start at three, and it's about that time now."

"It's actually three thirty..." Lizzy said after checking her watch.

"Eh?" Liam had such a silly panicked look on face that he even succeeded in making Lizzy laugh. "EHH??? I'm late, please let's hurry!"

Lizzy wasn't a kid and she knew that she shouldn't trust random people she meets on the streets. But for some reason, she didn't care.

'What's the worst that could happen? Die?' she thought as she followed Liam to the closest bud loop around.

She was at that point where death seemed like a bless more than anything else. She wouldn't try to purposefully kill herself, but she didn't have much to live for either.

Yes she's trying to become someone her brother would be proud of, but what guarantees that he'll be watching? Maybe she's just suffering for nothing...

"Elizabeth? Liam knocked Lizzy out of her trance, causing guilt to wash over her for thinking the way she just did, "it's our stop."

A few minutes after, Lizzy found herself in a construction site not too far from her own house.

Many warning or construction signs were set up around a partially destroyed skyscraper.

Workers were working hard, and machines were stupidly loud. The air was filled with dust, but if anything, it was better than the smell of blood in the city streets.

Lizzy could see many powered workers flying around with wings on their backs while carrying heavy metal bars up to the people on higher floors.

Others were working on the ground while wearing different types of powered suits. They couldn't fly, but they could lift some pretty heavy rocks or equipments.

Lizzy subconsciously smiled at the scene in front of her as it was rather... new to her, especially that she's never personally been to a construction site.

It was inspiring how the technology has advanced enough to allow engineering teams to creat such wonders.

Soon enough, these suits would be able to fly as well, making place for even unpowered humans to join the stage.

"Let's go, my manager would probably want to see you-"

"Liam!" a voice yelled to be heard over the heavy equipments' noise. "You're late!"

"Oh Mr. Dento!" Liam yelled while scratching the back of his head in embarrassment.

"Let's go to my office!" Mr. Dento yelled again, while passing a helmet to Lizzy who put it on without any questions. Liam had one of his own.

The moment they stepped into the 'office' which was in fact a mobile office trailer, the noise became less intense, making it easier for Lizzy to calm herself down and thus control her heart that was hammering against her chest violently.

"Hello young miss," Mr. Dento said with a smile, only to follow that with a frown as he looked at Liam, "you're late young man, what did I tell you about being late? You wanna be fired? I can happily do that!"

"No, please Mr. dento, listen..." Looking at both Mr. Dento and Lizzy, Liam didn't know what to say.

He wanted to say it's not his fault, but at the same time he would throw Lizzy under the bus.

"I'm sorry, it won't happen again!" was what he actually said.

Awkward silence spread across the office before Mr. Dento nodded and silently. "Liam... I respect you more for not arguing like you always do." Mr. Dento said with a smile.

"I'm assuming this young miss is looking for a job with us?"

"Yes," Liam replied with a smile, it wasn't often that his manager would be this lenient with him for being late. "Mr. Dento, this is Elizabeth. Elizabeth, Mr. Dento."

"Nice to meet you!" Lizzy said with a professional smile.

She hasn't expected that a man she had met on a bench on the street to actually provide her with a job interview, let alone this quick.

"Calm down, young miss," Mr. Dento said with a smile, "I can feel the stress in your voice... Don't be alarmed, we're in dire need for workers so it's not a matter of whether we need you or not, but rather where we need you the most."

Hearing that, Lizzy couldn't help but feel warm inside, 'is the world not so bad after all? Could it be real?'

"Understood," Lizzy said enthusiastically, "to be honest with you Mr. Dento, I'm not powered, nor am I strong enough to left heavy items.

"But when it comes to building your company a website on the net, or maybe ordering supplies for you, I can assure you I won't disappoint you!"

Hearing her now cheerful voice combined with her professional smile made Liam happy that he had brought her with him.

It was all so random. Mr. Dento had asked his workers to bring their neighbours who were looking for a job, or anyone else they knew needed money.

And to think that he'd find such a competent person on the side of the street made him smile widely.

When he had approached her on the bench, he wasn't even thinking about the job but rather how he could calm her down.

After all Liam had a soft spot for crying girls.

"Liam? Do I need to remind you that you're about an hour late?"

Hearing his manager's voice and seeing his 'soft' smile made the tiny hairs on the back of his neck stand to an end.

"Elizabeth, please show Mr. Dento that I'm not useless!" saying that abruptly, he disappeared through the door.

"Oh my... I'm sorry about Liam, he's... overenthusiastic all the time, *sigh* but I assume it's a good thing in times like these."

"I might be guessing here, but you guys don't know eachother, do you?" Mr. Dento asked Lizzy who then told him their small weird story.

"Hahahaha!" Mr. Dento burst out laughing after hearing her story, "that's so like Liam!"

Taking a moment to calm down, his face became professional again, "Ok, you mentioned that you're good at building websites and ordering supplies? I'll take you up for that.

"For this week, we're good for supplies, so you can start with the website as we desperately need that. And while you're doing that, you can answer the phone calls and redirect them to me, for today at least.

"I'll give you a booklet about who we are and what we do, that way you'd have more context of what's going on and you'd be able to answer phone calls all by yourself."

Hearing all of that seemed like a dream to Lizzy who had been rejected from a job interview after a job interview.

"Here," Mr. Dento said as he handed her some papers, "this contains some papers you need to read and fill up, mostly stuff about liability etc. I'll give you the booklet by the end of today. Do you have questions?"

Shaking her head slightly, Lizzy felt light-headed at how fast paced everything was, but it gave her a good feeling at the same time.

"Take a moment to relax if you want to," Mr. Dento said with a smile, "Oh and by the way, your pay will start at twenty-five bucks an hour, and will increase with how much you improve, how's that?"

"Perfect..." Lizzy muttered. "Thank you so much, Mr. Dento, I promise I won't let you down!"

"Uhm," nodding happily, Mr. Dento left the mobile office with a smile.

Taking a chance to relax for a second, Lizzy sat down and closed her eyes.

'You're a world away, somewhere in the clouds, in a foreign place, are you happy now?

'Sammy, I wonder how you're doing... I hope you're happy, big brother, wherever you are...

'I hope you can find someone to take care of you, the same way you took care of me...

'I am so sorry if I ever get weak and let my emotions take control... Or if I ever lose my way... but I promise that I'll never forget you.

'Take care, Sammy....'