Broken Glass | Natasha Romanoff

a rough start.

   There Lin was, sitting on the steps of a condemned apartment building, regretting everything she'd ever done in her life. Her mind was running a mile a minute, but she had enough experience with panic attacks to prevent herself from completely breaking down. Starting a new job was always slightly daunting, but she'd learnt to cope with it.

You've done this loads of times, this isn't anything new, she thought to herself. Lin dug her nails into the palms of her hands, using the sharp sting they brought while biting into her skin to ground herself. She focused on the pain in her hands to still her spinning thoughts. She counted her breaths as the world around her began to drift back into focus.

She looked up as the eyes of passing pedestrians landed on her and darted away suspiciously. She unclenched her fists and withheld a flinch as she looked at the deep, red grooves she'd left on her hands, adding to her already vast collection of scars. Pull yourself together, she scolded. She had to be at her client's office in 15 minutes, and being late wasn't an option she wanted to consider.

Lin sighed and forced herself to stand, slowly walking down the steps to join the crowd of people rushing down the sidewalk.

~ ~ ~

She'd gotten to the brownstone where her client's office was with five minutes to spare. The building looked ancient, she noticed while walking up its sandstone steps. It was very rough around the edges. But it had fancy, expensive-looking stained glass windows that glittered pleasantly in the early afternoon sun. Exotic flowers in Greek-style pots sat on each step. Whoever owned the brownstone wasn't hurting for money, she acknowledged without much surprise.

The reception area was so unnecessarily lavish that Lin froze upon entering. The interior design was much nicer than it's exterior let on, even with the flowers and stained glass windows. She had to admit that she was impressed. Greek-style marble pillars lay in each corner of the room. The walls were painted a soft grey and there was a waterfall spilling out from a hole in the ceiling. It fell into a small pool near the front entrance and with a closer inspection of the water, one could see dozens of tropical fish swimming around. Flowers and other topiary of every size, shape, and colour lay in pots along the walls.

The room felt a little bit like something out of movie set. Lin's clients were almost always rich, but she'd never seen someone spend so much money on the reception area.

When she managed to tear her eyes away from the vast chamber, she noticed a receptionist sitting at the front desk.

That's odd, she thought, nobody was there when I walked in. The man spoke up as soon as he noticed Lin's eyes on him. "Can I help you, or are you just going to stand there all day with your jaw on the floor? Because I have other things to do, you know." He sounded bored and rolled his eyes as Lin gave him a cold glare.

She marched over to him, head held high, refusing to be even the smallest bit flustered.

"I'm here to see-" The receptionist cut her off as a look of recognition crossed his face. "Oh, I know who you are," he said with enough contempt to make her blood boil. He looked down at the list in front of him as Lin simmered. "You'll want the third floor, eighth room on your left." He didn't glance up as she left. In fact, when she turned around to take one last look at the waterfall, he was gone.

~ ~ ~

Lin found her client's office after about a half-hour of searching. Not only was she now very late, but she was now angry enough to punch a hole in the bright red walls surrounding her.

It had taken an inspection of nearly every single floor in the building for her to find herself in front of the right office with the name Anzelm Chomiki.