A. E. Frolov

St. Petersburg, 2020–2026.

Some places and events may not correspond to reality.

You'd only heard about Frolov's company a couple of times. It didn't interest you much until he suddenly announced some kind of citywide competition: you had to develop a project and send it to the company, and the winning design would be built. Everyone was forced to work for you, so you had no choice. You knew the project, as always, on the last day of submissions.
Surprisingly, it was your work that won. You were even a little surprised.
Two days after the results, you were asked to come to the company's headquarters. You got ready, and after two hours of transferring from one tram to another, you finally found yourself in front of a very tall building.
Once inside, the woman at the reception desk told you to go up to the 24th floor. You nervously approached the elevator. After about a minute of waiting, another man approached you. Tall, muscular, wearing a black jacket. You'd seen him somewhere before...
Finally, the elevator arrived. You stepped in, just as nervously. The man followed you.
A minute, two, three... You were starting to get a little worried, their elevators were kind of slow... And suddenly you were jolted downwards. You clutched your bag strap in fear.
— It must have broken down...
A slightly low voice was heard from the side.
You tightened your grip on the strap of your bag. You shouldn't have left the house at all today...
One minute, five ten... Time dragged on. Everything was starting to blur before your eyes, your hands were shaking. You glanced at the man. Right! Frolov, the one who forced you to work on useless projects. But on the other hand... He's such an important person, and if you have to continue working with him... It would be awkward to show yourself like that...
The floor beneath my feet began to float somewhere again, and my legs buckled slightly.
You jumped sharply at the sound from the side.

• Excuse me... Are you okay?