Page 2 of Loved By the Orc

I felt my face go rigid, turning into a non-threatening, apologetic mask it always becomes when someone shouts at me.

“I…I’m so sorry,” I heard myself say. “I’ll take them back and alphabetize them right now.”

“You’re damn right, you will!” He threw the last of the stack of papers on the floor and rose to his feet. “Get down there and pick those up and get them right,” he commanded, pointing at the papers—some of which he was currently trampling. “I’m going to my meeting. You’d better have them done when I get back.”

And he stalked off, the papers crunching under his shiny, hateful shoes.

Stooping, I began gathering the crumpled paperwork with red cheeks and stinging eyes. I hated myself for making that “sorry face”—for backing down and taking the blame when it wasn’t my fault. Myboss hadnevertold me he wanted anything alphabetized before today, but of course now he was gaslighting me and acting like it was a rule I’d always known about that I had broken.

I had spent a long time getting all the documents just right—now I would have to spend even longer fixing the mess he’d made of them. And I knew without asking that any papers that had been trampled and torn by his feet would need to be reprinted and re-stapled—I didn’t dare hand him anything less than a perfect stack of alphabetized reports or he would blow his top again and probably call me “stupid” or an “idiot,” or something even worse.

If you’re wondering why I put up with this abuse, well—it wasn’t by choice. I had signed a contract with Bentley Pharmaceuticals early in my academic career. They had agreed to put me through school and help me become a pharmacist as long as I promised to work for them during school and for two years after. I could take most of my classes online at night and work for them during the day.

It had seemed like a sweetheart deal at the time. I knew people who were drowning in student debt and this way I wouldn’t have to take a single loan—well, unless I quit before the contract said I could. At that point, every single dollar that Bentley had loaned to me would suddenly become due—with ten percent interest—in a single lump sum.

Since I didn’t have an extra hundred thousand dollars just lying around, I couldn’t quit. And my boss, Mr. Price, knew that.

I’d tried to get out from under his thumb several times. But the last time I went to HR, Mrs. Renard, the woman in charge, had asked me bluntly if I just wanted to nullify my contract and pay what I owed the company.

“Of course not!” I exclaimed, feeling all the blood rush from my face when I thought of that much debt suddenly coming down on my head all at once. “I can’t afford to pay everything back like that—if I could, I wouldn’t have signed the contract in the first place!”

“Then it appears you have no choice but to go back to yourposition,” Mrs. Renard remarked. She had short, iron-gray hair and a stern face like a disapproving principal.

“But…but it’s clear that Mr. Price isn’t happy with my performance!” I exclaimed, trying to think of another way to get away from him. “He’s always calling me ‘stupid’ and ‘lazy’ and ‘ignorant’ and things like that. Surely he’d rather have someone else as his assistant!”

“I’m afraid not,” Mrs. Renard said blandly. “In fact, he’s given you nothing but glowing performance reviews. I have a difficult time believing that he calls you ‘stupid’ when he seems so happy with your work.”

It was at that moment I knew that I was trapped. My boss, Irving Price, was never going to let me go. He liked having someone to shout at and abuse. Someone who was too afraid to fight back.

I hadn’t even told the HR Director all of the things he called me. The worst was when he talked about my weight and called me “fat” or “chubby.” I think those words hurt me most of all because they were true.

I mean, IknewI wasn’t stupid—I’d graduated top of my class and I had a 4.0 GPA, which isn’t easy in Pharmacy School. Have you ever taken Organic Chemistry? It’s not exactly a walk in the park—but I aced it.

So I could mostly shrug off his hateful remarks about my IQ. But when it came to my weight, well…that was a number where I was most vulnerable. And I was sure that Mr. Price knew it.

So I was stuck—which was exactly what I was thinking as I sniffed back tears and gathered the torn and trampled documents around my evil boss’s desk. Stuck with no way out for at least the next four years!

The worst thing was, the abuse I got from my boss reminded me a lot of the way my uncle and aunt had treated me growing up. My mom died of breast cancer when I was ten and my dad had left before that, when I was only eight. So rather than letting me go into the foster care system, my mom’s brother and his wife adopted me.

Sometimes I think it would have been better in foster care. I couldnever do anything good enough—could never please them. Even my excellent grades didn’t make them happy—nothingdid. It also didn’t help that both of them were skinny and I’ve been chubby all my life. I was just a big disappointment—a burden they had to bear and nothing I could do would ever make them love me or even like me.

That was how I felt with Mr. Price—like I could never make him happy, no matter how hard I tried.

“So why do I keep trying?” I muttered to myself as I gathered the papers. Hot tears splashed on the stack in my hands and I realized I was crying—which would only make my sadistic boss angrier if he came back and saw me “bawling.”

Rising to my feet, I shoved the stack of papers to one side of the desk. I needed some time alone—five minutes to get myself together, I thought. I couldn’t have a breakdown right here in my boss’s office—who knew when he might come back?

I rushed down the hallway, heading for the ladies room. I noticed that the door looked slightly different—were the edges of it glowing? But my eyes were too blurry with tears to make out the details and I just wanted to be alone. I was nearly running as I pushed blindly at the door, which swung open…

And dumped me out in the middle of Hidden Hollow.

1

HARMONY

Hidden Hollow is a magical town located somewhere in the woods of New England. I don’t know its exact geographical location—nobody does, I don’t think—but if I had to guess, I’d say it must be somewhere in the foothills of The Berkshires mountain range.

It’s a beautiful place where the weather is almost always perfect because nine months out of the year it’s Autumn at the peak of Leaf Season. It also has a magical bubble around it which keeps anyone who doesn’t have magic of their own—or isn’t magical in some way—out.

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