Am I sure? I’ll tell you what I told everyone else; no, but I’m doing it anyway.

Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – Family Values
Current Date: May 20, 2024

Character: Sven Landvik
Race: Human
Age: 28
Current residence: Lakehurst, New Jersey
 

---

There are times when I wish I could unhear certain things. I do not eavesdrop on any of our employees. As it stands, I so happen to think that this is completely ridiculous and unnecessary. There are cameras in most of the rooms of the building but those are there for security purposes. You will never find me seated before those cameras, staring intently, and just waiting for something so-called juicy to be uttered by one of the employees. I find this sort of behaviour completely appalling.

If you trust your employees so little as to feel the need to spy on them at any chance you get, maybe you should reconsider your path in life, or at the very least, the working path you’ve picked for yourself as it clearly is doing you absolutely no good.

Do I hear rumours now and again as I walk from one area of the building to another? Of course. I hear snippets of conversation but those are more often than not in one ear, and out the other. There is no need for me to register what the employees are talking about unless they are talking to me directly and are talking about the work that needs to be done, has been done, or is in the process of being completed.

Now, I am not such an aloof employer that I have no care as to the well-being of those very employees. I don’t mind if one of them crosses my path to talk to me about something that isn’t work-related. It is uncommon, but only because all of the office is very work-oriented, especially during work hours, as things should be. I still will briefly stop and greet others if they do the same to me in turn, after all.

There was one particular rumour that had to be handled by HR recently that I’m still trying to wrap my mind around. From what I’ve been told, things seemed to have been stopped just before they turned truly ugly. I know more than HR, at this point, because I had to talk to the police about things and that one ended up derailing my day in a bad way. I could have felt plenty frustrated about it, but I realized just how dangerous this now ex-employee could have turned out and I’m glad that things happened the way they did.

From HR itself I have only a handful of details. A discussion in one of the break rooms—reported by another coworker—about a pair talking of sacrifices needing to be made, about not being sure of what they’re doing but knowing they have to do it anyway for the bettering of the world and that the lives being sacrificed would be well worth it.

That information was gathered by HR and transferred over to the police as being worrisome activity and a short bit of time down the road, the ex-employee was no more on our end.

Through more information gathered on the individual and whatever else it is that the police—or whoever else who took care of this—did, it was found out that the man in question was planning on coming right back into the office with a particular device that would have taken a lot of lives. Just thinking about it makes me feel ill and I cannot even begin to understand how something like this comes to the mind of those people.

From what little more I learned from the police—though they looked more like government agents or something along those lines—is that the whole thing was a religion-based happening and, well, I’ve tried to block out the rest. At times, my imagination goes into overdrive, possibly something scarred right into me from being buried alive, and the idea of anyone losing their lives in the office due to what would have essentially been a small-sized terrorist attack wasn’t something I could dwell on.

We’re not a huge office. I have no idea why he even seemed to think that taking the whole building down would have made a difference in anyone’s life in the long run. Then again, I have never been able to wrap my mind around these sorts of things. This whole point of sacrificing your own life and that of everyone around you for a religious cause is beyond my understanding and I wish to never have to hear anything of the sort ever again.

In the end, I find myself simply glad that things were caught early on and that nothing happened to anyone here, or anywhere else. I know that there hardly is a way to screen for that sort of thing, and not hiring someone due to their religion is stupid. We try to be open to hiring people from all backgrounds and life choices, so long as they can do the work they are being hired for. In all of the years that the business has existed, nothing of the sort had ever happened and I hope it never does ever again.

Final Word Count: 847

I knew I never should have introduced the two of you. I will never know peace now.

 
Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – Family Values
Characters: Sven Landvik
Race: Human
Age: 26
Current residence: Lakehurst, New Jersey
Final Word Count: 756 words
 

---

I believe that, in a way, drama is inevitable. It is one of those things that simply cannot be avoided. No amount of trying to claim that all will be all right. That all is perfectly fine will make things any better than they might turn out to be on their own.

The best one can manage is to make sure that the drama is kept to a minimum and, for that, one has to remind their employees, every so often, that they please keep their personal lives as separate as possible from their business lives. Now, I’m not saying that I wish for all of our employees to be little more than robots, doing their tasks and little more. They know this.

What we do ask is that if they have had personal issues with someone and it might be a problem while they work, that they let us know so that we can figure things out. What we also ask is that physical relationships be kept out of the office. We won’t force people to not date someone else in the company but if we come to know that two are dating and it might lead to conflicts of interest, we will either make sure they work in opposite departments, or different enough hours so that they may be focused on their jobs while they’re here.

It doesn’t seem like much to ask for. I know that some would claim that this policy is unfair, considering the fact that, yes, I am married to the man who takes care of my security detail, but you won’t see us be affectionate to one another during work. You won’t hear us discuss personal matters during working hours. If you were to share a vehicle with us, you’d also notice that we don’t speak of personal things. Those are things we keep for home when the workday is over. There is the point that we also just don’t flaunt the fact that we are married. Yes, we both wear our rings, though, for safety reasons, I know that Dane usually wears his at his neck. Only our older staff is aware of this union and that is how it is meant to stay.

I know that others might very possibly manage to be as good in separating both personal and work lives, while still sharing their work hours with their partners but it’s a chance we simply prefer to not keep. We had an issue recently that made it abundantly clear that our policy to not date co-workers being in place was necessary.

I don’t know the full names, I don’t know all of the details. Our human resources department ended up taking care of most of it before it became too much of a problem but what I do know is that one particular worker who had been with us for quite some time caught two more recent hires—one a friend of his, the other, an intern we had taken in because her father had praised her to no end to us—having a bit of more-than-personal time in one of the bathrooms. It came back up to HR that this was happening as that is very much so strictly forbidden as per company policy. If you wish to play rabbit with your partner of the moment, you will have to do so on your own time and off of the office grounds.

In a way, I somewhat believe that things would have gone unseen if the person who had introduced the two, in question, hadn’t exclaimed rather loudly upon his discovery that he never should have introduced the two of them, he’d never know peace anymore. That, of course, attracted unwanted attention as the pair hurried to straighten themselves out and the rest, well I don’t know the rest, I don’t want to know the rest.

What I do know is that we’ve warned both parties that this should not happen again, that should it, there would be more than a simple warning. It might seem like we’re doing things a bit out of order, but the policy is very clear about this, and every new hire is told these very things when they sign the contract. They are told of them, and they are written in the contracts. So, as I see it, we’re merely doing what we are to keep the office a healthy and drama-free working space, I don’t think I can be looked at as the villain for this.

You don’t get to come to me for information and then tell me to stay out of it. That’s—quite rude, actually.

 
Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – Family Values
Characters: Sven Landvik
Race: Human
Age: 25
Final Word Count: 707 words
 

---

Where do I even begin as far as Eliana is concerned?

If I still lived with my mother at all, Eliana would likely be the kind of woman—girl, as far as I’m concerned as she’s just seventeen—my mother would have liked. Though, when I look at it from another angle, my mother would possibly have hated her because the two are just so similar that when she was first introduced to us as the daughter of one of the new partners my father had agreed to sign a brief contract with, I thought she had been related to my mother or her family in some way. I wouldn’t have been surprised had that been the case.

Eliana is the perfect little princess or so her father seems to believe. The girl can do no wrong and will take over once her father retires. The day she does that is the day his company sinks lower than low. She’ll ruin him and he’s too blind to see it. The girl has no interest at all in what her father is doing for a living. I suppose I can’t blame her, it’s one of those things but, just the same, I can understand why she isn’t interested. Either you are, or you’re not, in this business.

At the first meeting, the girl’s father had asked Marius if I minded keeping his daughter company, as though somehow I couldn’t decide by myself whether or not I wanted to play babysitter. I know I look young but this was insulting and it was clear by my father’s face that he wasn’t impressed. I told him that it was all right and that I could give her a tour of the office while he spoke with his potential new partner. I had other things in the work on my side of the building as was but it was quiet at that point so I figured I could.

So we walked and talked. She asked the most inane questions. None of them had anything to do with the business at hand. It was as we approached the front that very loudly asked me one particular question that she had no reason to ask. It was about something a fair bit more private, as far as the company was concerned, and I told her that I wouldn’t answer her.

Of course, she huffed, whined and complained, then turned to the administrative assistant who was manning the desk we were passing by. I told her that she still had no right to ask that kind of question and the girl had the gall to tell me to stay out of it. It made me pause. Ingrid—our admin—looked flustered and kept on looking at me as though asking me what she was supposed to give for an answer. A small shake of my head in her direction is all I gave before I managed to walk Eliana away from the desk.

Through the rest of the walk, she starkly refused to even give me any answer whenever I would ask her a question—even yes or no ones. I shrugged it off though I tried not to stamp her as a lost cause. Once the pair was gone and we were on the way home, Marius asked me what I’d thought of Eliana and I had to bite my tongue. I rarely hide anything from him but I asked to know about her father first. I was hoping that they were nothing alike and it is clear that we’ll be able to have a good working relationship with this partner, so long as it is the father running the business.

As I mentioned, however, and this I did tell my father, the moment Eliana takes over for her father, that business is going to sink and it will sink faster than—well let’s not go there. There could be plenty of examples I could think of but I don’t like to use these, they don’t feel quite right. To state that something will sink faster than a ship that has sunk is wrong to me; I don’t know how to explain it. I guess it simply is one of my many quirks.

We weren’t the only ones affected.

 
Timeline/World: Alternate Earth – Family Stays Together
Characters: Sven Landvik
Race: Human
Age: 24
Final Word Count: 625 words
 

---

Some people like to joke about Mother Nature being mad; about Mother Nature being out to reduce our numbers; about how the earth will reclaim what rightfully belongs to it.

What most people seem to not realize is that things like these are no laughing matter. Climate is changing, natural disasters are more frequent, all in all, we’re done so much damage to this planet that if it did have a soul, a personality of sorts, it likely would be trying to shake us off at this point. People who still somehow believe that everything is well and fine in the world are idiots. I rarely judge others for their beliefs but I may have to, for this one.

I can admit more than willingly that I’ve never had to deal with natural disasters, not first-hand. I’d like to not have to. I’ve had to deal with some of the after-effects of some of these disasters but even that has been rare. For all of the places I’ve lived at, I consider myself lucky enough in that regard, I was safe. The worst I’ve really had to deal with has been rain that might have felt torrential to me but wasn’t, not compared to the damage left in the storm’s pathway before it puttered out and came to us.

Earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, they never affect just a single person, there always will be so many people touched by these disasters, that trying to count them each is an exercise in futility.

I don’t know if it’s because of business or simply because it’s just one of those things, that I’ve started to keep track of these disasters. I keep track of the storms that turn into hurricanes and then back into storms, I keep track of earthquakes. I don’t dig deeply for that information and I don’t spend countless hours reading everything but I look in on a couple of sites every day, check in on the affected area, send a bit of money that way through one association or another after making sure they’re legitimate. It’s in the little things, I figure.

My life’s not always been a walk in the park. I don’t know that I can even claim it’s ever been one. I’ve had it easy compared to some others but there still were events that changed my life in a way that seems as though it may be forever. So while my life certainly cannot be compared to that of those who have lost their homes and even likely some of their loved ones to these disasters, it still hasn’t been easy.

As is, I can’t complain, there’s no reason to. That might be why I don’t mind donating a little money. It might not be much but it’s still something. I’m not about to volunteer to go help them. For one thing, I don’t think I’d have the heart to handle the sight of potential bodies and all of the wrecked buildings and who knows what else, and two, I know I wouldn’t be able to go alone and just… that’s why I opt for the donation route.

When I hear people complain about how they’ve lost X or Y item because they misplaced them or it was stolen but that item is just one of so many material things we likely could live without, I feel like I should be rolling my eyes at them and telling them to grow up. That they can replace whatever lost item it is they’ve lost while the people out there, struggling with survival through storms and earthquakes, what they’ve lost will never be replaced and cannot be gotten back.

However, who am I to judge these people? It’s not my place.

You just have to choose wisely.

Timeline/World: Alternate Earth – Family Stays Together
Characters: Sven Landvik
Race: Human
Age: 22
Final Word Count: 561 words

---

My mother, from a very young age, would drill into my head that I had to make my own decisions about things. By the time I was spending six months of my life with her and six months with my father, I thought that particular statement to be full of bullocks, of course. What kind of life was that? At least with father I had a somewhat steady life, he didn’t move around much, at least not compared to her. When I was shipped off to live with her for six months I would never know where I would end up, what the house would be like. So her little nagging of how I’d have to make my own decisions, how I’d have to choose wisely, it was bullocks, absolute rubbish.

I guess, looking back now, that she might have mostly meant about following in my father’s footsteps or not, I don’t know. She obviously wanted me to find something else to occupy my time with, somehow thinking that the Landvik’s import and export business was shady or something when it is legitimate from all angles. Then again, I just don’t know. I can’t ask her that question at this point; I have been living with my father full time for the last almost five years.

After the buried-alive incident, I guess someone finally realized how unfit a mother Sonja Hummel really was. Though her lack of caring about my well-being had been going on for years I couldn’t really confirm anything. Other than I was made to work myself to the bone cleaning a house she didn’t want to clean because she was tired from her own cleaning job. I suppose it wouldn’t have been so bad if she hadn’t been a slob.

Everything left on the counter, more dishes than I could count piling up almost daily that left me to wonder how she could manage that, her need that everything be absolutely spotless, the tiles scrubbed every week, the windows washed every other week; the list was long and it was demanding. I couldn’t really complain. I was fed, clothed and I had a roof over my head. That I was used as her cleaning servant hadn’t bothered me at first, I was just exhausted by the time I was done, that was mostly it.

Now five years later, well almost; I think back to how things were and I realize how senseless it all seemed to be. How much she demanded of me and more often than not in a house that even when clean, just didn’t look clean. The boyfriends that came and left were something else, most of the time they weren’t so bad but now and again she’d snag herself a real creep and just, I did all I could to not be visible when they were over. I lost count, however, of how many used condoms I’ve had to pick up just all over the place and I think that some of them seemed to delight in flinging the things everywhere they could for some reason.

My life is better now. I make my own choices, I help father with the business, my husband is absolutely perfect in my eyes and I don’t want anything to really change.

Have I made my life choices wisely? I personally think so.