It All Started With Getting Fired

By A. R. Khan

Jay is an ordinary man trying to navigate his way through life. However, life hasn't been too kind to him lately.

After being fired from his job unceremoniously, he sets out to better himself, but this task would be far from easy. As he starts to lose hope an unexpected offer will change his life forever.

Although, this offer comes with darkness which would only grow. Jay finds himself getting entangled in a never-ending scheme.

Can Jay find happiness?

Will he continue down this dark path, or will he be saved before it's too late?

• Language: English
• Publisher: A. R. Khan
• Release date: May 5, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223084921

Book preview

IT ALL STARTED

WITH

GETTING FIRED

––––––––

A. R. Khan

––––––––

For Safwa ...

Disclaimer

All rights reserved.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, business, events and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

Contents

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14

CHAPTER 15

CHAPTER 16

CHAPTER 17

CHAPTER 18

CHAPTER 19

CHAPTER 20

CHAPTER 21

Ending Note

CHAPTER 1

––––––––

It was a Tuesday like any other, and Jay was dozing off in his seat, only to be jerked awake by his colleague setting his laptop bag down with a loud thud. It took him a moment to realize where he was as his eyes scanned through the room. A thousand thoughts whirled around in Jay’s mind as he woke up from his nap. He yawned and stretched his arms above his head, then he looked sleepily at his desk. It was a mess, there were a couple of Appreciation Certificates from his current project hanging on the low partition in front of him, one of them was missing a pin and was tilted to the side. The rarely used coffee mug was beside his laptop. He had his water bottle placed at the edge of the table, a reminder to hydrated pinged on his cellphone. His phone’s charger cord was dangling beside the water bottle. He had a Punisher action figure next to his laptop, a parting gift given by a colleague when he left the company. On the extreme right sat a picture of his dream car; a red Honda Civic which, according to Jay was the most gorgeous sedan money could buy.

He had to work an extra shift to cover up for his colleague; Tushar, who was on leave because of some medical emergency. This was the third time in the past two weeks that this had happened. Jay, being a night person, didn’t get enough sleep during normal days, let alone in the times he had to come in early for the morning shift. He had forgotten his identity card at home yet again, which caused him to get irritated by the lady at the front desk. The company had a very strict policy about misplaced identity cards, so he had to call his manager and get a temporary card issued, and was instructed to return it at the end of the day.

Jay was a regular guy, working in a multinational software company in Pune as a senior technical consultant. The twelfth of July this year would mark six years of diligent work with the company. He was about 5 feet 11 inches tall with long black hair with a tinge of brown. He had a long nose, longer than usual, with a strong jawline and a wheatish complexion. Acne accompanied his face from his teenage years, leaving him with uneven skin. Jay was always clean shaved, facial hair caused an itch, so he made a point to remove it at the slightest sight of it. A little belly was visible under his athletic build with a trapezoidal figure, courtesy of regular workouts in the gym. He had recently started running to counter his habit of smoking. He couldn’t hold his breath for 20 seconds straight before starting to cough. The effect of all the years of smoking had started showing, and he was determined to fight it.

Jay stared at his laptop screen absentmindedly. This year had been good so far. His ratings had skyrocketed after he joined his current project. He was expecting a good yearly appraisal and possibly a promotion. He continued filling the appraisal form on his screen, ticking off the points one by one. The whole activity was pointless, it was a no-brainer, everyone ended up with the ratings that their managers had already decided beforehand. Employees spent a lot of time decorating and elaborating their achievements, and including client appreciation emails, only to be dejected with the result. He was pretty confident this time. There was no reason for his yearly performance rating to be anything other than exceptional.

Hey bro, morning, I see you are completing your appraisal form. said his teammate Ketan, as he sipped the cup of tea that he got from the vending machine as he walked past Jay to his desk.   

Morning Ketan, Jay wished back and continued typing on his laptop. He was not a morning person and everyone on his team knew it. The sleep data reading on his fitness band read 5 hours and 20 minutes. He had difficulty sleeping at night. He used to toss and turn around in his bed for hours before falling asleep on most of the nights. There was no explainable reason for his insomnia. His life was going on well; He had a stable job, had purchased his first house a couple of years back, and the monthly payment for the house was manageable. His younger sister Nina, who was currently in secondary high school, was doing well in her studies. He could not be prouder of her and he was happy to provide whatever she needed, all she had to do was ask. His family was in decent shape financially. They were settled in Bidar, a village about 8 hour-drive from Pune. His father had just retired from his teaching job and was currently enjoying teaching underprivileged children in an orphanage at his native place. His dad was glad with what he was doing and believed that he was living a good life. Jay just couldn’t fall asleep at night no matter how many sleeping apps he tried on his cellphone. In fact, after trying sleeping pills for a brief period of time without success, he decided to accept this as part of his nature and would use the night-time to get his pending work completed or would binge -watch Netflix the entire night.

The appraisal form was almost complete, he just needed to enter a few more details before submitting it. His eyes moved to the bottom of his screen where the time was displayed - 11 am. He scanned his environment and noticed that most of the lights were off, as many of the cubicles were still empty. His team comprised 4 people; Tushar, Vishal, Neha, and himself. They all sat next to each other on the eastern corner of the second floor. In that way, they had no interference from any of the other teams. They had the luxury of taking breaks whenever they wanted without anyone noticing. In a way, the office had become a second home to Jay, as he was more comfortable spending time in the office rather than home. In the office, he had someone to speak to and share his thoughts, unlike at home. His home was just a lonely place, covered in four walls. He had been living alone without any roommate since he purchased the house a couple of years back.

Jay continued to fill the appraisal form until all the required fields were complete. He moved his mouse cursor until it lingered over the submit button; he paused for a second before clicking it. Submission is done, he sighed and realized that it was time for his second cup of morning tea. He usually preferred regular tea without sugar and just a bit of cinnamon. He walked over to the elevator and pressed the lift button impatiently. The lift was taking forever to arrive, and when it did, there were only a couple of people in it. The cafeteria was situated on the ninth floor of the building; it was a semi-open space with many options for food. He ordered tea and proceeded to his favorite spot, which was on the western corner. That side of the building was facing a vast open space, which made it breezy. There were circular tables scattered all around the place. Jay sat facing the vast open space before him, looking into the hillside, and his mind whirled with different thoughts. The construction had almost neared the company building. Everything was constructed swiftly in the past few years. All that space was farmland before the government converted it into a massive IT hub. He thought of all the trees that had to be uprooted to make way for these tall buildings. Jay finished his tea and got up, making his way between the scattered tables. He then proceeded to go down the steps to his desk on the second floor, a habit he had since forever. This way, he could complete his quota of ten thousand steps per day. He wanted to try and stick to his fitness schedule at all cost. He scrolled through the notifications on his cellphone as he descended the stairs. The staircase was covered by glass on one side. He could see that the weather was still gloomy and had started to drizzle. It had been the same story for the past week. The rain kept alternating between slight drizzle and heavy downpour. There was hardly any sunshine for the past few days. He descended the stairs and entered the second floor. This was a building built in the early twenty first century so the corridors and passages were gigantic. There were huge glass panels covering the walls from waist height to the ceiling.  The rest of the walls was painted in dull grey, which added more gloom to the already dreaded atmosphere.  He sat at his desk and unlocked his laptop, only to find a message on the communicator from Neha. She too was working from home today.

Hi, I just need a small help followed by a smiley emoji.

Sure, replied Jay and groaned in his seat.  You never know when the small help would turn into a massive, time-consuming task.

Jay continued working on his laptop. He was almost buried in workload and Neha just added some more. He buckled up and decided to exert his full attention to it so that he could finish on time. Sometimes eight hours could seem like a lot when you are just not interested in working. The clock seemed to be moving slower than usual, thought Jay. He resumed work until someone tapped on his shoulder.

It was Sapna, his manager. He turned around, only to be greeted with a serious expression slapped across her face. Even with the fact that he was sitting down, it was easy to tell that Sapna was short. It seemed like something had come up and it was bothering her. Her eyes looked strained and there were dark circles under them. Jay could feel that there was something fishy going on there.

Javir is looking for you, she said in a tiring voice, not trying to give a hint of what it might be.

Why? Do you know what it is about? asked Jay curiously as he scanned her face.

Nope, but you better hurry. He is waiting with someone from Delhi branch on the first-floor conference room, replied Sapna, as she turned back abruptly.

Jay was perplexed. He locked his laptop, got up and stretched himself because his shoulders had frozen up again from sitting in the same