Ash checked her cherry-red watch, making sure she wasn't late. She'd picked out her nicest clothes - a business grey dress suit specifically tailored for her. Her wavy brown hair kept slapping the back of her neck with every step - as if telling her it hated being in such a high pony-tail. Breathe, she reminded herself. Just breathe.

Just because she'd lost the job since she'd had since she was thirteen, after seven years, and had been struggling to get another every since did not mean this one was going to be another flop. Trying to keep her dignity while hurrying at the same time under the incredibly hot sun was even harder than it sounded - no matter how many times she repeated it in her head.

This time is going to be different, she promised herself.

When she finally made it into the air-conditioned room, she was happy to pull in a breath of not abnormally hot air. Her shiny black heels didn't make the clip-clop sound as she walked across the ugly grey carpet to the boss's office. She smiled and nodded at employees, who would either smile back or wonder that smiles existed anymore.

After getting the 'thumbs up', she pulled the glossy wooden door open and stepped cautiously inside. An old man with suspiciously clean white hair sat behind an expensive-looking table, ordered with a few handfuls of knickknacks. His eyebrows had grown with age, hanging partially over his eyelids as he glared at the tablet in his hands. What should have been a nice suit once was stretched over his body. He muttered something over his breath, either ignoring Ash or simply not even noticing her there.

She cleared her throat, drawing his attention. He looked up, his thin, cracked lips slightly open as he did so.

"Eh, what do you want? I haven't seen you before."

"Sir, I would like to get a j-"

"Nevermind. Hmm. Do you think you could fix this stupid device?"

Unsure of what else to do, Ash carefully took the tablet, feeling its weight in her hands. She stared down at the screen before pressing a few buttons and deleting a few hundred useless apps. After quickly cleaning its storage and giving it a wipe with her sleeve, she handed it back to the old man. He scrolled down a bit, pressing a few buttons before his eyebrows shot up.

"Ah! You've done it! Very good. Now, what do you want?"

Ash opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted by the door behind her opening. She thought, secratary, before turning around to see who it was. The man who'd opened the door was wearing a nice suit with almost perfectly cut hair and salt and pepper hair. He looked fairly old - in his sixties maybe - but he moved with more grace than Ash could've.

"Father, please."

He smiled at the old man, who muttered something under his breath before - with great struggle - standing.

"You know, Grean, if you arrived on time, you might actually have a business here."

The man - Grean - let out a small sigh that hurried his father out the door. He gently closed it before walking around the desk and taking a seat in front of Ash.

"Please forgive him - he's used to running the place. Now, what are you here for?"

"I want to work here. Please."

"What's your name?"

"Ash Smith."

"Ah! Here you are. Oh, the new application - I see."

She smiled, relieved that her hopefully-soon-to-be boss wasn't the grumpy old man. She handed him her resume, waiting as his green-grey eyes flicked back and forth over the papers.

"It says here, you've had a job before. Blossom's farm - was it?"

She nodded, memories of the place flooding her mind - even though it felt like forever since she'd been to the place. Chasing the pack of dogs that all had a job there, eating dinner with her boss and her husband, laughing as she listened to the owner's stories while cleaning the stables. She'd promised herself not to get emotional, but as the memories clouded her head, a lump formed in her throat. Grean brought her out of her head.

"You must've been fond of the place. I, myself, have been there on a few occasions, and even then I didn't want to leave."

Ash choked back her tears with a painful swallow.

"Yes, it was a wonderful place."

After a few moments of silence, Grean set her resume back on the table.

"I'm afraid"- normally those two words did not mean good things -"this place isn't like Blossom's farms in the least, but I hope it'll be enough."

Ash's mouth hung open as his words sunk in.

"You mean . . ."

Grean smiled, his eyes wrinkling with age and a twinkle glittered in them. She wanted to jump around the room, shouting and laughing and singing, or run around the building with her papers in hand, laughing and shouting it to the whole world, but she managed to grin, hoping he'd see all those things in her smile.

She was reaching for her papers when suddenly, a stinging pain exploded in her cheek. She yelped, her hand fleeing to her face where the pain now faded. Grean's smile was gone, he was on his feet in an instant.

"What's wrong!?"

"I don't . . ."

She felt panic rip through her stomach, twisting it into a thousand different knots. Grean said something but she couldn't hear him - her ears were ringing too loudly. Without warning, another explosion of pain erupted in the back of her head. Stars danced across her vision and black spots joined them. She couldn't hear anything now, only the deafening ringing that pounded in her skull. Her whole body felt weak and tired, and she didn't want to move. Finally, the ringing was gone, and she could see clearly.

Grean was in front of her, gently shaking her shoulders and shouting her name. She winced at his voice, causing him to grew quiet, his whole body relaxing.

"Miss Smith, I thought we were losing you. Are you alright? What's the matter?"

There was a handful of people around her, staring down with - mostly - worried faces. She tried to catch her breath, Grean helped her sit up.

"I don't know, it just came out of . . ."

For some reason, a dream played in the back of her head. How it did, and how she knew what it was, she wasn't sure, but she knew it was a dream. It was almost like . . . she was experiencing something another person was - like she was feeling everything they were.