My feet, propped up on the desk, were starting to cramp. I took a drink from the cold, hours old cup of coffee, the bitter taste filling my tongue. I glanced back at the computers monitor, the glow already starting to give me a wicked headache from hours of watching it.

When I glanced back at the monitor it still sat there, tall and painted the most boring shade of brown I might have ever seen. Probably the most dreadful building ever built, and still just like for the past 12 hours I’ve been watching it, there was no change. Yet, still I watch.

That was my job since 5 am this morning, watch the building. No matter how boring, how monotonous it gets, no matter how much it drives you mad, it’s essential that we watch this building. What for, I’m not sure. I’d “know it when I saw it,” apparently.

The girl sitting next to me at the desk wasn’t making the job any easier either, that was for sure. At first when they told me I’d have a partner for this absurd task of watching this building, I thought it was a little ridiculous that we’d need two people to watch a stupid building all day. It didn’t seem like a task that required two people, but I thought that the company and conversation would be welcome for such a boring task.

Boy was I wrong.

It seems this girl could talk about nothing but this apparently horrendous date she’d had last night, and was currently on a long tirade that I was only half listening to.

“He sat there on his God damned phone the ENTIRE time!” The girl raged, furiously swiping a strand of dark hair out of her face. “He didn’t pay any attention to me the entire time!”

“Mmhm.” I mumbled in response, my eyes trained on the computer screen displaying the footage of the still unchanged building.

“He couldn’t even bother looking up to have a conversation with me and I have a feeling he wasn’t listening to a word I said-Are YOU even listening to a word I’m saying?” She snapped.

“Your date went horribly wrong, the guy wouldn’t get off his phone, wasn’t listening to you, what a jerk.” I recited to her in a flat tone that was as bored and monotonous as the building on the screen in front of me.

I caught her grin flashing in my peripheral vision, her dark brown eyes were trained on me, but my eyes stayed on the monitor in front of us. 5:07 p.m.. Still no change. “You’re real bad at girl talk, you know that?” She responded sarcastically.

“Well seeing as I’m a guy, I would really hope I’m bad at girl talk.” I snapped irritably. She laughed, but I didn’t make a joke. I refused to look back at her, keeping my eyes stubbornly trained on the screen despite the ache.

Something’s gotta give, I thought watching the building, studying every last detail and forcing it to memory. There’s a reason they’re making us watch this building, there must be. HTSR doesn’t waste time doing something for nothing. No, something about this boring building is important, special. Important enough to have one of HTSR’s best agents sat at a desk and watching it all day. I just have to figure out what it is.

“What? Think something’s magically going to change in a meager 5 minutes?” Her tone was a tease but it quickly grew annoyed. “Actually, I don’t think it’s going to even change at all, and this assignment is a ridiculous waste of our time, skill, and powers. Don’t you?” I didn’t respond, just kept studying the building, hoping, and not for the first time today, that she would just shut up. “They didn’t even tell us what we were looking for? I mean what do they think is going to happen? It’s just going to change from brown to blue?” She snapped.

“Wait, shut up a minute” I held up a finger to her, which quieted the beginning protest. I could’ve sworn I saw a shadow pass in front of a window. In the next minute there was a huge explosion that shattered the glass in the upstairs window and blew a huge gaping hole on the side of the building where the window was, and a boy walked out

“This is it.” That’s when I knew, this was when the real action happens.