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. Just to be on the safe side, he nudged his way past the inexplicably raucous crowd and into a more mellow room. He bumped into a chubby lady, knocking her drink over and onto her ridiculously undersized dress. Half-stupored, she turned around and slapped at the first man she saw, who happened to be a decrepit old man who was well out of his element. He crumbled as she swung, despite the drunken woman missing by more than a foot who fell to the ground on the downswing.
In the other room, the crowd was far less tipsy. And far more dangerous. William overheard some Uncle Pennybags-looking fellows discussing why there was a party at Euler Enterprises.
“Nice of Euler to throw this impromptu party today. I’ve been here since 8 and had about one Tanqueray every two hours. Let’s see… that means I’ve had about….too much too drink!” They all let out a consistent laugh that started two octaves higher than it ended.
“So Euler finally got rid of that rival businessman. What was his name again? Winterburn? Windbergh? Winston?” said a man with three monocles dangling from his suit.
“Windcastle,” said another.
“Ahhh, yes. Had that tussle with the police chief a few months back if I remember correctly. Say, did anyone ever find out what happened to that poor monkey?”
William felt something on the back of his neck. Someone was poking him with their stare. He found a pair of bloodshot eyes belonging to a bearded man with an untied tie reading him. William looked away for a few minutes, but when he turned back, he found the man still turning the pages. Finally, he reached the climax and his eyes goggled. He began rapidly moving through the crowd towards William. William hurriedly turned in the other direction but met a pair of caterers with large trays of cocktails. He tried to fight through, but the crowd converged and mobbed the bringers-of-the-crown, emptying their plates before they could set them down. After the crowd dispersed as if that ten-second encounter had been cut from history, William found the bearded man standing before him.
“I know who you are!-” he said with a deep voice that was fairly giddy. William made one last attempt to scram but realized he was up against the wall. His mind raced through all the possible repercussions of the encounter. Would he call attention towards him, surely ending his futile attempt at revenge? Could he be a close associate to Euler, and want to finish the job? Or maybe he could be a sympathizing employee of Windcastle LTD…
“You’re that dude from the commercial!” William exhaled relief. “Can you do that catchphrase for me? You know, ‘It’s a lie, man, if he doesn’t ask for fried bran.’”
William uttered a muffled echo. He could tell he didn’t perform it well enough to the man’s liking, as told by his dismayed reaction. Before the bearded man could open his mouth to voice his disgust in his mistake, another flood of people stormed the buffet tables. A clear path towards the elevator opened up to his left. Without giving any chance he bearded man to call attention to him, he darted into the open door.
Fortunately for him, the elevator was empty. He quickly thumbed the top floor button. Just as the door was shutting, he could see through the cracks that the bearded man shouting after him. He also saw that there were more pairs of eyes directed at him than he had noticed earlier. The steel door shut off the marble floor and began ascending in accordance with a quickly boiling uproar. The elevator soon out-distanced the sound waves and William was left in solitude.
William had been on the run for so long and hard that this was his first real opportunity to reflect on what had transpired the past three days. He lost his servants, employees, and assistants. He went from sleeping in a lush bed in his luxurious domain, to sleeping on top of people’s filth. He mingled with people he wouldn’t have dared been in the same 100-yard radius of. In fact, his perception of the way things are had changed as well. Maybe not a whole lot, but enough for him to realize he had perhaps been wrong in how he approached things in the past.
Maybe there really was a closer gap between all humans, or perhaps no gap at all. Being so high on top of the mountain for such a long time, had caused a thick fog to set in the valley, blocking out his vision of everything below him and confining him to a small space. William had perhaps gone stir-crazy at this point, as so many others in his situation do, and when confronted with the overwhelming amount of people not belonging to his small cubicle, he didn’t know how to treat them.
He didn’t have much time to further evaluate his epiphany, signaled by the gentle ding of the elevator coming to a stop. He prepared himself for any possible encounters and hunched himself in front of the elevator door. Once the door glided open, he sprung around the corner and dove behind a desk. There was really no need to do that since all the lights on the floor were off and there were no signs of life, but William wasn’t taking any chances.
He got up and looked around. The layout wasn’t like an average business headquarters would have. There were rows and rows of computers that were attached to chairs that lifted several feet off the ground, and several feet off the ceiling-yes, off the ceiling. William had to blink his eyes to make sure he wasn’t hallucinating. The ceiling rows were hung by the tops of the chairs and held up by a pair of cables. There was also one large chair that somehow seemed perfectly adjusted to view every worker.
William walked through the rows and noticed a flicker towards the back. He jumped alarmedly then briskly turned the corner to find a glow emanating underneath a thick silver door. A clunking sound came from inside the room and William immediately identified it--a personal elevator similar to his own. He rushed into the room and stood directly behind the chief desk, taking out his gun and setting the sights at the center of the doorway. The chrome door rolled open, revealing Euler and a bodyguard. He was carrying a briefcase and seemed excited to release its contents, but he didn’t take two steps before taking a giant leap back.
“Hold it Euler,” he clicked his gun. “Drop the briefcase. Yeah, right there. Good.” He moved around the desk to get closer. The bodyguard made a move into his coat, but William fired a shot that whistled wide. When he began pulling the trigger, the barrel was locked on the chest of the bodyguard. But those tiny milliseconds between when the trigger is pulled and the bullet is launched became very consequential as William, somehow, willed the gun to the side at the last possible moment. The bodyguard snatched his hand back as if had fallen out of a glacier bath and onto a grill. William then ran over and kicked the briefcase towards the desk. While clutching Euler with his gun-hand around the arm, he disarmed the now-shook bodyguard by tearing off his holster. It came off easier than any of them had expected. He gave one last firm push at the bodyguard sending him up against the wall with little resistance. The elevator door closed on impact.
“You get down in front of the desk,” Euler didn’t react to his command. “NOW!” William waved the gun at him and Euler reluctantly knelt down against the desk. The playful whirring of the elevator was put to death by a big red lever. William pulled the emergency shut-off switch, but struggled because of rust that had settled in. After he commanded its descent to a halt and thereby cutting off any communication, he turned back towards--nobody. William spat out a few expletives. When he finished, he was suddenly relieved as he heard tones rattling off in the office room next to him. He sprinted over to the next room and found Euler huddled over a telephone, spewing his share of vocal frustration. Without making any noise, William examined the phone cord and found its outlet on the wall at his feet. Freeing it with a simple tug caused Euler to spin around and back against the desk.
“It’s over Euler. For you, and for me.” William’s eyes were filling with resolve. Euler’s depends were filling with--
“But I’ve realized something just now. My business--no, my empire, is done. It has run its course. If I ever go out in public again, my life will more than likely end up likewise. Forget the briefcase. What’s inside it has no matter to me whatsoever.” He locked the door behind him and paced around the room before settling in the corner. Then he flicked back-and-forth a switch that had been bugging him for some reason since he entered the room.
“But I can still live on in the world for centuries to come.” Euler looked quizzically at him. He had nothing to say, or was too afraid to. Even he didn’t know. “You see,” he began, “People live about seventy years. Some live longer, some don’t. But think of it like spreading butter: you can spread it nice and thin over the entire slice, but it tastes really bland. Or you can pile it all on a small section and it tastes wonderful, but the rest is awful. For that one shooting-star moment, it makes everything seem worthwhile. If only there were a way to prolong it, huh?” Euler was so confused, he thought it would be better to end himself than to end William.
“So Euler. Think of it as sharing the butter. One of us gives the other his share, the other utilizes it to his advantage.” Euler prepared himself to die.
“And so Euler, to you I say, goodbye.” He aimed the gun execution-style at Euler, then aimed it back at himself and pulled the trigger. It would be his last movement as he slumped over. No more contracts of death would be issued from that gun, that bullet being the last. Not moving a single body part besides his tongue and a quivering of his lips, William made one final command to Euler.
“Ceiling…corner…”
Euler followed his command and found a small security camera shining with a red light. He looked back at William and found a note protruding from his pocket. He stepped over and picked it up. The note contained the final security codes needed to get the remaining files on William’s unethical business practices. Euler plugged back in the phone cord, dialed for assistance and elevator repair, and slumped in the chair at the desk.

The next day, Euler huddled in front of the final safe in the once impenetrable Windcastle treasure room. Once upon a time, Euler would have loved seeing all those numbers arranged in different compositions. But similar to William’s change in philosophy, they seemed so empty and trifling. Still, he entered the 87-numbered code and was shocked at what lay inside.
Journals, packed with photographs and paintings of the entire Windcastle heritage, were meticulously arranged. Various staff members noted detailed recordings of their lives. Euler opened William’s journal and actually felt saddened by what he saw.
As a young boy, William looked vibrant and full of life. He was a good-looking boy who smiled often in his pictures. Then, as he turned the pages, his lips increasingly curved the downwards into almost a frown in his latest photo. He saw similar results in all of them, even the ancient ones that crumbled as he turned the pages. He gathered up the journals and left the area.
Already in possession of all the security camera tapes on the top floor, Euler assigned his P.R. team to orchestrate a publicity blitz in combination with the journals. Within days, the true William Windcastle VII was given to the public. After seeing the public reaction to what a great man he could have been, Euler focused himself to incorporate the nuances that pundits were breaking down in William’s life. Soon, Euler had been dealt his share of karma and underwent his passage into a respected member of society. His bread had been buttered twice.