The experience going down to the basement car park was slightly tense. The space inside the elevator with the five was more crowded than he would have preferred. He hadn’t been expecting the secretary and the three security guards to squeeze along with him.
They didn’t stop at any floors and the elevator went straight down, which though slightly odd was preferable to having more people dumping their daily work frustrations and blaming him. It was his department who should be angry at him for messing up their workload and schedules, being called up to the Director of Human Resources had been unusual to say the least. His direct manager had avoided all contact from him when the announcement had been made.
Johan needed to express himself a little bit, to vent. He might make a mistake with talking but at this point it’d be better than shouting inside a crowded elevator space. The air was beginning to feel thick enough with tension from his perspective.
‘I’m not a threat. I have anger management issues. Not even trained to fight, not properly. I bet the three of you could take me down in a second. Less than a second.’ said Johan.
He’d swiftly changed his mind from no conversation to trying to keep calm. Getting angry was one thing, being overly so was something else.
‘Mr Wolff. Your compensation package has already been provided to you and further details will be available when you arrive in your form of transport home. Please refrain talking in detail to members of the company security team or myself. You are no longer an employee within this corporation.’
All he could do was wait for the elevator to finish running through the floors, keep his mouth shut or try and make further conversation. He chose the latter, even though he wasn’t working here he still wanted to clearly know the mistake he had made.
‘Andy. Sorry. I don’t know your last name or title. I tried to show initiative and it got me fired. Do you have any advice for applying for my next job? Even a reference would be useful at this point.’
‘Mr Wolff. Please wait until we exit the elevator and…ah. We’ve arrived. Security, you can all return to your posts within the building. Thank you for your service. I’m perfectly able to deal with him myself. There is no threat. I repeat, no threat to personal safety.’
The three security personnel refused to move and Johan found himself squeezing past them a little rougher than he wanted. They merely grunted in response without moving an inch.
‘Excuse me. Yeah, thanks.’ said Johan.
Turning back he found he was inside the employee car park. A short distance away a driver stood holding a board with his name on the front. The secretary had exited the elevator with Johan and pointed at the car.
‘Your trip home Mr Wolff. I have a revelation to share with you. Would you be interested in hearing it? I mean, you’re going to leave the company so why not share a few more moments so I can explain why I acted on the orders of my god. A sacrifice was needed.’ said the secretary.
‘Wait. What?’ replied Johan.
‘Andy. Call me Andy. Your job. Your time with this company was productive and…an experience. I was paid a great deal. Enough for me to leave this company and my boss who thinks a little too highly of herself. Why, I can even retire to a sunny island for as long as I want. All I was asked in return was to recruit. I was provided with a list of candidates to choose from.’ said Andy.
The waiting driver waved their hand at Johan and he waved back in return before pointing at the secretary and he held up his hand to indicate he needed five more minutes. The driver gave Johan a thumbs up before he left one of the side car doors open and climbed into the drivers seat. The sign being held up was dropped on the ground.
The secretary made a gesture and the car began to drive off. Johan wanted to run off after it to find the secretary was holding a sharpened ornate blade in one hand.
‘This is a joke. You’re having a final joke with me.’ said Johan.
‘No. When you arrive home, you’ll be in for a few more surprises. It turns out that your job error was releasing an entire directory of the personal details, staff salaries, family members, addresses, contact numbers and most of the records that we have on file for a very, very substantial number of employees working at this company. Myself included.’
The anger within Johan began to build. His chest ached and he had to put a hand next to the elevator wall to steady himself.
‘No. I deleted key files by mistake, all I wanted to do was to increase my workload and make it more efficient. Yes, I got fired but I didn’t do the rest of it.’
‘Listen to me Mr Wolff.’ said the secretary. ‘This story gets even better, you got paid for this you see. Large amounts of cash were deposited directly into your house in hidden locations. There are notes and evidence all pointing to you going to do this on a larger scale. The authorities become involved, they find out your little anger management issues and…I’m sure that you can guess the ending. But then a light appeared and offered you a second choice.’
‘A light?’
‘Or a mannequin with no face. It doesn’t matter at this point. You’ll find out soon enough. All you have to to is read the words on this business card. I assure you that you won’t find yourself in trouble at all, not with this company, not in this world. All your worries will be…gone. And all you have to do is read aloud a few words. The sacrifice of a lifetime. Not a bad deal eh Mr Wolff?’ said Andy.
Johan stopped listening and turned around. He hadn’t realised it earlier but the space was empty. There wasn’t a single car in sight, even the driver waiting for him had vanished. All that was left was him and the secretary.
Rubbing his eyes he tried to take it all in.
‘This is a bad dream. A dream. Give me the card, give it to me or I’ll…I’ll…’
‘What will you do Mr Wolff? I’m only offering you an opportunity. A little change in lifestyle. Johan..what were your words before? A pen. You wanted a pen. Here’s a card instead.’
Reaching into his suit pocket he took out the pen that Johan had placed earlier in the office and threw it to the floor.
‘When you don’t need something it becomes worthless. But when something becomes of great value we need to treat it with care. Or make sure it doesn’t run away. Here, take a card instead.’ said Andy.
When he moved his hand into his pocket again Johan felt an ache within his chest. None of this was making a degree of sense. His best option was that this random employee was suffering from a psychological breakdown and had decided to engineer the entire situation.
For all he knew this entire situation was being fully recorded. Best to roll with it and agree to the terms and conditions before he was able to get out of here. Being stuck alone with a crazy person in an office secure basement car park which was empty was never a good idea at the best of times.
‘A card. Yeah, sure. I’ll take a card. Does it have to have a special number? Is this a magic trick?’ said Johan.
A small opaque business card was handed to Johan from the secretary. He had a look in his eyes as Johan looked over it. If he had been paying attention to his eyes, Johan would have recognised both hunger and fear.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
The small card squeezed a great deal of writing in such a small space. Holding it with both hands Johan gave a hesitant smile before reading the text.
[Do you dare to enter Beneath Nightmare Dungeon?
Yes, or No? Embrace the challenge!]
‘This is a joke, isn’t it’ said Johan. ‘A nice little trick, but I’m not interested. Not even a bit. No. My answer is going to be a hard no. I need to leave now. I can find my own way home.’
‘Look at the card. You need to read the card again. They say yes, they always say yes. You will. Yes. You will agree. Not me. I’m not. My name...is Darr. Yes. No, I’m Andy. Read the card. READ IT!’ said Andy.
Flipping the card over the exact same words the card shifted into a transparent texture. The words still fully recognisable despite the lack of visible material. He could see through the card but he was still holding it. A trick of the light, or it was made of sufficiently advanced material.
His day was surely going from bad to worse, given the blame from employees, a member of top management having a type of breakdown and then her secretary playing a practical joke on him. Either that or the man was literally picking the worst time of day to have a complete psychotic breakdown.
‘Say yes. You need to say yes.’ said the secretary.
‘Excuse me? No. I say no. In fact, I say I don’t know what’s going on. Show me your list of candidates then. We’re done here. I’m done here, as you kindly put it I no longer work for your company so we can…woah!’
The secretary had reached behind his back and pulled out a blade. Not a knife but more ornate with the hilt being a flame design with inlaid patterns and some lettering which Johan failed to recognise at first glance. It gleamed in the light of the company basement car park lights. This at least was being caught on camera, he could even sue the company if necessary.
Thankfully, the small shock caused the pain in his chest to diminish. Johan had taken martial arts training previously and knew how stupid it was to try and fight someone with a blade. Even a small knife could cause some serious physical damage either through slashing or stabbing. The look in the eyes of the secretary made him feel even more uncomfortable.
‘Calm down. Settle down, I’ll agree. Yes. I’m saying yes. Put the knife down and we can talk.’ said Johan.
Johan slowly raised both hands up to try and provide a little bit of distance between him and the blade. He wanted to step back but it’d be better to avoid direct provocation. There was no way that he was going to risk losing his fingers to a madman.
Losing his temper and grabbing the other man by the throat while temporarily losing his mind was a different story than fighting a crazed person holding a bladed weapon. He instead curled his hands into fists, it’d protect him a little bit more.
‘You’re meant to die before this. They told me that you’re meant to die first but the process went wrong. Say yes and we’re done. You won’t have any more problems in this world I promise you. I’m not killing you. You should be thanking me. THANKING ME!’ shouted Andy.
‘Because I’ll be dead if I say yes. This joke has gone on long enough. I’ve been threatened, lost my job and then you pull out a knife and talk about killing me. Here, you want the card then take it back.’ said Johan.
Johan held the card out with the tips of his fingers. He was tempted to break free and run but he wanted to keep his eyes on the blade. He knew the name of it, the type at least. It was on the tip of his tongue. As long as he could keep this person talking the better his chances of getting out of this situation, he needed to become relatable as a fellow human being.
‘That knife. It looks like an antique, Cross Knife. No, Kris. It’s called a Kris knife, the way that the metal waves along. You like knives? They’re good to collect right?’ said Johan.
Despite trying his fingers were beginning to cramp holding the card out with outstretched fingers. His arms still outstretched he prepared to push his shoes on the concrete floor and create a little more distance away from the other man.
‘You did it. The last candidate. It doesn’t matter if you agree or not, they let me go for this. I’m going to spend the rest of my life trying to forget that place. I’m done. I’m free. I’M FREE! Ha. Hahaha. HAHA.’
‘I’m going to read the card and you put the knife down. I can’t read it and agree with that knife sticking up. You can hold the knife but stop waving it around and flip it around so I don’t get distracted. Are we good? I’m going to say yes. Let me read the card one more time.’ said Johan.
As though a switch flipped inside the other man he turned the knife around, showing his skill with it. He held it on his side, the sharpened edge of the Kris blade facing backwards.
‘Read it and agree. I promise I won’t hurt you, it’ll be fast. So fast. No pain. I promise. All I need is to be free of that place. You understand don’t you? I’m never going back there again.’ said the secretary.
‘Right…you don’t want to go back. I’m sure you don’t. I’m moving my arms so I can read the card. Calm down. We’re fine. Everything is fine.’
Bringing his arms back in and ignoring the aches in his fingers from holding the car between them he read the card again in both hands, allowing himself to take his eyes off the knife.
[Do you dare to enter Beneath Nightmare Dungeon?
Yes, or No? Embrace the challenge!]
The same words. There was no change in them and the card remained the same appearance. Johan guessed that the design would adjust itself according to temperature, alternating on each side when it came into contact with his body heat. The words themselves made little sense, he’d rather not enter a place with the word nightmare included.
‘I’m agreeing. Can you see me? I’m agreeing.’ said Johan, slowly nodding his head.
Not the best mood but he needed to cooperate here, to give a little and in return diffuse the situation. If necessary he’d try and get the knife off the man, but it would be a last choice resort.
‘The process will begin. When you get there, tell nobody about me. Do you hear me? Don’t tell anyone about this. You…you pressed a floating button. You pressed yes, nothing else.’ said Andy.
Given that the pain inside his chest was building under this stressful situation, Johan wasn’t overly surprised that a headache began t develop as well. What he hadn’t expected was the weight of sleep that threatened to overwhelm him.
The man had either drugged his coffee earlier or there was something in the air. Even in the elevator would have given him sufficient opportunity to jab him with a chemical that induced sleep.
‘There, it’s finished. I’m finished, all finished. This won’t hurt. No pain. No. Pain. Lucky. Yes! Good luck!’ said Andy as he took a step closer towards Johan with a mean glint in his eyes.
Johan wanted to interrupt him, to stop and try and shake some sense into him before darkness drifted in front of his eyes. His head began to spin but he kept enough of his senses to rush forward and grab the secretary. He’d take him with him at least, the knife was a concern but at this point he had little other choice.
His eyes grew heavier and his thoughts cloudy as Johan struggled to stay awake. He dropped the card and rushed forward to grab the hands holding the knife.
A sharp pain in his upper shoulder hit him but ignoring the sensation as he forced the secretary backward before he lost his vision on one eye. There was a moment of pain and then it nearly immediately diminished but all his vision offered was pure darkness on one side.
Still trying his best to grapple the man, get in close and hold on tight to his clothing the last sounds Johan heard were a scratchy, mechanical voice.