His head began to weigh heavier and sag forward as Johan experienced a wave of dizziness rush through him. The hand that was steadying him on the office desk gripped the edge tighter to keep him upright.
The shadows behind the door made it hard to work it out but the massive humanoid had waved a hand above the doorway and the broken pieces had begun to reassemble themselves as debris and dust flew back in reverse order.
‘You didn’t answer me.’ Johan said. He was bold enough to try and get a few more answers and in no way was thing going to be a deal. Being put unconscious twice was enough for him, besides, the figure would either have to physically enter the room or pump sleeping gas through the air to knock him out. He just needed to keep his body steady for a bit more to get a better deal.
Two favours. The freak offered two favours and only told me one, as well as ignoring my question about Beneath Nightmare Dungeon.
The voice went off again, taking Johan’s silence as an apparent vocal agreement.
‘The knife. I take the knife with me.’ said Johan as he rested one hand upon the hilt, careful not to touch the rest of the blade with his hand. The other one only barely keeping him upright as a deep shudder ran through his body.
The massive figure simply stared and waved another hand as the office furniture, cubicle walls and other minor damage which Johan had caused in his outrage spun through the air and set back into original positions. The lack of effective lighting and general tone of lack of use remained the same though.
Good trick. For a freak. A huge freak at that.
At this very moment, Johan missed the vibrancy and life within his own office, even if he did have to talk to a Human Resources Director deciding to talk to him about horror films. If it was her then she’d probably have loved this place and even had a hand in designing it just to mess employees even further.
Even the groups of employees both mocking and hating him before he entered the elevator had life in them. Johan didn’t realise at this moment how much he had actually enjoyed working around others. Not working with them because they failed to see their own stupid mistakes and got angry when he corrected them but around them.
I think I’m getting lonely for the company of other people.
Johan wasn’t usually this nostalgic and considered that his emotions in this place could easily have been pushed to the edge by pumping chemicals into the airflow through hidden vents. The entire office floor was barren enough that he wouldn’t even have a clue where to find it.
Or they had drugged him up and the massive figure in front of him waving hands like a conductor was simply a mock illusion which his brain was desperately trying to make real or sense of. He wasn’t stupid, technology was becoming more advanced on Terrus each and every single day.
‘Food and drink. How much are you offering? I don’t want to meet any more freaks, not after the one with the voice who didn’t show their face. All you need to do is send me back home. I’m not meant to be here. I’m waiting for a system message still. You heard of that? Do you work for the system?’ said Johan.
A sound rang out. A type of harsh rasping which hurt Johan’s ears but made him more concerned than he was previously. The strength of it was causing the walls of the room to mildly shake. He didn’t realise it was laughter until he connected it with the shaking of the massive humanoid figure just past the doorway.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
‘You know me. You made me come here.’ said Johan. Another deep shudder ran through him. Either the presence of this individual or the stresses upon his body were beginning to pile up. He had a matter of minutes before he was going to either collapse to the floor or lose control of his body.
Johan had the idea that if he refused then the crazy person on the other side of the camera and intercom might decide to floor the entire office floor with gas and likely dump his unconscious body inside a room called High Fantasy dressed up like an elf.
The massive figure in front of him could easily be a remotely piloted robot or drone and made to look threatening with smoke and mirrors. The space around him was pretty plain to be honest, he could have described it was as a hundred office buildings he’d been to work in before.
Except the lack of lighting and the complete absence of human contact. That was strange.
Am I losing it? I’m losing it.
He looked around the office space, at the least he could find somewhere with food and water and even a place to actually rest. He’d heard that fantasy types like to stuff themselves and the voice which either controlled the massive figure which clearly wasn’t human was pretty good.
His throat ached and his empty stomach was beginning to burn. The clothes that he wore were beginning to smell and he was certain that when he had chosen to relieve his bladder in one of the empty office spaces the urine had spilled onto his shoes. Or he had stepped in it.
‘Look, I’ve had a seriously bad day and despite the fact that I could be hallucinating all of this right now and I’m actually inside an ambulance on the way to a half-decent hospital I need a drink. I don’t want a promise of unlimited food and drink. How about this, you send me to a place with actual water in. Clean water. I don’t want to be dropped in a fantasy castle moat or whatever you and your...fellow gods think would be funny. Oh and thanks for tidying up. You said that you like to focus on contemporary adventures? You did a good job right here, I assumed it was an office where the workers went crazy and had to kill each other for a promotion or they were trapped inside and had to fight for chocolate bars and coffee.’ said Johan.
His body was only growing weaker by the moment and there was only so much that he could keep talking. The weight of the tied shoes around his neck was beginning to annoy him so he took them off his neck and threw them to the carpeted floor of the office space.
Johan could always buy a new pair of shoes and walking around in socks wasn’t the worst idea if he needed to conserve energy. As long as he had the Kris knife in the bag tied around his belt he was good.
‘The uh, system told me that I needed to beware the player-gods. So if you are in fact a player-god then mighty god, send me to a place where I can drink enough clean water so my thirst is gone once more. Is how you pray? I don’t think we had any gods back on Terrus. There was superhumans once but they all died when some alien took back his power. I forget my history.’ said Johan.
The massive figure kept its distance from Johan and the lack of lighting simply held almost all of it in shadow. Johann preferred it that way. The further way it stayed the happier he was. He had the Kris knife but little else to actually defend himself. He’d just thrown his shoes away but he doubted he had the strength to swing them at someone to cause any effective damage.
Shoeless and shirtless. At least I have socks, trousers and underwear. Huh, despite not having a shirt I haven’t felt cold. At all. Side effect of the Kris knife?
Johan thought for a moment before he did it. His body was barely standing up as it was, either the drugs, ordeal up to now, the lack of food and water but the strength the Kris knife held within was beginning to wane.
There was no way he was going to keep cutting himself just to stay awake. He shut his eyes and mouth and hoped that the blow to his head wouldn’t kill him from the figure.
His feet began to sink into the office carpet beneath his feet as Johan took in a breath and kept his eyes shut. Then the sensation increased in speed as his body simply slid through the floor and vanished.
Johan’s own rapid breathing was one of the last sounds that he heard as he left the dusty office floor behind him.
The massive figure sighed and looked around.