“I know you wanted to go back to your apartment, but—” but the truth is, I did not let him finish. Why? I began to yell at him.

“Motherfucker, you know what I have been through lately?! My entire fucking world’s been turned upside down, I found out that monster freaks exist, and my apartment is trashed and the goddamn police consider me the suspect in a kidnapping case. My whole life is heading down the shitter; and all I want to do is spend some fucking time at home, playing video games, drinking a beer or two, and— for the love of holy— PACE, fucking PACE, back and forth while I have my iced coffee. Honestly, this whole fucking two-dimensional bullshit is getting out of hand and I hate it!” I said.

I could have gone on. And on. And for a while, I did. But like an adult tiring of a child’s temper-tantrum, Kush eventually snapped.

“ENOUGH!” Kush shouted with a booming voice. But before I could even react, he zipped his finger at my mouth and I became muted. “Much better!”

I struggled with speaking. No matter how hard I tried, I could not produce a single noise. I spoke. My mouth moved. But no words or sound came from my throat. I must have been making lots of expressive movements, because Kush laughed at my antics.

With another point of his finger, my voice was restored. I gawked out a “what the fuck?!”

“That, my new co-worker, is called magic. Or, well, there is an actual term for it, but no one bothers much with it. With magic, you can do wild things and live a wilder life. But that lesson is for tomorrow. Good thing you have tomorrow off from work!”

I had forgotten that I had the next day off. Great. I was going to spend one of my rare days off doing this bullshit. Whatever it was. But, hey . . . I guess I would at least learn magic, that is fun, right?

But Felix did not answer me. He just purred and fluttered his wings gently, producing a nice novelty breeze for me.

“I am going to leave you now. It is getting late. You will be spending the night in here but do not worry, you will not lack for supplies. This building accommodates all. If you know how to use it. And yes, there is a bed . . . somewhere. Well, goodnight!”

Kush spoke as he left the room. It was such a sudden departure that I hadn’t even the time to write down his observations before he ducked out of the room and into the hallway. I chased him to try and find one or two more bits of info, but when I stepped out the door, he had vanished; since the hallway was straight, there was no way for him to leave and not be seen by me a second later when I opened the door. The only conclusion, then, was that he teleported off. Leaving me alone.

I returned to the office room. It was still pleasant. Quaint and cozy. But no matter what, it was not a bedroom. And though the nice ambient light from outside filtering into the room made everything seem pleasant, for the time being, it would not stay for long.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Oh, boy.

How wrong I was.

~ ~ ~

Hours passed; I did nothing; but the light from outside never changed. Sometimes it faded some, as if the sun was hidden behind some clouds. Other times, it burned brighter. But it was always there long past the point when it should have set. I was, at first, curious if I had just forgotten the time, but looking at my cell phone confirmed it was the late evening— nearly nine at night— and my suspicions of the eternal sunshine.

It creeped me out a bit. For a little while. Then I just accepted it. The realization came to me: if I fought against each and every shift in my reality regarding what I thought was real and un-real, I would have a very bad time indeed.

I returned to my desk and wondered what I should do; what could I really do with my level of knowledge? I knew nothing. I was like a kid. Ignorant and wandering.

But being like a kid again . . . what did I do as a child? I explored. I remember that I loved exploring as a child. So why not probe this place?

Opening the door, I paused for a moment to second-guess myself. What if I couldn’t find my way back? I would starve, die, and look, at the very least, like a fool.

Looking back into the room with my desk, however, I thought again— what was for me in the room? Nothing. There was no food or entertainment there, just a desk. And nothing special was in Kush’s desk, just some papers. I turned back to the empty hallway and took a step out.

And another. Then another.

Minutes passed and my pace increased. I was walking and going up and down stairs, taking corners like a pro. I was like a toddler. So proud of myself for walking by myself in this strange building.

Alas, this building seemed to be getting the better of me. No matter where I turned, I seemed to always find my way back to the desk room.

Sure, for a time, it seemed as though I found new passageways, but anytime I entered a door, there was the desk room just beyond. So, deciding to not enter any rooms and just explore the corridors, I probed the guts of the building for a long while; I climbed ladders and trounced up and down stairs, and ran, then walked, through what seemed like endless hallways. And yet, it was all for nothing.

No matter what, the corridors went nowhere. It was just endless shadows, as if it were a procedurally generated level in a video game. It couldn’t have been any more than a few hours when I walked through a door and back to the desk room.

Back to square one, eh? Felix said.

“I guess,” I replied. “But, hey, you should know something about this, right buddy? You are a part-timer member of Full Time, right? You’ve surely seen shit like this before.”

I have not, actually. My labor is mostly scouting. I know nothing of the deeper labors of the department

“Well, that sucks.”

I plopped myself back down on my desk.

Still there, was my employee discount card. If I concentrated, I could see my name wafting in and out of cogency. It was all pointless.

“So, what do we do now?” I asked Felix.

Sleep?

Now there was an idea.

I stretched myself out on my desk, bundled up my shirt, and tried to catch a few minutes of rest.

Unfortunately, minutes turned out to be the opportune word since it wasn’t long after when a mechanized voice woke me up.