Chapter 1

You don’t need this job.

You should quit.

Do something Crazy. Kill them all.

He shook the weird thoughts from his head. The phone ringing like an insistent mosquito buzzing in his ear. Maybe it was just his imagination applying human emotions to things, but he could have sworn the ringing of the phone sounded angrier the longer it went on. Grimacing in defeat he accepted the call.

“My tv won’t connect to your Wi-Fi. I have had service with you people for years. I have nothing but problems. Why do I keep paying yall for half assed service?” A shrill woman’s voice yelled into his unprotected ear.

He winced as he pulled the offending earphone away from his head. The crazy lady almost sounded normal. “I can understand your frustration ma’am, but I only work with the cable television and the phones. Allow me to get you to the correct department to assist you.” He managed to get out in a rare moment of silence.

“No, you cannot transfer me I’ve waited twenty minutes to talk to a real person.” She took a deep breath and started to ramble further about something he completely ignored.

“One moment ma’am while I get the proper department on the line.” He cut her off mid rant. She started to scream something further when he hit the transfer call button. Sending her over to the internet troubleshooting group.

He took a deep breath feeling his ribs creak forcing him to sit up straighter in his chair. This job would be the death of him one day. Entitled people and their ridiculous demands had already caused his blood pressure to go up. He drank ungodly amounts of alcohol in the evenings to destress. He lived a very unhealthy lifestyle.

Maybe I should quit drinking and get a gym membership. He considered this reoccurring thought fairly often in the last few months. Sadly, he never really committed to it. He could hear the other conversations rising from the various cubicles around him. It was going to be one of those days.

Lunch time had finally arrived, he quickly looked at the call board. No one was on break, so he went ahead and put himself to lunch. He never ate anything. Usually, he just sat at his desk reading some random book he found through Kindle Unlimited and drank his cup of hot coffee. Today was the exception the break room had been out of the lifesaving caffeine beans. He had a Styrofoam of steam hot tea next to him. The orange spiced variant. It was quite delicious but didn’t pack the same punch.

A migraine was steadily building behind his eyes. Today was going just as it had for the last several years he worked there. Love of the job did not keep him coming back every single day. No, that was due to the never-ending oppression of bills and debt. The economy was shit and rent was high. Sad facts of life in this day and age.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

As he turned to the page on his Kindle the screen went blank. Groaning in annoyance he pressed the power button and the black screen continued to taunt him. He had forgotten to charge it last night. Setting the little life saving device down he rummaged through his backpack trying to find the charging cable but continued to come up short. This of course would be happening to him. His luck was the absolute worst.

Giving up his search in abject defeat he turned his attention to the shitty little laptop the company provided. At the best of times, it did what he needed it to do but it was prone to fits of incompetency much like his coworkers.

Amazon shone brightly from his screen as he tried to log into his kindle cloud reader account.

This website is block by terms set forth from your employer.

Thwarted again by the admins he mused. They must be afraid of anyone doing something to enrich themselves during the work period. He could understand it while actively working but good lord it was his lunch break. Google it will have to be he thought as he punched in the website’s address.

What to search today? Might as well see what’s been going on in the world at large. The news section filled the screen full of atrocities committed both locally and internationally. He scrolled down the page looking for anything that would catch his interest.

He was just about to click the link for an article about some upcoming virtual reality technology when a box appeared upon his screen.

It was black with red lettering that looked like a splattered blood font. The border was comprised of small flames dancing and jumping around. An imp sat just above the box like a king. He stared dumbfounded. Had he gone somewhere and picked up a virus. He sure as hell hoped not, he wasn’t in the mood to get into trouble for infecting a on the network computer.

He leaned out into the cubicle to look around to see if anyone else had gotten the same pop up on their screen. While he was looking, he got a weird feeling like he was being watched. The hairs on the back of his neck rose and he got goosebumps across his body. It was unnerving. He slid back to his spot in front of the computer, and he could have sworn the imp’s eyes were following him. Shrugging he leaned forward to read what the little box said.

Do you wish to participate in the Hell Games? It was a single sentence followed with a yes or no button. What in the world was a Hell Game he wondered. He didn’t have time for this nonsense, so he clicked “No.” The little imp frowned and shook his head slowly from side to side. The box refused to accept his input.

What in the world is happening he thought to himself as he rapid fire clicked on the “No”. Just fucking go away he screamed internally.

“Fuck it” He muttered. Today can’t get any worse than it already is. He clicked “Yes”. The imp started to laugh and continued to laugh until it was standing up clutching its little distended belly.

He suddenly felt like he was in a sauna. Sweat was dripping down his face and a building burning sensation had started to spread across his body. He shifted in his seat uncomfortable, until he couldn’t take it anymore. He jumped up and raced across the office, sweat stinging his eyes as he drank greedily from the water fountain. The lukewarm water did nothing to stop the feeling of being burned alive. His vision went red and began to fade to black as he heard a distant scream that soundly vaguely like his own voice.

The last thought that went through his brain was that this day did get worse. He should have called in sick.