The screen faded to black as the camera footage opened on the darkened hallway. A vague outline of a figure appeared on screen. Why is the room dark? I asked him to make it bright so that Elijah could see. Watching the figure move forward slightly, he worried that he’d step directly onto the needles.

Suddenly the video brightened up as all of the lights in the room turned on, blinding Elijah. Seeing him stop just before the needle impaled him in the eye, Ed breathed a sigh of relief. That was too close.

“Good morning, Elijah. Life has been very tough on you... Eventually you came across an offer you couldn’t refuse... You ignored the damage that you were causing to other people’s lives. Now it is your turn to see what it’s like on the other end of the needle. All you have to do is cross this room. Don’t worry, the door is unlocked. As long as you make it through, you will be safe to leave. But watch your step. Good luck, Elijah.”

“I don’t know who you are, but when I get out of this, I’m gonna hunt you down and kill you. And trust me, I’m going to make it as slow and painful as possible.”

Well sadly that is impossible. I don’t think you’d be able to hunt Buddie down. Watching him take his anger out on the walls, he waited for him to calm down. There’s no timer on this one, so I wonder how long it’s going to take before he moves forward.

“This will take significantly longer than the previous ones. I will fast forward through it for you, and I will stop when he gets started.”

“You can fast forward this? I thought I was watching it directly as it was happening.”

“You are watching it as it is happening. I called it fast-forwarding as that would be the simplest way to explain it to you. What I’ll actually be doing is the inverse of what was done when your mind was put into Sarah’s body. Your sense of time will be condensed, making time pass faster for you, essentially functioning the same as a fast forward.”

This is insane, but it makes sense. I guess it’s just another power he has. “Go ahead.” Quickly, time fast-forwarded, going back to normal when Elijah was about to take his first step onto the needles. Focusing on this, Ed wanted to see what he was going to do. There are a few options he has. Directly stepping on them is the dumbest option, but also the fastest. The safest option would be to carefully move them to the side and behind him with his hands, but that would be incredibly slow. Watching him wrap his feet up with the cloth from his shirt, Ed nodded slightly. A nice middle ground between the two options. He just has to be careful with where he steps.

Elijah slowly stepped forward, carefully navigating the needles, and avoiding any danger. Watching him move forward safely, Ed’s attention was caught by an area of densely packed hanging needles. This will be the most difficult part, but if he can get through this safely, he should be fine with the rest.

Watching him move through the needles, he saw the cloth snag on a needle on the floor. This isn’t good. Ed winced as he saw him put his foot down, impaling himself on a needle. Seeing him stumble around, cutting himself on the needles, Ed shook his head. That was a pretty big mistake. Seeing Elijah calm down after getting to relative safety, he nodded. At least nothing bad happened.

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Time seemed to slow down for Ed as he saw Elijah reach for the cloth. Hearing the snap of the threads, he grit his teeth, preparing himself for what was to come. Seeing the needles jam into his neck, he knew that it was all over. There’s no way that one of those hasn’t pierced an artery. Distracted by this thought, he didn't notice as a needle swung back down, stabbing straight into Elijah’s eye. Yep, it’s over.

“Unfortunately, Elijah, you were not careful enough, and now the drugs you have used to ruin so many people’s lives have become your undoing. You were smart. You thought that you would be able to survive in here just like you survived out there. But one wrong step sealed your fate. Enjoy Hell Elijah. Goodbye.”

There’s really no need for this, he’s probably already dead.

The screen switched back to the plain desktop.

“Congratulations Ed for another successful project. Now it is time to reward you for your performance.”

What? Waiting for Buddie to continue, Ed sat there looking at the screen for a minute. Confused, he looked around, wondering what Buddie is talking about.

Pausing for a moment, he realised that he could see behind him. Jumping up, the chair fell to the floor behind him as he got a rush of energy. I can move now! Does this mean that they trust me now? God this feels weird. My proportions feel all wrong, I feel so lanky. Stretching to feel more comfortable moving, he began to study the room around him. Looking at the plain walls around him he shrugged. At least it's clean.

Opposite the screen, he saw a plain door, matching the ones that were in the trap rooms. Guess I’m trapped just like them. Walking up to the door, he breathed in, getting rid of the nervousness. Gripping the handle, he paused. “Buddie, what’s on the other side of this door?”

“A Hallway.”

Very helpful Buddie. Pulling on the handle, he pushed the door open to see a well-lit hallway. Taking a step out, he breathed a sigh of relief when nothing strange happened. The hallway seemed to stretch on forever, going far past the horizon. Just how big is this place? Looking to his left, he saw three doors identical to his own. Am I going to see what the other employees look like? Walking up to the door on the left, he confidently pushed it open. The smell of blood wafted out of the room, his heart dropped as he looked in to see John’s body lying there, a large chunk cut out of his stomach. Feeling the urge to vomit, he quickly shut the door.

“Each of these doors leads to the trap rooms that you have set up. As you are currently still on your trial period, you are unable to leave this area, nor are you allowed to meet the other employees.”

So I’m just stuck here with these rotting corpses. Great. “How long until the trial period ends?”

“That depends on your performance. If an employee excels during their trial period, they will be hired immediately, and sometimes they will receive a special job offer if they catch the higher ups attention.”

Should I try and catch their attention. I don’t want to risk getting a job worse than this, do I? But I also might be able to get away from the blood and gore. Who knows, maybe they have an HR department, that wouldn’t be too bad. “Hey Buddie? Does the company have an HR department?”

“Now that you have reached this point, it is suitable for me to tell you a bit more about the company. Currently the company exists of 7 departments: Human resources, Operations management, Information technology, Marketing, Sales, Accounting and finance, and Production, research and development. Each department has a department head, who answers directly to the boss.”

“Which department am I a part of? And who is the boss?”

"Currently you are an intern in the Production, research and development department. You are not in a high enough position to know anything about the boss, only the department heads have direct contact with the boss.”

This is a lot for me to think about. I should go and rest for now.