Ed felt a familiar pull on him shortly after he finished speaking, and in the next second, he was somewhere else.

For a moment, he was surrounded by darkness. It looked like the void, but it felt more like when he was using the teleportation hubs in Hell. He could feel himself being pulled somewhere else.

So this is how Budde does it, makes sense. I wonder why I’m only seeing this now? Is Buddie allowing me to see it now, or was I just too weak back then to be able to stay awake for it?

I can feel it tugging on my soul, so it probably would have been painful back then. Whatever he’s using to teleport us clearly isn’t as good as what they were using in Hell. Then again, it’s difficult to compete with a god, so I can excuse Buddie for this.

Ed’s eyes lit up as he focused in on what he was feeling. This was a chance for him to figure out more about what Buddie was capable of. Although it was only something simple, he would take any bit of information he could.

Does he also use this when capturing sinners and bringing in new hires? If so, how does he counteract potential soul damage? It’s clear that he has a far more comfortable means of teleportation with the doors, so he might be using this more violent method to punish us employees.

While he was thinking, the darkness was washed away, replaced by bright light as he found himself in an unfamiliar place.

He found himself in a cluttered room filled with furniture old enough to be considered antiques.

The walls were covered by a dreadful patterned wallpaper that had long since faded in colour and was starting to peel away, revealing the bare wall beneath. Old carpet covered the floor beneath him. However, all of this could barely be seen because of the insane amount of knickknacks, memorabilia, and worthless items that filled the room.

Ed had found himself right in the middle of a hoarders den. It was so cluttered that he had to push items out of the way just so that he could walk around. How can someone live like this?

As he was taking in the scene and gathering as much information as possible, he realised that another person was in the room. It was Belle, and she was trapped under a mountain of plushies. Looks like I don’t have to go through this alone. I should probably go help her.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

~

What’s going on? Belle was frightened and confused. Buddie had told her that she was going to be punished, and then the next thing she knew, she found herself surrounded by darkness and struggling to breathe.

She didn’t know what was going on. She felt like a mountain was weighing down on her. She pushed and struggled her way through until her hand broke out into the air. Before she had the chance to celebrate, she felt something coil around her hand.

In the next moment, an immense strength pulled her out of there with ease and she could finally breathe again. The thing coiling around her hand released her, and she landed on her wobbly legs.

She jumped back when she saw someone in front of her, almost falling to the ground, but relaxed a little when she realised it was someone she knew, even though it was someone who terrified her.

“How are you feeling?” Ed asked.

“F-Fine. What’s going on?” She rubbed her wrist, looking around the room in confusion. Although the room was of a similar size, it was the complete opposite of the room she had been trapped in before. It was full of life and so many objects, while her prison cell was devoid of almost everything.

“You failed to complete your task for today, so Buddie is punishing us,” Ed explained.

“Huh?”

“Do you remember what you did yesterday?” Ed asked.

She paled, and a look of horror and fear sunk into her eyes. “Of course. How could I forget.”

Looking around, Ed found some old chairs. After shuffling some things around, he made some space for them to sit down. “Sit. We need to talk.”

Slightly scared, she obediently sat down in the chair across from him.

“Just like yesterday, you were sent another sinner’s file. And also just like yesterday, you were required to design a trap to test that sinner. However this time, you didn’t do that. Designing traps is the one thing the company wants you to do, and if you don’t do that, then they will punish you,” Ed explained patiently.

Punishment... She remembered the last words Buddie told her before she appeared here, and was afraid of what was going to happen to her. “What’s going to happen?”

“That is something that I don’t know. The usual punishment is that you would be put through a trap meant for the sinner you were supposed to design one for, typically ending in your death. But I’m not sure exactly what we’ll have to deal with since I haven’t seen that file.”

His words did little to comfort her, and in fact scared her even more, but it did manage to help her calm down a little. If I don’t do what they say, then I’m going to die? Flashes of what happened yesterday appeared in her mind, making her stomach churn. She did not want to have to go through that herself. “I’m going to die?”

“Yes, but it’s not the end of the world. They’ll just bring us back. It is going to hurt though.”

She was stunned by what Ed said. It was such a mind boggling thing that her brain basically blocked it out, instead choosing to focus on her current situation. “Where are we?”

“I don’t know. My guess would be that we’re in the sinner’s house, but I’m not sure. Do you remember what the file said?” Ed asked.