The Captain was drunk. He was surrounded by three beautiful women, or at least the alcohol told him they were. All three women were eager for the next level and the Captain was trying to remember his way back to his room. As the security captain, he had the privilege of having his own room and a private bathroom. That night he had every intention to use that privilege.

The party was hot and loud, the main hall was intentionally darkened. Transient party lights, violet and white, illuminated the rig employees' faces dancing and chatting with CASTEL women. Every year they had that party to "release steam". Every year, until ... .

SMASH!

The Captain heard glass shattering. "Please don't be a fight." He was too intoxicated... and excited... to break a fight between his drunk employees. He looked around and was relieved to see that the noise came from a CASTEL woman accidentally breaking the shot glass in her hand. She had short white hair, the Captain could not see her face but her body looked tense, was she angry? "She needs to loosen up, maybe one of the boys can help... maybe two, perhaps three." He drunkenly smiled at his joke and tried to focus on finding the way to his room.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Two hours later he and the women, naked in his bed, were woken up by the rig alarm. He could not remember how he dressed up to his working attire, neither did he remember how he ended up in the chemical processing plant, where he was staring at the remains of what was possibly a CASTEL woman in the main acid pool.

"It appeared that the woman intentionally jumped." Doug reports to the Captain as he and the on-call employees stood motionlessly on the deck watching the black and red liquid mix with the acid 100 meters below them. "Was she trying to pull a Harley Quinn or something?" says CJ in disbelief.

A few meters away, Mr. Porgo and a tall blonde woman from CASTEL were arguing loudly "I'm afraid no CASTEL employee can approach the area. And no, you do NOT have permission to take a sample..." Mr. Porgo was as red as his usual when he fervently fought against the bureaucratic invasion of CASTEL "...until you bring a permit from CASTEL" The blonde woman was equally adamant and almost as red "We need to take samples NOW or there will be nothing left to test."

"What is there to test? These events happen all the time on the rig. Except nobody cares when it is one of our own"

Every year they had that party. Every year until that cursed night two years ago.