Chapter Nine
Nine
I checked Ms. Crenshaw’s calendar and saw that she would be in meetings elsewhere in the building for the rest of the afternoon. Then I made a beeline for the elevators and descended to the familiar, drab environs of Human Resources.
Mere days ago, the sixth floor had been a source of anxiety and loneliness.
Now it looked depressingly ordinary, with threadbare beige carpets and walls painted an inoffensive shade of white that always looked dingy under the glare of the fluorescent lights.
The air smelled a little stale, with subtle notes of terror and despair, and off in the distance I heard a subject pleading for mercy.
Their cries put a smile on my face as I did a quick circuit of the cubicle farm, hunting, before heading for the break room.
There I found my prey sitting together at an ancient Formica table.
They were always together. Straightening my cardigan, I approached them and said stiffly, “Hello, Beverly. Gerald. Andrea.”
Heads swiveled until all of them were blinking up at me.
“Colin,” Andrea said, sounding surprised.
She’d had the top performance reviews in the department until I started working there, and she’d never forgiven me for overtaking her.
It was Andrea who’d started the malicious rumor that I suffered from urinary incontinence.
Every time I left my cubicle, she’d tell whoever would listen that I was off to change my diaper.
“You’re here,” Gerald observed, baffled.
His nose twitched, rodentlike, as he peered at me from behind his thick glasses.
At Andrea’s urging, he’d spent the better part of two years stealing everything from my cubicle that wasn’t nailed down, tossing plants and personal photos and office supplies into the trash.
Beverly’s burgundy lipstick had bled into the fine lines around her mouth, giving her a vaguely clownish appearance. Of the three, she’d bullied me the least, but she’d always been there, smirking and tittering. “You’re not—” She stopped abruptly.
“Dead?” I finished for her. “No. I’m up on thirteen now.”
The three of them digested this, shooting quick glances at one another. “Congratulations,” Andrea said with no sincerity whatsoever, lips writhing as she patted her hair-sprayed helmet of thinning brown hair.
“Thanks. It’s pretty great. I’m getting a lot more money now, and earlier today I helped Mr. Samuels with the blood sacrifice downstairs.
” Boasting was petty, but I didn’t care.
I was too busy enjoying the way Andrea’s eyes narrowed spitefully.
“How are things here?” I asked with breezy disinterest. “Still the same, probably.”
“We love working here,” Beverly insisted, fussing with her Laura Ashley dress.
“Yes, Human Resources is critical to this company,” Gerald chimed in, echoing one of Ms. Kettering’s motivational talking points.
“Sure it is.” I paused as if something had just occurred to me. “Hey, how would you like to earn some brownie points with Ms. Crenshaw?”
“Ms. Crenshaw?” Andrea repeated, sitting up in her chair. “The CEO?”
“Yeah. I work for her now.” I waited for that to sink in before going on. “She’s asked me to do something very important. I’m going to need some help, though, and I couldn’t think of anyone I’d rather have with me than you three.”
They exchanged glances again. “What would we be doing?” Beverly finally asked.
“Oh, it’s no big deal. There’s a delegation arriving from…uh, another realm. We need to escort them to a couple of meetings here in the building. Two hours, tops.”
They agreed, of course. Andrea was ruthlessly ambitious, and the others would do whatever she said.
“Head on down to Transportation,” I told them, “while I clear this with Sunil.” I wasn’t going to clear anything, of course.
I wanted Sunil to spend the rest of the afternoon wondering where three of his people had gone.
I was already smiling when I reached Transportation a couple of minutes behind them. This was going to be fun.
At the end of the day, I was packing up my things when Ms. Crenshaw’s voice floated out of her office. “Colin? A moment, please.”
Hesitantly, I stationed myself on the pale carpet in front of her desk. She was reading something on her phone, and a long moment passed before she lifted her gaze to me.
“Did you introduce three of our employees to the delegation from the Stygian Maw?”
I fidgeted a little. “I know you were concerned about the Stygites getting their hands on people while they were here,” I responded carefully. “I thought it would be helpful to recruit some other employees to keep an eye on them.”
“I see.” She glanced at her phone again. “It appears that two of those employees are now unaccounted for. Do you know where they might be?”
I looked down at the floor as I mumbled, “I believe they’re—”
“Speak up, Colin.”
Clearing my throat, I repeated myself. “I believe they’re suffering unspeakable torments down in the Maw.”
Silence fell. I risked a quick glance at her face and saw that she was studying me dispassionately. The moment stretched as I clasped my hands together and tried not to tremble visibly.
Finally, Ms. Crenshaw observed, “These employees were from Human Resources, were they not?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Did you know them?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“And do they deserve to be flayed alive for the next hundred millennia, do you think?” she asked with idle curiosity.
For the first time, I looked her straight in the eye. “Yes, ma’am.”
She held my gaze for a long time while I sweated under my cardigan. “Well then,” she said at last, “I suppose we’ll need to notify Ms. Kettering that her department now has two vacancies.”
Swaying a little, I said hoarsely, “I’ll let her know.”
“Good.” She paused. “How did it feel?”
I blinked at her. “Ma’am?”
“You told me recently that there were people who needed to pay,” Ms. Crenshaw said quietly. “How did it feel?”
The Stygites had been a nightmare to manage.
We’d spent an exhausting couple of hours repeatedly telling them to keep their oozing, taloned hands to themselves and foiling several attempted abductions of unwitting employees.
Actually, I’d done most of the foiling. The folks from HR had mainly cowered and whimpered after one of the Stygites took a chunk out of Beverly’s lank hair and smelled it while staring at her.
Another had seemed to take a perverse pleasure in caressing the curved, smoking knives hanging from what was almost certainly a belt of human skin while making guttural noises at Gerald.
By the time we’d escorted the delegates back to Transportation and the gateway waiting there, all three of my former colleagues looked to be on the brink of nervous collapse.
I hadn’t planned what happened next. All I’d wanted was to make them squirm while driving home the point that I was a Class 4-A Executive Assistant (Probationary).
As I stood in Transportation, though, watching the Stygites proceed through the gateway and back to their horrifying domain, something dark and wild had risen inside me.
I didn’t hesitate or question it—I’d simply placed one hand on Andrea’s back, the other on Gerald’s, and shoved them through that gateway right before it snapped shut.
They hadn’t even had time to scream.
I replayed those events a couple of times as I considered Ms. Crenshaw’s question. Then I smiled. “It felt good.”
“I’m glad to hear it.” She watched me steadily.
“Exercising power in pursuit of personal goals certainly aligns with this company’s ethos, Colin, but be careful.
Culling too many Class 5s might put our quarterly targets at risk, and if that happens, I’m afraid we’ll have to revisit the terms of your employment. ”
“I promise to keep my culling to a minimum,” I assured her hastily.
“Very well.” She turned her attention to her computer screen, remarking as she did so, “You’re off to a strong start here. Let’s keep up the momentum.”
Half an hour later, I was on the subway, lost in thought.
I kept expecting to feel bad about what I’d done to Andrea and Gerald, but I didn’t.
Not even a little bit. This struck me as somewhat worrying.
Didn’t that mean I was a psychopath? Brow furrowed, I stared out the window and considered the possibility that I was some kind of amoral monster.
I certainly didn’t feel like a psychopath.
Instead, I felt…righteous. Strong. I’d turned the tables on my tormenters, and now they would suffer an eternity of unimaginable pain and terror.
Unfortunately, Beverly had run screaming after the others disappeared, but that was okay.
Maybe I’d start dropping by HR every few days, just to see her face when she found me standing there.
The train shuddered to a halt at Cathedral Parkway and I watched normal people mill around the platform, hurrying this way and that in the midst of their mundane lives.
I’d catapulted myself onto the thirteenth floor out of desperation, following the vague promise of something better than what I had.
Today, though, had been an unveiling of possibilities.
Barney Samuels had enjoyed whole centuries of privilege and power, and now he snapped his fingers and had whatever he wanted.
All it took was spilling a little blood, making a sacrifice or two.
And as for me—how had Ms. Crenshaw put it?
I’d exercised power. I’d used my new position to achieve something I’d dreamed of for a long, long time.
This is just the beginning, I thought, my whole body tingling with excitement. I just hoped the world lasted long enough for me to enjoy it.