fiction - brigits_flame - Necessary Evil

[hwango]

Carl was having trouble maintaining his façade of cheerful enthusiasm. He had thought that the interview phase of the process had been tiring, but his first actual day on the job was proving to be almost more than he could bear. He had signed his name to so many forms and agreements that he thought he might actually be developing a callous where the pen rested on his middle finger. The company might be a giant in the software industry, but apparently even the highest of high-tech companies still wanted some things recorded on actual paper.

“This one is the company non-disclosure policy,” the smiling woman across from him said, passing him yet another piece of paper. “Please read it carefully and then sign here at the bottom.”

She had recited this latter sentence for every single document that she had placed in front of him. But even as she said it, she held the next piece of paperwork looming over the table like some predatory bird waiting to strike, and it would swoop down to replace its predecessor as soon as he had signed the last letter of his name. Perhaps if the table in front of him was empty for more than a fraction of a second between forms she was penalized for not properly doing her job. Regardless, Carl had long since given up trying to do more than skim each document before signing it.

When at last he finished signing the last form, she snatched it out from under his hand, gathered the stack of paperwork into her arms, and practically sprang to her feet. As she vanished from the room, Carl heard her say something over her shoulder about welcoming him to the team. He thought he might have a moment’s respite before moving on to the next phase of orientation, but another minion from HR swept into the room as if he’d been lurking in the hallway the whole time. He reached across the table to enthusiastically shake Carl’s hand.

“Welcome to the team! Time to give you the full tour!” the man said, practically pulling Carl out of his chair. “So sorry about all of the paperwork, but it’s just one of those necessary evils of our modern corporate culture, you know? Like the electronic security doors, monthly drug tests, metal detectors, tracking employee internet usage, and keeping a demon chained up in the basement.”

“Wait, what?” Carl asked, sounding very befuddled. The man laughed.

“Not to worry – the security doors are mostly for the more sensitive areas of the facility. You won’t have to flash your badge at a door just to get to the men’s room.” The man’s smile faded a trifle. “Though you will need it to get into the break room, since the special blend of coffee available there is covered by our NDA.”

Carl opened his mouth to say something, but the man cut him off with a convoluted explanation of which parts of the parking lot he could use depending on what day it was. If Carl had to come in on a Sunday, apparently he could park almost anywhere. The man said this as if it was the most wonderful perk imaginable.

The next hour passed in something of a long, tedious blur as the HR man guided Carl around the building, showing him the locations of the various departments, offices of noteworthy individuals, supply closets, server rooms, rest rooms, and of course the exceptionally well-secured break room. At last they made their way down a few flights of stairs and reached an otherwise ordinary-looking door that was emblazoned with more cautionary text than would be found in the entirety of a factory that produced chemical weapons.

“And finally, the last part of our tour,” the HR man said.

Carl wanted to point out that this was redundant, but didn’t trust himself to speak. This had all been even more exhausting than he’d feared, and it wasn’t over yet.

“We don’t have your personalized seal of warding ready yet, of course, so you can use the reliquary we keep on hand in case someone from the main office comes to visit.”

The HR man handed Carl a small, intricately carved wooden box.

“What’s this again?” Carl asked, staring at the thing in his hands.

“The usual – tiny bits of saints’ bones, pieces of scripture. Maybe a small vial of holy water. It’s been a while since I looked inside it, actually. Anyway…” the HR man trailed off, seeing Carl’s perplexed expression. “Wait…you do know about the demon we keep chained up in the basement, don’t you?”

“Ahh…” Carl wasn’t sure how to respond to that.

The HR man looked alarmed, and quickly tapped away on his phone for a moment. Eventually he must have gotten an acceptable answer to his queries, though, and a look of relief washed over his face, “Not to worry, it says here that you have all the necessary clearances. Whew! For a moment there…well, never mind. Anyway, it’s important that you don’t look directly into its eyes. Here we go!” And with that, he swung open the door.

It was huge. Even if it hadn’t been chained to the floor, there wasn’t space in the room for it to move around. Heavy black iron manacles encased its…legs? Arms? Whatever its many limbs might be, all of them were bound to the floor with chains the size you expect to find attaching a ship to an anchor. Through the eldritch green fire that writhed across the metal, Carl could see spidery letters etched into every link. Unprepared as he was for the HR man to open the door so suddenly, Carl accidentally caught a glimpse of one of the thing’s innumerable fathomless black eyes, and he flinched in pain, a hand flying up to his own eye. A single tear of blood trickled its way past his fingers and down his face.

“Its name is ____________,” the HR man said, and the name wasn’t even really a word, but the most appalling sound. The sort of sound that people shouldn’t be able to make. Carl felt a wrenching in his gut and a feeling of irreplaceable loss at the sound of the thing’s name. “It provides supernatural countermeasures against other company’s attempts to scry the facility, attacks by their own lesser demons, and of course any curses or hexes they might try to lay against us. If you’re not familiar with the practice, I can understand that it might come as a bit of a shock, but I assure you that it’s a perfectly normal part of doing business these days. The HR man finally looked over at Carl to gauge his reaction, and paused. “Wait…what are you doing?”

Carl had slipped a hand into his pocket and withdrawn a long, slender object enveloped in thick, black fabric. He quickly pulled off the wrappings and revealed a vial of frothing liquid that blazed with piercing golden light. Carl could already feel it burning his fingers – it had become painfully warm even through the cloth wrapping as soon as the HR man had opened the door. Carl held the liquid high above his head and began speaking words in a language older than Latin.

Stunned at first by this unexpected turn of events, the HR man finally overcame his astonishment and valiantly tried to wrestle the container away from Carl, but the man obviously didn’t have any hand-to-hand combat training. A sharp kick from Carl took out one of his knees, and as he went down Carl struck him in the back of the head and left him sprawled unconscious on the floor.

As Carl continued to speak, the abomination bound inside the room made no sound itself, but it violently struggled against its chains, and the din of shrieking metal echoed down the corridor. This was taking too long.

Finally, Carl reached the end of his ritual, unstoppered the vial, and with a sharp gesture sent the liquid inside spraying in an arc across the room.

Everyone in the building surely heard and felt what happened next. For one thing, each link in each chain detonated with a report like a cannon. The building shook a little, but most noticeable of all was the sense of unnamable wrongness that instantly pervaded the area. Situated as he was at the center of it, Carl was stuck by a wave of violent nausea. Knowing that this was to come, he had of course skipped breakfast, but it was far from pleasant nonetheless.

Simply freed of its restraints, the horror that had been bound here would most likely have wrought unspeakable revenge upon any nearby mortals before finally leaving. That was certainly not the goal here, and Carl’s ritual also banished the thing back into whatever nightmare realm that had spawned it. The demon’s corporeal shell slumped to the floor and then boiled away into a foul yellowish sludge that quickly coated every surface of the room, and which Carl was careful not to touch.

Every alarm in the building, both supernatural and mundane, had been triggered by now. The mundane alarms assaulted Carl’s eyes with flashing lights and his ears with sirens, while the supernatural alarms filled him with dread that didn’t quite approach the level of causing panic, but which encouraged him and everyone else in the building to flee in an orderly fashion. Carl needed no such encouragement.

Amidst all of the chaos and near panic, it was easy for Carl to slip out of the building unnoticed. He made it back to his car with minutes to spare before his deadline arrived and the company’s rival started slinging hexes. There was certainly no visible evidence of the attacks, but from the parking lot Carl could feel a certain sense of dread and revulsion when he looked towards the building. Between lost accounts, departing workforce, and any number of individually minor misfortunes and accidents, Carl figured the place would be out of business by the end of the month.

Carl sighed and massaged cooling medicinal gel into his burnt fingers. Corporate sabotage had become so much more complicated than it used to be.

Comments

[gunthersdncemix.livejournal.com]

Oooh, nifty! :)

[hwango.livejournal.com]

Now with more evil!

[so-wordy.livejournal.com]

I love how this starts out very mundane and normal feeling, then spirals into "Oh hello exorcist. This is sabotage."

Very clever and entertaining. :)

[hwango.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Glad to hear you enjoyed the zany left turn the story takes.

[eiremauve.livejournal.com]

Very imaginative story!

[hwango.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[keppiehed.livejournal.com]

Your sense of humor is always delightful! <3

[hwango.livejournal.com]

= )

[alethessa.livejournal.com]

Quite an amusing story!

The comment that I might make is that at first read-through it seems like Carl makes a bit of a transformation himself. In the first half he's thinking about how tired he is, and the annoyance with paperwork, etc. Then all of a sudden he's pulling out this vial of stuff and he knows exactly what he's doing. I can see why you would keep the sabotage out of his thoughts for the first half, for the sake of surprise, but it seems to me that he would be thinking about it all along.

Just my 2 cents, but nice work!

[hwango.livejournal.com]

Glad you were amused and thanks for reading!

I really wanted to maintain the illusion of normality until everything goes all crazy, so I didn't want to forecast what was going on by having my protagonist think about it in specific terms. But I think by the time Carl has signed his name the 43rd time, he's wishing that he'd come up with an easier way to get access to the building. Maintaining the masquerade as befuddled new employee is what's so exhausting, but I can't come out and say that without blowing the ending.

Or at least, that's what I was thinking at the time. = )

[osoreranai.livejournal.com]

Rated for E-vil indeed! I thought the demon downstairs was an odd dose of humor, nothing more and instead, whoah.

I was just thinking, because I noticed a comment about Carl's consistency... you know, that last line would have worked great as a first line too. And, I don't think you would have had to make any drastic changes to the body of the story to make it work.

It's just a thought, take it or leave it, your story is still awesome.

[hwango.livejournal.com]

Heh, I was hoping people would think that was just an odd joke, and I wouldn't be tipping my hand too soon. = )

That's part of why I didn't go for the level 2 prompt - if the first and last lines were the same, then it gives away what's going way before I want to - well, you don't know about the demon in the basement, but you'd know that he's not just a befuddled new employee, but is there on a mission.

I knew the level 2 prompt from this week wouldn't be a good match for me - I don't want to tell people how my story ends until they actually get there.

Anyway, glad you enjoyed it, and thanks for the comment!

[leticiae.livejournal.com]

I loved the spiky moments of humor. This especially made me laugh: Carl was stuck by a wave of violent nausea. Knowing that this was to come, he had of course skipped breakfast, but it was far from pleasant nonetheless.

[hwango.livejournal.com]

Glad it amused! = )