“Good evening, sir. How may I help you,” I asked as a man in a business suit walked into the lobby?
“Good evening. I’m here to see Mr. Fox. My name is Kaiser, I have an appointment,” said the man in front of me.
“Ah yes, he is awaiting you. Just take the elevator to the second floor; he is in room number 204.”
“Thanks,” he told me before departing for the elevator.
Well, I think it’s time to introduce myself. My name is Jordan Black. I’m 24 years old and work as a clerk at Ceres, a technology research company in Ludwigsburg, Germany.
There was not much to do today and I was fine with that. Who wouldn’t be fine with that?
“Only fifteen minutes left until I can go home,” I said out loud.
“Have you something planned tonight?” asked my coworker Alice.
Alice, is probably what you would describe as a carefree person. Always doing what she wants to do without a second thought. She has brown hair, blue eyes, and is about one point sixty-seven meters tall, or five feet and five inches depending on where you live.
“Not really,” I said.
“Do you want to come with Jane, Tim, and I to the pub? I heard there is a party tonight where you can get two drinks for one.”
“Sorry, I’m not a drinker.”
“Ok, but you should really come with us sometime. Sitting at your home will do you no good.”
“Who are you, my mom?”
She just rolled her eyes and got back to work. Ten minutes later the telephone started to ring.
“Good evening, you have reached the Ceres company. How may I help you?”
“Mr. Black, this is Fox. Please come upstairs before you go home today.”
My first thought was if I did something wrong. But that would be stupid. I was here ten minutes before my shift in the morning, everything was done, and my workspace was in top condition.
“Yes, I’ll be there in a minute,” was my reply.
“Who was it?” asked Alice.
“The boss. He wants to speak with me before I go home.”
“Have fun.”
I turned my PC off and went to the elevator. After the elevator signaled that I was at the second floor, I stepped out and turned left. The office where my boss worked was the door in the middle. I took a deep breath and knocked at the door. The answer came two seconds later.
“Come in.”
I opened the door and walked in. Mr. Fox’s room was fairly well decorated: a table with two red sofas on each side, a potted plant on both sides next to the door and in each corner, pictures with star nebulas, Saturn, Pluto, and of course the dwarf planet Ceres the smallest dwarf planet ever documented. His desk was in front of a large window and through it you could see a café shop on the other side of the street. On top of his desk there was a laptop, a picture drawn from his ten-year-old daughter and a little flower.
Mr. Fox was sitting in his chair behind the table. He was a man in his late forties with black hair, brown eyes, and a big nose. He has a little beer belly and is wearing a black business suit.
Mr. Kaiser was sitting on the left sofa with crossed legs and a calm expression on his face.
“Ah Mr. Black, please have a seat.”
I sat down on the opposite side from Mr. Kaiser.
“Mr. Black, you have certainly asked yourself why you’re here. This is Mr. Kaiser, he is the new Manager from our subsidiary company and is searching for a new secretary and I recommended you.”
“Why me?” I asked.
“Because we don’t want to hire a new one,” said Mr. Kaiser.
“How much?”
“Three thousand two hundred euro a month.”
That is six-hundred more than I get right now. That means there is only one answer that I can give him.
“Deal.”
“Ok, I’ll see you in my office tomorrow morning.”
After we shook hands, I left the office and went to the parking lot where my car was standing.
Half an hour later I opened the door to my flat. My place wasn’t that big, only having four rooms: a kitchen, a bathroom, my sleeping room, and a living room next to the kitchen.
It was five PM, so I went into the living room and turned the TV on. At seven I made something to eat and after I ate, I took a bath. At half-past nine I went to bed so that I wouldn’t be late in the morning.
I woke up at six in the morning, ate breakfast, and washed my hair. As the clock said it was time to go, I was on my way to my new working place. Fifteen minutes before eight I was there. I walked through the entrance and up to the reception desk where a young woman was waiting, with a smile on her face.
“Good morning,” I said, “I’m here to see Mr. Kaiser.”
“Ah the new one,” she replied, “he said that you’d come by today. He is awaiting you in his office.”
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome,” she said with a smile that creeped me out.
At that moment I should have known that something was wrong, but I didn’t think about it.
I went upstairs to Mr. Kaiser’s office and knocked. The door opened and Mr. Kaiser awaited me with a smile on his face.
“Good morning, Mr. Black. It’s nice to see you. I’m starting to like you even more, you’re on point, that is good.”
“It is nice to be here,” I replied.
“Have a seat, we have much to discuss.” He pointed to a seat in front of his desk and I sat down.
After he sat down across from me he said, “First, I need you to fill out this form. After that, we’ll discuss your hours.”
I took the form and looked at it. For my name I fill in Jordan Black. Next was, “Favorite mythical creature?” I read out loud with a questioning look on my face and looked at Mr. Kaiser.
He only nodded and gestured for me to continue.
I fill in Kitsune because I love them. Next was my favorite element, I just wrote down Ice(water). The next and surprisingly last question was if I like kids. I marked yes with a cross and handed the form back.
“Ah good, the important part is finished.”
I was dumbfounded and said, “That was the important part? Those were just random questions!” I replied, my voice raised.
Mister Kaiser just smiled at me and replied with a calm voice, “It will make perfect sense in a few minutes. You only need to sign these two documents over here and then you can start.”
I took the two documents and signed them. This action brought a face-splitting smile to Mr. Kaiser. A smile that said, ‘get the hell out of here’ and that was exactly what I tried to do. Emphasis on tried. I jumped out of my chair and made a mad dash to the door. I reached the door and tried to open it--again, emphasis on tried--but the door was locked. I turned around and my eyes fell on Mr. Kaiser.
“Your fate was already sealed once you filled out the form. The other two were only there to lessen the paperwork,” he said with a creepy voice.
The last words I heard, before I fell through the ground were, “have fun.”
I fell and fell, there was only darkness. After a minute or so, I thought I felt a chill rushing through my body. I felt my clothes vanishing and then my skin started to itch. Next were my bones; I felt them shifting, but I couldn’t feel what I was becoming because my body went numb. I could only feel that I was smaller, much smaller.
After another minute, I saw a light in the darkness and it was getting brighter and brighter. It was, in fact, so bright that I needed to close my eyes. Shortly after I closed my eyes, I hit the ground and passed out.