“Okay Crimson, let’s go through this one more time. Can I get the feed on camera one?”
One more time. It was always one more time with Checkers. Sitting in the dark office of the empty cannery factory, Crimson Step sighed as he started scrolling through the red buttons above his keyboard on the concrete desk. Concrete. Everything in the whole factory seemed to be made of the dull gray stone mixture, making the building feel more like a prison than a place of manufacturing. If it wasn’t for the poor economy in East Los Pegasus, Crimson wouldn’t have even considered getting a real job. But, as it was the winter season, plus the unexpected mini crash of the stock market in Manehatten, every pony had to tighten their purse strings and be a little less generous with their bits. For street performers, even one of Crimson Step’s caliber, that meant getting a real job. Sadly, the night watch shift at one of the canneries was all he could find. The hours sucked out right, ten to five, but at least it paid ten bits an hour.
Crimson rolled his eyes at the tech geek who was currently checking the cameras with him. He wasn’t actually in the room. Checkers, the factory’s IT and machine maintenance stallion, was on speaker phone doing something he called ‘screen sharing’ to make sure the security cameras were working properly. Crimson just hoped that he could catch a few hours of sleep once the pony on the phone shut up. Tonight would be like the last night, and the night before just has it had been for the last month. Silent and quiet. However, that didn’t stop the computer savvy unicorn from checking everything one more time.
Crimson sighed as he hit the big red button, marked with the number one above it.
“You know, triple checking things every night isn’t going to change the fact that the system works. Why don’t you just cut it at checking twice tonight, hmm? For me?”
“Oh shut up, Crim,” Checkers’ voice buzzed out clearly, filling the dark room with his nerdy voice. “I know you got to sleep once I’m done with checking the feeds. You can last a few more minutes, can’t you?”
Crimson glared at the phone, as if the plastic device could relay his look of annoyance across its electronic signals. “You seem prissy tonight. What? Did last night’s date go wrong?”
“Yeah,” His voice answered back, sharper than usual. “You’d be surprised at how fast your date goes bad when her stallion friend of the last three months shows up and tries to start a fight with you.”
Crimson cringed, ears folding flat against his skull, blending right in with his red mane. “Ouch.”
“Yeah, ouch.” Checkers agreed. “So if you don’t mind, I just want to do this fast. I’ve got a bottle of AJD’s waiting for me in the pantry. I plan to not remember anything about it by morning, and to have too much of a headache tomorrow to care if I do remember anything.”
Crimson put on a grimace. “I’ve tried that before. I don’t suggest it.”
“Well, that’s one informed opinion. Okay, it looks great, give me camera two.”
Crimson hit the number two button, seeing a room full of green shaded pillars and a few canning machines. Oh how Crimson Step hated the stupid cameras. Their night vision mode gave him the chills and made everything ten time creepier than they already were. A dark cannery in the dead of night, full of machines and empty space was creepy enough as is. Make everything that same sickly shade of green? If it wasn’t for the fact that he was getting paid four bits above minim wage, he wouldn’t have stayed for the last month.
“Two looks good. Give me three.”
In the factory, there was only eight cameras, and each one pointed at different point of the canning line. It just so happened that this factory canned diced tomatoes. It gave Crimson quite the shock when one of the workers didn’t clean the blades of the machine on camera three one time. If it wasn’t for Checkers, he would have called the police. Because of that, the two had the running joke about camera three’s section of the factory.
“Here comes the killing zone.” Crimson smiled. He could almost feel Checkers’ roll his eyes at the dumb nickname. As his hoof hovered over the number three button, the screen flipped to camera six. “Wha?”
Checkers stated laughing, his voice crackling slightly over the phone, causing Crimson to sit up straight and stare at the thing. “Sorry! Sorry! That was me! Hahahah, Oh, that was great!”
Crimson gave the phone a dead eyed stare. “Hardy har har. You’re soooo funny,”
“Couldn’t help myself. You weren’t expecting it, haha. Okay, show me what you got for camera three.”
Without pause, Crimson punched the red button. With a sigh, he shook his head at the fuzzy green machine with dark splotches all over the blades and base of it’s metallic body. “Looks like some pony forgot to clean it again.”
“We’ve seen worse.” Checkers agreed. “What about camera four?”
Before Crimson Step could hit the button, the screen jumped back to camera six.
“That joke’s getting old.” Crimson pointed out, yawning a little.
“Umm, I thought I said camera four, Crim?” Checkers’ voice buzzed over, holding a slight amount of static.
Crimson looked down at the black phone, blinking. “I thought you changed it, like what you did a minute ago.”
“It wasn’t me this time...Did you hit the wrong button?”
Crimson put both hooves in his lap as he stared at the screen. “I didn’t touch anything.”
For a brief moment, silence reigns over the small dark room, somehow making the dark more pronounced. Crimson didn’t realize how much he hated tight spaces like this room. “You sure? You’re not jerking me around?”
“I could ask you the same thing.”
Silence once again held the room in it’s grasp as Crimson and Checkers watched the screen for a long moment.
“And it had to be on my Friday.” Checkers said, his voice more fuzzy with static than before. “I’ll be there in five minutes.”
Crimson looked at the phone in disbelief. “You’re coming? Now?”
“If it’s a simple malfunction with the cameras, I’ll be able to fix it easily. If it’s something more serious, or if someone’s been tampering with the equipment, I have to call it in.”
Crimson shook his head. “Come on. You don’t have to come all the way down. It’s just a glitch or something, nothing serious.”
“I’ve been running these cameras for years. I know them better than I know my house. They don’t glitch. I’m going to check them out.”
“Yeah, but...can’t you, like, wait till morning?”
There was a long pause as the unicorn on the other side of the phone considered his options. “I’d rather not.” Checkers admitted with a sigh. “At least it’s more productive than drinking all night.”
Crimson sat back in his chair, not sure how he felt about the situation. While he certainly felt better about the idea that someone else he knew would be in the factory with him, even if it’s just on screen, something just didn’t feel right.
“I only live a few blocks away anyways.” Checkers added, drawing Crimson out of his thoughts. “I’ll give you a call on my cell once I’m there.”
Crimson gulped. “Okay.” He didn’t like the idea of being completely alone while something was off with the camera six. Something flitted across the screen, pulling his attention back to the screen as his heart skipped a beat. Nothing was there. It probably was nothing, the dark made everything seem more sinister than it really was. The air around Crimson seemed to have dropped a few degrees, as if chilled by some unseen malice towards him.
Shaking his head, he knocked his head with a hoof. It was just his imagination. There was nothing there, and the air was fine. His coworker would be there in five minutes just to see rats chewing a cable or something, but nothing more. It was an old cannery after all.
“Okay. I’ll see you soon.”
Click.
Silence. Silence hung in the air so thick and heavy, that Crimson felt he could cut it with a knife. To be sure that something was actually wrong with camera six, he punched the button for camera four.
The screen flipped over to the appropriate feed, but something was off. Crimson leaned forward, his brow furrowed as he stared at the green on the screen. The picture was tilted to one side. Almost as if someone, or something, had bumped it ever so slightly, so the image that relayed on the screen was off just enough for anyone to just barely detect.
That was odd. Had it always been like that? Crimson’s first instinct was to say no, but given at how often he actually paid attention to the feeds on his screen, he couldn’t say for certain. Once again, the screen swapped to camera six’s feed on its own. Yup, something must be wrong with the wires or something. It might even have to do with why camera four was off ever so slightly. Did some crew come in and bump something during the day? Maybe knock a wire loose? Crimson tried again.
Hoof hovering over camera seven, the video changed without input over to video three. Something long and hairless was crouched on the convener belt, it’s stark white eyes staring through the camera into Crimson, as if it knew it was being watched. The jolt of seeing such an unexpected thing forced Crimson to blink before his brain could fully register what he was seeing.
By the time his heart started to begin to miss a beat, for the second time that night, Crimson realized that nothing was there. Sure, the machine was in the same state of uncleanliness as before, its blades and body covered in dark splotches from tomatoes, but there was no strange creature staring into his soul. Was he just losing it? Maybe when he got off of work, he needed the bottle of Apple Jack Daniels for himself. The dark and anticipation of waiting for his phone to ring were making him jump at shadows, at things not there.
Crimson’s ears perked up as something rattled. Were the pipes always that loud? He blinked as his ears twitched. Was that scraping on the walls coming from outside of his door? Something like a low wheeze reached his ears. Could something be breathing, waiting just outside of the security office? Or did he just not ever pay attention to the ventilation in the building. Crimson couldn’t answer. He was always dead asleep by this time. Flicking his tail around himself, he waited for his coworker’s arrival.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Crimson jumped to his hooves, the fur on his nape standing on end as his stomach bottomed out, causing him to whinny like a little filly.
“Did I scare you?” Checkers voice, muffled by the steel door, drifted in.
“I will get you for that!” Crimson growled, trying to calm his racing heart. “I thought you were going to call?”
The voice on the other side laughed. “Well, I would have, but I wanted to make sure you were awake. Anyway, I’m headed down to take a look at the cameras. Give me a ring. I’ll be more than happy to have someone to talk to.”
Crimson scratched his head, slightly confused. “Wouldn’t it make more sense for me to come with you?”
“No. I need you in there, so I know if I fixed the problem.”
“Oh. Why didn’t I think of that?”
“Because you’re thinking of sleep, Crim. Don’t worry, you’ll get your beauty sleep tonight.”
Crimson rolled his eyes. “Have I ever told you how annoying you are?”
There was a pause. “Actually, no. You haven’t.”
Both ponies snorted in laughter as Checkers trotted down the dark hallway and Crimson took his seat again, dialing in the number for his coworker.
“Oh, you decided to call.” Checkers answered, his voice holding an electronic tinge.
“I was bored and I can’t take my nap until you fix things.” Crimson jibed back. Talking to someone else made him feel more at ease.
It didn’t take long for Checkers to get down to the factory floor. “Okay, hit camera one. I might as well make sure everything else is working.”
Taping the red button, Crimson dutifully told of what he say. “It seems good. Oh, I can see you. Wave to the camera.”
The unicorn with a short spiky mane and glasses looked up into the camera and waved before moving on, stopping every so often just to look at any of the machines around the area, making his way off screen.
“I love machines.” The unicorn confessed. “There’s something just amazing about a thing of metal and wires moving on its own and doing things that we can’t. It’s almost divine.”
“Was that the pickup line you used to get last night’s date?” Crimson laughed.
Punching in for camera two’s input, Crimson watched his coworker cross the green tinged screen.
“Hey, babes love nerds.” The pony on screen replied.
Crimson rolled his eyes. “I sure hope you’re referring to the candy.” The screen switched unexpectedly to camera six. “Hang on, it switched on me again.” Crimson tapped the button for camera two. A blur sped across the green screen. Crimson blinked. Was it his imagination again? First he's seeing weird creatures, now he's seeing blurs? A pipe groaned above Crimson, causing him to jump.
What was he doing? Jumping at shadows and natural noises of the old building? Putting a hoof to his eyes, Crimson massaged his temples with a sigh, feeling more upset than foolish.
“Everything good now?” Checkers asked, sounding a little concerned.
Crimson grunted, turning his attention back to the screen.. “Yeah...I can see you now. Keep going.”
“That’s what she said last night.”
“That joke is so lame, my four year old nephew makes up better ones.”
“You have a nephew?”
“Yeah. He’s a cute kid too. Wants to be like his super cool uncle and become a dancer.”
Crimson watched Checkers snicker on screen. “So cool his business is frozen.”
“That was really lame.”
“Shuddup, it was funny and you know it.”
“Says the nerd who laughs at ones and zeros.”
“I see your ‘kill zone’.” Checkers announced.
Hitting camera three, Crimson saw something he couldn’t believe. On the conveyor belt was something long, and thin, sitting in the shadows of sullied machine, its stark eyes watching a Checkers walk by a few feet away, as if it was a predator stalking its pray. Before he could get a chance to say anything, he blinked and it was gone.
Crimson blinked again, rubbing his eyes with his hooves, still gaping at the screen. That was what he saw before.
"No," Crimson mumbled, trying to calm himself. "I thought, I saw." Crimson held his tail with his fore-legs, a nervous habit of his youth.
“Something wrong?” Checkers asked, stopping in his tracks.
Not sure if he should tell of what he saw, or just keep it to himself, Crimson answered. “I..I must be tired. I thought I saw something.”
Crimson looked up into the camera. “Saw something? What?”
It was a little late to say nothing, so Crimson answered truthfully. “It looked like a strange creature. It was long and thing, with white eyes.”
"Long and thin?" Checkers repeated. "What kind of description is that?"
"I only saw it for a second. I blinked and it was gone." Crimson held his tail tighter. "And I thought I saw it earlier, before you got here."
For a moment neither Crimson nor Checkers moved. Checkers stared at the camera, making eye contact with Crimson. Finally, Checkers broke the would be eye contact and continued making his way to camera six.
“What did I tell you about drinking on the job?” The unicorn asked.
“Hey! I haven’t had a drink all day.”
“Suuuuure. Oh, and let me know when you see the tooth fairy. I’ve got a debt to settle with that one.”
Crimson leaned back into his chair, folding his fore-hooves and glared at the pony on screen. Secretly, he was grateful. Grateful that his coworker got his mind off of whatever it was he thought he saw.
Checkers crossed out of camera three’s range. Punching in for camera four, Crimson was met with a strange sight.
“Uuuuuhmm, Checkers?”
“Yes?”
“Camera four is on the floor.”
For a long moment, nothing could be heard but breathing. “The floor?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. Wait for a moment. I’ll find it.”
Crimson could hear something in the background of the phone. Was that wheezing? He knew Checkers wasn’t the greatest at physical stuff, but he shouldn’t be in that condition just from walking. Some scuffling could be heard and finally, the picture on screen started moving as someone picked up the stationary camera from off the ground. Turning it around, Checkers’ face came into view, his face a picture of concern as he turned the device this way and that way to look it over. Over his shoulder, a pair of stark white eyes could be seen.
“Behi-” Crimson watched in horror as Checkers dropped the camera, leaving it on it’s side to see his legs.
The screams were cut off almost as soon as they started. Large globs of dark spattered against the floor of the now silent scene as the Checkers’ phone disconnected. As he watched, Crimson’s mind snapped into action as he started dialing the police.
“Police Department, what’s your emergency?” A mare answered.
“My name is Crimson! I work at the Tomato Cannery in the factory district! My-”
“Tomato Cannery?” The police mare asked, sounding confused.
Crimson watched as his coworker’s legs started lifting off the ground. “Yes! The big factory with two smoke stacks?”
"And what seems to be the problem, Mr. Crimson?"
Checkers' legs vanished off screen. "It ate him!" Crimson gasped. "I-it ate him!"
"Who ate him?"
Crimson's voice choked as his throat constricted. He wasn't sure what he felt more, utter terror of what he'd just witnessed, or the shock that his coworker was just eaten by some kind of monster. It wasn't right. It wasn't-
Bang. Bang. Bang.
Crimson's head snapped up from off the desk. His heart raced as he stared at the screen. Camera six was on display. Terror filled his mind as the images of a moment ago filled his mind. With a shaky hoof, he tapped the button for camera four. Camera four was perfectly normal. Not on the floor, or showing any diabolical beast eating Checkers.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
The screen switched back to camera six on its own. Crimson breathed out easily. He just have fallen asleep waiting for Checkers.
"I'm coming." He called out, getting up from the office chair, shaking off the chilled air. "Sweet Celestia, you will not belief the dream I just had." Making his way to the door, Crimson pulled it open. "You were eaten by-"
Crimson's voice died in his throat as a pair of stark white eyes greeted him.