Page 9 of Colin Gets Promoted and Dooms the World
Nothing.
Maybe I’d imagined it.
A long arm shot out from under the bed with nightmarish suddenness, spindly fingers splayed out like a pale, malformed spider as they latched on to the carpeted floor. I jumped back, my throat closing around an involuntary scream, as another arm appeared. Both wore sleeves the color of dried blood, red and rusted and dark. The hands flexed as, with agonizing slowness, the Thing pulled itself into view, the featureless darkness where its head should have been pulsing and swirling against that web of silver chains.
Moving with an unnatural grace, it lifted its body from the floor until its wingtips slid out from under the bed. Hovering before me, it tugged its suit into place with precise little movements of its hands, shoulders stooped in deference to the low ceiling.You called me, it said in that cold voice.I’m pleased.
I was still pressed back against the door, frightened and repulsed in equal measure. I didn’t know how I would ever sleep in this roomagain. “Y-you said you can give me whatever I want,” I whispered, my tongue stumbling over the words. “Is that still true?”
Yes.
I licked my lips. “I want a promotion at Dark Enterprises,” I said carefully. “To the thirteenth floor. And I want it to happen now.”
The Thing studied me—that was what it looked like, anyhow—while my knees shook.You will have what you desire, it finally said.And once you do, I will return to claim my part of our bargain.
I cleared my throat. “Look, I don’t want to be difficult, but I’d really like to avoid a fate worse than death.” I paused before adding judiciously, “Or a fate thatisdeath.”
It hovered silently.
“Okay?” I hazarded.
It turned away.I’ll see you again soon.Smoothly, the Thing bent down and started to contort itself back under my bed. It could have looked ridiculous, but instead it was deeply disturbing. The last glimpse I had was the soles of its shoes sliding into the shadows.
Shuddering, I flung open the door and hastened into the living room. It was done. I’d seized the reins of my own destiny and carved a new path for myself. It sounded quite cool when I thought of it like that, actually, and for a while my body hummed with a quiet sense of satisfaction. Sunil wouldn’t have had the guts to do what I’d done, I told myself. When I finally got this promotion, I’d have the respect I deserved. No more snide whispers or cruel pranks. No more death squads lurking around every corner. Pausing by the window, I glanced outside. The man was gone. Good.
The heart-pounding terror of striking a bargain with the Thing, combined with more than an hour of restless pacing, finally wore me out. There was no question of sleeping in my own bed tonight, orpossibly ever again, so I was lying on the sofa, half-asleep, when Amira finally came home. She didn’t blink when I asked if I could sleep in her bedroom, just tucked me into her own bed and then curled up next to me, and for a little while I forgot about faceless horrors and lurking assassins and the looming, unknown price I would have to pay for my survival.
Five
In the bleary light ofmorning, the events of the previous night felt like a bad dream. There was my blood, though, smeared across that business card. Shuddering, I stuffed it into a desk drawer and then went through the motions of getting ready for work. At least it was Friday.
The New York office of Dark Enterprises was housed behind a plain facade of black mirrored glass. There was no sign out front, nothing at all to advertise what waited inside, and only those initiated into the corporate mysteries would notice that the geometric patterns incised into the gleaming metal of the revolving doors were actually composed of thousands of tiny sigils. If anything dangerous walked into the lobby, those wards ensured that it would be sequestered and dealt with by Security.
I no longer noticed these precautions, nor the arcane markings around the elevators that would incinerate intruders if they tried to go anywhere without an employee escorting them. The ID badge dangling from the lanyard around my neck was all the protection Ineeded. Naturally, these security measures came with their share of downsides—every other week, someone forgot their lanyard at home and wandered onto the elevators in a caffeine-deprived haze, and then we were down to a single elevator for the entire building while Janitorial Services scrubbed the greasy, incinerated remains off the walls. It never stopped being annoying.
Today, though…did I imagine the chilly shiver of protective magicks sliding across my skin as I pushed through the revolving door and into the lobby? Was the woman sitting behind the imposing receptionist’s desk looking at me strangely? Was I marked somehow by what I’d done last night?
I was in a full sweat by the time I stepped onto the elevator, every muscle tensed in anticipation of a sudden and lethal inferno. Nothing happened, though. The doors rolled shut with a cheerfulding, upbeat Muzak drifted from hidden speakers, and I reached Human Resources unscathed. Nonetheless, a heavy, persistent feeling of dread settled over me as I tried to work. I was increasingly certain that someone knew what I’d done. The spreadsheets and quota reports on my computer screen blurred into irrelevance as I hunched over my desk and stared blankly into space, wondering when the axe would finally fall.
By the afternoon, I was so jumpy that when someone cleared their throat behind me I almost had a heart attack. Swiveling in my chair, I found Ms.Kettering watching me with that friendly little smile that never quite reached her eyes. “I’ve just had a call from the CEO, Colin,” she purred. “You’ve been summoned to the thirteenth floor.” Behind her, Beverly’s head swiveled in our direction, her mouth falling open to reveal that one dead tooth she always tried to hide.
I stared at my boss as I processed this. Summoned to thethirteenth floor, and by the CEO, no less. Could this be my promotion? Or was the Firing Squad waiting for me, ready to terminate my employment? My heart started pounding with a nauseating mixture of fear and excitement as I considered these disparate possibilities. “Uh. Okay,” I finally said. “Right now?”
Ms.Kettering nodded. “Don’t worry about the afternoon inspection, Colin. I’ll find someone else to do it.” Her smile widened until I could see teeth. That was almost more terrifying than being singled out by the CEO. “Hurry, now,” she fluted as she stepped to one side with a whisper of flesh-colored pantyhose. “You don’t want to keep Ms.Crenshaw waiting.”
Everyone in the bullpen was watching me, I realized, some people actually standing up from their desks to peer over the cubicle walls. I headed for the elevators, my limbs wooden, my movements automatic. Either my dreams were coming true, or I was a dead man walking.
The last thing I saw before the elevator doors closed were Ms.Kettering’s teeth gleaming above her pussycat bow, a last predatory flash before I ascended to meet my fate.
Though we’d shared an elevatorfor at least twenty seconds three days ago, Ms.Crenshaw didn’t appear to recognize me. Casually elegant in a charcoal pantsuit, she crossed her legs and watched me from the other side of her glass-and-steel desk while floor-to-ceiling windows on two sides of the room looked out across an aerial view of Central Park that defied both physics and geography. It was a lovely office. Undoubtedly, she’d done terrible things to get there.
Seated in a chair on the other side of her desk, hands claspedtogether so tightly that my knuckles ached, I waited in silence, unable to hold her gaze for more than a moment at a time.
After an uncomfortable interval, Ms.Crenshaw finally spoke. “It seems,” she said, taking a folder from her desk and opening it, “that your performance in Human Resources has suffered a sudden and precipitous decline.”
Oh no. This was my exit interview. “I can explain,” I said around a tongue that felt too big for my mouth.
Her head tilted to one side. “You’re going to tell me this is the fault of Mr.Chandola.”
