Instructions: Write a 2 page sketch/ short short/section of a story that is set in our world, but has one (and only one) fantastic element.
I gathered all of my stuff into a box and sighed heavily as I left my small cubical. People waved shyly to me as I stalked towards the elevator and my exit. OUT OF ORDER graced the doors and I kicked them angrily. I moved to the left and awkwardly opened the doors to the stairs. Fifteen flights, a stubbed toe and broken picture frame later I reached the lobby to find the elevator repair men getting off of the fixed elevator. I hurriedly walked out the front doors, ignoring the cute secretary saying good bye to me. As I left the building, I turned around to flip it off and spit on the front step. I shuffled off to the back lot to get my car and head home, only to see it getting smashed from behind by none other than Mr. Packard, my old boss, not knowing how to drive his over priced, over loud and ridiculously huge Escalade. I ran over to his window and pounded on it, with my free hand.
“Yes William? Can I help you? I’ve already sent your insurance company your termination papers,” he said rolling his tinted window down.
“For the last time, my name is CEDRIC! Could you not see my car? You just hit it and destroyed my bumper! What are you going to do about it?”
He tapped his ringed finger impatiently on the steering wheel of his gas-guzzler and handed me a $20.00 bill. “Here you go William,” he put the money in my hand and drove away.
“IT’S CEDRIC YOU ASS HOLE!!!!” I screamed as he peeled out of the lot.
I knew it was in vain and so I just kicked my bumper and threw my things in the backseat and pulled out of the parking lot. My bumper scraped the entire way home and I got a ticket for causing a disruption too. Today was the day that one would usually want to just drive their car off a bridge. I knew that when I got home though, my girlfriend would be waiting for me. She would probably complain about me losing my job, the apartment would be a sty and she’d probably be drunk. I sure knew how to pick them.
I parked my car in the small lot next to the apartment building and locked it and took my box of crap up stairs. I found the door locked and so I dug my keys out of my pocket and opened the door. I could hear something coming from the bedroom and my heart sank…she wouldn’t, would she? I confirmed my fears when I opened the bedroom door and there on top of my girlfriend was none other than my boss. I walked out of the room, not even bothering to stop them and I gathered the few things that I really wanted and left. I drove anywhere, and I stopped at a hotel for the night to sleep and collect my thoughts. There weren’t many and I was tired so I fell asleep quickly.
I woke up to the sound of the phone and scrambled for my glasses. I put them on and looked at the clock. It was 4:45am and the warm room had me groggy still. I picked up the receiver and rubbed my eyes under my glasses.
“Hello?” I spoke softly and annoyed into the phone. “Who the hell is calling me this early?”
The voice on the other end of the line was smooth and clear, a woman’s. She was lively and yet soft and she spoke like we’d known each other for years.
“Good morning, Cedric. My name is Charlene. I have important business matters to discuss with you. Would you please meet me at 700 Ashe St. at 9 am today? If you choose not to, I can assure you that you’ll regret it. Please come exactly at that time,” she hung up after those last words and I sat dumbstruck with the phone still in my hand for a few minutes, before hanging back up and laying my head back down. Who would want to meet with me? I hadn’t even put out new applications or resumes yet.
I fell back asleep, setting the cheap hotel alarm clock for 7:30am. I would wake up and shower and all the usual, before going to this meeting. What else did I have to lose? The short dream I had when I slept was strange. I dreamt of winged people, flying all over the city instead of taking busses and driving cars. I was the only one not flying though, the loner and the weirdo among the strangers. It was like it had been and how it would continue to be.
The buzzing of the alarm woke me from my flightless dream and I tumbled out of bed and made for the shower. I scrubbed my face and wondered again if the phone call had just been part of the dream and whether or not I should go. I figured I’d go and check and if it looked like a scam I’d turn right around and stop before I made a fool out of myself. I put on my best suit coat and tied my tie up nice and clean and headed out. I had plenty of time before the meeting, or whatever it was that I needed to get to was, so I stopped for coffee. I went to a café that I’d gone to before, when I worked for the other office and I saw the secretary, Amy sitting at the counter. I sat a few seats away from her and ordered a large decaf and started to sip it. I knew she wouldn’t recognize me, no one ever did and I might as well have been invisible to them.
“Cedric?” I heard her melodic voice address me and I looked over. “It is you, how are you?”
She was always nice, but I thought she was just trying to move up in the company ranks and so I never really noticed anything. I smiled at her and waved shortly. She moved over to sit next to me and the smell she wore was intoxicating. I’d never actually noticed how pretty she was, since I’d only really ever passed her twice a day. She patted my hand and smiled at me again and slipped a piece of paper into my hand.
“Call me sometime ok?” she walked out of the café and got into her car. I smiled too and got up leaving my payment and went to head over to the address the woman had given me. I got in my car and put the piece of paper Amy had given me into my suit pocket and headed over to Ashe St.
I pulled into the parking lot next to the building and was stopped by a valet. He told me that he would take my car and park it for me and to have a nice day. I had never been treated that nicely before, it was refreshing. I walked up to the huge front doors to find a man dressed in a nicely tailored suit and had slick black hair. The building was all polished black stone on the outside, but on the inside it was like walking into a cave. There was a waterfall on the left that fell into a pool that looked like it had gold coins in the bottom and there were stalactites and stalagmites everywhere. Inset lighting came down from everywhere and it was lushly furnished with leather seating everywhere. It was the swankiest cave I’d ever seen. I walked up to the giant polished desk of driftwood and addressed the woman at the front. She looked up at me with a smile and pointed towards some towering doors at the end of lobby without saying a word.
I walked through the doors and was immediately greeted by a slight woman who didn’t even come to my shoulders. She grabbed my arm and spoke as we walked, “Cedric, I’m Charlene; the woman you spoke with on the phone,” I recognized her smooth tone and nodded. “Before we inspect you, we will have you properly dressed and done up.” A group of other women came over and started taking my suit coat and checking it, when I tried to tell them that there was an important number in there, Charlene walked over and took the piece of paper. She took out a slim cell phone and imputed the number into it and closed it, throwing the paper in a nearby fireplace.
For a few moments I felt like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and they trimmed my hair, put me in a chic suit and equipped it with a silk tie. I’d never looked better and I was lead out of the room to the next one. A small chirping noise reached my ear and I saw Charlene put a hand up to her ear and she started talking in a soft whisper in what didn’t sound like English. She nodded and looked at me quickly and said something else in the foreign tongue, French maybe? I followed without question and I kept up with Charlene through out the entire trip. Each room we went through was different; some were like giant lounges, others full of computers and typewriters. It was almost like going through a casino, each room was different and unique, but all part of the same giant complex. We finally reached a long hallway and Charlene stopped me here.
“I need to check and make sure you’re ready to meet the boss. You wait over there and I’ll call you when I’m ready for you to meet him. Understood?” She didn’t wait for my answer and walked towards the large black steel doors at the other end. About two seconds after she closed the doors a man walked through the ones we’d come through minutes before. He walked over to me, dressed as all the others here and nodded to me.
“If you could have one super power what would it be?” he waited for my answer patiently. I thought about it for a minute and told him that it would be flight. He nodded again and left. From another door in the room a young blonde woman came over to me, dressed in a leather business suit.
“If you had to say what the root of all evil was in the world, but something the world couldn’t do without, what would it be?” she pulled down her suit coat and I told her money was something that we couldn’t do without and it was something ran the world. She turned on her heels and walked away.
I started to get confused, was this an interview or a game of Scategories? I didn’t understand what this had to do with the job, but I would go along with it none the less. I stood up a little to fix my suit coat and another person walked up to me, this time it was Charlene again.
“You’ve passed…come with me Cedric. I want you to understand something. Mr. Alastor is not your normal…boss. He’s a little eccentric if you haven’t noticed. There are some rules you must heed,” we walked across the large hallway as she said this. “One, never look him in the eyes, he hates that; two, if he speaks to you, you may answer, but please don’t ask questions; three, there are some things he may ask you to do and you may wonder if he’s crazy, or something of the sort. Get out now if you think you’ll answer no. Understood?” I nodded and followed her through the gaping doorway.
The room was lit with torches and a large fireplace. There were even more plush leather furnishings around this room and the wall was covered with tapestries and wall hangings. There was a large dark wooden desk in front of the darkly tinted window looking out onto the streets from 20 stories up. A tall standing figure was looking out over the view and turned at the sound of Charlene’s heels.
“Ah, Charlene, is this the fresh blood? Good, you may leave,” he nodded to Charlene, who quickly turned and left the room, closing the heavy doors behind her. “Cedric…my boy, please come and have a seat,” he led me to one of the cushy leather sofas in the corner near the fireplace and had me sit.
When he finally sat I saw his face for the first time and I had to cover my mouth to keep myself from shouting. His skin wasn’t anything like a human’s. Scales covered his face which was pointed and sharply angled. The color was reds and coppers and oranges, like a painting. He had two sharp horns curving out of his forehead and no hair graced his head. He wore a fine suit and designer shoes; the only difference was a hole in his suit trousers that allowed a long dexterous tail to swing around back and forth. I looked at the ground quickly, remembering Annalisa’s rules and waited for him to speak again.
“I know what you’re thinking Cedric. Why would I just have you here without knowing anything about you? Why not find someone who I know is good for my company? Well, that’s not the way I work…as I’m sure you can see, I’m not your typical human, am I?” He laughed at his own joke and sat on the sofa next to me, putting a clawed hand on my shoulder. I could feel the scales through my suit and straightened up a little bit.
“Look at me Cedric…it’s alright,” he waited for me to stare him straight in the face before starting his speech again. “I’m obviously not human and you’re obviously made for more. Together we can achieve this. Do as I ask, complete the tasks that I set before you without question and I’ll make sure that dent in your bumper goes away and you’ll be able to take that nice Amy girl out for a proper dinner next week. I’m Dragon-Born; yes you can Google that, this is my humanoid form. Just because of stories though, doesn’t make me evil. I just like having faithful workers helping me and they get what they deserve. What do you say? Are you in?”
He held out his hand waiting for my acceptance or my refusal. He had a coy smile on his face and a gleam in his eyes. I thought about it and remembered how much I hated being treated like a dog by people, running around doing their errands. I took his hand firmly and shook it; I said humans and he wasn’t a human, was he?
