“It’s just…eh, never mind.”
Karen walked over to them. “Hey, Terrance, did gnomes give you an axe this morning?”
“No, no mystical creatures gave me weaponry today, but thanks for asking.”
“Oh, and I got an email from Shannon. Subject line, ‘Ance in my pants.’ She says that last night she went to your place and you showed her ‘ecstasy hitherto unknown.’”
Terrance thought a moment. “Really? She used the word ‘hitherto’?”
“Good job, Ter,” Lance said.
“She also said she’s seeing you again tonight. I have trouble believing either thing.”
“Karen, I’m unbelievably awesome, and one day you’re going to have to accept that fact.”
“And in your awesomeness, did you bring the chips for the potluck?”
“Oh…I forgot that.” Terrance looked at Karen with pleading eyes. “Don’t tell Shannon about this. She won’t want to date some chip-forgetting loser.”
Karen sighed. “I’m guessing Shannon finds you hilarious. Later.” She turned to Lance and smiled before walking off.
“So you like her?” Terrance asked.
“What’s not to like?”
A meeting reminder appeared on Terrance’s computer screen. “The empowerment ceremony is starting soon.” Terrance shuddered; he didn’t know why. He just hated meetings.
Terrance headed to the usual place for the ceremony: the subbasement of the office building. It was a large cavern lit by flickering torch light that cast moving shadows off everyone in attendance—mainly bored coworkers standing around. Terrance found a spot next to Lance. “What’s this all about again?”
Lance shrugged. “Usual motivation nonsense. Plus I think it’s to appease what lies beneath.”
Ahead of them was a raised area made of stone on which a few robed figures stood, their faces hidden behind hoods. They stood around a large pit out of which echoed inhuman sounds.
“And what lives in that pit?” Terrance asked.
“I’m not sure it has a name. You’ve been through one of these before.”
“Yeah…I guess I never really paid attention.”
“Who does?” Lance pulled out his smartphone.
Terrance could hear a woman screaming. Up on the stage, more hooded figures led out a petite young woman clothed in white. She tried to fight against her captors, screaming, “Don’t do this! Let me go!” Tears streamed down her cheeks.
“Um…that woman seems in trouble,” Terrance said to Lance.
Lance was busy checking Twitter on his phone. “Yeah, not everyone is into these things.”
The woman looked at the crowd below the stage. “Someone help me! Please! Someone stop this!”
Terrance did hope someone would help her, but he looked around the crowd and it was a mix of people watching dispassionately and bored people who weren’t even paying attention. As the woman looked in his general direction with doe-like, pleading eyes, Terrance shuddered as a realization came to him: he was someone.
“Um…hey…” Terrance said weakly as he made his way to the stage. “Hey, guys!”
He got the attention of one of the hooded figures, who looked down at Terrance with a shadowed face and hissed.
The woman spotted him, staring at him with desperate eyes through her matted brown hair. “Stop them!” Her hands were bound, and the hooded figures kept pushing her toward the pit.
“Um…maybe we should…” Terrance started to say, but noticed none of the hooded figures were paying attention to him. “Hey!” Impulsively, Terrance climbed onstage. He immediately regretted it, as he could hear grumblings from the previously bored attendees who were now paying attention to him. He thought about climbing back down, but he had already gone this far. “I don’t think…” he said softly, but fought the embarrassment and then said louder, “Something is wrong here!”
Now one of the hooded figures paid attention and drew a sword, pointing it at Terrance. “You’re interfering!”
“Yeah, it’s just…”
Long, dark tentacles arose from the pit as the inhuman cries grew louder, their deep rumblings vibrating the whole cavern. A mouth emerged—no face, just a mouth large enough to swallow a human whole and filled with long, sharp, yellow teeth.
“I didn’t mean to get in the middle of this”—Terrance slowly inched toward the woman—“but it just seems—”
The woman burst from her captors and threw herself at the hooded figure holding a sword. They tumbled to the floor, but soon the woman was standing again, now holding the sword. She no longer seemed small and pathetic, but she appeared so bursting with strength that Terrance took a step back at the sight of her. Another of the hooded figures charged her, and she ran the sword through him. The unnamed beast roared and reached a tentacle toward her, but she chucked the sword into its open mouth. It screamed so loudly that the place shook as if there were an earthquake, and Terrance lost his footing and fell off the stage.
Dazed, he saw the woman in white pushing her way through the crowd toward the cavern’s exit, taking one last glance at him with her large, fierce eyes—he found himself both frightened by and drawn to them. And then she was gone.
Terrance noticed a number of people staring at him, and standing directly above him was Lance, who looked at him quizzically. “Well, that was embarrassing.”
Chapter 4
Darlor’s office lacked a desk or windows. It simply had a throne upon which Darlor sat, staring down at Terrance with red eyes while Terrance was situated in an uncomfortable chair with a cloth seat. Next to Darlor’s throne was a small table that held a laptop and a mug with the company logo on it.
“Explain yourself!” Darlor hissed, his sharp white teeth stained with flecks of crimson.
Terrance sunk in his chair, his eyes not meeting Darlor’s and going to the rough carpet at his feet. “Um…I just thought something seemed off with what was going on, so I was just checking on things and…” He shrugged. “Whoops.”
“The unnamed thing that resides beneath is enraged. Do you understand what that means for us?”
“Uh…not really.”
“Then know this at least: You should not have interfered.”
“I get that now. Um…so who was that woman?” He regretted the question the moment it left his mouth.
Darlor rose from his throne. “That is not the issue!”
“Yeah…sorry. I’m…having an off day, I guess.”
“People were offended by your actions.”
“I didn’t mean to offend anyone.”
“There could be legal repercussions for the company.”
“Oh…I didn’t know that. I’m really sorry.” But really sorry for what? Terrance knew he was supposed to have done something wrong; it just didn’t feel wrong to try and help that woman.
Darlor slowly sat back down, his red eyes probing Terrance’s face. “You are a good programmer, Mr. Denby.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“You’ve done well here, and I’d like to think this was a one-time lapse of judgment.”
“I’m sure it was. I don’t know what came over me. I’ll…be more considerate in the future.” Terrance thought about what he was saying. He was promising to stand idly by while he saw horrible things going on. And he was promising it to a demon. All of this is normal, he tried to tell himself. You’re the only one freaking out.
Other than that screaming woman, he thought in response.
“I’ll be keeping an eye on you,” Darlor said. “Any further incidents like this will not be tolerated. Are we clear?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Then we are done here for now. I would like for you to write a letter of apology to the unnamed thing that resides below.”
“I’ll do that right away.” He just wasn’t sure how to address it.
Terrance left Darlor’s office. As he headed back to his cube, he did his best to ignore the fact that most of his coworkers were staring at him
. He tried to suppress the embarrassment, but he found that beyond the embarrassment was anger.
Get your head together, Ter. He sat down in his cubicle. He planned to write the apology letter quickly and then get lost in a programming assignment. No moral dilemmas there.
Then he noticed his empty coffee mug. He wasn’t going to figure out how best to apologize to the unnamed terror beneath them without coffee.
Terrance headed to the break room, trying once again not to make eye contact with anyone he passed. Inside, Karen was setting up the potluck.
“No!” she shouted. “First you didn’t bring the chips you promised and then you ruined the empowerment ceremony. You don’t get to be a part of the potluck.”
“Sorry. I’m just…getting coffee.”
“What is wrong with you anyway? Do you understand how angering the thing below can affect bonuses?”
A small crowd had gathered to watch Terrance be chastised. “I just thought something was wrong there.”
“Really?” Karen shouted. “Everyone else seemed to think everything was fine, but you thought there was something wrong?”
“It just that woman was screaming and—”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“Well…doesn’t it just seem a little wrong for a screaming woman to be fed to a horrible creature?” Terrance looked around the crowd for support. They just stared at him with confusion.
“Wrong how?” Karen demanded.
“I…” Terrance realized how pointless this was. “Never mind. I’m going to go write the unnamed creature a letter of apology, so hopefully everyone can just forget this whole thing.”
He poured himself some coffee, careful to leave a little bit so he didn’t feel the need to make another pot, and quickly left the break room. When he got back to his cubicle, his phone beeped that he had a text from Shannon. “Call me after you’re done being Batman. I’m looking forward to a bold, exciting evening of excitement.” Terrance smiled. Hopefully it wouldn’t be a completely awful day.
He typed a reply. “It will be the most memorable night of your life, Catwoman. Thousands of years from now, people will sings songs about it. Probably dinner and a movie or something.”
“You okay?” Lance asked, appearing behind Terrance.
“You ever work?”
“Checking on the well-being of coworkers is part of work. So what happened with you?”
Terrance took a deep breath. “Everything just seems…wrong.”
“Haven’t you felt that way ever since Firefly was cancelled?”
“I’m serious. I’m noticing things now. Things that never bothered me before and now…I dunno.”
Lance thoughtfully considered Terrance’s words for a moment. “Sounds like you need to get laid.”
“Thanks, Lance. That’s helpful advice.”
“And I have more. Make sure when you see Shannon again tonight you don’t bring up how you freaked out like a mental case today.”
“I did not ‘freak out like a mental case.’ I just…you know what? I’m past it. And I’m definitely not bringing it up again.”
“Cool. I’m sure you’ll bring your game tonight. Probably a video game, but maybe that will work with her.” Lance patted Terrance on the back and left.
Terrance took a sip of coffee and opened a new Word document to begin his letter of apology. He didn’t remember seeing eyes on the creature he was apologizing to, though, and he wondered if it could even read a letter.
Terrance sat in the lobby of Toshiro’s steakhouse, a quiet place just outside the main restaurant area, and glanced at his watch. A thought briefly went through his head that Karen had told Shannon what had happened today and now she wasn’t going to show up.
Someone grabbed him from behind and quickly pulled him to his feet. “Gotcha, sucker!”
He was released and turned to see Shannon smiling at him. She wore jeans and a cute red top, which would seem to make quite a difference in mood from the dark armor, but her bright face dominated whatever she wore. “Yeah, you got me. You win…whatever game it is we’re playing.”
“I’m working on my stealth; I’m hoping to eventually get a promotion.” She looked Terrance over. He wore what he thought was his best polo shirt to try to make a good impression, but it seemed woefully inadequate. He also had put gel in his hair and now felt really self-conscious about it. “Glasses? I don’t remember you having glasses before.” Shannon narrowed her eyes. “I don’t date nerds.”
“Glasses don’t mean you’re a nerd,” Terrance responded. “You can be stupid and have bad vision.”
Shannon nodded. “I see you wore a watch,” she said. “A device strapped to you that performs only one function; how quaint. So why wear it? Are you too lazy to pull your phone out of your pocket to check the time?”
“It’s my lucky watch.”
“Needing luck, you think?” She narrowed her eyes again. “Or hoping to ‘get lucky’? This is just a first date, you know. What sort of girl do you think I am?”
“Have I offended you with my watch-wearing?”
“No, just keeping my eye on you.” She smiled. “Nice watch, by the way. Looks gold.”
Terrance nodded. “That’s what it’s supposed to look like.” He noticed a streak of red in Shannon’s blonde hair. “I like your highlights.”
Shannon looked surprised. “My what?” She touched her hair. “Oh! Come on!” She frowned. “Guess who forgot her helmet at the bar last night.” She pointed two thumbs at herself. “This gal!”
“So that’s…”
“Yeah, and worst of all, it’s faerie blood; I have no idea what it will do to my hair.”
“You killed faeries?”
“Let’s drop this. We’re just going to have to pretend it’s not there”—she pointed to the stain in her hair—“for this night to work.” Her face was quite red.
Terrance felt a heady mix of emotions. Shock and horror were part of it, and he was filled with questions about what she knew about faeries. But the most prominent emotion was sympathy, as Shannon looked hugely embarrassed. He’d already had a hard enough day, so Terrance decided to focus on being charming, because Shannon was sweet and funny and her occupation seemed of little concern to anyone else.
“You look great, by the way. Not that the armor was bad, but I like you this way.”
She smiled, and they headed into the restaurant, which smelled of cooked steak and spices, and was filled with the rhythmic sound of chopping. Chefs stood at various large, flat grills, putting on a show as they prepared the food. The room was dimly lit, and Terrance found himself looking toward the ceiling to see if anything was there, which he’d never felt the need to do before. There was nothing there, and the maître d’ led them to their seats at the end of a table where three other couples were already seated. Shannon clapped her hands. “This is going to be fun! I’ve never been to one of these before. All the places I’ve eaten, the cooks hide in back so they don’t get bothered by the likes of us.”
“Well, this time we’ll get to scrutinize and criticize everything he does.” Terrance picked up a menu. “And we will feast like samurai.” He was hoping she’d like it; it was hard to be adventurous with restaurants.
“I’m going to get sake. Want to share?” Shannon asked. “It seems like a good idea to turn rice into liquor. And, it’s fun to say. Sake! Sake!”
“Order whatever you like.” Terrance folded his arms and sat up straight. “I make big programmer money.”
“You’re quite impressive. So did you have a good day of detective work?”
Terrance’s smile faded. “Little off today. Got yelled at by the boss.”
“What happened?”
He briefly thought of the horrible creature and the woman screaming for help. “Nothing worth bringing up again.”
“So everything is fine?”
Terrance once again took in his pretty date. “Everything is great.”
The waiter
came to take their order. Being that it was a Japanese steak house, they decided to get the steak.
“So, nice email you sent Karen,” Terrance said, hoping to head off any further inquiries about his day.
She blushed. “When I thought of the subject line, I couldn’t help it. I like puns.”
“They are the highest form of humor…right after cream pies to the face. So how do you know Karen?”
“We used to be lovers.”
Terrance stared at her for a moment. Finally, she smiled. “Don’t know if I’m joking or not, do you?”
“You like throwing people off, huh?”
“I keep an air of mystery about myself.” She turned away demurely, and Terrance caught another glimpse of the faerie blood in her hair.
He wanted to ask more questions about the faeries and why people would be killing them, but that would bring attention to her hair again. Just forget it for now, he told himself. Don’t screw this up.
The chef working at their table put a brown patty on each of their plates. “What’s this?” Shannon demanded of Terrance.
“It’s a chicken liver patty.”
Shannon glared at the chef. “And what possibly made him think I’d want something like that?”
“It comes with every meal. You might as well try it.” Terrance took a bite of his.
Shannon took a careful bite. “It tastes…like a patty made from the liver of chickens. Just as I feared.”
“Well, you have to eat the whole thing or they’ll make you cut off your pinkie finger.”
She scrunched her nose at him. “So this is an authentic Yakuza Japanese steak house?”
“I did want to impress.”
“They can try and take my finger, but I am a master of the miniature bo staff.” Shannon wielded a single chopstick menacingly.
Terrance chuckled and ran through his list of tips for being a good date. An important one: show interest in things she’s said. He tried to think of what she’d said that he could ask questions about, but the main things that came to mind were related to killing faeries, and he’d already determined it was best to wait on that. But he recalled something else. “You said you’re working on a promotion? What would that be?”
Sidequest: In Realms Ungoogled Page 3