Dalton shifted in his seat, waiting to be called. What he did yesterday, surviving being crushed by a truck, was worth it. He had a day off. How great…

One day…Why did it feel like he had asked for more days?

His mind wandered and an image of a woman with darkness emanating from her mouth flashed in his mind.

No…he didn’t think he asked for more days off.

Why was he also shaking so much?

It was because he was nervous…with excitement!

“Dalton.” A woman called from the door. “We’re ready to see you now.”

Dalton straightened his tie. The tie he wore today was a dark blue one with little rockets. He was ready for anything.

“These will be your interviewers,” she said.

Dalton’s heart stopped.

“From left to right, Danny, Claire, and Ozul.”

Ozul held out his hand. “Nice to meet you, Dalton.” An insidious smile spread across his face.

He had to calm down. This was an interview. Who cares if there was a curve ball thrown in. Dalton would not back down. He gave his greatest fake smile he could muster.

“Pleasure is all mine.” Dalton shook his hand. It looked like he had the same idea, because they both intended to break the other’s hand.

Their grips were in a constant struggle, whoever let up first would have their hand broken. Dalton gritted his teeth, putting all his strength on his grip.

“Are you guys going to let go?” The bearded man named Danny intervened.

Ozul clicked his tongue.

“Yes, yes.” Ozul gestured to the chair in front of them.

“Nice to meet you Danny, and you too Claire.” He shook the other two’s hand and then took the seat in front of the table.

“So, Dalton. Tell me a little about yourself?” Danny began.

Dalton had practiced this repeatedly. He knew how to answer this. His answer was enough to make the bearded man cry.

“What a perfect answer. I never thought some mundane question would make me cry. Especially the part about your volunteer work in the dog shelter.” Danny used a handkerchief to wipe his tears. “Would like to take this Claire? Claire?”

Claire was knocked out. On the table, there were words that were scrawled. Ozul immediately wiped it down with some cleaning supplies.

“It looks like Clair is tired. Gee, I wonder what happened there. I’ll go ahead and ask my questions while she recovers.” Ozul cleared his throat.

Dalton was ready for anything. He would absolutely pass this interview and get the job. His philanthropy in the Attewater Brewery was legendary. He has made people’s lives better. He could make anything sound good.

“So, Dalton, here are some photos of you at an illegal Dark Monsters gambling ring last night. Do you have any comments?”

Except that.

The picture Ozul was holding were unflattering. It showed Dalton looking unfazed by the truck that had fallen on Riot. Ozul handed Danny a folder with more images of that night.

There was only one card left to play.

“What are you talking about?”

Deny everything!

“You weren’t at an illegal Dark Monsters gambling ring?” Ozul frowned.

“This is the first time I’ve heard of such a thing.” Dalton shrugged.

“This was last night. May I ask what you were doing last night?”

“Yes, well…” A flash of pain went through his head. An image of a crazy hooded woman with purple hair holding a chainsaw over his head appeared in his head.

She was bringing it closer to him. Cackling manically like a witch.

“-ton. Dalton.”

Dalton blinked. “I’m sorry, what were you saying?”

“As I thought. Do you see that boss? It was like I said. He is a potion addict. This is one of the symptoms of an addict, loss of focus, empty stare. I met with one of his buddies and he gave a very damning testimony.” He handed a piece of paper to Danny.

Looking at the paper, Danny’s eyebrow rose.

“Umm.”

“Go boss, read it.”

“I don’t thin-”

“Read it boss!”

“This doesn’t appear to be testimony at all. This is schedule for a woman, and plans to force her on a date and trick her into having sex-”

Ozul snatched the plans out of his hands, and then gave him another paper.

Wow. Scum.

But his slip was his boon to take.

“Danny. I unfortunately don’t know why Ozul is accusing me for something I didn’t do, but I can assure you I would never do anything like that.” Dalton placed his hand to his chest. “Rather than questioning my character, it would be best to question Ozul’s character. It sounds like he’s about harm to a woman. We should call the police.”

Ozul’s expression twisted to that of anger.

How does it feel, Ozul? Painful?

He could see Ozul try to make a calculation on how to proceed.

“Yes, that is something I have to ask, Ozul? Why do you have a schedule of a woman that included how long she took in the bathroom?”

It was worse than he thought, which made the situation better for Dalton.

“I…” He looked like a cornered rabbit, looking for a way out. Then saw his opportunity. “I found it on Claire. I wanted to tell you in private, away from Claire and our interviewer.”

He was blaming a woman he knocked out. This was pretty low even for him.

“Claire? She was spying on a woman?” Danny was shocked.

“Yes, she was also blackmailing me.” Ozul was shedding crocodile tears. “You see, she was abusing her position of power….and demanding I do things to her sexually. I don’t know why she was spying on this woman, but I think she was going to rape her.”

“Excuse me!” Dalton rose his hand. “Can you hand the sheet over to Danny? I think I saw your name on there.”

That was a lie. He didn’t see anything, but he had no doubt there was information on there that would incriminate Ozul.

“Ozul.” Danny held out a hand. “May I see the sheet again?”

It was perfect. Already the conversation had turned to Ozul rather than him. Dalton stretched his legs out, leaning in his chair, he laid his head back in his hand net. All he had to do was watch and let the dumpster fire happen.

But he did not foresee enough. A twisted smile stretched across Ozul’s lips. His gaze glanced at Dalton. A warning to what was about to come.

A shiver went down his spine.

Dalton leaned forward.

He wouldn’t.

But he did.

A knife went into Danny’s abdomen, and then before Dalton could react, he wiped the knife’s handle and tossed it at Dalton. He caught it in reaction.

“Wha-” Danny blinked looking down at the growing blood bloom, then to Ozul and Dalton. “Help.”

Dalton immediately went to Danny. He was bleeding bad. Dalton looked up at Ozul who was taking a picture.

“Alright, got it. Murderer.”

“Are you serious?” Anger was climbing up his throat. “Why do you-”

“Here’s what’s going to happen Dalton.” Ozul touched a few buttons on his terminal. “I’m going to call the police. Either you can be the man that murdered him, or we can blame Claire.”

“Scum!” Dalton screamed out.

“Thank you.” Ozul bowed.

“And he’s not dead. I just need to call the ambulance-”

“No, no. He’s totally dead. The knife was coated in poison. No cure, unless you have an elixir handy on you? No, oh well.”

Dalton couldn’t believe what was happening here. “You’re willing to murder someone, so I don’t get a job?”

“You’re damn right! You fucked up our relationship with the Transportation Department. Do you know what kind of clients we’ve been getting? I got an old woman that tried to bite off my dick,” Ozul snarled, his eyes wild. “Not just that. Eira is forcing me to help fix your fuck up, and there is no way you’re going to escape and not take a part of it!”

“Wha-what is it?” Dalton dared to ask.

Ozul gave a dead face. “Don’t know. Probably something terrible.”

Dalton hesitated, considering for a moment. He did not want to go back and deal with the Transportation Department.

“What’s going on here?”

The two turned to Claire, who had just woken up. Her eyes went to Danny’s body, and then the two of them.

She opened her phone. “Police, there ar-”

Ozul wrenched the knife out of Danny’s body and flung it in her throat. Claire touched her throat, her mouth opened for air, but blood gushed forward like a waterfall.

Then, she fell.

The slimy man wiped his forehead. “That was close.”

“Stop making things worse!” Dalton shook Ozul.

“Stop shaking me!” Ozul slapped his hands off him. “And it’s alright, we just need to get rid of the bodies.”

“How?”

“By throwing them in another world,” he said as if it were obvious. “I put plenty of people in another world, and then we also isekai them.”

What was with this company? The more time he spent with these people, the more he realized how corrupt the whole Bureau was.

Ozul seemed to be a perfect metaphor for the company. Slick, stylish, and just a plain psychopath. He was pulling out the wallets of the people he killed and taking their money and any other valuables.

He opened a portal, and waved Dalton to come to help him.

“On three, you help me push him in the portal. One. Two. Threeee!”

They rolled Danny’s dead body through the portal. Dalton crossed the room to get Claire.

“No, no. I can take care of her body.”

“…What do you plan to do with the woman’s dead body, Ozul?”

His eyes avoided his gaze. “Stuff.”

That was enough for Dalton to open his portal, and push Claire’s body in his world.

“Hey!” Ozul cried out.

He rushed to the portal, only to be pushed back by the heat. Dalton opened up the portal right above an active volcano. The body was already in the lava, there was no way he would be able to get it back.

Dejected, Ozul gave Dalton a hard look. “Why did you do that?”

“Like I would let you do unspeakable things to the woman’s corpse.”

“You thought I wanted to have sex with it? No, no. I was going to sell it to some people I know-”

“Stop.”

“-who would definitely have sex with it.”

Dalton put a hand to his forehead, shaking his head.

“I’ll see you tomorrow at work. Make sure you don’t run. I’ll find you. I’m very good at that.” Ozul waved the folder with Louise’s information in front of Dalton’s face.

When Dalton was left alone, he stayed in the room for a few minutes. His eyes looking at the two blood stains on the carpet.

The insanity would continue.