I was standing on the sidewalk in front of the building I was supposed to work at. As Genna said, it wasn’t far from the GreenHut. I took me 20 minutes at most to get here. The building in question looked like the other skyscrapers. Dark gray with boring rectangular shapes. Unremarkable in every sense. The company which called me in was supposed to be on the 36th through to the 40th levels. They were leasing five whole levels for their business.

After entering, I took off my mask and went up to the reception desk. The yellow-eyed alien guy there was very helpful and told me I could just go up to the 36th level. He even wished me good luck.

After a surprisingly fast lift trip, I exited into what looked like an office area. I looked around but saw nobody.

“Hello?!” I asked, but there was no answer.

“HELLO!” I shouted this time.

This time it worked because a blonde head peeked out at the end of the short hallway.

Shoulder length hair, slightly wrinkled face, shining blue eyes and blood red lips. The head belonged to an older woman. Despite the apparent age, she looked great. She radiated confidence, maybe because her eyes were literally shining slightly.

“Who might you be?” she asked in a melodious voice while stepping out.

She was wearing a blood-boilingly tight-fitting blue dress that reached down to the middle of her thighs and… fluffy, blue slippers. The contrast was so high that I completely forgot to ogle at the critical parts of her body while she walked up to me.

“Hello? Are you listening?” she asked while tilting her head to the side a little.

Oh shit. Answer you fool!

“I-I’m Aium. The message said I could come today,” I managed to squeeze out.

“Oooooh, you’re that Roowe guy that sent the application this morning?” she said with a smile. A smile that could be weighted in gold. Literally, because her teeth were all golden.

While I was staring at her shiny teeth behind those bloody lips, she was doing the same, measuring me up from top to bottom.

“You look roughed up. Kal likes it,” she said coquettishly coupled with a coy smile.

Oh god, where have you brought me? I walked into a predator’s territory.

She turned around and started walking back to her office which she popped out from a minute ago. Those hips swayed so much that even the fluffy slippers couldn’t rip my eyes away.

“Come, come, don’t let Kal wait for you. We have business to do,” she said back to me over her shoulder.

This is the story of how I walked into a vicious predator’s cave on my own. Sounds stupid but if anyone dares to blame me for it, I challenge them to be in my shoes in this situation.

I followed her in like I was under a spell.

Her office was smaller than I expected. A blue desk, blue chairs for guests and a blue couch for herself. She was pretty fond of the color blue. The walls were decorated with neatly arranged crystals that dimly lit up sometimes, and in two corners I saw red plants that resembled giant pinecones.

The woman not having a care in the world just laid down on her couch. I nearly spat blood at the sight of her body laying there, but I couldn’t lose focus now. I had things to do here.

“Take a seat and don’t look so scared, Kal doesn’t bite... unless you ask me to,” she said with the same coy smile. I might have been delusional, but I swear I could see her blue eyes flare up slightly when she said that.

I could only gulp. Why was I so frightened? This made no sense.

“Introductions, introductions! You have the pleasure of meeting Remen Kal that is I! This is the 7th branch of Palale Deliveries, and Kal’s the boss here,” she said while pointing at herself.

“You are Aium Roowe.” This time she was pointing at me. “Pretty unremarkable application if I can be honest with you, but you’ll fit in for the job. It’s nothing complicated. You’ll have the 37th floor to your name and handle the things there. You’ll work in a 2-2 system from 12 till 18 and your daily salary is 1100. Any questions?”

That was plenty of information thrown at me in a couple of seconds. I had to take a moment to digest what she said. I tried to ignore her comment about how unremarkable I was.

“I have a couple of questions actually.”

“Well, I’m all ears, I’m all ears,” she giggled.

“What’s the 2-2 system and I only have to work 6 hours a day?”

“Aren’t you cute? Haven’t you worked before? It means you work for two days and then you have two days off. The 6-hour workday is the Empire standard for this job category. Nothing that you should be surprised about,” she explained lazily.

“What’s my job by the way? You said I'd have to take care of the 37th floor, but what exactly is that I have to do?”

“I’ll hand you the knowledge disk for the job. It will tell you everything you need to know. Anything else?”

“Erm, nothing else for now.”

“Great, great! So, are you going to sign up your clone for the job or you’ll work personally?”

“I’ll work myself,” I answered with a darkened face.

“Wonderful, wonderful! Kal’s happy! I’ll have someone to chat with then! The other’s here are just… way too boring,” she said with a pout which looked way too strange for an older woman with golden teeth.

She pushed a few buttons on her computer on the table and then pulled out something from under it. It was a small tomato sized, metal disk. She threw it to me.

“Chew through this. Can you start tomorrow?”

“Y-Yes,” I answered after catching it.

“Then tomorrow at 12. I’ll meet you on the 37th floor. Familiarize yourself with the stuff on the disk by then.”

“Got it.” I carefully pocketed the disk.

“Splendid, splendid!” she beamed at me. “All you have to do now is to finalize the employment agreement and the exchange of information. If you are ready, touch the metal plate on the table in front of you.”

I reached out and touched the cold metal.

[Done!] said, Genna.

“All right, all right. It seems like we are done with the business part. Let’s talk private matters now. I see that you live in the GreenHut not far from here,” she said while staring at her holoscreen while lazily lying on her couch.

Now that I was through the stressful part I had time to pay attention to the critical details. Despite her age, she had a stunning body and that tiny blue dress she squeezed herself into made matters worse. Even her way of talking made me slowly sink into a muddy trance. I could hear her talk about my current residence, but it took me several, long moments to realize it.

What does she want with my place?

I started sweating under my clothes.

“Let’s see, let’s see. Yup, yup, Kal’s a busy woman, but I think I can free up my night three days from now when you have your first day off.”

What’s going on? Why do I feel cornered?

“Aium, you look like an interesting guy, and Kal likes interesting.” She beamed at me. “3 days from now at 20 o’clock be at the 10th-floor jumper bay of the GreenHut building and wear something… more presentable than this,” she continued while looking at my plain and cheap clothes.

“I’m sorry, but what?” I was getting way too sweaty under my shirt.

“Ah, so cute, so cute... You are going on a date with Kal, silly. Be there and don’t be late. You don’t want to make Kal angry,” she cautioned me while holding up a finger as a warning.

“O… Okay.” I was so stumped I just merely agreed. I agreed to go on a date with a woman I barely knew. Moreover, she was my new boss, and she definitely looked like someone that bites.

“Make sure to leave my name at the reception so I will be able to go into the parking floor. Shoo now, Kal has things to do,” she said while motioning with her hand for me to leave.

I left without even saying anything else. I walked up to the lift on autopilot while looking at the floor. When I reached the elevator, I stopped and looked up.

[What just happened?] I asked Genna.

[Looks like you caught the interest of an aggressive female.] She could barely hold back her mocking laughter.

[Is she going to rape me?] I stared at the lift with wide eyes.

[No, she won’t rape you, but if she wants you to want her you won’t stand a chance.]

Genna was brutally honest as usual and she couldn’t have been more right.

I entered the lift finally.

[I should feel lucky that someone asked me out on a date, but this just feels so wrong. She didn’t even let me answer.] I frowned.

I left the building in a daze. I felt like a violated teenage girl. On the other hand, I couldn’t complain. A stunning older woman asked me out on a date. Or it was more correct to say that she told me we were going on a date. I’ve never considered it before but having a sugar mommy wouldn’t be so bad. Ugh… That phrase didn’t work like its counterpart.

It was around lunchtime, and I was getting hungry, especially after so much excitement. I asked Genna where I could grab a quick bite. I wanted some fast food. I wasn’t in the mood for anything fancy like a restaurant.

She led me into an alleyway between two skyscrapers. If I didn’t know who guided me here, I would have thought I’m going to get robbed here. Behind the building a different world greeted me. It was a small open place surrounded by other skyscrapers, but the space was filled with big metal boxes. These boxes didn’t have a front wall, and every one of them was a different food stall selling different delicacies. The smells, the crowd, and the noisy atmosphere were a complete opposite to the main street.

After careful consideration, I decided on a box full of dried out meat strips drenched in some kind of sauce, which earned me a strange look from the guy behind me. The place was a bit stuffy for me to eat in peace so I went back to the main street and sat down on a friendly looking bench. The food was great. It tasted nothing like I ever tasted before. I couldn’t even compare it to anything, but I definitely found it delicious.

[Hey Aium, will you take up Randall’s offer?] Genna asked me suddenly.

[You mean the old goblin from yesterday?]

[Linbog Aium. He’s a linbog,] she corrected.

[Wait a second… does that mean I ate the other day from their menu?]

[Yes. The linbogs are carnivores and bone art enthusiasts.]

[Bone art? Wow… Sounds so… logical for a sentient carnivore race, but I would have never thought about it.]

[So, what about his offer?] she asked again.

[Would I take up his offer? Isn’t the answer obvious?]

[To you it might be, but I can’t read your mind you know,] she teased.

[Can’t you? The answer is no. The scars stay, and my dad told me that if I don’t know why someone would offer me something for free, don’t accept it. The little old dude can wait until his scary teeth fall out.]

She didn’t say anything to my answer, but I had a question to her on an entirely different matter. A pretty uncomfortable issue that’s been gnawing at me since the meeting with that scary woman.

[Genna, if things go the you-know-what way in the future with a girl… could you somehow not pay attention? It would be… weird knowing that you are watching.]

[I can’t do that, but I can pretend that I didn’t see, hear, taste, smell or feel anything that you did.]

[Did you phrase it like that to make me uncomfortable?]

[No.]

She definitely did! She’s evil as fuck!

The blonde man’s PoV in the gray lab coat

[Requesting permission for a report,] it said interrupting my thoughts at the wrong time again.

[What is it now?!] I barked at it in my mind while still looking at my holoscreen.

[As per your previous order before the experiment I’ve been keeping attention for reports on certain space anomalies. I would like to report that I found one such report.]

[Quick! Show it to me!]

I only set that order as an unnecessary precaution. Can it be that it proved useful after all? I leaned forward in my chair with excitement.

The report came up on my holoscreen. It was a simple daily blog of a robot mechanic on a transport ship. The entry talked about distorted and twisted red electric currents in the nothingness of space. The girl who wrote the entry found it pretty and fascinating by her description, and she even added a small video about the anomaly.

There was no question about it. Those features, it had to be connected.

The entry was from the Core Regions. That didn’t matter, but the date for the occurrence didn’t match up. According to this report, it happened days after the experiment.

Can the after-effects linger for days? Highly unlikely.

Nothing added up. I hated it when I had only questions and no answers.

Out of frustration, I punched my table which gave out with a miserable creak.

[Send out The Ermwert and Laurent immediately to investigate this.]

[Right away!]

They better find out what happened or I’ll throw them into the Darkness.