Wrong Place

I was running late as always when I closed my apartment door that evening. I had an
interview and being late wasn’t the impression I wanted. I called the elevator but it was by far
the longest I had waited, at least it seemed like it.

I hated how time seemed to slow frustratingly down when you’re in a hurry, it’s like the
universe’s way of taunting you. I tried to wait a little longer for the elevator but gave up after
pressing the button on repeat and seeing that the panel didn’t even change. I decided to
take the stairs for the first time in a long time, the steps were thick blocks of cement that only
made me dread my “fast” way down even more.

I had now wasted twenty minutes when I finally got myself in the car putting my bag in the
back seat while closing the door. I had to multitask if I wanted to even get there. I pulled out
my phone and searched for the email of what would, maybe, be my new employer (which I
doubted) and copy-pasted the address to Waze. I placed my phone somewhere I could see
it and headed out.

Once on the road, a pouring rain decided to thunder down, and I turned on the music to
distract myself from the nerves. The rain started getting heavier and heavier and heavier. My
fingers started to tap on the wheel in rhythm with my foot. It was the nerves. This was going
to be my first interview after college. It wasn’t going according to plan at all, and it will
certainly be getting worse. I could feel it. I tried to tighten my grip on the wheel to stop the
tapping, it didn’t work.

That’s when it happened— my phone glitched for a second and went black. Then, it was on
again. I decided to ignore it and blame it on the rain. I had too much on my mind to worry
about something as trivial as my phone glitching. It was a common occurrence for a phone
that was as old as mine. I had never been one to worry much about the latest technology as
long as what I had was useful. I checked again the route and took a left then a right and
continued ahead.

The song had changed a few times, maybe two, when someone ran past me at high speed. I
slowed down not sure why as I spotted a policeman going at the same speed the only
difference was that between all the rain I could make out the extended hand clutching a gun.
The police leaped and tackled the other figure. I knew it was over when both silhouettes
fumbled on the floor and I pressed the gas to a normal speed again.

I checked my phone for the time of arrival. It hadn’t changed. I looked around. I had this
tingling sensation in the pit of my stomach that I didn’t know how to explain. This was a busy
city and it hit me, I was the only person on the road. My shoulders tensed. I picked up speed,
it was the only thing I could do at the moment. I remembered where I was supposed to be
going and reviewed my interview in a loop: I would be very happy to be part of your
company… It was a lie, but I needed some type of money and this was supposed to be an
easy job. I made another turn.
“You have arrived at your destination.” I looked around at the robotic words. But where…?
The buildings surrounding me were either residencies or nothing that looked like what I
expected a workplace to be like. Not having time to waste, I fetched my bag from the back
seat and got out of the car.

The place was a little too deep between the two buildings it was separating and the glass
doors were covered with black trash bags. It looked under construction which was strange
because I didn’t remember the employer telling me anything by those lines. The place he
had described didn’t sound anything like it.

I got closer and I could feel the dust crawling all over me. I held a breath and opened the
door.

The place now surrounding me made me scrunch my nose up to which I had to readjust my
glasses. The floor was mere cement and a smell that I couldn’t quite place took over my
nostrils. It was strange, it smelled like the scent you got from rotten meat. I looked ahead to
find myself with a man at the reception desk.

He looked up, his face was completely normal except for the heavy, dark bags under his
bulging eyes.

I wish I had taken all of that as a sign that this wasn’t the place I was looking for, particularly
that rotting smell. He waited for me to speak. “Hi— umm, I’m here for the interview? The
email told me to ask for the manager. John?” He seemed confused for a moment then gave
me a confident smile. I smiled back but not as confident as him.

“Yeah, he told me you will be coming. What job were you applying for?” The man took his
phone out and typed something.

“Computing.” He typed something else then he put it away.

“That’s the world isn’t it?” He said with a hollow tone that sent a shiver down my spine. I
hummed in response. The man stood up and gave me a form to fill with my information
which I did at the desk as he stood up. “Follow me.”

I did and he unlocked a pair of doors similar to the front doors, covered with a trash bag.

The inside was a little more suitable for being a workplace with painted walls and an air
conditioner. “The manager will be here in a minute, meanwhile you can wait in the room past
those doors.” The man returned to his desk and I did as I was told.

That was until I heard the locking sound and the keys jiggling on the other side. My
heartbeat started to pick up. “H-hey!” My voice shook. “Open up!” No answer. “I forgot my
phone,” I tried knowing full well that my phone was in the back pocket of my jeans. No
answer.
The room went dark. I pulled out my phone to use it as a flashlight, but I got distracted by the
words ‘No Service’ in the corner and I think I died a little inside. I could hear a muffled laugh
coming from the other side. That’s when it all hit me for the first time. “Go on! Wait in the
other room!” The man was taunting, mocking. It finally hit me that I was extremely stupid to
believe I was in the right place…

I tried to look around, my hands started shaking barely able to get the damned phone to
work the flashlight on. My glasses kept slipping down my nose as I looked downwards trying
to get my phone to work. There were no windows, or rather there was no light coming
through any of them.

I was confused, I started padding the wall trying to feel any switch, anything that told me I
was not completely paranoid. This was for sure not how I expected my first interview to go,
not at all. The only thing I could feel was the damned doors that I was supposed to go
through. The man on the other side hadn't said another word, he was either gone or too
confident that I was going to go through the doors. Sadly, he was right. There was no way
out.

I tried to open the doors, they wouldn’t open.

“The doors won’t open!” I yelled to no one in particular as I decided to sit on the floor and get
myself together. I was pathetic. This was probably a joke, a setup by some friends. It was
just a dark room with closed doors. Nothing more, nothing less. Why was I so scared? That’s
a hell of a question, so if you know the answer please tell me ‘cause I still don’t.

The doors opened and I lifted my head squinting from the newly released light to spot a
woman in work attire. It looked as if she was trying too hard to look the way she did but the
cheap fabric still gave her away. “Mr. John will see you now for the computing position.” She
spoke with the most monotone voice I’ve ever heard. Normally secretaries will give you that
false sweet voice that annoyed everyone, but this one, this one was more like a robot if
anything.

I followed her, deciding to play along. I wondered if we had entered one of the buildings
beside the one I had entered because I realized there was no way all this could fit in such a
small place. It was obvious we had entered somewhere else.

The temperature seemed to cool down and the woman in front of me walked with a straight
back. From the ceiling, naked bulbs hang from wire swinging slightly at the air conditioner. I
looked at the far end, there was a door and on top of it was the last bulb of the hallway
flickering. It was as if the combination of both things beckoned the woman farther down. With
each step, I could feel the temperature drop farther down, colder and colder. The smell
ricking stronger.

The woman opened the door. “Wait here,” she said in the same voice as before, then she left
without another word.

The room resembled an office, a proper office, and behind the chair was another door made
of metal and heavy-looking, it was the only thing that looked strikingly out of place in the
wooden office. It was colder and smellier than the whole hallway smashed all together into
one room. I rubbed my hands to create some type of heat. I paced around the room in a
combination of nerves and anxiety. Trying to keep my mind busy I turned to the most familiar
thing I could come up with at the moment for more useless it was now. “I would be very
happy to be part of your company… I would be very happy to be part of your company… I
would be very happy to be part of your company… “

The heavy metal door opened with a low creaking sound and my head yerked to the source
of the sound. Opening the door was the same man that had greeted me when I first entered.
This time his bulging eyes were more detailed and red and a maddening spark grew in them.
He was holding what looked like an apron that used to be white, now it was stained with
red— blood. My breath hitched, and my heart skipped several beats as the man sat down on
his chair and looked at me with a grin that seemed to grow and contort into horrifying
nightmare material. Now I was sure that this wasn’t a joke, at least not anymore.

He gestured for me to take a seat and I complied reluctantly. He rested his chin on his
knuckles that cracked under the weight of his head. I flinched. “Do you know why you’re
here?” The question took me off guard completely and I just shook my head not knowing
what to say. “Well, let me enlighten you.” I wasn’t sure what he meant by that but he
continued anyway. “Honestly, you were just the first idiot I came across,” he laughed. I was
confused, what did that even mean? I didn’t know. “You see, the real job here is to find
someone, anyone really, to have some fun with. We lure idiots like you to come here, toy
with them a little. You have no idea how easy it is to change an address on a phone,” he
grinned looking up recalling the memory. I closed my eyes. By now I knew what had
happened, what the glitch on my phone had been, and why nothing seemed as it should.

The man opened a cabinet on his desk and took out a syringe, making me shrink back into
the chair. Then, out came the knife.

My eyes widened and I could feel the thick drops of sweat forming at the back of my neck
and running down my spine. He walked slowly to my side of the desk and leaned in. “Hold
still, you wouldn’t want this to hurt more than it should.” I stood up as fast as I could and
bolted to the door— locked. Before I could turn the man had grabbed me by the shoulder
and slammed me against the door, knife to my throat. “I told you to hold still.” He took the
syringe and stabbed me with it injecting whatever it was in me.

I felt my body numb to a point of feeling like a ragdoll. I tried to scream but nothing came out.
Before I could hit the floor the man caught me and dragged me towards the metal door. I
couldn’t resist, I couldn’t do anything but move my eyes. He threw me at the wall to open the
door and entered taking me with him.

Inside the room, there was another man who grabbed my ragdoll-like body and threw it on a
surgical table then cuffed my limbs to it. Then, he exited.

“My name is Wyatt by the way.” The bulging-eyed man told me looking down at me with a
sickening grin that made my insides churn while gracing my cheek with the knife. He
laughed, possibly at the terrified look I was giving him. “Don’t you worry your little head just
yet, we’ve got to wait until the drug wears off completely.” I wanted to close my eyes but the
drug wouldn’t let me. It was some type of horrific conscious sedation.

He sat down and we waited, we waited for an hour for it to wear off. Slowly I started to feel
my body again. “Finally, I feel like I’ve waited long enough.” he put on the bloodied apron.

“Please…” my voice came out as barely a whisper and was completely ignored.

Wyatt started to trace lines with the knife closer and closer to cutting, he was playing with
me. Then his eyes got even madder and he plunged the knife into my shoulder. Ignoring all
weakness, I screamed my guts out every time he plunged with that wretched knife again,
and again, and again. He laughed maniacally. It was lethal, my massacre— it was bloody
and raw and my screams overtook the small room entwined with his psychotic laugh; the last
things I ever heard.

I closed my eyes letting out the last agonizing scream in me.