Chained in the Lab

Henry Henry Cartwell arrived fifteen minutes before he was scheduled to arrive for his orientation as a security guard at Ash Labs. Firstly because he wanted to make a good impression and secondly because he knew without that grace period he was sure to get lost in the massive laboratory campus. The place spanned half a dozen linked buildings covering two city blocks, surrounded by several warehouses nearly identical in brick and concrete. Not a lot of landmarks available. He shouldn't have worried so much. As he rolled up into employee parking, a man was waiting on the sidewalk in a charcoal gray uniform, shoulder emblazoned with a scarlet patch declaring him to be "Security, Ash Labs" in huge letters. "Hey there, You'd be Henry Cartwell?" the man, a tall gentleman in his late fifties with salt and pepper hair and the most magnificent mustache Henry had ever seen outside of a Dwarven Enclave, asked. "That'd be me," Henry stuck out his hand and was met with a firm handshake and a jovial smile. "I'm Johann Morgan, just call me Johann," the older man said. "I'll be your direct supervisor here at Ash labs. Thought I'd meet you at the door, so to speak, to make sure that you didn't get lost. Place should probably have a minotaur guarding it." Henry chuckled. "They are good at giving directions." Johann grinned. "So, this is the entrance you'll want to use. I mean, they're all fine but this one's closest to our break room and your assigned sector. But do feel free to explore past where you work, we like our security to be familiar with as much of the place as they can be. But take it slow." "Will do." It wouldn't look good to get lost and have to be rescued, especially not in his first few days on the job. "Anyway, let me give you the tour, and then we'll finish off your paperwork and get you started." "That sounds great," Henry grinned. Well, not the paperwork but it was just one of those necessary evils of living in the Human Realms. The tour passed in a blur of long white hallways and state of the art equipment and more lab coats than you could shake a stick at. Henry was introduced to lab techs and assistants and scientists whose work was so cutting edge it revolutionized the very concept of known reality on a regular basis. Henry could barely decipher a fraction of the project titles printed next to the lab doors. That was fine. He didn't have to understand what they did. He just had to protect them. And that was a job Henry excelled at. Finally, the tour ended. Johann had Henry fill out a sheaf of paperwork in the security break room, a comfortably appointed space with couches, a vending machine, and a coffee maker that could probably launch a space shuttle if you hit the wrong button. "Okay, well Henry, that's basically the job," Johann announced once the last paper was signed and stuffed into a manilla folder. "But there is one more thing. It's either a job perk or an extra chore, depending on your own, um, well preferences. Most of us definitely call it a perk, though." "Sir?" Henry asked, honestly baffled. Generally speaking, chores weren't a perk of any job. And if there were perks like, say, free snacks, wouldn't that have been mentioned when they were in the break room? "It's easier just to show you. You're from a Hidden family, right? Some mages or whatever among your grandparents?" "Uh, yeah," Henry said. "My grandmother is a Veil Warden, actually." "Is? Wow." "Mages are long-lived, sir." "Aw, don't keep on with that sir stuff. I'm Johann, we're coworkers now. Anyway. So you know there are, uh, people and things that kinda look human but aren't?" "Yeah, of course." "Great. So, I'm going to introduce you to one of 'em. This'll look kinda weird, but don't get the wrong idea. It's all on the up and up. Just, uh, precautions. He agrees with 'em, or at least he's never said otherwise and I'm pretty damn sure he could. So it's cool." "Johann?" Henry looked at his supervisor in concern. "You're babbling. What's going on?" "It's easier to explain if you see him first," Johann said. "This way." He led Henry down the hallway and around a corner to what Henry had thought was a storage room for lab equipment. What with the door being labeled "storage" and all. Johann slid the "storage" label aside to reveal a keypad, and typed in several numbers. The little light blinked green and there was a click somewhere around the door handle. Why was a storage room secured with a hidden keypad?  It wasn't a storage room. It was a prison.  It was a good thing Johann had babbled out that half of an explanation, because if he hadn't, Henry would have bolted from the room and called his grandma. There was a man chained in that hidden prison, on his knees with his head bowed. Only, not a human man. No human man had pearlescent horns arcing from his temples to sweep back over iridescent raven wing hair. Human men tended not to be quite that ethereally pretty, either. They also lacked tails. Where were the wings, though? Incubi had wings, although they could hide them with some inborn magic. Maybe the chains got in the way of them. "Johann, explaining now would be good," Henry said, voice tight.