Chapter 02
993 Words
Ada Williams
"Thank you."
"Seriously, Ada. Your performance this month is insane. If you keep this up, that promotion is practically yours."
Here it came.
I could tell he sounded strange on the other end of the line.
He paused briefly, held his breath.
He cleared his throat as if he were nervous.
I recognized that tone. He only hesitated like that when he wanted to ask for a favor.
I closed my eyes slowly.
“Do you need anything?” Silence.
Then he didn’t even try to hide it; he blurted it all out at once:
“Could you... maybe take a look at some documents for me? The other department is completely swamped, and this is going to end up delaying some important reviews...”
I genuinely felt like reaching through the phone and strangling that man.
On my day off. On my precious, miserable day off.
In my head, I cursed him with absolutely every insult my exhausted brain could cook up.
Corporate parasite.
9-to-5 vampire.
HR demon.
But in the end... I stayed quiet.
I needed that job.
I needed to eat, pay rent, and of course... I needed that damn promotion.
I let out a long, defeated sigh.
"Fine. You can send it to my email. I'll take a look at home."
The relief in his voice was so massive it irritated me even more.
"Seriously? Wow, Ada, you're a lifesaver. Thank you so much."
"It's fine..."
"I'll send it over in a bit. Oh... and try to get some rest too, okay? You deserve it."
I paused slowly at the entrance of my building.
Rest?
That jerk had literally just given me extra work to do at home.
"Goodnight, Mr. James." I hung up before I ended up getting fired for insubordination. I stared at the blank screen of my phone for a few seconds.
“Rest.”
Stupid leech.
I went up to my apartment, already feeling my rare free time slipping away right before my eyes.
The moment I opened the door, it was as if the apartment’s silence embraced me.
I tossed my bag on the couch, kicked off my shoes, and headed straight for the shower.
The hot water helped ease the tension in my shoulders a little.
Just a little…
When I got out of the shower, I put on a loose T-shirt and some comfortable shorts, tied up my still-damp hair, and flopped onto the couch with my laptop on my lap. Work… What a surprise.
I grabbed one of the beers.
“Just one won’t hurt.” I opened the can while turning on the laptop.
As soon as the screen lit up, the first thing that appeared was the still-open tab for *The Saint and the Dragon*.
I immediately sighed.
I'd even forgotten about that piece of trash.
The game's protagonist was kneeling in an illustration full of white flowers while the dragon prince held her waist with that typical expression of a traumatized and dangerously handsome man.
Honestly...
I had wasted my time.
I stared at the screen for a few seconds—or rather, I stared at the male lead, who had an obsessively infatuated expression.
I sighed, discouraged. I didn't get anywhere near the end. Would the story have gotten better later? Seriously... what a waste of a hot character.
Maybe the next chapters would finally explain why half the continent agreed to go to war over a girl crying in gardens.
Maybe the steamy scenes would come in the very next chapters, or...
Maybe it just stayed bad until the end.
Before I could decide whether to give the game another chance or not, the laptop started pinging nonstop.
Emails. Of course. Reality dragging me back by the throat.
I left the game tab open in the background and opened the documents James had sent.
Insurance claims. Fraud reviews. Reports. Requests.
I started reading while taking a sip of beer.
The room was actually quiet, except for the sound of the keyboard, the faint rain outside, and the annoying notifications of incoming emails.
Who was I trying to kid? Everything was a mess.
I tried to stay focused, but then, after a few minutes, I felt something strange.
I frowned, staring at the beer can.
A slight dizziness.
How weird.
I was literally only on my first beer.
I set the can down on the table slowly.
Maybe it was just exhaustion.
I had spent so much time staring at screens today that my eyes were burning.
I yawned and returned to the documents.
But then the letters started to look... scrambled.
My head suddenly throbbed.
Hard.
"Oh... give me a break, what now...?" I closed my eyes for an instant, rubbing my face.
The dizziness worsened.
My stomach churned violently.
Then I thought I heard something.
A voice, faint and distant.
Like a muffled whisper.
*...please...*
My entire body went cold with fear, and I froze. I snapped my head up, looking around. The apartment was still empty. It was just me there, where had that voice come from?
My heart began to beat faster.
"Okay... this is creepy as hell." Another sharp pain shot through my head.
Stronger this time. And then I noticed.
The laptop light was strange.
I slowly turned my face toward the screen.
The tab for *The Saint and the Dragon* was glowing.
Not a screen glare.
It was *actually* glowing.
An intense white light bled from the edges of the open browser window.
My brain completely short-circuited for a few seconds.
"...What the f**k is this...?" The voice came again. Clearer, and distinctly desperate.
*Please... help me...*
The light flared violently. My chest tightened.
The dizziness suddenly turned into vertigo, and everything began to spin.
I tried to get up from the couch, but my legs buckled.
The last thing I saw was the screen glowing brightly enough to swallow the entire living room. Then, everything went black.
- Writer
