CALL LOGS

I don’t know where else to go to share this. I figure that my days here at this company are numbered anyway, so I might as well come clean.

See, I’ve been able to maintain my wallflower status for quite some time really; but I don’t think it’ll last much longer. That’s because I know things about Brighter Futures that would likely make your head spin.

So you want an insider tip? Everything about this place is a lie. Let’s start with the merger we recently made with Auset Pharmaceuticals. Just yesterday our Internal Affairs Department announced that we are cutting ties with them, but I actually knew that for quite some time.

And there are darker secrets, ones I can’t even explain. Like what happened in Paradise for example.

September 13.

It was a hell of a party, to say the least.

The grand opening for the Paradise branch of Brighter Futures was more than a party, really. It was an event. So many people were there, from all over. It was catered, there was valet service; if I’m being honest it all seemed a bit much for a suicide hotline. I got to partake in the festivities, and partake I did.

My first stop, like everyone else’s, was the bar. I got myself a Rum & Coke and set off to mingle. I talked to a few of the men and women who would be joining me in making Brighter Futures Paradise a successful, helpful branch. While I conversed with everybody, I wandered around the lobby, rubbing shoulders with some of the most recognized people in Brighter Futures’ long history.

“What do you think of this crowning achievement?” Doctor Ralph Emerall asked me as I took a long look around at the branch. “I’m just happy to be a part of the process. It isn’t every day that a forensic analyst gets to be recognized like this.”

“And this is only the beginning. A new era has come to Brighter Futures. And it will change everything forever,” he said as he bit into an apple from the fruit tree. Our conversation was cut short when a very confused-looking Simon Dally approached us and started talking to Dr. Emerall, who instantly looked irritated.

Next I found myself at the bar with a man wearing a fuschia colored suit. I recognized him instantly as a visitor from the UK.

Jack Plesance stood towards the end of the bar by himself, nursing a drink. He seemed to just be observing everything, taking it all in. “Something troubling you?” I asked him as I sat closer. He was staring at a strange looking cube that reminded me of a rubix and I offered to solve it for him. He smiled and offered it to me before remarking, “You can certainly try.”

“I was always good at solving these things,” I told him as I touched it and felt this strange surge of power coarse through my body.

In a matter of seconds I unscrambled it and passed it back to him. I didn’t even know how I did it. Jack looked impressed. “You have no idea how you did that, do you?” he chuckled.

“Was that what was bothering you? Solving this puzzle?” I asked.

“No… it’s concerning something that I’ll have to do very soon. I don’t want to do it… but I can’t disobey orders,” he admitted.

I was about to ask him what that might be when I spotted our CEO himself.

Danny Albright. He looked every bit as intimidating as I had heard people say he was. He talking to a man I didn’t recognize.

“Is she safe?” the man asked.

“I’ve arranged for the first to watch her, my friend. Until it’s time for her to become what she is meant to be,” Albright answered back.

“I hope so, Cosmia means a lot to me,” the stranger remarked. I’d later find out that that man was a janitor. In retrospect, it’s kind of surprising, considering the man was wearing a designer suit.

Eventually, I got the urge to take a look around the new branch; I hadn’t been there since everything had been set up. I slowly sauntered through the main call area, looking at the pristine cubicles, as yet undecorated, unpersonalized; just rolling chairs, desktop computers, phones, headsets, and two pens each.

Beyond the call area was a hallway with several doors on either side and one at the end with an EXIT sign glowing red above it. I peered into the first office on the left, finding nothing but a desk with a pen cup and a computer monitor and keyboard on it. It wasn’t much, but I was envious nonetheless. The offices were the same on either side going down the hall.

Then I neared the last offices.

From within the last office came grunts, growls, slaps. My mind quickly came to the most logical answer, but something in me made want to look. A strange curiosity, not unlike driving by a car accident, made me want to know who was getting a happy ending that would surely lead to a brighter future, if you know what I mean.

I sneakily made my way to just next to the nearly floor-to-ceiling window that took up most of the face of the office and crouched down. The blinds were pulled down, but it was as though a string the string was pulled the wrong way, making it so the part of the blind nearest to me was raised at a diagonal.

Through that space I looked in and saw the man I’d met at orientation, a higher up manager named Hayden, and a woman I recognized from when I’d been mingling a short time before, Vanessa Stringer.

I could instantly tell there was a tension in the room, despite my being outside it. The door was shut but I could still hear bits of their conversation.

“Come on, seriously?” Hayden said.

“I already said no.” Vanessa’s tone was firm.

“Then what the fuck did you come in my office for? Are you kidding me?”

“I had a reason, but maybe I just wanted to see how big of a piece of shit you are.” Vanessa said as she turned to walk towards the door. I quickly stood up, intent on acting as though I was just walking by when the door inevitably opened. But it didn’t.

I heard Stringer yelp and the sound of a small scuffle, and when I looked back through the window, Hayden had a tight grip around Vanessa’s arm and was spinning her around. She pushed him backwards with her free arm but he didn’t release her. He slapped her in the face, telling her to “shut the fuck up”.

I’m ashamed to admit that in that moment, I froze. I knew what I needed to do, but my legs wouldn’t work, wouldn’t allow me to stand myself and move. I watched in horror as my new boss began what I expected to be a brutal sexual assault on this woman I’d spoken to only 15 minutes before. I snapped out of it quickly, thankfully, and just as he was bending Vanessa over his desk, I began to stand up. I had to do something, to help her.

But then something happened.

Vanessa quickly turned towards Hayden and put her hand under his chin. Almost instantly, Hayden’s tune changed.

“Let go of me, you fucking whore!” he said, the clearest I’d heard anything up to that point.

“What does it say about you that I am such a whore...and we all know that I am...but I still wouldn’t fuck you?

Vanessa stood from the desk and, her hand still clutched to the jaw of her would-be rapist, pushed him against the wall of the office. Hayden mumbled something I couldn’t understand.

“You don’t think I know who you are?” Vanessa asked. “I know exactly who you are.”

She mumbled some kind of strange phrase, and her eyes burned with righteous fury.

As the last word left her mouth, she squeezed, and crushed the lower half of Hayden’s jaw. His bottom row of teeth fell to the floor in a pool of blood, and when she let go, the bottom of his face hung like a deflated balloon. But he didn’t scream. He just breathed in and out heavily, and again mumbled something, but this time it was obscured due to the lack of use of the bottom half of his face.

Even across the room, I could see Hayden’s eyes filled with fear.

Vanessa leaned in and began whispering in Hayden’s ear. For 10 seconds, 20 seconds, she whispered in his ear, but it felt like an eternity. Then all of the sudden, Hayden’s entire body tensed up. It was as though he were straining every muscle he had whilst simultaneously trying to crack every bone. It was then that he started groaning. Not screaming, but the most pained groan I’ve ever heard in my life.

It sounded like the life was leaving his body.

Vanessa stepped back and continued whispering things I couldn’t hear. Hayden’s head suddenly, and with an audible crack, shot downward, so he was looking at the floor.

“You ready?” Vanessa asked, and despite the fact that she was facing away from me, I could see a smile spread across her lips. Hayden grumbled in clear pain.

Vanessa took a step forward and placed her hand on his chest. Now, I’m still not 100% sure what to make of what I saw, but I’ll tell it as I saw it.

You know when you point a flashlight upwards and put your hand over it, your fingers look like they’re glowing red on the inside? That’s what happened to Hayden, except his entire body. It wasn’t especially overt; he didn’t suddenly become a jack-o-lantern or anything. He just had a very subtle glow under his skin, one that was there for a moment and just as quickly was gone. And with that, Hayden’s body went limp, crumpling to the floor.

Vanessa took a deep breath and shuddered, then knelt down. She scooped up the teeth from the carpet and poured them into Hayden’s slacked jaw. After that she cupped his jaw, and after a series of deafening crunches, removed her hands, and his jaw was set, teeth in place.

As frozen in shock as I was when Hayden was attempting to rape her, it was nothing compared to this. Vanessa effortlessly sat Hayden up against the wall, then leaned in and kissed him on the forehead.

“Now that that thing is out of there, shoot another shot, I’ll let you take it for a ride.” she said.

Vanessa stood up and straightened out her dress, which kickstarted me into gear. I saw her pick up a few files from the desk they had just been fucking on and then turned toward the door. I quickly stood up and shuffled down the hall, back towards the party. Moments later, Vanessa turned the same corner I did and was back in the lobby. Vanessa walked past me and I breathed a sigh of relief.

The she stopped and turned around.

She walked up to me and playfully put a finger on my chest.

“I think Hayden had a little bit too much to drink. Someone should go check on him.” she said. And with a wink, she turned back around and walked back into the crowd of people.

I went into the office, just to be sure I hadn’t been seeing things.

Hayden’s head was completely turned around a complete 180 degrees, his eyes cold and dead. There was a rush of air and I felt something else leave the room, some dark dangerous force. Then his body crumbled like ash.

As I hurried to leave, I found myself face to face with the janitor I had seen earlier. His eyes looked soft and it almost seemed like he knew what I had just experienced.

Putting a hand on my shoulder, he mumbled some words and said, “Let your light emit.”

In that instance I saw a vision. A revelation of the future. This man was showing me how this entire event was a facade. How Emerall, and Plesance and even Stringer had been playing a long con. “Go forth and tell no one until the appointed time is near,” the janitor told me. I didn’t question it, his words were beautiful. His message of the future troubling.

Maybe that’s why I’m posting this now? Because I think the time is up. Brighter Futures is on its last leg, and all these people are going to take it down and a lot of people are going to get hurt.

There is one other thing, and perhaps it’s the most troubling of all. Mister Albright seemed to be aware of this inevitable corporate scandal. Because now I remember that I warned him about it. And do you know what he did? He smiled and thanked me.

“You can relax, Maddox. Everything is going according to plan. But if you really, truly want to weather the storm…” he paused and gave me a strange golden laced envelope, “Then go here. And don’t leave until you hear word from me. Understood?”

The Eden Retreat. I leave tomorrow. Mister Albright told me it would be a safe haven from the shitstorm that is about to happen.

Honestly, given all these secrets that I have held, I think getting away from it all is the right thing to do.

So whoever is reading this, please make your way there too. Because I have a feeling this retreat may be the only place on Earth where those people like Stringer can’t touch us.

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