“What is your favorite color Mr. Barnes?” The man asked with a clip board in his hand and a pen in the other, the dark navy of the metal glinting in the pale azure coming from the gloomy sky outside.
The room was large, the back wall dedicated to bookshelves with floor to ceiling windows on the right one, and the left wall had a counter with a coffee machine on it. A dark mahogany desk sat in front of the bookshelves with office supplies neatly placed on its surface, while a leather wing back sat in front of it. A clock ticked above the door at the head of the room, simple and plain. The room itself was rather warm, unlike the blistering cold displayed past the panes of glass, depicting a bustling city of sky scrapers.
“Beg pardon?” Mathew Barnes asked, his emerald irises blinking rapidly as he watched his – he hoped – soon to be employer who had been asking him a range of questions. He combed a hand through his chestnut brown lock, the curls having started falling over his forehead and face. Mathew felt self-conscious of his semi-bad complexion again when the man turned his glinting blue eyes upon him, smiling in that soft way that made him ill.
His employer – the man sitting across from him in that leather wing-back chair – had sapphire eyes with a pale film over them, resembling that of a crow. His hair was blonde, coming to his shoulders in waves, while his fair face made Mathew feel even smaller. He was so beautiful that it was almost agonizing to even look at him let alone directly in the eye so every time he looked at Mathew the young man would shyly look at the ground. But there was something…Wrong with him. The perfect flawlessness wasn’t fake, it was so real that it was like a picture, too perfect in detail to seem real but it was…
“I just asked you what your favorite color was, there’s no harm in that.” He said, tilting his head, trying to get Mathew’s attention, smiling in that dazzling way. That voice! It was a siren, a temptation that was sewing discord threw Mathew’s mind. The man could probably ask him to jump off a building and he would do it!
“Blue,” he said, going back to fidgeting as the man nodded, still smiling.
“Blue it is,” he said, that pen tapping the surface of the clipboard. Mathew turned slightly to look at the clock on the wall, the rustle of fabric sounding as he turned to look.
“Is that clock – “
“Yes, it’s correct,” the man said without even looking up from his clip board. Mathew sat quietly, his grey woolen suit itching against the skin of his arm, so he fumbled with clammy hands, scratching the dead skin there. He thought – for a moment – he saw a look of disgust on the man’s face and stopped doing it immediately, choosing to just rub his palms together.
“Mathew, do you have any past job experience besides…This place that you can tell us? He asked, pausing briefly while he looked back up at the young man.
“You mean Burger King?” Mathew asked; brows furrowed as the man’s mouth twitched at the corner.
“Yes…That place.” Mathew shrugged, shaking his head and looking at the floor as those blue eyes looked at him again.
“Not…Really,” he said, hearing the quiet tap of a pen on paper. Not knowing what else to say the man flipped a page and chuckled.
“What is it?” Mathew asked, watching him as he let go of the page, putting his pen down on the desk.
“Nothing,” he said, looking almost…Happy. Mathew felt something cold grip his chest, his heart rate rising for no reason that he could see. He looked around, coughing slightly as the room’s temperature seemed to keep dropping, darkness pouring from nooks and crannies of the room.
“Tell me Mathew…What is your greatest fear,” his voice had dropped a few octaves, a dark husky undertone seeming to take over his throat.
“W – What?”
“Just, please, answer the question,” he said, smiling again and Mathew mumbled something. “Beg your pardon?”
“Well…I’ve never…I’ve always been kinda afraid of heights,” Mathew admitted, his employer tilting his head.
“Oh? That’s odd.”
“Are you not…Afraid of heights?” Mathew asked, crossing his arms and rubbing the itchy jacket against his skin. The room was freezing now and he swore he could see his breath coming in cloudy wisps before his face.
The man burst out laughing as if it were the most absurd thing he’d ever heard, a wheezing sound leaving him as he coughed, gasping as that sound left his mouth. His head fell down on the desk, blonde locks scattered about as he hiccupped and Mathew watched, his own breath becoming deep and fast as that sound made him want to cry. He wanted to run in fear and crawl into some small place and hide.
“Sir?! Sir!?” The man placed his hands on the desk, still sitting in his chair, and elbows in the air as Mathew heard a loud and horrible crack. The sound stopped, the body before him motionless Mathew stood up slowly and backed up till he hit the door. “Sir?” Slowly, the body moved, falling to the ground and Mathew heard a splashing sound as he did so.
“Someone…Anyone…Let me out!” He tried to scream but it came out as a whisper as he pushed his back against the door, sliding down it to shiver helplessly on the ground as the sound of something breaking sounded behind the desk. It came again, louder this time and kept going, crack, crack, snap, ssshhhh, and then it was silent. “Someone…Help me,” he whispered, his tears freezing before they hit the ground, eyes wide and bloodshot as he watched blood fan out around the room.
It didn’t pool like normal blood, instead it flowed around with a lulling hiss, like snakes were gliding around looking for food. The crimson vat moved around, spiraling in disarray and when it touched him it instantly returned to the desk, gone in a blink. Mathew shivered, curled up in the fetal position as an angry growl echoed around the room, the whole room vibrating from horror, the desk giving a cry of protest as something smashed onto its surface.
Mathew saw it…And was horrified by it. A large, coal colored hand with black talons was lying on the surface of the desk. Slowly, something rose from behind it, and all Mathew could do was watch, watch as that monster came into sight.
No words could describe what he saw; the walking monstrosity that made him wet himself. The beast’s face warped with disgust, as he walked over to the young man. “Welcome,” he hissed, stepping over to him, causing the young man’s heart to rattle against his ribs, “welcome to the afterlife.” And with that…His heart exploded.
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