The Interview

Looking back, the clues were always there; I was just too blind to see them.

The small advert in my local paper, for example. It was squeezed between the call centres and sales positions that always seemed to be there. It simply read, help wanted. Call 07987363575. That should have been my biggest clue… but it’s true what they say, hindsight is always 20/20.

It took four days for my curiosity to finally overcome my suspicion. Assuming the job would be gone, I didn’t think I had anything to lose by calling. I was wrong, on so many levels…I get ahead though, it is best to tell this in the order it happened, less I forget something important.

The job sounded perfect; as though the person I’d spoken to had plucked my ideal job straight from my mind. I don’t expect you to believe me. I lived it and still have my doubts, or should that be hopes? Either way, my mouth had agreed to an interview before my mind even knew what was happening.

I arrived at the appointed time for my interview. The ancient castle so magnificent, so regal, I again marvelled at this opportunity. My entire body felt alive. A heady mixture of anticipation and trepidation, as I approached the huge wooden doors. They opened at my approach, like a giant mouth ready to swallow me back into my beloved past.

I was led silently through a myriad of corridors and doors; so much so, that my innate ability to always find my way told me, in no uncertain terms, that finding the exit unassisted would be problematic. That too should have been a warning, but I ignored it in my excitement.

“Please, be seated. Someone will be with you soon,” my guide told me, gesturing to a row of chairs.

I thanked him, politely. On examining the chairs I saw them for the priceless artefacts they were. I couldn’t bring myself to sit upon them, to desecrate them in such a manner. I assumed it was a test.

Instead of sitting I spent my time examining the wall features, from the perfectly honed swords on the left side to the highly polished suits of armour on the right it was a military historians dream. Each was perfectly preserved, the swords were lovingly honed to a sharpness that modern techniques just never managed to emulate; each suit of armour iridescent with a glow that seemed to come from within. Dents had been hammered out by hand, so well that only the faintest evidence existed of any work at all. An hour passed, and I grew restless. Had this been any other interview I would have left, or at least tried to, but I wanted this job like I had wanted no other. Another hour passed and I decided to explore a little; seeing no harm in finding out more about what I’d hoped would become my new home, for the job entailed living in the castle.
I pushed gently on the first door I came to, it gave way easily. What I saw there I knew would haunt me for the rest of my life.

Upon a table lay a man, his mouth open in a silent scream. I assumed he was dead, for as I watched, my guide and several others carved pieces off him, devouring the raw flesh with unabashed delight. Then his eyes moved. Fixing me with the most pleading look I have ever seen, I was frozen in terror.

To my shame I found myself choosing between my desire to help and my own sense of survival. By the time I had decided to act, it was too late. One of the creatures had slit his abdomen a little, causing his intestines to push their way out. That seemed to spark a free for all. They each cut into him, seeking out his internal organs, it resulted in a carnage. The only thing that remain untouched was the heart, which somehow continued it’s slow, rhythmic, beat.

I retched.

I couldn’t stop myself.

All heads turned from their feast to look at me. Panic took hold and I ran, blindly at first, recalling the weapons along the left wall started dragged my hand against it, desperately looking for anything I could use. I felt leather bound steel on my finger tips, with barely a pause, it was in my hand and gripped as though my life depended on it; which, I was certain now, it did.

My fencing classes may have been basic, but fear added strength to both my strength and ability, as I lashed out. The blade was as sharp, as my observations had led me to believe, its balance perfect. I fled down the corridor, slashing at anything that came even close to reaching me.

“Stop her,” I heard a voice order.

“It would have been so much easier if you’d only taken a seat, the injection would have immobilized you, you’d have felt very little,” my guide said, as my slashes grew wilder, my arm weaker. “Easier, though not as much fun…looks like you have passed the interview, though not in the way I had hoped.”

I ignored his words; seeing only the image of him eating someone alive, knowing that was to be my fate too.

I continued my hack and run approach, neither knowing or caring about my route now, all that I could think of now was staying alive.

Blood coated me; not the hot blood of a human, but something cold, dark and yet somehow alive. I could feel it trying to control me, but my mind was too panicked to listen. The more blood that touched me the stronger the voice became. I still fought, with all my strength, it just grew harder. I was soon surrounded by body parts that continued to attack autonomously.

With the last of my strength I have barricaded myself in this room. I write this with one certainty, I will die this night, or is it day already? I have long since lost all track of time.

It matters little. Too much of their blood has found a home in me. I use my phone now to put this onto the internet in the hopes that someone will read it and learn from my mistakes, before I change so much I no longer care. The blood that has become part of me. It is strong, primal. I have far more of the darkness in me than they have, even combined. . They fear me, don’t know why. I only know that they should, even I fear me.

They wait.

Whether it is for me to change, or because they fear I will change into, is uncertain. I will know, either way soon enough.

Panic has left me. For the first time in my life I feel at peace with myself. Both powerful and free. I’m fighting it now because I have a purpose, to warn you. I feel the last vestiges of humanity leave me, even as I type this, so I must hurry. I need to get the warning out before it is too late, and destroy this device so I cannot be forced to erase it.

As I said from the beginning, I don’t expect you to believe me. I am not sure even I believe it, and I ‘m here, but if you ever see an advert like the one I answered, ignore it, it is how they…we, I suppose I should use now, find our prey. We offer to fulfil your dreams.

For me that dream ended abruptly.

The nightmare is about to begin.

(Word count: 1278)