Chapter 2
David's chest was heaving. Every breath scraped like sandpaper down his throat, tasting faintly of iron and dust. His shirt clung to his skin with sweat and streaks of blood. He could still feel phantom claws dragging against his ribs even though the beasts had stopped moving.
The staircase behind him was a frozen nightmare — bodies locked mid-leap, eyes wide with hunger, jaws frozen around a scream that never came. The stench of them lingered: damp fur, rotting meat, and something sharp and metallic like ozone after lightning.
He staggered two steps back, blinking hard, waiting for them to twitch. They didn't.
"What… what's going on?" David asked, his voice trembling somewhere between fear and suspicion. "Why… why are they not moving?"
"That," said the man in the biker helmet, "is because we made them not move."
David's eyes darted from the helmeted figure to the still beasts and back again. The crowd of employees was still there, lining the glass doors, some with arms folded, some whispering behind cupped hands, all smiling as if they'd just watched a good show.
The man in the helmet stepped forward, his boots tapping evenly against the marble floor. "You passed the test with flying colors. Therefore…" He paused, straightening the lapels of his immaculate suit. "…I can tell you my name."
He reached up with deliberate slowness, not to remove the helmet, but to give the moment weight.
"My name," he said, "is President Aurelius Kaine Winterborn."
The name rang in the air like it belonged to someone who had signatures on history itself. Aurelius extended a hand, his suit sleeve falling back just enough to reveal faint, glowing silver patterns etched into the cuff — shifting like constellations rearranging themselves.
David hesitated, his brain torn between adrenaline, confusion, and the primal urge to trust no one wearing a biker helmet indoors. But his hand twitched forward anyway.
The handshake was brief. Too brief. A sharp crack of pain exploded in David's wrist and raced up his arm. He gasped and stumbled back, clutching his forearm.
"Oh," Aurelius said, tilting his helmet slightly. "My bad." He turned his head slightly toward the line of employees. "Healers."
Two people stepped forward from the crowd. One, a tall, bearded man carrying a black medical satchel. The other — a woman with copper hair pinned in a perfect coil, wearing a cream blouse with sleeves rolled neatly above the elbow. She walked with quiet precision, her heels clicking softly against the marble.
David blinked at her, unsure if he should be grateful or terrified.
"Hold still," she said, her voice calm but firm. She rested her fingertips lightly on his shoulder.
It happened instantly. A warm current poured from her touch, flowing down his arm, threading through every nerve. The ache, the tearing sensation, the swelling heat — all of it dissolved into nothing. His skin knitted back together before his eyes. The dull throb in his ribs vanished as if it had never existed.
"What… what kind of sorcery is this?" David stammered, watching his arm with disbelief.
"That," Aurelius said, "is just magic." He gestured casually toward the healer, who gave David a faint smile before stepping back into the line. "And honestly, I'm impressed you're still standing. Most first-timers faint. Some vomit. One guy… well, let's just say was disgusting ."
David's mouth opened, then closed. He shook his head like a man trying to dislodge water from his ears. "Magic isn't real. This—this is fake. It has to be fake. You've… got projectors hidden somewhere. Or holograms. Or— or you've drugged me, and I'm hallucinating. Yeah. That's it. Hallucinations."
One of the men in the employee line chuckled. "Hallucinations don't bite your hand off, kid."
Another, a short woman with sharp eyes, smirked. "If this is your way of coping, it's cute. Naïve, but cute."
David spun toward them, his tone sharpening. "Oh yeah? Then where's the camera crew? Where's the special effects rig? You don't just freeze monsters without a—"
"Wow," Aurelius interrupted, tilting his helmet again, "you have a wild imagination. But fine. If you think this isn't magic, why don't you prove it?"
David frowned, crossing his arms but not daring to take a step toward him. "Prove what?"
"That there's a projector hidden here. Go on. Find it."
David moved quickly, scanning the walls for seams, the ceiling for mounted devices, the corners for tiny black lenses. He pushed open a maintenance panel — nothing. Checked under the nearest desk — nothing but dust and a discarded paperclip.
His breath was shallow now.
"See," Aurelius said. "You can't find it because it doesn't exist. But if you want something undeniable…"
He stepped forward, extending his right hand toward David.
David flinched, half-expecting another bone-snapping handshake.
Instead, Aurelius clapped his hands once — a sharp, deliberate sound — and pulled them apart slowly.
The air between his palms shimmered. The floor beneath them groaned like a living thing. The walls rippled. And then the entire world tilted.
David's stomach lurched as the geometry of the building bent in impossible ways. Hallways coiled like serpents. Staircases folded into themselves. The glass walls bent into convex curves, refracting the skyline into jagged shards of light.
Gravity twisted.
Before David could fall to the ground, he was suddenly — impossibly — seated in the same cushioned chair he'd occupied at the start of the interview. Across from him, Aurelius sat exactly where he had been earlier, hands folded neatly on the desk. The elevator lobby, the crowd, the staircase — gone.
David's mouth went dry. "How… how did you—"
"You're in the same building," Aurelius said. "Same floor. Just… rearranged."
David sat frozen, unable to decide if running or screaming would accomplish anything.
David's pulse was still thundering in his ears. He sat back in the cushioned chair, his muscles tight, eyes darting to the strange shifting patterns on Aurelius Kaine Winterborn's cuff. The desk between them looked solid, but after what he'd just witnessed, David wasn't even sure the wood existed in any normal sense.
Aurelius leaned forward, elbows resting on the desk, hands clasped. His helmet reflected David's pale face like a warped mirror.
"David," Aurelius said, voice low and steady, "you don't have to be afraid. You're in perfectly safe hands."
David almost laughed at that. Safe hands? He'd just been chased by nightmare beasts and thrown into a reality that folded like origami. Still… there was something in Aurelius's tone — not the arrogance of someone who thought they were in control, but the calm certainty of someone who truly was.
"You want to call your lawyer?" Aurelius asked, tilting his head. "Maybe sue us? I wouldn't blame you."
David stared at him for a moment, imagining himself in court trying to explain monster attacks and space-bending hallways. "No," he said finally, rubbing the back of his neck. "It's fine. As long as you agree to pay me the salary we discussed… I'll take the job."
A sound that was halfway between a sigh and a laugh came from inside the helmet. Aurelius leaned back, the tension in his shoulders loosening. "Good. You have no idea how much easier you just made my day."
He shifted slightly, the silver glow in his cuff fading. "Alright then, formality time. You can call me Kaine."
"Kaine?" David repeated.
"It's easier," Aurelius said with a dismissive wave. "President Aurelius Kaine Winterborn sounds like I'm about to sell you stock options or offer you a terrible insurance plan."
David almost smirked.
Kaine laced his fingers together on the desk. "Now, about the job. We — my colleagues and I — are part of a… secret organization. One you didn't know existed until about seven minutes ago."
David raised an eyebrow. "Secret organization? What kind of—"
"We're sorcerers," Kaine interrupted, matter-of-fact. "Not wizards, not psychics, not crystal-ball fortune tellers. Sorcerers. We deal in belief-made-real kind of magic, and our job is to protect humans from magical beasts, hostile sorcery, and the occasional metaphysical disaster."
He said it so casually David almost missed the gravity of it.
Kaine leaned back in his chair. "Of course, we don't just hire anyone. We recruit people we're sure will be good for the job." His tone shifted slightly, dipping into a dry, knowing humor. "Think of it like hiring a bodyguard. You want someone who doesn't faint at the sight of blood. Or in this case… claws, teeth, and the bending of space-time."
David snorted. "So the whole monster ambush was… a job interview?"
"Bingo," Kaine said, snapping his fingers. "A practical test. Though yours was a bit more exciting than most."
David sat forward, curiosity gnawing at him. "What about the others? The people who took the interview before me — did they go through the same thing?"
Kaine didn't hesitate. "Yes. Every single one."
"And?" David prompted.
"And they all failed," Kaine said simply. "Some came close. Most… didn't."
David's fingers drummed against his knee. He wanted to know how they failed, but something about the weight in Kaine's tone made him stop himself from asking directly.
Kaine, of course, noticed. He chuckled softly. "You're wondering how, aren't you?"
David's jaw tightened, but he didn't answer.
Kaine's voice dropped just slightly. "Some of them were almost eaten alive before we stepped in. Others froze so badly they couldn't even move. A few tried to end their own lives rather than face what was chasing them. And some…" He gave a small shrug. "…thought it was a stupid prank and just walked away before it even started."
David looked down at his hands, his stomach tightening at the images Kaine's words conjured.
"But," Kaine continued, his tone softening, "don't let that worry you. We were able to heal all of them, erase the trauma, and wipe their memories clean. As far as they know, they took some stupid test and failed. They're living normal lives again."
David's eyes flicked up. "So they're fine?"
"They're fine," Kaine confirmed. "No nightmares, no lingering injuries, no monster PTSD. We're not in the business of leaving people broken."
For the first time, David felt a sliver of the tension in his chest loosen. "Okay."
Kaine straightened in his seat. "And you, David… you passed. Which means you start tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?" David echoed.
"Yes. Bright and early. You'll come back here, and we'll begin your orientation. You'll learn exactly what you need to do — where to go, who to talk to, how not to get turned into paste by something that doesn't technically exist in human taxonomy."
David blinked. "Sounds… reassuring."
Kaine chuckled. "Trust me, you'll be fine. You've already proven you can survive a trial most people fail."
David leaned back, trying to process it all. Just a few hours ago, he'd been thinking about rent, groceries, and whether he'd have time to do laundry before the weekend. Now he was sitting across from the head of a secret organization of sorcerers who wanted him to fight magical beasts.
"You'll have questions," Kaine said, rising from his chair. "A lot of them. And You'll get your answer to some of them tomorrow. For now…" He reached into the inside pocket of his suit jacket and pulled out a small, dark metal card. He slid it across the desk. "This will get you into the building without anyone stopping you. Don't lose it. And don't try to copy it — you'll regret it if you do."
David picked it up. The metal was cool, heavier than it looked, and etched with faint lines that glowed briefly when he touched them.
"What is it?"
"Keycard," Kaine said, already walking toward the door. "Well… keycard plus a little enchantment to make sure no one else can use it. It's linked to your belief, so it only responds to you."
David turned it over in his hands, the etched lines shifting subtly like they were alive.
Kaine paused at the door and glanced over his shoulder. "Get some rest, David. You'll need it."
And with that, the walls rippled again — the office melting into the elevator lobby from before. The monsters were gone. The crowd was gone. Just David, standing there with a keycard in his hand, staring at the door of the reception.
[[Author's Feedback]]
1. Do you think David is too quick to making decisions
2. What kind of powers do you think David will have.