Wayward Travellers

chap. i

CW: Possessive behaviour, body horror and possibly more.

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When two of your coworkers went missing, the corporation didn't care too much.

After all, why would they? They had a lot of cannon fodder that desperately wished to work for them and become one of their feathers, so losing two employees didn't seem to be a big deal for them.

What about your coworkers, then?

Some of them cared, some of them didn't. Those in the first group were all new employees that hadn't experienced the horrors of becoming a feather yet while those in the second group were older employees who knew better than to get attached to others. That said, it would be a lie to say that no one was curious about your coworkers' disappearances. After all, everyone only realized that they were missing after a couple of weeks had passed and no one could track down where they went. Not until later on, that is.

What about you then? Did you care about the disappearance of your two coworkers?

Truthfully, you did. They were one of the few people that you talked to, and while you wouldn't say that you were friends with them, you were somewhat close to them. They comforted you whenever you needed them to, and you comforted them whenever they needed you to. Those moments weren't often, and they became rare the more time you spent in W. Corp, but that didn't change the fact that you relied on them and they relied on you to some degree.

However, you didn't care that much about their disappearance. You weren't the first person to notice their disappearance — that honour went to Meursault who apparently knew from the beginning but didn't tell anyone because no one asked — and you weren't particularly sad when you found out about it.

You knew that something like this would've happened, so you approached every relationship you had with your coworkers with caution; including those two. It looked like your efforts paid off, too, because you moved on from their sudden disappearance without much worry a couple of days after. Hell, you didn't even notice that they were missing until Meursault spoke up about it. You might've relied on them, but they clearly weren't important enough in your life for you to notice their disappearance right away.

So it came off as a big surprise to you when your coworkers decided that you would be the one to bring them back.

"...Excuse me?"

"You heard me," Faust replied, her icy blue eyes looking into yours. "You're the one who'll be retrieving them, dead or alive."

"But me? Why me? I'm not exactly fit for this job, am I?" you asked as you glared at Faust who didn't seem to be phased by it at all. "Weren't you the one who said that I should avoid exerting too much energy for something because I didn't have the necessary strength for it?"

"This and that are completely different," she answered coldly. "You're needed for this, so you'll be the one to do this job."

More like you're one of the more expendable units the company had who was competent enough to survive so far so the higher-ups saw no problems sending you to your death.

"That doesn't change the fact that I'm not fit for the job," you replied. "Just because I can deal with those abominations doesn't mean that I can bring back two adults here! Even worse if they're injured so I have to carry them back!"

"The manager was the one who made the choice so it's useless to complain to Faust," she told you. For a brief moment, she averted her gaze to the ground, a hint of guilt appearing in her eyes. "...I'm sorry."