Nessa walked up to the reception desk with a fake smile plastered onto her face. "Good mornin'—"
"You must be the other new employee!" the receptionist said with a large smile on her face. "My name is Susan, obviously I'm the receptionist."
Nessa merely nodded. Susan was far too energetic and upbeat in her opinion, but nothing to be done about that.
"So, what's your name then? System glitched and now I'm having to re-enter everyone's name. Such a hassle."
"I go by Ness—"
"Great! Ness it is." Susan had already typed it into the computer at her desk before Nessa had a chance to even consider telling her of the extra vowel she usually had at the end of her name. No big deal anyway. "So then, Ness, it turns out we need an additional developer on the team, and we've had to move back beta testing by a couple days. According to your profile you have some experience with computers?"
Nessa shrugged. "It's more of a hobby. I learned quite a bit back when I was a teenager."
"Perfect! Your office is right down that hall and there should be instructions to get started. Beta testing will begin next week. We do need you to sign this contract though."
Nessa scanned the pages of it, seemed like a pretty standard contract. She signed it.
Susan grinned even wider. "You'll be working under Dave. Hope you enjoy your first day, I believe you'll be scanning in some of the hardware the client sent us."
"Client? Who is the client anyway?"
"Oh, you didn't already know? I'm surprised no one told you anything given your background. It's quite the interesting task that our client gave us—"
Susan's rambling tangent was cut off by the red telephone on her desk ringing. Her large grin dropped slightly, and she twitched back even more subtly as she frowned at the phone. "Ah, apologies. Ignore that. It's an old phone from some closed down building the company got cheap."
The phone ringing seemed to grow louder, but that would be impossible. Nessa gave it an odd look; it seemed vaguely familiar. "Shouldn't you answer it?"
"Nah. It's haunted," Susan replied casually.
"Haunted?" Nessa repeated.
"Mhm. Some poltergeist or something has been in there since before we got it. It will ring at random times and the oddest messages come in. Some say it's simply a prank caller but mark my words that this thing can hear us even when we're not using the phone. Not to mention the same voice that calls at the oddest of times can also sometimes be heard while on calls with other people."
"Uh-huh," Nessa said dubiously. This woman was clearly a nut case. Hearing voices and making conspiracy theories at the oddest of coincidences. "Anything else I should know?"
"No. Except do not ever use the phone lines. The poltergeist is best left alone as much as possible, right? You should use the email system or better yet go talk to people in person. I'm sure you know that having connections inside the company can be invaluable. Down the hall, to the right."
The phone quieted, almost as though it had suddenly given up despite being so loud only moments before.
Nessa gave it one last strange look before giving Susan another false smile she attempted to make genuine. "Thank you."
——————————————————————
Scanning in the hardware was no difficult task. After a quick meeting with her new boss Dave, a brief exchange of greeting with Jeremy, and being introduced to about half the dev team, Nessa was left alone to scan the old junk in.
Circuit boards and other similar junk. It seemed like an odd request from whoever the client was, but she didn't exactly care to judge a decision that seemed so trivial. She let her mind wander to who the client could be.
Whenever she asked, some event would always keep her from finding out the answer. A phone call, another employee with a question, and things like that. It was a bit amusing, if not a tad ominous.
It was nice to do work like this. It did require some thought, but it was such a repetitive task that Nessa felt herself be able to zone out and let her mind wander.
It was peaceful.
"Nessa! Glad to see you took the job offer."
Peace had an enemy, and their name was Jeremy.
Nessa carefully set down the circuit board despite wanting to slam it down and turned to Jeremy with the fakest smile she'd put on today. "Can I help you, Jeremy?"
"Just heard that my previous co-worker had taken the job I mentioned and thought I ought to say 'hi'. Apologies if that's a crime."
"Hi," Nessa said tiredly before turning back to her work. "Don't you have stuff to do?"
"Nope!" Jeremy didn't seem her less than subtle attempts to get him to go away. "I have less experience with technology, more of a people person so they briefed me on the game we're making and since it looks like we can start beta testing in a couple days the client wanted to check up on the progress we've been making."
The thought occurred to her that if she asked him about the client something would come up and she would once again be left in peace. That would be more than ideal, at the very least it was worth a try. "I've heard so much about this client the company is making a game for, yet I still don't know who the client is."
"Wait, really? I thought you'd know who the client is by now!"
"Yup. Really. Guess you'll just have to tell me." Nessa desperately hoped her attempts in getting him to leave her alone again would work. It wasn't that she had anything against Jeremy as a person, except maybe his extroversion and lack of an ability to read the room, she just wanted to be left alone.
"I suppose I will, but I'm genuinely surprised no one told you who the client is, thought that'd be a bit more important than everyone else apparently think it is."
"Strange indeed."
Jeremy glanced down the hall and Nessa grinned to herself. It seemed that the trick had worked in her favor at least one more time. "But it seems as though something's come up and I'll have to find out some other time. Darn."
"No no no, quite the opposite. The client is already here!"
"Eh?" Nessa peeked out of the office and into the hall, immediately pulling back not a second later. "You have got to be kidding."
William Afton paused just before he walked right past them, turning and walking into the office. "Vanessa! What a surprise to see you here!"
Nessa resisted the urge to run out of the room and even hide under the desk. "You're the client then?" she asked, in a deliberate monotone.
"That would most certainly be me!"
Dammit.
