The Black Envelope

Prologue: Beginning

Authors Note: Thanks to neverland_wanderer13 for my cover :)

Prologue: Beginning

In a dim hallway located under thousands of tons of earth, a seemingly unimportant, homely man ran as fast as his short legs could carry him. His throat ached as he gulped down the frigid, stale air of the hallway and stumbled over the cracked concrete of the floor. He tried to ignore the groves in the walls, stained crimson with something he didn’t want to think about. However, the farther he got down the hallway, the more his stomach settled somewhere near his toes. On and on he went, past each and every swaying light bulb and flickering fluorescent lamps in the ceiling. A great boom shook the earth, causing trickles of dirt to fall to the floor somewhere behind him, joining the stagnant puddles of water accumulated in the shallow potholes of the floor. Finally, he came to a door and paused.

Clutching a stitch in his side, he stopped at the panel to the left of the solid metal door. The panel was deep-set into the wall and adorned with different colored buttons flashing at seemingly random intervals. The underground facility was big on secrecy, so when the computer asked him for three different passwords, a retinal and fingerprint scan and his key card, he didn't think anything of it.

The door opened and the man stepped inside, feeling the rush of air suck at the erect hairs on the back of his neck as it shut smoothly. The room he entered was deep in contrast to the outside hallway. Lamps set into the walls gave off a hazy glow that made it difficult to make out much in the room. Lavish furniture, deep black in color, complemented the pale blue walls and washed out any memory of the damp hall only feet behind the man. There were no water-stains above him, only a pale, white, popcorn-style ceiling that rained down bits of plaster at every boom coming from above. The three men sitting at the long table in the center of the room looked up at the sudden intrusion innocently, as if they hadn't been waiting for him.

"Ah, Oscar, so nice of you to join us," the first man sneered and met gazes with the still panting man. His eyes were the same color as the walls and peered out at the world with a barely hidden malice. "Sit down, sit down, we haven't got all day."

The man called Oscar sat down quickly, running a sweaty hand through his slightly balding hair as he did. The other men stared at him until Oscar realized they were waiting for him to speak. Another boom shook the building, jarring him out of his trance and into action.

He cleared his throat and began his carefully rehearsed speech.

"I... I think I've f-found a solution to our... problem." He looked up nervously at the men. They hadn't moved, save for a raised eyebrow from the first man.

"Go on," the man commanded.

"Uh, yes sir." He cleared his throat again. "I propose we... uh, ask the Unnoticed for help." He snuck a peak at the other men. One of them had jumped at the mention of the Unnoticed. The other two just looked surprised.

"Bring in the Unnoticed? Oscar have you gone mad? We can't work with them! No one has tried to contact them in years! Not after the last incident. Definitely not after that.” The second man looked incredulously at Jones.

"I- I know, but if we can just get them in a controlled setting, we can ask them if they will help us.” He swallowed and shifted his gaze around the table. “Compromise! We get to bring the population down, and they get free meals!" Oscar carefully took note of the men’s expressions. They looked as if they had started to soften, but he needed to press his point more. "Think about it! The people are starting to riot!” Another boom from above proved his point. “Murders and suicides every other day! We need a solution and I know I have it!" A confident individual had replaced the nervous man that had come in at the beginning of the meeting, his cheeks slightly flushed from excitement.

There was silence in the room as the men mulled it over. Finally the first man spoke.

"How do you propose we go about these, for lack of a better term, executions, Oscar?"

Oscar looked back at him with a smile. "I've got it all planned out, sir. You see, we'll employ individuals, Messengers, that will go to people we've deemed worthy of being, as you put, executed, and deliver them a black envelope that has a letter in it. This letter will declare the date and time of their death, and where to be. It will also state that if the person fails to report to their death, then they will be found by the Unnoticed and killed in whichever way the Unnoticed see fit." Oscar finished with a deep breath and looked expectantly at the men.

"Well Oscar, I didn't know you had it in you." The first man paused and looked at his other men. They appeared to be having a silent conversation. The second man seemed to be in disagreement with the other two, he kept making exaggerated hand motions and glaring at the first man.

After a time the first man turned back to Oscar, and with a smile, addressed him, ignoring the second man's huff of protest. "We have considered your plan and have decided to take it into action."

"A cowardly suicide mission if you ask me." The second man muttered.

The first man walked up to Oscar and shook his hand warmly. "Welcome to Operation Subtract, Oscar, allow me to promote you to chief in charge of the Operation."

Oscar raised an eyebrow. "So is that what we are going to call it then, Subtracting?"

The first man smiled ruthlessly. "Yes, Oscar, as soon as we get into contact with the Unnoticed, the Subtracting will start."

And so it began.