Natasha Branch and the Cursed factory

Chapter 2: First Use

Natasha sat in the room for about 5 minutes before someone came in to talk to her. It was a completely undecorated room with 4 gray walls and a brown tile floor. The officer took Natasha their after detaining her at the fence. Worried and concerned, she began to pray and wondered what was going on. There were so many questions in her head. Then she heard someone come into the room. He opened the door dressed in a black suite, blue tie, and and white dress shirt. He had on black pants that were creased to perfection. And his cologne made him smell like a flower. Natasha looked at him with a somewhat cautious gaze and focused more on his mid section rather than looking at his face at first. As the door closed behind him he said "Hello, my name is Mr. L. short and simple around here or at least that's what I like to be referred to as and I'm the chief of staff and head of security here." He then took a seat on the other side of the 5 feet table that she was also seated at. He then said "From what I understand the officer says he caught you trespassing on the property but I believe there may be more to the story. Could you please explain what you were doing when he found you?" Natasha began to explain to him how she got lost in the forest after drifting off in the woods by accident and how she stumbled upon the factory out of curiosity. He replied by saying "Alright, sounds like you're telling the truth. I'm going to get you out of here in a few minutes. Just need to finish some paperwork really quick and that'll be that." Before he could walk out though Natasha responded" Wait sir. If you don't mind me asking, what is this place?". The man then said" Ah yes, this company has been around for a while now. It's called Isle of Hope and Dreams incorporated." Natasha looked stunned by his answer and thought to herself "What type of name is that?". "I know, it's sounds like something a kid came up with but it pays so that's all I care about." He then explained further by saying "We're a special type of skin care product company. This factory here produces our products obviously and we have clients all over the world." Natasha wondered why she hadn't heard of them if that was true but didn't bother asking and simply said "Oh alright, thank you for all your help." The man then continued to walk out the door but before he finished doing so he turned around and asked" Oh do you need help getting home or back to the park?". Natasha quickly responded "Oh um the park would be nice. You know which park I came from?" Yes, we're actually not that far away from that park that you came from. It's only about a mile and half away and by road about three miles away." Natasha agreed to the man's offer and after this he walked out of the room. She was much more relaxed now and a bit more curious. How was this company so popular but unheard of? Why was their factory located here of all places? What's with all the heightened security just for skincare products? As she thought on these things however, Mr L came back into the room and said "Ok the paperwork has been finished so I think it'd be best if we got you back to the park and we apologize for the inconvenience. If you'd follow me please I'll take you to the vehicle that will drop you off." Upon hearing these words Natasha got up and left the room following him with one other young man tailing her. He was wearing a black suit and blue tie with a hat similar to that of airline pilots or hotel bellmen. Once she'd been led outside the factory to a black professional looking car, Mr L finally introduced the man that was tailing them the whole time they were walking there by saying "Oh and excuse my manners. The young man behind is going to be driving you to the park. He's Mr. Legion." As she turned around to look at him he gave a salute to her and Mr L and proceeded to get into the driver seat of the car awaiting her to presumably enter the back seat. Mr L once again apologized and Natasha responded with courtesy by saying he was alright and thanked him for his help. As she pulled the door handle of the back left door of the car and entered she was hit with that new car smell that's most pronounced with cars that have leather seats as this one did. After shutting the door to the car, Mr L gave a slight wave and the car began to drive off onto the paved little roadway that led to the factory onto a street called Beast Ave. which she'd never heard of before. The drive was short and before she knew it they'd already reached the park she originally went walking at and the young man said "Here we are". Upon hearing these words she opened the door and got out of the car but just before she finished exiting by closing the door the young man said "Don't forget your bag." Upon hearing this Natasha turned back and saw her brown paper bag sitting in the back seat and she quickly crouched back into the car halfway to grab it before closing the door and waving the young man off as he reciprocated with a salute and drove off. After a few steps though Natasha suddenly remembered that she didn't take a bag when she left home. She looked up to see if she could flag down the car but by the time she looked the car had already gone. It's like it vanished into thin air. Natasha was somewhat psyched by this and after taking a look around at the grass and trees of the park she looked up and noticed the sun was halfway set. As such she decided to walk home. As she did so she still wondered about the things that'd happened that day. It's like even the climate around her was noticeably unusual ever since she'd gotten out of the car. Once she'd reached her porch she decided to check her mailbox. She got inside, turned on the lights, went to the table, and decided to see what she'd gotten. It was 3 envelopes and two of these envelopes were credit card company advertisements. The third envelope however was from the state revenue service and upon opening and reading the documents inside it her day seemed a lot worse than how it began. She dropped the paper from the envelope and immediately went up stairs with the bag she'd taken out of the car and simply plopped onto the bed and let a sigh. "Oh my God. How could this happen?" she asked. She owed the state money but she's not exactly sure how that was possible. Maybe there was a mistake somehow, but it would be difficult if not impossible to convince them of that. She didn't have that much money to spare and this seemed to be the straw that would break the camels back. Why was this happening now? Natasha was awestruck at this and began to pray laid on her back on the bed but then she heard a sound on the floor. It caught her attention and she decided to look to see what it was. It was that small bag falling over on the ground. The one she didn't have when she left the house that day. It was a paper sack so it made a somewhat crunchy noise whenever it moved. Why did they give this to her and what was in it anyway? These were the questions she subconsciously wondered. She decided to look into the bag and in it was a bottle of facial cream called "Nebuchadnezzar facial cream". That was a pretty weird name for a facial product to say the least but the product description was just as surprising. It spoke of taking the user into world of peace and happiness and that it was best to use it right before you went to sleep. It read more like a fantastical description of a magical park than a product being sold on the market but it did smell very good. As Natasha prepared for bed that night she decided to take a leap of faith for whatever reason and applied the cream to her face and around her eyes. Hey, a world of happiness and peace didn't sound so bad even if it was oversold. What could possibly go wrong, right? Then she laid down and fell fast asleep as a child.