Maniac’s Mayhem: A guide to being a corporate slave

I get this weird feeling from standing in front of fancy buildings, not even a single ad plastered on the side, invoking this primordial feeling of dread in me. I mean, the building looks fancy, the lights are lovely, and the people are all dressed up. There are even guards stationed around, meaning that it is probably one of the safer places in the city, but to me, it's just some kind of torture room, knowing what is waiting for me inside. I am standing at the entrance, just waiting, trying to convince myself to move forward. Then suddenly, somebody pushes me along.

“Why are you standing here? Move it along,’’ Anika says.

“Well, you know, I am just mentally preparing myself.”

“We're already 10 minutes late, and I don't think you want to be any later if you want to salvage any semblance of a good appearance,” Anika's voice cuts through the air.

“You are right. Let's go,” I say in a defeated tone. “Just one dinner, you survived worse.”

I step into the grandeur of the old museum, transformed into a lavish gala. A poster adorns the wall, a strange amalgamation of a person and mechanical parts. A plush red carpet leads the way further in. A man in a sharp suit halts our progress, demanding our names. Anika presents some form of identification, and we're granted entry.

We walk through the long corridors, which feature views of different disassembled electronics, until we reach the banquet hall. The hall is nice, with many round tables on one side of the room and a big podium with some kind of live music performance on the other. I like music. The sounds usually help me calm down, but that does not mean I understand the significance of one performer over the other.

As I look around, I spot a familiar group of people in the middle of the dining area. Seven seats have already been taken as I make it to the table. Mister and Miss Agroria, as well as their three sons and two daughters, are already seated and are having some kind of conversation.

“No, Dad, you should not provoke someone like that.” I hear Cierra say when I get closer.

“What? Just let her run free? She just randomly slaughtered some people; this one is very unstable….” Victor says. He stops speaking as soon as he sees me.

Cierra turns around in her seat, a smile blossoming on her beautiful heart-shaped face. Her blond hair flows free behind her as she stands up and embraces me in a hug. I am not up to date on my etiquette, but I think you're not supposed to hug this tightly in public, not that I care all that much personally. Then, she suddenly gives me a deep and passionate kiss. I guess etiquette is totally out of the window, then.

As I just wait there to be let free, I hear several gasps around me. Luckily, Cierra noticed as well, and I am released. She looks a bit embarrassed at what she just did.

“I am sorry. Are you okay?” she whispers to me.

“I am fine, but we should probably sit down. I don’t want to stand out too much.” I whisper back.

We slowly return to our table, and I help her sit before taking a seat. The entire table is looking at me.

“Nice going, sis.” Zaine says, giving me a sleazy look. Considering how many of his controversies I had to hide, that look sends shivers down my shiny new spine.

“Cierra dear, I already question bringing your whore here, but you should try not to embarrass yourself.” Miss Miriam said. What an excellent start, although she has never liked me.

“Mom, you can’t talk like that about my girlfriend!” Cierra says.

I am trying my best not to get involved in whatever inane debate Is happening. I focus on the food and make sure to sufficiently bribe Maya with good cuts of meat. I don’t need that little gremlin giving me more grief than necessary.

“Evelin, what is your opinion on the new samurai?” Victor suddenly asks.

“Uhm, sorry, why do you ask?” I blurt out, while trying to hide that I was not paying attention.

“Yeah, Dad, what is the point of asking her?” Gerard piles on.

The one time you pick my side is to insult me. You know, I was having a perfectly lovely day yesterday when aliens mauled me. How did we get here, then?

“She is the sister of the person who caused the most damage to our company, so I was wondering what she thinks of the new ones and if they pose any potential risk.” Victor answers.

Awh, way to make me feel special. Asshole. You are perfectly aware that I did it.

“I am sorry, but I don’t know anything about them.” I say, trying my best to be political.

“That is fine; these three are the new ones.” he says. Then, three images are sent to me. “The first new samurai is Andre Davis, a College Kid, nothing special, has been seen with some PMC helping defend some shelters. The next one is a girl named Sally Maroon. She has some kind of robot attack dog. The last and the most problematic one is this one. We don’t know her real name. We only know that she goes by the alias of Maniac. Here, take a look at this video.”

I received another file in addition to the three pictures of the new samurais. It’s a short video of Maniac running inside the office, cutting down people while laughing maniacally. First, the editing is fantastic. It looks like I went up against ten different guys instead of just five. But the laughing, was I really doing that? I don’t remember.

‘Lyssa, was I really acting this crazy?’ I subvocalize.

Lyssa thinks that a lot of the crazy comes from the fact that this video is made to fit a new trending hashtag.

‘And what is that hashtag?’

Hashtag the Insane Samurai.

With that, she opens up many more pictures and videos of Maniac doing stuff and sounding crazy. Well, this sucks. Only a day in, and my reputation is already fucked. well nothing for it, just going to roll with the punches.

“You want my honest answer?” I ask.

“No, we want you to strip naked and dance on the table,” Zaine says.

Words are not enough to describe how much I hate it here. I want to put some more holes in this little shit.

Evelin, it would help if you controlled your anger. Killing them here is dangerous. Why bother wearing the mask if you going to kill them here?

She is right. I take a deep breath, trying to calm down. I feel a hand on my back, trying to comfort me.

“Zaine, nobody thinks that you are funny; stop trying to prove them right.” Cierra says. “Please go ahead, Evelin, we are listening.”

“So, I don’t know much about the girl, but I understand what is happening. This is a smear campaign. I have been a part of stopping them or instigating them often enough to recognize the patterns, so there is no telling if she is actually crazy or someone just wants her to look crazy.” I say.

“I see, that means that more intel is required. I trust you to gather reliable data,” Victor says.

Yeah, sure, just casually give me a death sentence. Nobody fucks with samurai and comes back fine. Lucky me, I know that Maniac will not hurt me. Physically. After that bombshell, dinner and the event go back to normal. And by normal, I mean this asshole family keeps hurling insults at me or trying to put me down. In contrast, I am just trying to get a good meal for once. It does make it hard to eat, though. Luckily, at some point, even Cierra has had enough. And she grabs me by the arm and drags me out.

“Uhm, where are we going?” I ask her.

“I booked a hotel.” she says. “We are going there; fuck the event and everything. I just wanted you here to ensure you were fine, but I feel I only made things worse.”

Ooh, she is upset for me. How sweet. I hug into her side to make my appreciation known. And she giggles.

“What are you doing?” she asks, still smiling.

“Just showing that I am happy to be out of there, too?”

“Yeah, how about we just order room service and relax?”

“Honestly, that sounds amazing. Finally can take these claws off.” I say, while observing my nails.

“Ooh, you're taking the claws off. Does that mean I am getting lucky tonight?”

‘Always something with this family.’

You cannot complain if your elevated heart rate is anything to go by.

‘Don’t butt in you,’ I subvocalize while suppressing a groan.

“Is there something wrong?” Cierra asks.

“No, love, let’s go.”

With that, we enter the elevator and go down to the hotel's floor. I guess that is the one benefit of mega buildings: You can fit a lot of amenities in one place. I'm pretty sure there is a floor with a cinema and a casino as well.

It only took us a minute to get from the elevator to our room, which is bigger than my apartment. It has a big bed, a sitting room with couches, and a dining table. The room has nice white walls, and it is super clean.

“We should wash up first,” Cierra says. “Are you coming?”

“Yeah, I am coming, love.”

We go into the bathroom, and, fuck, why is it the same size as my entire room? Being rich is unfair. I toss the dress, and strip out of my underwear and then join Cierra in the shower. After rinsing off, we hop into the bath because why not? This is one of the few times I get to use one, and giving my lovely girl puppy eyes, she is easily convinced. It probably also helps that I am completely nude, but we are going to ignore that for now.

The water is nice and warm, and I lean back into Cierra; being relatively small has its advantages. I feel her head rest on my shoulder as I luxuriate in the warm water.

“Evelin, can you be honest with me?” she asked. “Are you truly okay?”

Well, this is new. Am I okay? “Not really. I am still a slave, after all.”

She is silent after that, but I feel her grip on my stomach tighten. Well, I fucked up. Why did I say that out loud? I must be really out of it today.

“I am sorry,” I say. “I did not mean it like that.”

She breathed a deep sigh, “It’s all right. Evelin, I did not know what to do when I heard you were stuck in an incursion. I wanted to take everyone available to rescue you. You know what my Dad said? He said that you are useful, but don’t bring enough value to allow for a rescue mission."

“Well, that makes sense. I am just a cog in the machine.” I say, getting rapidly more uncomfortable.

“NO!! You are not. Not to me!” She lets go of me. “You are so much more to me. I love you. I want to marry you. Build a life with you. Do you not want the same?”

I kind of just freeze. My entire brain needs a restart. I don’t know what to say. I know that I should just agree. But my whole body rejects that notion. I start freaking out even more. What to do?

“ I don't know, I hate you, I hate your family; you have taken everything from me, my parents, my brother, my freedom,” I say while sobbing. “I want to kill you; I want to toss you all of the highest building, I want to burn it all to the ground.

There is this long silence after that. I feel cold, really cold. Suddenly, Cierra stands up. And walks to the dresser. She searches around in a bag for a while before taking out a knife. Alarm bells start ringing in my head. I stand up, ready to fight. I quickly sent a SOS text to my new samurai friends. Before it can really come to anything, she changes her grip, holding it by the blade instead of the handle. Fucking déjà vu.

“Take it,” she says. “I don’t know about the rest, but you can kill me. I already sent the guards away. I have some accounts that are untraceable. They should have more than enough credits for you to live off. You're smart. You can do it, Evelin.” She says, while tears are streaming down my face.

I take the knife from her and put it against her neck. My head is spinning I am feeling hot and cold at the same time. And I push. Red crimson trickles over the blade and her neck. I hurl I feel nauseous and dizzy at the same time.

“You can do it, Evelin,” Cierra encourages me, while tears stream past her face.

“Fuck, you want to die or something?” I almost scream past my shaking voice.

“Not really, but dying to make you happy does not seem so bad.”

I throw the knife away and back off, almost falling over in the tub.

“Are you fucking insane!?” I shout at her.

“Probably, who knows? I might even be the new one, Maniac, The Insane Samurai,” Cierra says.

“What! That is not even funny.”

She wipes her face and looks at me again. “Evelin, I love you, and I want to make you happy. Would you consider giving me a chance? Please, I will do anything.”

“Anything, huh? Will you let me kill your father?”

She is quiet for a long while after that “I don’t know.” Her voice sounds so small and fragile that it pulls at my heartstrings.

“Right, I thought so. Can you give me a bit? I need to be alone.”

“Yes, of course,” she says.

She picks up a towel and puts it against her neck wound and another to cover herself, and then she leaves the bathroom. I just collapsed after that. What should I do? As I am sitting there wondering if I could just drown myself in the bathwater, I receive a call from 2 people.