A Hostage Situation

Chris finds himself in an unlikely predicament with one of Siri's old friends.

A Hostage Situation

 

   “Hello, Pim. I did not expect to see you here today.”

   “Yeah, that’s cause you locked me up, you crazy b***h,” came the reply. Chris started in surprise. Where he had expected a guttural growl was instead a voice that was quite feminine, and not computerized like Siri’s. But it wasn't normal--it was like it had a kind of echo to it. One voice on top of another.

   “There is no need for name-calling. You were unstable. I chose a certain procedure which I thought would be best for the…situation you created. If I may ask, how were you able to reacquire your cassis?”

   “No, you may not ask. I’m just here for the newbie.”

   Chris tapped the back of Pim’s leg, wincing in discomfort at having that...face? On him again.

   “What? I’m a little busy.”

   “Hi. Newbie here,” he gulped. “I just have a couple questions--”

   “As do I,” Siri interrupted.

   “--Like, I don’t know, what the f**k is going on?”

   “Shut up,” was the enlightening answer. “Both of you. You,” Pim pointed at him, “Are coming with me. And YOU,” Pim turned around and looked up, and the rage just dripping from that voice made Chris feel lucky it wasn't directed at him. “Just know that I’ll kill your shiny new lab rat the very second that I sense something fishy from you.”

   So I’m not the only one who thinks I’m a lab rat. But that’s…not a good thing…

   Pim turned around and walked behind him, the talons on her feet tapping maliciously on what was left of the floor. He got to see the site of her destruction clearly for the first time; a precise, square-shaped gap that was just big enough to make sleeping on the floor in this room reeeally dangerous. The metal at the edges was torn and melted. Chris couldn’t understand how Pim was able to do something like this, whatever it--she--was.

   When she lifted him up with her claws, he expected them to sear his skin, but whatever residual heat was left had vanished somehow. He felt them tear through the back of his shirt to the collar as she hauled him up like he weighed nothing and promptly hung him over the hole. Looking down, he could see the several levels of floors she had torn through, so if she dropped him…

   “WAIT, wait, wait,” Chris reached behind his neck to grab for the ivory claws ripping open the back of his shirt. “Just--stop, what are you doing? Don’t--”

   “Relax, Hamington,” she said, her double-voice echoing with a hint of amusement. “Just close your eyes and pretend you’re at Six Flags.”

   And then she dove down through the floor, dragging him with her.