I open the door to Egor's office, if you can even call it that. It's more like an RV with a tiny desk and radio, looked like he was talking on his phone. Egor must have known I was coming because he didn't look up at me when I entered, just kept tapping away on his screen.
He looked like a large man, not fat but definitely muscular. Really glad I brought my handgun with me, I don't think I would be able to take him on without it.
"You the repo guy?" he said still looking at his phone, still not batting an eye.
"I'm the repo girl, but yeah"
"Same difference, care to give a name?"
"Dory"
"mmhmm"
Egor turns his phone off and puts it in his pocket, he stands up and grabs a piece of paper with a pen in a drawer.
"You here to pick something up, drop something off, or something like that?"
I mentally prepare myself to say what my boss told me, he had a feeling that if we asked this question the completionists would turn hostile or stop working with us. He believed that they were only using us to stay hidden.
Egor began tapping his pen against the desk, "Yes, no… maybe so?" he was waiting for my answer.
"We…" I sit down and slowly reached for my handgun, trying not to make it obvious to him that I had one. "want to use the ritual…"
He simply stared at me with a dead pan expression, as if he was asked this hundreds of times and wasn't amused. As far as we know this was the only time we asked.
He simply breathed in a long sigh and said "I'm not going to deny you of it, but you're going to need to know the consequences of what can… and probably will happen" before putting his pen and paper away.
I slowly take my hand off my gun and ask "Really? No arguments or rants or anything?" I was shocked, my boss told me that they were very argumentative but so far all that's happened is Egor talking about consequences and being what I'm only assuming is annoyed rather than threatening me to not participate.
"If you were dealing with Lee he would definitely argue with you" he said, "But Lee doesn't live here, he drops by but he doesn't manage this place. He's off doing whatever achievements that he can do himself, that's not leading, that's just a power fantasy."
He Stands up again and walks past me, towards the front door. "Care to walk with me? If you really wanna do a ritual you'll need to know the… what if's, if you know what I mean"
I didn't know what he meant. right when I was about to follow him however I noticed that he didn't close the drawer. I saw a makeup kit in it, foundation, blush, eye shadow, everything that needed to be in there in a glass container.
Egor must have gotten annoyed that I was snooping around in his office, I could hear it in his voice. "You can stare at small things that aren't your business all you want, or you can do what you came here for."
I backed away from the drawer and walked towards him, following him outside.
He brought me to this basement door, like a mixture of an outhouse and a cellar. When he unlocked it and opened it up I could feel a wave of hot air flow to my face, like I was standing next to a campfire.
He stepped down the stairs and the lights in front of him flickered to life, the sounds of echoing footsteps set in as he descends.
He stands at the bottom waiting for me, "This is the second time you've been gawking instead of walking, come on." He said it some-what demandingly.
I walk through, down the stairs and into the dim lights. The moment I do the next light in front of me turns on, Egor walks through and then the next light in front of his turns on, rinse and repeat.
"A lot of completers wonder why they never see fuck-ups that much, we tell'em that we put'em down whenever they pop-up. But we lied, this is where they live for the most part."
"Why do you need them alive?"
"Ryan needs them to-" He cuts himself off, taking a deep breath before sighing "… Do something that doesn't involve us right now"
As we continue walking I stare at the walls, they seem older than most people here, gray, dry, and cracked. I thought it was just the heat getting to me, so I asked:
"How long has this place been here for?"
"Would it surprise you to know this thing used to be a pyramid?"
"I wouldn't believe you if you told me that, this entire thing is underground"
"used to be overground… Ryan has his contacts, his contacts… remade this, if you can call it remade"
I start to think about how long we've been walking, we haven't even hit one turn yet.
"Uhhh, Egor… Where are we even heading?"
"Oh, nowhere" He said it like I asked a dumb question "We're just walking for now, thought it would be good to prepare myself. It's hard for me to look sometimes…"
A large silence became apparent as he took a deep breath, "I'm guessing you want to see what the consequence is now"
Through the lights flickering I saw the end of the tunnel, a door and wall appeared out of nowhere. I almost hit face first onto it but thankfully I stopped in my tracks and asked him.
"How did-"
Egor cut me off, "Ryans contacts, that's how"
Egor stares at the door in complete silence, his breath getting heavier. After a few seconds of just breathing he finally speaks up. "I know that at this point I'm asking more for myself than you, but do you really want to know the consequences?"
"Just open the door, we'll see if it's really that bad"
He said nothing, just looking at me with guilty eyes before opening the door.