If there was a more boring way to get through a work day than having to sit through yet another required meeting that didn’t pertain to her department, Katrina didn’t know what it was. All she needed was a brief glance down the listed agenda items to know that there was no reason for her to be brought into the meeting. Unfortunately, the general manager, Carl, seemed to always want all of the various department heads at these meetings, even though he only ever needed a couple of them at a time. Still, a meeting where she didn’t need to participate was, in some respects, better than a meeting where she had to be heavily involved. Katrina hated having to talk face to face with people and much preferred handling things over email. The shipping department, for which she was the department head of, was managed almost entirely over email and she liked it that way.

While Carl discussed the agenda items with the two people he actually needed, most of the other department heads in the room tried to look involved while simultaneously trying to check the updates on their phones from their subordinates. Katrina on the other hand, pulled out her notepad and began to doodle. Her assistant, Andrew, could handle things for the couple hours she’d be gone and so she let her imagination spill out onto the page. Sometimes she drew portraits of her coworkers, other times she drew a sketch of the room she was in, and sometimes she just let her hand move across the page. Today was one of those more free form doodle days, she only glancing down every once in a while to make sure she wasn’t straying off the page, and didn’t pay any attention to what it actually was that she was drawing.

Most of her free form drawings were nothing more than swirls and rough shapes, though a few times there were clear signs of intention and form. While she drew, her mind similarly wandered. There was nothing particularly pressing on her mind that day. The last set of shipments had come and gone without a hitch, and her method of slipping her extrapackages into and out of those deliveries was also proceeding without a hitch. The little side income she was making was a welcome addition since there was no telling when Carl would see fit to grace her with pay raise, even though most of the other department heads seemed to be getting regular annual pay raises. He didn’t seem to care that she had slashed her department’s inefficiencies, saving the company tens of thousands of dollars each year, not to mention that she had been able to do that even after he’d cut her department’s payroll allowance, forcing her to have to lay off almost a quarter of her staff.

HE DOESN’T APPRECIATE YOUR TALENT FOR GETTING THINGS DONE, a strange and reverberating voice spoke inside her mind.

Katrina froze in her seat, shocked by the voice. No one else in the room seemed to have heard it though, and so she kept quiet about it. The last thing she wanted was to stand out and have to begin explaining herself to everyone in the room, particularly since she would have to be explaining that she had just heard a strange voice in her head.

YOU MUST BE TIRED OF HIS DISRESPECT FOR YOU,the voice spoke again.

Katrina shut her eyes briefly and made sure to keep her breathing even. She allowed herself a brief stretch and tried to find something else, anything else, to focus on besides the voice. When she reopened her eyes she looked down to her notepad to see what she had been drawing. That was usually a nice distraction.

The page was almost totally blacked out from the crisscrossing lines she’d drawn, but even still there was a form, something organic looking with bends and curves that hinted at an anatomy.

I’VE BEEN WATCHING YOU FOR SOME TIME NOW, the voice said, and as it spoke the shapes on her notepad seemed to shift and move as though it were a creature in the dark, prowling back and forth. She could see its mouth now, moving as the voice spoke to her. I THINK I CAN HELP YOU, it told her.

I’ve lost my mind,Katrina thought to herself.

NO YOU HAVEN’T,the voice replied, AND I WILL PROVE MYSELF TO YOU, IF YOU WOULD LIKE.

How? Katrina thought

YOU WANT OUT OF THIS MEETING, YES?

Yes.

At once, the fire alarm in the building went off. Everyone in the room started as the alarm blared and for a moment they all looked at one another in confusion before Carl waved for them to get up.

“Meeting adjourned, I guess,” he said, and then added, “Hopefully it’s a false alarm.”

Katrina stowed away her notepad and hurried out along with everyone else. They were up on the fifth floor and, with the elevators being automatically shut down from the fire alarm, they made their way to the nearest set of stairs.

USE THE OTHER STAIRS, the voice instructed her.

Katrina was already at the back of the group and so it was easy for her to slip away unnoticed and head towards the opposite corner of the floor where the other set of stairs were located.

What am I doing? She wondered to herself, halting in her tracks and taking a serious look at her actions. I’m obeying some strange voice in my head! Why?

BECAUSE I CAN HELP YOU, the voice replied.

“I wasn’t talking to you!” Katrina hissed and then looked around suddenly to make sure no one was nearby to have heard her.

YOU ARE ALONE HERE, the voice assured her.

Katrina pinched the bridge of her nose and squeezed her eyes shut.

“Who are you?” she asked.

YOU LACK THE CONTEXT AND EXPERIENCE REQUIRED TO COMPREHEND THE ANSWER TO THAT QUESTION.

“Well I make it a rule not to work with anyone I don’t know,” Katrina stated, resuming her march towards the stairs.

She was still heading towards the staircase the voice had directed her to take, but that was mostly due to the fact that it was now the nearer of the two and she did want to get out just in case there really was a fire. There was no telling what the cause might be considering the unknown nature of the voice.

FOR YOU TO COME TO UNDERSTAND WHAT I AM WOULD REQUIRE YOU TO LET ME WORK WITH YOU.

“And you’ll just help me out of the goodness of your heart?”

I DON’T HAVE A HEART, AS SUCH,the voice replied, AND NO, OURS WOULD BE A RELATIONSHIP OF GIVE AND TAKE.

“Hmm, yeah that sounds about like what I expected,” Katrina told it. “You get me a raise and in exchange you take my soul or something?”

NOT AT ALL, the voice said and there was almost a hint of laughter to it this time. I DEAL IN ACTS, NOT SOULS.

Katrina reached the staircase and, looking up and down the winding ways both above and below, knew that she was alone. What was more she didn’t smell any smoke and so she sat herself down on the landing so she could finish her conversation without interruption.

“What sort of acts are we talking about here?” Katrina asked. “I’m not killing anyone.”

I ASSURE YOU,the voice said, NOTHING I ASK OF YOU WOULD BE THAT FAR FROM WHAT YOU WOULD CONSIDER COMFORTABLE.

“Right,” Katrina said though she hardly believed or yet trusted the voice. “Though I expect that once I agree to work with you I would have no choice but to do whatever you asked?”

NO, YOU WILL ALWAYS MAINTAIN YOUR AGENCY TO ACT OR TO NOT ACT. JUST AS I WILL ALWAYS RETAIN MY AGENCY TO HELP YOU OR NOT. BUT AS LONG AS OUR RELATIONSHIP REMAINS BENEFICIAL TO US BOTH, I DON’T SEE WHY EITHER OF US WOULD REFUSE THE OTHER.

“So then what is it that you need of me?”

FOR NOW, the voice said, I NEED YOU TO GROW A PLANT FOR ME.

“A plant?” Katrina said, doubtful. “Is it poisonous?”

NO, AND NEITHER WILL IT CAUSE ANY HARM TO YOURSELF OR ANYONE ELSE.

“Why not just grow it yourself?”

THERE ARE CERTAIN THINGS THAT I CAN DO THAT, TO ME, ARE INCREDIBLY SIMPLE AND YET, TO YOU, SEEM MIRACULOUS. SO IT IS THAT THERE ARE CERTAIN THINGS THAT YOU CAN DO WHICH I AM INCAPABLE OF DOING.

“You can’t grow plants?”

NO.

It was ridiculous. Probably the most ridiculous thing she’d ever heard of, but at the same time, she was curious to see where this would all lead.

“So there’s no, like, contract I have to sign?” Katrina asked. “No blood oath or dark ritual I have to do to agree to this?”

NO, the voice responded, AS I SAID, I AM NOT LIKE THE BEINGS YOU ARE IMAGINING ME TO BE.

“And so every time I do something for you, you’ll do something for me?”

THAT IS THE NATURE OF THE RELATIONSHIP I AM OFFERING.

“But what if I ask you for something you can’t do?”

IT IS UNLIKELY THAT ANYTHING YOU DESIRE WILL BE BEYOND MY ABILITIES TO FULFILL, HOWEVER, JUST AS YOU ARE FREE TO REFUSE ANY OF MY REQUESTS, SO TOO AM I FREE TO REFUSE. IN THOSE INSTANCES WE MAY DISCUSS ALTERNATE ACTS FOR THE OTHER TO PERFORM.

Katrina mulled it over in her mind for some time. She couldn’t see any drawbacks. If things ever got too weird she would just stop, and in the mean time she wouldn’t mind getting a few things crossed off on her wish list.

“Fine then,” she said. “I’ll grow you a plant. Will any plant do or is there something specific you have in mind?”

THE PLANT IS ALREADY GROWING IN YOUR YARD, the voice said. IT IS THE ONLY OF ITS KIND THAT YOU WILL SEE THERE. IT IS SHORT, WITH DARK PURPLE FLOWERS. DIG IT UP FROM YOUR YARD AND PLACE IT INTO A POT, JUST AS YOU WOULD ANY OTHER FLOWER.

Katrina, who did enjoy a bit of flower gardening anyway, thought she knew what flower the voice was speaking of. She’d noticed it the other day and been curious about it since she didn’t recognize it as any other flower she’d seen before, but hadn’t had the time to look it up.

“Okay then, anything else I should know about it?”

YES,the voice answered her. ONLY FEED IT CURDLED MILK.

Katrina paused. That was indeed an odd request, but not so strange that she thought she ought to refuse.

YOU SHOULD LEAVE THE BUILDING NOW, the voice announced. YOU WILL BE MISSED IF YOU LINGER HERE MUCH LONGER.

Katrina agreed and she hurried down the stairs, though she couldn’t help but wonder whether the voice had hurried her along because it wanted her to avoid suspicion or if it didn’t want her thinking too long about its request. At the same time, she wondered how much of her thoughts were open to it and even if any of her thoughts were private anymore. She didn’t want to dwell on that for very long though and so she set herself to thinking about the new plant she was going to be taking care of and how to avoid stinking up her entire house with the scent of curdled milk. She hoped the plant would grow quickly and that she wouldn’t have to deal with it for very long.