Hi, I (17m) and my friend (16m), Emilio, have recently gotten into some hot water. It was an autumn night like any other to be honest, we wanted some action; something exciting! So we did what any teen would do in this circumstance: we looked for a place to explore around us. Our quick search online led us to an abandoned warehouse. When I was looking at the place online it didn’t connect to any company, all it had shown up as on google maps was “warehouse”.
Emilio and I got there at about 10 at night, neither of our parents really cared how long we stayed out, just that we told them our location every hour on the dot. The warehouse was huge, its frame looming over us. Plants and ivy grew up its side but despite this it seemed like it was being taken care of well. I approached the entrance, or at least the first one I saw which was a large sliding door. I put my hand on the handle and pulled it open. It slid across the tracks with an elongated sickening creak that echoed through the factory floor. I turned to Emilio and smiled: “After you.” I told him as I cockily bowed. In response he bowed back “Of course my liege.”
We walked through the factory, our footsteps echoing throughout the facility. We scanned the many conveyors and large circular containers around us before Emilio shouted “Hey! Right there, lets check that out!” He pointed to a door that stated “Employees Only” in large red block letters. I shrugged my shoulders and allowed him to take the lead. The door was unlocked and we both waltzed in and were met with room after room of offices. We went down the hallway as if we were at the grocery store, gazing at each room hoping to find something. As we kept scanning I saw something out of the corner of my eye; a pale blue light coming from one of the rooms. I looked at Emilio.
“You check it out.” I told him, “No, you check it out.” He responded. Our tones were like that of two siblings trying to decide which one of them is going to break the news about the broken window. Finally after a few back and forths Emilio put his hands up in defeat and began to approach the office. He put one foot forward, then another, until his face was washed in the light blue light. His face scrunched up as he scanned the large office window before his face turned to curiosity, then horror, then he let out a scream in quick succession.
I ran to the office and looked in to be met with the corpse of a man hunched over the desk. His slack jaw hang open as his long rotten eyes stared at the monitor of the computer. When my brain registered this I also screamed out. I fumbled for my phone, quickly snapping a picture then dialing up the police. I explained the situation quickly and in less than 20 minutes they arrived and we were escorted home.
As soon as my eyes were open the next day I called up Emilio. We talked some but neither of us really had much to say. The next time I saw him was at school the following day. He seemed unbothered by what we found so I tried to act like nothing happened, but really? I couldn’t. I couldn’t get the image of that man’s face out of my head, staring at the screen for who knows how long. I’m still confused on how he even died in that position. I was lost in thought that day at school but something Emilio said shook me out of it. It was during lunch; we were hanging out with all of our friends and he quickly mentioned that he was going to be donating a kidney tomorrow. We were all shocked, none of us knew about this. He claimed that he had forgotten to tell us but I heard a tinge of unease in his voice and that unease slowly planted itself firmly in my head.
He came back the day after his surgery. No down time, no rest, no nothing; just back to school as if he was never cut open. This weird vigor didn’t stop him from showing off his scar to everyone. Things were mostly back to normal from then on, until a few weeks later when Emilio came to school after thanksgiving break. I sat at my desk waiting for him to come in. He had stopped walking to school with me a week prior so I had no idea what had happened to him.
My nose was in a book and once I heard some commotion from the others I looked up to see Emilio. One of his legs were gone, and an eyepatch covered his left eye. His right was bloodshot and his hair was a mess. His skin was that of a sickly pale phantom and all he could manage to speak was a slurred; “Hey guys…” as he bounced to his desk with the support of crutches.
That school day took an eternity to end, but once it did I immediately approached Emilio. “Hey, dude what’s going on with you?” I asked in a worried tone. He simply responded “I have a really good employment opportunity, that’s really all.” And before I could say anything else he hopped away to his mothers car.
Emilio died the next week. His mother had me come over to take some of his stuff, she didn’t want to remember her son as he was. I went through his room up and down and as I was going through a stack of papers something jumped out at me. An opened red envelope with a letter sticking out of it. I grabbed it and opened it; all that it read was: “Congrats! You have been selected!”
My hands were shaky as I looked at the envelope more, my eyes racing towards the address. It was the same one as the warehouse. I read the letter over and over again, hoping each time that there would be something different. But there wasn’t. I quickly finished what I was doing and left Emilio’s house and made my way home, and as I ran up the stairs a familiar hue of red stuck out of my mailbox, and the feeling of generosity washed over me.