An Offer You Can't Refuse!

The door behind him slammed shut. Sweat poured down from his brow.

I almost accidentally did pee my pants. What on earth, Lisa? I mean, I did hate her but not enough to kill her. Apparently, someone else did? How the heck did she end up here? Questions swirled like tornadoes in my head.

Out stepped the woman with the glasses who had interviewed him.

“Hello Liam! Welcome to your first day of work!”

She casually sidestepped around the awkward shape of the body on the floor, as if the body was just a pile of fall leaves.

“What happened to her?”

“Um. Well, out with the old, in with the new, as they always say.” She paused and looked at him with a wide grin. Don’t you get it? You’re here… to replace her!”

Shivers went down his spine.

Suddenly, I thought about my old job at the paralegal office. Was it really so boring? Gosh, yes. It was agonizing. There was nothing to see but stacks of files all day. To make matters worse, the legal team I worked with were always grumpy and humorless. I could only hide in the bathroom for so long before they became even grouchier.

“Before we get started, want a coffee?”

The red door, still ajar, opened outwards. Two men in black clothing came out and picked up the body like it was a rag doll. They thrust her into a body bag. Clearing the doorway, they disappeared through another door towards the back of the building.

“Yes, a coffee would be great.” Even though I was still profusely sweating and my heart was beating faster than a drumroll on speed.

She disappeared and then reappeared with a coffee in hand for him.

“Now, to the vault!”

A familiar squeak split the silence as she led the way through the red door...

Her voice... he thought.

"Whose voice was that anyway, before I came in?"

"It was mine! Did you like it? It's my voice altering system!"

He stayed cautiously silent.

Creepy, I thought...

Most people would have likely tried to run away from what appeared to be a crime scene but something kept him darkly intrigued.

“Memes. Your in-person assignment is to create a meme that goes viral within 24 hours.”

“My phone…” I started.

“Doesn’t have signal… Yes, you’ll be provided with a laptop with lots of software to create your memes.”

The vault was darkly lit with a low ceiling that felt like it was about to cave in and crush everything at any given moment.

“After you finish the meme, you will email it to me. I will have it posted on various platforms and sites. If it becomes viral, you’ll get a paycheck.”

“How much are we talking?”

She took on a serious expression and then smirked.

“Oh, it’ll be worth it.”

With a small flick of her hair, she disappeared. Sitting down at a small desk, he opened the laptop.

Think, think, think. No pressure. Create a meme that gets people’s attention. She hadn’t given any real parameters. This is so vague!

The vault room smelled like very stale Ritz crackers.

Finding a few different types of software on the laptop desktop, he tried brainstorming. Stopping the typing for a moment, his finger was still sore from the bright red flower that had drawn blood.

That’s it! I started designing a flower meme that looked like the flower that I had seen outside of the warehouse.

The flower was a cross between a blanket and a fancy coffin. Out of the flower petals was a droopy face of a miniature woman who was dead. Her pointer finger hung outside of the flower, dripping a string of blood that spelled the words 𝓔𝓼𝓬𝓪𝓹𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓥𝓪𝓾𝓵𝓽 in cursive handwriting.

Looking at the time, several hours had gone by. It was now 1:37 a.m. He emailed the final version of the meme to the woman. A few moments later she appeared.

“Now, we wait 24 hours to see if it becomes viral.”

He turned to get up and leave.

“So, you want me back in 24 hours?”

“Part of the contract is that you have to stay here, until we find out if the meme becomes viral. I’ll show you where you’ll stay until we see the results."

Body still shaking, wondering what on earth was going to happen with the meme, he laid down on an uncomfortable primitive bed in a room that she'd led him to.

Is this what solitary confinement was like?

After a couple more hours of lying in silence, he finally fell asleep from exhaustion.

The next thing I knew, the sound of a fire alarm jolted me awake in a panic. Wait, that wasn't a fire alarm, it was a siren.

Bang, bang, bang on the door. In came three policemen. One softly whispered...

You're under arrest for the suspected murder of Lisa O'Connor.

He looked down at the dried blood on his finger from the red flower and cringed at the horrible mess he was in.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Author's Note:

Well, folks, that’s a wrap for Part 3 of "An Offer You Can't Refuse!"

The next chapter, will be written by a shining-star-of-a-writer named Sk parihar. Why is Liam getting framed? Will the meme become viral or was it all just part of the plan to frame him? Are the cops real?

Stay tuned! What on earth is going to happen now?

Below is Sk parihar's profile so you can read part four!

If you haven’t read the first part by Komal, then you definitely need to read the first part via the link below:

Part two is written by the wonderful Maryam Batool and to read it, follow the link below: