The SDD

Lorian went out of the taxi feeling restless. He instructed the driver to drop him off at the address written on the metal card yet; he looked around the area in doubt. There were no signs of life around this place. Vacant, grassy surroundings and the only building that was around was an abandoned hospital. Lorian was skeptical at first but decided to wait for that old man. He crouched down on the pavement while looking at the clear sky.

'What a turnaround,' Lorian thought as he sighed.

He still couldn't believe that his debt was paid that quickly. The surprised looks in the eyes of the mafia men were satisfying. With all the luck he had, what could ruin his day?

As he was daydreaming, a cold feminine voice called his name. "Lorian Moreno, sir Pablo is waiting for you. Follow me."

Lorian turned around to look in the direction of the voice. He saw an ice queen, pale but fair, and her beauty unparalleled. The woman continued her steps, not caring if Lorian was following her or not.

Lorian snapped back to reality and hurriedly followed the beautiful woman. They entered the abandoned hospital. You could feel the eerie air inside. It was thick, heavy, and suffocating. After walking up to the 2nd floor, a huge metal door greeted them.

The woman pushed some buttons, and a metal compartment retreated inside, revealing the other side of the metal door. Bright white light shined on their faces before dimming down a bit. Inside the metal door stood an old man wearing the same outfit he wore when he offered Lorian the job.

"I guess you already know my name, but I will still introduce myself. I am Pablo Enero, the president of SDD region V, and your employer. This is Ann, my secretary. Glad to have you on our team." Pablo Enero introduced, while Ann bowed her head.

"I am Lorian Moreno. Thank you for having me," Lorian replied and returned a bow.

After all the pleasantries, Ann went inside leaving behind Pablo and Lorian. Pablo looked at Lorian, showing his wrinkles as he smiled, "Welcome to the Supernatural Defense Department in short SDD. We are the executive department of the government that is tasked to deal with anything supernatural that is affecting the daily lives of our citizens. Be it ghosts, vampires, demons, the list goes on, we will do our best and eliminate the problems," Pablo said.

Lorian examined Pablo's face, but he didn't see any change in his expression. "Are you serious? Not to be offensive, but are you still fine in here?" Lorian asked while pointing at his head.

"Very fine. Come, let me show you. It's better to encounter it in real-time, just like the saying goes, 'to see, is to believe'," Pablo invited.

Pablo went back inside the metal door, while Lorian followed suit. After both of them came inside, the metal door clicked and closed on its own. Inside, the SDD was encompassed by bright lights. Without windows, the walls, floor, and ceiling were made of steel. The SDD looks like it was prepared for a nuclear fallout.

'Like an iron bunker,' Lorian thought.

Inside the SDD, Lorian saw Ann working alone with mountains of paperwork on her table. It looked similar to a reception center because of the two chairs before her desk. But she didn't look like she would receive any customer warmly.

"Where are the others?" Lorian curiously asked.

"There are no others. We only have 4 people working here in SDD, me, Ann, Dante, and you." Pablo replied.

"Oh, I forgot we got another employee tomorrow, so it's going to be 5," Pablo added.

Lorian looked at Pablo weirdly. "Aren't you guys part of the government? Why are you lacking in manpower?" Lorian inquired.

"We don't just hire anyone. Any normal person would become a burden if something were to happen. We need a special type of person, like you." Pablo answered.

"Me, special? Psssh," Lorian scuffed, "I'm not even athletic. How can I be called special?"

"You will know someday." Pablo confidently said.

"Huh, not saying?" Lorian probed.

Paolo only walked further to the right wall, ignoring Lorian's probing. On the wall was a metal door in red, with a label written 'Authorized Personnel Only'.

The door had a lot of security features in it, including a fingerprint and pupil scanner, a security pin code, and a thick combination lock that worked only when the right key was inserted inside it. It was more secure than all the bank vaults combined.

After doing all that troublesome thing, Pablo opened the door and went inside. The room behind the red door is a messed-up antic museum. The scent of wet wood and a drop of essential oil covered the whole room. There was a pile of old-looking books on the floor and some weird things in the corner. But Pablo did not even bat an eye or care explaining what they are, they passed by all this and went further inside.

After walking down another stair, a door awaited them. It was not that secure, unlike the first red door, only that this door had paintings like a tribal mark. Pablo placed his palm on the tribal mark and it lit up upon contact with his hands. He then pulled a piece of yellow paper and stuck it on the wall before opening it.

'Looks like a palm print scanner to me,' Lorian thought.

Pablo pushed the door open. It was still brightly lit, so bright in fact, that it looked like a white room even though the walls were colored gray.

Paolo turned to Lorian. "This is the containment room. Here, we sealed objects with supernatural attributes. If we can't eliminate them, we seal them here," he explained.

"We were just a recently created organization and only sealed 2 items. The paintings on the door and the talisman I placed on the wall were to keep anything from escaping here. Inside that room was the famous 'woman under the well' ghost known as Sadako. Have a look." Pablo instructed while pointing at the first door.

The door was covered by the same yellow paper Pablo had stuck on the wall before. At the top part of the door was a see-through glass. Lorian went and glanced through it.

The room was marked on all corners with weird symbols different from the later tribal one. It glowed and dimmed in red, a shiver-inducing sight. At the center was an old television in static. Its raspy sound leaks out of the metal-enclosed room. Weird enough, it's plugged off yet it was able to display something on its screen.

When his vision fell on the screen of the television. It shortly sparked and then changed from static into an ancient well in black and white. The visual was still and focused that it might be displaying an image, but it wasn't.

A hand popped out of the well and was followed by another hand. A woman crawled out on all fours with her thick, long black hair covering her entire face. She wore a long white dress free from stains even on the muddy ground.

She continued crawling forward until she occupied the screen. Fully revealing her figure on all fours. Her pale hand tried to claw out of the screen before it turned back to static once again.

'Phew, it must be a horror video that sir Pablo played to scare me,' Lorian thought as he breathed in relief. His neck and forehead were covered in a cold sweat.

However, on the static screen was a pale hand slipping out. Lorian looked dumbfounded at this sight, rubbing both his eyes in disbelief. But to his horror, it continued slipping out, revealing the pale woman crawling out of the tv, heading in his direction.

Lorian was perplexed by this, his eyes blinking rapidly in horror. When he looked back again, the woman now stood up, looking at him eye to eye with her cold eyes.

The woman shrieked and slammed both hands on the metal door. She kept on slamming it hard, and the room thundered.

"Aargh!" Lorian shouted while holding his chest. He was caught off guard, falling on his butt while his head was dripping in sweat.

"Don't worry, she can't leave that room," Pablo assured him.

"I-I'm… that....what." Lorian was horrified.

Pablo helped Lorian to stand back up. His knees were weak and shaking, so Pablo assisted him out of the containment room and sat him down the stairs.

"So, that was the supernatural you have been talking about?" Lorian asked.

Pablo, who once again placed his palm on the door, turned to Lorian. "More or less. Yes," he answered.

"Can I back out?" Lorian inquired.

"Unfortunately, young man, you can't," he replied. "You already signed the devil's contract. AWOL will not do you any good, you will only bring misfortune to yourself. So you better not think of escaping."

Lorian was quiet for a bit before he asked another question. "Then how do I retire? Or is this job for life?"

"You can retire, but you need to pay back all the money we spent on you, the debt, and the allowance we sent to your family, all of it." Pablo calmly answered.

"Can sir explain to me how to pay you back?" Lorian queried.

"It is really simple. You get the job done, and you will receive incentives depending on its difficulty. You will also have a daily food budget." Pablo explained.

"Oh right! Before I forget, you will live off the radar. When you sign the contract, and once it takes effect, your appearance, smell, and voice will all change. To us here in SDD, you will still look the same, but to the people outside, they will see you as a stranger. Don't worry though, for the whole month of December, your appearance will return to normal. Consider it your holiday," Pablo added.

Pablo removed the yellow paper he placed on the wall and started climbing the stairs. Lorian, who was still processing all the information he received, hurriedly stood up as he ran towards Pablo.

"Sir, please wait for me!" he shrieked.

Pablo ignored him and continued walking while forcing himself to not laugh at Lorian's reaction.