One year before he met Laura, Sam was working for the local electric company during his free time. He just recently arrived in Montgof city for his studies. His job was checking the electric meters of different client houses and reporting them back to the company. Not really a fun job, but for a nerd like Sam, any first job related to electronics in some way or another was the best he could hope for.
One day, his job sent him to an old house at the west border of the city. This part of the city is by far the poorest part of the town. Most public service like police or bus was at is minimum, and therefore, was the place where gangs were the most active.
Sam was aware of the situation, but that didn't prevent him from going to the place in question. He managed to find his way through the old market despite the lack of bus line and arrived in front of an old house with a white wall and a blue roof. The place is on the very border of the city, isolated, and pretty quiet.
Sam knocked at the door but not too hard since he was afraid of punching through the creaking wood. He heard a voice coming from the inside, it was hard to understand what it was saying, but it felt pretty annoying. The door suddenly opened and Sam was now facing an intimidating hyena guy.
The guy was far taller than Sam, and visibly, he wasn't aware of why Sam just came to his place. He stared at Sam from foot to head, trying to guess what his job was
Hyena man: "You're here to sell some kind of scam?"
S: "Hum no, I'm just here for your electric meter, sir."
H: "What, it was today?"
He face-palms himself, looks inside then back at Sam multiple times. Visibly he wasn't happy at all about this news.
H: "Ok, stand here while I check it for you. Which number do you need?"
S: "Well... I don't think you can do it for me."
H: "I don't see the problem, I gonna give you the number and then you leave me alone."
S: "But hum... how can I be sure you will not give me a fake number to reduce your bill?"
H: "So what, you think that gives you the right to come into my home without my permission."
S: "Sorry to inform you, but that is part of your contract, sir."
A disturbing noise of teeth grinding against each other came from the hyena's mouth. Sam took a step back, considering agreeing to the hyena's proposition, but before he say anything, he started imagining what his superior will do to him if he came back with a fake number... And his boss was scarier than this guy.
H: "Gimme a minute"
He slammed the door, hard enough for a big chunk of paint to fall off. Sam took a step back when it happen. Inside, he could hear the hyena guy talking to someone else. The discussion was visibly pretty tense.
A few minutes later the door opened, and now they were two hyenas in the entry corridor of the house. The second one big significantly smaller than the other one, but he looked as angry and vicious.
Hyena Man 2: "We gonna lead you to the meter, you take your measurements and you go back out."
S: "Ok, that work for me." Sam said trying to look more friendly in an attempt to lower the tension.
He entered the house and felt immediately the hand of the taller hyena in his back pushing him forward. Sam was terrorized, but he still thought it was better than failing at his job. and he knew that if anything happen to him, the company will not wait long before sending the police here.
The hyena took Sam through the house, directly to a door that led them to a garden behind the house. The garden was surrounded by a barrier made of a stone base and a steel grid on top of it. But Sam isn't took more time to look at the place, the Hyena behind him push to the right, where the meter was located.
Next to the meter, there was a half-open door leading to the basement. Quickly, the smaller Hyena ran to the door and kick into it to shut it close. It was so violent the door broke and start sliding away from its place. The small hyena looks back at his mate visibly stressed. Sam felt the big hyena behind shoving him straight to the meter.
H1: "That's none of your business, just do your job and move on."
S: "Hey calm down, I'm just here for the meter"
H1: "Act fast then."
Sam had no idea what was in that basement, but he knew this had nothing to do with his job. so he just focused on the meter despite the stress. it took it a few dozen seconds to do his job, he then turn back to the big guy.
S: "All good, now I can..."
Sam was interrupted by the door slamming on the ground. But before he could watch toward it, the big hyena lift him from the ground and took it back to the entry.
H1: "That's it, you have your info, now time to leave."
Sam was thrown out of the house and heard the door slam behind him. He shook off the dust from his clothes as he recover from his fall. Despite what just happened, he felt relieved that finally left the place... Until he realize that he forgot his phone in.
Sam froze for a second, he was not seeing himself going back to ask them if he could get his stuff back. Before doing anything, Sam took a moment to go around the house in an attempt to peak at the garden behind the house though it was the barrier.
And as expected, his phone was there just under the meter and next to this creepy basement door which was still down, but it was too dark inside to see anything. Sam took a moment to think about the situation, His phone wasn't that far from the barrier border, and there was no window close to it either. If he could just climb above the barrier, he could take back his phone and get out in less than a minute.
Just to be sure, Sam waited 15 minutes to see if the hyena were coming back into the garden, and they didn't. Sam jumps above the stone base of the barrier and starts climbing the steel grid. Since he was a pretty bad climber, it took around 15 seconds to pass the barrier and land in the garden. He walked toward his phone but then... he heard a voice getting closer from inside the house.
Sam turn around before he could reach his phone and then realize that he probably won't have time to climb the fence. Trapped here, in the empty garden, he runs instinctively jump to the darkest place to hide... inside the basement.
Thankfully, the stair going down behind the door was made out of clay and were quiet... and that was the only good news for Sam. He reaches the room at the bottom totally filled with darkness. Unable to see anything, Sam moved to the side to not be visible from the outside.
He then heard the voice of the small hyena guy outside talking to the other one.
H2: "...Yeah, yeah no need to harass me on that. Not like he saw her anyway. Look I'm about to fix the door anyway."
The last Beam of light coming into the room through the door disappeared. The hyena outside just replace the door and was actively repairing it. Meaning Sam was locked here for a moment. But right now, Sam was wondering "What was he talking about? Who is "her"?". Eventually, the noise stopped and the hyena spoke again.
H2: "That will hold on until 8 pm, and after they came to pick her up it's no longer our problem."
Sam heard the guy moving away, he was now locked inside. But the one thing disturbing him right now was, who is "her"? To add to his questionning, he realized that since the hammer noise stopped, they where some kind of machine noise comming form the basement.
Searching on the wall with his hand, Sam managed to find a light switch, he turned it on and was finally able to see what was in the room. He turn around and froze upon realizing, someone was in the room all along.