The Powers That Be

By David Anthony Brown

Jessica Wyatt imagines many weird things. Her last day job as a game designer required it.

 

The current day job? No so much.

 

Just another day in the cubicle farm with an upside down name-tag and a headset digging into her scalp. Until Jess receives a call from the other side of reality.

 

And then her new day job became weird.

 

A riveting inter-dimensional science fiction adventure story, be sure to read The Powers That Be.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hermit Muse Publishing
• Release date: Feb 19, 2021
• ISBN: 9781393144106

Book preview

Chapter One

Jessica Wyatt imagined many weird things. Dragons with Valkyries for pets. Titans roaming the streets of Manhattan. Ghosts that came back from the other side of the river Styx. It's what she did in her former dream job as a content creator for a board game company—make up weird stuff that could be packaged and sold for profit.

Jess never imagined anything as weird as her current day job of necessity.

Already one hour in and her headset dug into her scalp like a pair of skinny fingers squeezing her brain out of her ears. The desk was too high for her and the chair squeaked with every little movement of her butt, her bare feet dangling a couple inches off the ground. The cubicle walls seemed dangerously low. Jess kept thinking one of the five co-workers on either side of her might pop their head up and say something to her. Thankfully, they kept the chitter-chatter to a minimum beyond introducing themselves a bit too politely and hunkering back down into their own cubicles.

Except for Matt MacIntyre, who pointed out her upside-down name-tag before shaking her hand gently and telling her that he was the office veteran of not-quite one year. With politeness out of the way, Jess slunk lower into her chair and busied herself with a fast game of spider solitaire while waiting for the first client to come on the line.

She didn't even get to finish the game.

She tugged at the hem of her navy blue suit skirt, crossed her legs and uncrossed them again, and settled in for the first call of the first day. She already regretted taking off her matching blue blazer, thinking wrongly she'd be uncomfortably hot while talking on the phone all day. The chilly air conditioning prickled her bare arms with goosebumps. The sateen pink blouse was not enough to keep her torso warm. Jess wished like hell she'd worn pantyhose. Not like the low-heeled Mary Janes kicked off to one side under desk were going to keep her toes warm.

Coffee from the snack bar just outside her cubicle constantly drip-drip-dripped, like a beat from the metronome her piano teacher used to have. Every few minutes, somebody's shuffling feet would add to the beat, or a woman's high heels would go clickity-clack on the black and white tiles, and then with fresh coffee in hand the office bee would shuffle off again back to their cubicle in the hive. It reminded Jess a little too much of Zombie Hive Mind, a d20 game she developed just before Midas Gold Games went bankrupt. Which also happened to be right before the holidays. And in the middle of the breakup with her boyfriend.

She missed the job with a quiet pining that ached a little too much in the early morning darkness before she had to roll out of bed. That job was gone forever and not coming back no matter how much she wished otherwise. The boyfriend was just gone, and good riddance. Jeremy lived in another state now, hadn't said goodbye, and wasn't worth the hassle of calling. Too much drama for no fun in bed.

Never mind the lack of emotional support or