Chapter One: The Beginning That Told Me Everything
I applied for this job as a temp, never imagining it would become a chapter that tested every ounce of my patience and my faith in people.
The application itself felt like an encyclopedia. They wanted everything my first, middle, and last name, date of birth, every address I’d lived at for what felt like half a century, background checks, drug tests, fingerprinting. I remember thinking, am I applying for a job or being sentenced for a crime I don’t know about?
Still, I went through it. After weeks of waiting, I got the call: I was hired. I showed up to take my work photo for the ID an ID I was told must remain on the property at all times, like it belonged to them more than to me.
On my first day, they handed me my badge and a time card and told me where to go. The place had a buzz to it busy, but not alive. I was paired with a “veteran,” someone who’d been there long enough to know the unspoken rules. They showed me how things worked or rather, how things were supposed to work.
I did everything asked of me, eager to make a good impression. But it didn’t take long to notice the pattern. The veterans, the ones who’d been there since what felt like 1800 B.C., had perfected an art form: letting the newbies do the heavy lifting while they lingered in corners, chatting, gossiping, or taking extended breaks as if time itself owed them something.
I remember thinking, Oh, so that’s how this goes. Noted.
And that was just the surface just the friendly smile before the truth showed its teeth.
I kept working, juggling a second job since this one was supposed to be temporary, but I started to realize there was nothing “temporary” about the kind of control this place had over people. The longer I stayed, the clearer it became: this wasn’t just a job. It was a system a hierarchy built on favoritism, nepotism, and cliques that ruled like kingdoms behind invisible walls.
That was only the beginning. I didn’t know it then, but the walls around me had no windows for a reason.
Because what happens inside… isn’t meant to be seen.