THE MOMENT
"Hello, Ms. Rogers," Phoenix smiled at the teenager sitting in his office. He sat behind his desk and ran a hand through his dark red hair and unbuttoned the top button of his white coat as he settled in. "Thank you for coming in today, what can Sharp Development do for you?"
"I want to turn myself in," Rhonda replied. She sat up straight and kept her chin up as she met Phoenix's red, almost translucent eyes. Phoenix grinned at her.
"This isn't a police station; have you done something wrong?" he asked.
"I'm a Unique Soul," Rhonda replied. She placed both hands on the desk with the palms facing each other. "#33, La Arana," she added as several small green spiders crawled out of her right palm and crossed the table to enter her left palm. "I don't want any trouble for my family or anyone. I want to turn myself in peacefully," she said.
"I'll ask again, why?" Phoenix asked.
"Everyone knows Sharp Development is always looking for Unique Souls," she said. "That's why your company sponsors the Ritual every year, right? The last Unique you found disappeared..."
"I suppose there's some truth to that," Phoenix nodded. "But, we're not villains about it," he chuckled. "I take it you participated in the Ritual and discovered you were Unique?" he asked. Rhonda nodded silently.
"Let me tell you how it normally works," he said. "A week or two after the Ritual, I'll get around to going through the paperwork. Your profile was probably marked as Unique. I'll meet everyone that was Unique individually and offer them a position with Sharp Development. It is entirely optional, however, the offer is quite good. If you choose not to work with us you're free to remain here with your family; if you choose to join us your family is more than welcome to relocate with you."
"Doing what?" Rhonda asked.
"I'm sorry?" Phoenix wasn't sure what she was referring to.
"You're looking for Unique Souls to work with you, what would I be doing? Would it be enough to support my family?"
"Money won't be a concern for you or your family," Phoenix nodded. "And, Sharp Development has quite a few divisions to choose from. I'm sure you'll be able to find a job you enjoy doing."
"If it's just a job, why did the last Unique Soul disappear?" Rhonda wanted to believe Phoenix. She already did, except for a single doubt. And she asked the question mostly with the hope that he had an answer she could trust.
"Sharp Development is quite a large company with branches on alternate Earths," Phoenix said. "If I remember the last Unique I recruited from here, they chose to live on another Earth. If you join the company I can put you in contact with them if you like," Phoenix added.
"Alternate Earths are real!?"
"As I said," Phoenix nodded. "The offer to join Sharp Development is quite good."
"And this is a real offer, right?" Rhonda was asking solely for her own piece of mind. Even if it wasn't, he wouldn't give her the truth. "You're not going to experiment or study on me, or anything, right?" Phoenix chuckled and shook his head.
"Ms. Sharp has already learned everything there is to know about Unique Souls, there would be no point in doing any of that. You're much more useful as an actual employee we can give work to," he winked.
"Phew...okay," Rhonda relaxed. "Okay, I want to join, what do I do?" Phoenix placed a red translucent clipboard on his desk. It was loaded with a white sheet and he slid it across to her along with a red pen.
"I'll just need you to sign your soul over to the company."