My job is watching a woman trapped in a room.

It’s not as weird as it sounds, I promise. I wasn’t the one who trapped her and it’s my job to watch her. It would be a waste of tax-payer money if multiple people were hired to do it. <br><br>I work for a secret government agency that I can only refer to as PF. I was picked for this job because I apparently have a very high threshold for what I consider ‘weird’. The interview was pretty straightforward, they showed me a few things and asked me how I felt about it. I’m not allowed to discuss what I saw, but I can say that after that, they told me I was perfect for the job. I didn’t even get to ask any questions; they just told me I had the job, handed me a folder with some instructions and that was it.<br><br>My shift starts at 6pm and ends at 10am. I work every night of the week, with a weekend off every 4 weeks. When I took the job my boyfriend and I had just broken up, so it didn’t bother me all that much. I don’t even get paid that much for the inconvenience of my work schedule, but hey, it’s better than what I made working retail right out of college. <br><br>I wasn’t allowed to know the names of my coworkers, but my colleague who does the day shift is a really nice senior citizen. I’ll call her Nancy.<br><br>Nancy is the one who trained me for the job. She’s very kind and patient, but she takes her work very seriously. The first thing she taught me was what to do in case of an emergency. <br><br>There’s a red button near the door. It’s a panic alarm that alerts PF. If I ever feel that something might be wrong, I’m to hit the red panic button. I don’t hit it for any other reason than that. It’s not a drill, it’s not a joke. If I hit the red button without good reason, I’ll be fired without pay and it might even be considered a crime. <br><br>Nancy told me that she herself had once been punished for pressing the panic button without good reason. She told me that she was caught off guard and would have rather be punished then risk something worse happening. <br><br>I asked what she meant, but she just told me that in time, I would also know when to err on the side of caution. <br><br>PF is very careful about what they tell employees about the job. I wasn’t told why I had the job in the first place. I was simply pointed to a monitor that hung from the ceiling and told to watch it. I didn’t even know what was on the monitor, or why I was watching it. <br><br>“Just watch the monitor.” Nancy said. “Ask questions if you need to. I think that’s it, we’ll train you more in the following weeks.”<br><br>My work space was a cubicle with 5 computers. Each computer had a huge monitor on it. Every single one of them was pointed at the monitor hanging from the ceiling. The room I was in was filled with identical cubicles. There was one desk where people could eat. The break room had vending machines and a fridge in case we wanted to bring our own food. There was a single bathroom in the room; male and female were the same. <br><br>The first few weeks, Nancy would explain to me what all the monitors meant. Four of them were for the cameras around her room, the main monitor showed a camera in ‘her’ room. I noticed that the cameras pointed at her room had numbers on them. Since she spends most of her time in her room, that’s what we call it. The cameras on the main monitor were labeled C1, C2, C3 and C4. There was one camera in each corner of the room. It was a small room with stone walls, a stone floor, a wooden desk, a metal bed and a metal toilet. There was a metal door. C1 was pointed at the door. <br><br>It took months for ‘her’ to even notice the cameras. <br><br>Sue is her name. She never really does anything of note. Sometimes PF employees would talk to her through speakers in the room. When that happened, I had to put on earphones. The earphones were attached to a box with a button. The button was blue. <br><br>“Do NOT press the blue button unless PF calls you and tells you to do so.” Nancy told me. “PF will only tell you to do so if things go completely wrong and there’s no other choice. Don’t even THINK about pressing the blue button unless you are absolutely told to.”<br><br>I never saw what would happen when PF talked to Sue, and I never wanted to. <br><br>Sometimes Sue would get help. When that happened, PF employees would enter her room. They were always wearing rubber suits, gas masks and rubber gloves. <br><br>Sue wasn’t a prisoner, I’m sure of that. The door wasn’t even locked. <br><br>Sue was often very confused. She didn’t seem to know where she was. Once she tried to escape. She ran to the door, but she had barely touched the handle before falling over. She started screaming and convulsing. The cameras cut out for a few minutes, but when they cut back on, PF employees in the aforementioned suits were standing next to her, carrying her away. <br><br>They never told me what happened to her after that. <br><br>In the months since then, Sue had never tried to escape again. She would often stand by the door and look at it, but she didn’t try touching it again. <br><br>I think they punished her.<br><br>Sometimes Sue would get upset. She would scream and cry and bang on the door. PF employees would come in again. They would hit her with some sort of syringe and she’d stop screaming. <br><br>Sue never really did anything else. She would read books that were left on her table. Sometimes PF employees would take her to a room that wasn’t on camera and she wouldn’t come back for hours. <br><br>Sometimes she would sit on her metal bed and just... stare. <br><br>I felt bad for her. <br><br>Nancy noticed once. She leaned in close to me and whispered something in my ear. <br><br>“You know why we call her ‘it’, right?” <br><br>I shook my head.<br><br>“She’s not human. That thing over there isn’t even close to a human being. Don’t feel bad for it.” <br><br>I wasn’t sure what to say to that. <br><br>Nancy patted my shoulder and walked away.<br><br>“That thing over there isn’t even close to a human being. Don’t feel bad for it.” <br><br>That stuck with me. <br><br>I found myself watching the cameras a lot more than the main monitor. <br><br>Something told me something was wrong. <br><br>One night, I was watching C3. Sue was in her bed, staring at the wall like she always did. I was about to give up and go back to the main monitor when I saw it. <br><br>There was something flickering on the wall. <br><br>Like a light. <br><br>I didn’t remember any lights over there. <br><br>I hit the red button. <br><br>The lights in my room flickered. I heard footsteps. A lot of footsteps. <br><br>I stood still as PF employees in gas masks came running in. They didn’t even look at me. They were floored. <br><br>One of them noticed me and came up to me.<br><br>“Thank you.” he said. “We didn’t know this was happening until you called it in. This could have ended very badly.”<br><br>I didn’t know what to say.<br><br>“Don’t worry about your job. Your contract won’t be terminated.” he said. “You did very, very good work tonight. Your job might even change because of this.”<br><br>PF employees came in and covered my monitors with sheets of paper. I was told to go home. <br><br>I never saw what happened to Sue, but the cameras flickering made me think of the flickering lights in her room. <br><br>I wonder if she did something wrong. <br><br>It’s been 3 weeks since the incident. Nobody has told me what happened, or even IF anything happened. I haven’t been allowed to work since. <br><br>I still get paid, but I’m told to stay at home. <br><br>I do, I don’t really have a choice. <br><br>Sometimes I think back to the job interview. <br><br>They told me that I had a high threshold for weird. <br><br>That I would get used to whatever PF would throw at me. <br><br>I wonder if they were right. <br><br>I wonder what Sue is. <br><br>I wouldn’t mind finding out. <br><br>I’m not weirded out anymore. <br><br>I wonder what other secrets I would be able to uncover if I ever got the chance to look. <br><br>And I wonder if I’ll ever get that chance.