Hoot Knew?

Deals with demons, bargains with fairies, contracts work with strigans, all of these require reading the fine print before one throws themselves at something that they might come to regret in the long run. Desperation breeds rash decisions and that's what makes these transactions all the more powerful and dangerous like they were fish, ensnared by the temptation of a fishing line. Not many people are known to have wised up to the sweet talk of these beings and gotten out of these dealings with their souls, hearts, or other things they valued still intact.

Members of the Bat Wing Society have had to help a few of these victims of otherworldly scams and advise them on how they can get out of their predicaments. Being witches that have seen the troubles of the normal folk, they have heard many a tragic tale of how they were desperate to get into these dealings for money or the love of their family that they got in knee-deep with them rather than go home empty-handed. Only one person they aided was able to get out of a scam before it got to where it would result in the loss of her identity and everything she held dear. This was Amity Vibida of Pondview.

Amity had been laid off from a job that she worked at for nearly a decade and was trying to look for a job that was related to her degree in animation. The problem was that her portfolio took time and effort to update and the work she did wasn't providing money to help her mom support the family's finances. She spent day after day, hour after hour, looking for jobs related to her degree, as well as jobs that would be an interim job to allow her to get by financially until she got her dream job. She had faced many, many rejections not because she wasn't good enough, but because of how she has to compete with veterans with more experience than her and any of the peers she had in her graduating class. She had to pivot to something else with how she knew that the animation career would result in burnout and no one in her year actually got jobs as animators. She still had to get some work for the interim even with this revelation.

One day, she applied for a job that would involve doing data entry with pay that seemed too good to be true, but she needed to apply for it if it meant being able to contribute to the funds her family needed to stay afloat. She applied for it, gave the application her phone number, and went to bed.

During the night, she awoke to an unusual sight: a cute fairy owl with purple lighting to it.

Amity asked, "What are you?"

The owl replied, "I am Sigon. You are Amity Vibida, the one who applied for the data entry job online, right?"

Amity nodded and asked, "What do you want?"

Sigon explained, "My master wants to offer you a job. He thinks you might be a good fit for it if you're willing to accept it."

Amity said, "I thought there would be a proper interview, by day."

Sigon explained, "Not with this job, I'm afraid. Hoo hoo hoo! Tell me a little bit about yourself."

Amity reluctantly stated, "I'm Amity Vibida. I graduated from college as an animation major, but I want a job that'll help me get by until I can get my foot in the door of the animation industry."

Sigon explained, "Tell me, Amity, can you work in English, type 70 words a minute, and be able to do the hours you need to from the master?"

Amity blinked at this blunt question, unnerved at the fact the owl didn't hear a word about her story relating to why she wanted the job. It was almost like she was getting an interview on the spot. She genuinely hoped that she would be able to prepare better for an interview for a job that responded so suddenly. She muttered, "You're better than this..."

Unsure of how to respond to this, she reluctantly said, "I think I can."

Sigon said, "Wonderful! You'll be able to work for us after all! So here's how this job will go down..."

Amity then said, "Wait, maybe we should think about this for a second? Actually, see if I'm really qualified to work with you?"

Sigon said, "Oh no, my dear. You won't be working with me; I'm merely a recruiter for your true mast... I mean supervisor. Hoo hoo hoo hoo!"

Amity was unnerved by how confident this creature was in roping her into a job. The fact she was conversing with a talking owl fairy was unnerving in and of itself, but with how confident she seemed at talking to her in the middle of the night about this job she just applied for made the cuteness of the owl seem artificial.

Amity asked again, "Shouldn't we be doing like a proper interview? I don't think I can give you straight answers, considering what time it is and also how sudden you and your... Master... Responded to my application?"

Sigon said, "This job can't wait on you to be ready; we want someone as quickly as we find them. You know what you people say? The early bird gets the worm! Hoo hoo hoo hoo!"

Amity was frightened as Sigon proceeded with this question, "Are you willing to sign this contract with your name, credit card, and date of birth? You have to answer quickly!"

At this point, Amity had to yell, "No, I don't want this job anymore! Get out of here! Get out, you dumb owl!"

Amity threw a pillow at the owl, causing her to become big, black, and monstrous, with rows of teeth in her mouth, and before long, bellowed, "You will not back out of this job so easily, Ms. Vibida!"

Amity woke up, having cried in her sleep, and was panicked about the dream, as she saw a text in her phone that said: "You will not back out of this job, Amity. You're too good of a catch for us to just let go back into the water of the mortal plane."

She had to look up fictional owls, and came across an article on strigans, demonic owls of ill omen that fed on the weak-minded mortals that were down on their luck and would take on the appearance and identity of the humans they fed on to find more prey to consume. They are very persistent in their hunts for prey they desired, but only came out at night, much like normal owls. She knew that she was unsafe considering how the owls knew her phone number, where she lived, and that they come out at night, so she needed to seek help.

She looked up and went to various bookstores in town, all while feeling like she was being watched. Eventually, she came across a Bat Wing Society store, run by Miss Foxglove, who saw Amity come into her store, looking very rattled, and knew that something was bothering her at that moment. She walked up to the girl and asked, "Is there anything I can do to help you, Miss?"

Amity looked at Miss Foxglove and told her everything that had happened from applying for a job to seeing Sigon at night, warding her off when she refused a contract, and then looking up what strigans were. Miss Foxglove has had her share of cleaning up messes related to demons causing problems for people. She knew that the sooner she can help this girl, the better her chances were at escaping the strigans unscathed.

Miss Foxglove then told her, "You've come to the right place, my dear. We don't much time to waste if you want to get out of the claws of the owls."

The woman put the sign that the store was closed and then led Amity into a backroom in the shop. She then explained, "You should consider yourself lucky, Miss. Very few people have seen the contracts of the owls for what they are and were brave enough to bail before any signing could occur. If you are to keep the owls away from you for good, you must do the following: wait till that owl you saw comes back at night. When it does, you must tell them that you decline doing the job you applied for..."

Amity then worriedly asks, "But the owl turned demonic when I..."

Miss Foxglove cut her off while giving her a small sack, "I know, but when the owl becomes demonic over the decline, you'll tell it and you must throw this handful of salt at it, call it out by its name, and tell it that you reject its master's powers. If that's not enough..."

Miss Foxglove then gave her a vial full of red-violet liquid, and says, "Use this."

Amity then asks, "Um, thank you, Miss..."

"Foxglove, dear," Miss Foxglove said, "Come back here tomorrow if you survive this."

The next night, Amity went to bed with the items Miss Foxglove had given her hidden under her pillow and went to sleep. She woke up to the sight of Sigon, who was back to her cutesy fake fairy owl appearance, and gave a fake smile to Amity, saying, "Now that we've calmed down from our temper tantrums, you probably feel absolutely awful about hitting me with your pillow when I offered a contract that'll secure your future with Master Ligas..."

"Stop," Amity replied, "I'm sorry, Sigon, but if signing away my credit card and identity is part of the job application process, then I have to decline this job offer. I hope you have a good night."

Sigon was stunned, but brought her fake smile back and simply asked, "Are you sure you want to quit? Think very carefully now. You applied for this job to help your family get by and find a job in animation along the way. You don't want to tell your mother you still don’t have a job now, would you?"

"Don't ignore what I said and fill my head with guilt. What kind of recruiter asks for a credit card as part of a job interview and doesn't take no for an answer gracefully? I can always find another job that's more legitimate than this owl pellet of a job scam," Amity replied, "I will say it again and make it very clear for your owl brain: I am declining this job offer if it means selling my soul and credit card to the demon you call master. Have a nice night, Sigon."

Sigon was stunned and couldn't take it anymore and turned into her big, black, and monstrous owl form, with rows of teeth in her mouth, and as she spread her wings out to envelope the room in near-complete darkness, Amity opened and threw the sack she was given that was full of salt. The salt hit the big owl, causing her to screech out in agony.

Amity then yelled, "Sigon, I reject you and your master's powers! Get out of my life and never come back! I don't want any part of your master's plans!"

Sigon was hurting more and more and was shrinking to the midway point between the cutesy fairy owl and the demonic monster bird, and yelled while lunging towards her, "Master Ligas will have your head and heart by morning, Bitch!"

Amity then thought quickly and threw the vial with red-violet liquid at the owl, which smashed against the owl that had claws inches away from gouging out her eyeballs but was repelled away as steam came out of the liquid coming in contact with the skin of demon bird, causing her to scream and crash out of the window, burst into flames, and then disintegrate screaming in the flames.

Amity woke up from that nightmare, only to find it wasn't a dream upon seeing the hole in her window and small fires by her house that destroyed what was left of Sigon before the flames were snuffed out as quickly as she saw them. She went online to the job site on her phone, reported that job application as a scam, and went back to the Bat Wing Society store in Pondview to go see Miss Foxglove, who was delighted to see her enter, alive and well.

She told her that her mom understood why she bailed on the job with how asking for a credit card during a job interview was one of the signs that it was a scam. No job would ask for such personal information, nor would they be so sure of having an employee get the job without doing a proper interview. Little did Amity's mom know that that was the least of her worries, but she didn't want to worry her mom with such a harrowing experience with all that she was doing to help support the family.

The biggest takeaway to the experience is that job scams are very sneaky and predatory, whether they be mundane or of the otherworldly kind, but she had to be very vigilant of the signs of such before applying for any job, lest she get roped into something that would make her life needlessly complicated.

From that point on, Amity was sure to research the companies of jobs and read reviews about the jobs and companies intently before applying to ensure they were legit. She'll get her dream job eventually, but until then, she has to look for an interim job and be sure to look before she jumps right into the application, because she didn't want to be fooled by predatory scammers a second time. She knew better than that now.