Hell Center Ending Option 1: The Practical, Reasonable Approach

As Phil’s quarter tumbled through the air, seemingly in slow motion, Emma prayed for the sake of everyone’s safety that it would land on heads. Luckily for her, it did.

“Best two out of three,” Phil insisted.

“You gotta be shitting me,” Jason moaned with a facepalm.

“Fine, whatever,” Emma said. The odds were in her favor, and the gamble paid off as the second flip landed on heads as well.

“Christ, I can’t catch a fucking break,” Phil said in disbelief. “All right, y’all. Let’s head down there and do the right thing, I guess.”

The four of them made a run for it down to the main lobby of the building, Jason and Candy being particularly quick to spring to action. They bounded down the stairs and up to the front door, arriving just in time to hear a massive CRASH as the seemingly invincible Plexiglass of the door shattered. As amazing as it felt to have the sun and the fresh air kissing their skin for the first time in days, the professionals couldn’t enjoy it for long. One of the clients, an elderly man with thinning silver hair and a grapefruit-like face shriveled into a seemingly permanent scowl, had bashed it in with his pitchfork, and now the employees were face to face with the collective bane of their existences.

“Hello, yes, my name is Benjamin Boles,” the man snarled. “I’m looking for Candy Stevens.”

“I’m Candy,” she chirped weakly.

“Why would you tell him that?!” Phil cried.

“Ah, yes, YOU!” Benjamin screamed. “I would like a word with you, missy! You disrespected my family, mispronouncing my glorious son Ivan’s name! And he wants a word with you as well.”

“Uh … hi,” said the younger man with him. “I’m Ivan. You, like, said my name wrong or something.”

“He is my PRIDE AND JOY!” Benjamin roared.

“You getting any service out here?” Phil asked Emma, who was trying to dial the cops on her phone.

“Nope, it’s still shitting the bed,” she said in exasperation. “We gotta get further away!”

“Oh no, you’re not running away from us!” yelled an older woman with a beehive haircut. “I’m Kathryn Fobkowski, and I’m looking for Jason Monasterio specifically! He LIED to me about my withdrawal, and he’s holding my money! MY MONEY!”

“Lady, what the hell are you talking about?!” Jason groaned. “I ain't holding shit, it's the company! Come on, let’s get the fuck out of here!”

They inched a little further away and tried dialing 9-1-1 again, but still no service was in the cards for either Emma or Phil.

“Uh, what the fuck are you people trying to accomplish exactly with this phone call?” sneered a pompous male voice, which Phil instantly recognized as Steven Phelps.

“Uh, we’re calling the cops, my guy,” Phil shot back at him. “In case you weren’t aware, breaking and entering is a crime.”

Steven and Phil looked each other in the eyes, sizing each other up. Slowly, Steven’s face contorted into a scowl of recognition.

“YOU,” Steven snarled. “Why should I be scared of you, my guy? You don’t even know how to do your job correctly. You can’t give me a straight answer, and then you have some kind of … delusional nervous breakdown. Fuck you, buddy.”

“Fuck you too, Steven!”

Jason and Candy were now attempting to dial the cops on their phones, also unsuccessfully.

“Hold up, is that Emily?” William asked. “You gave me some real shit service the other day, sweetie. I wanna speak to your manager.” 

“Oh my goodness, Emily?” questioned a weather-beaten old man in a heavy-smoking Jersey accent. Emma would have recognized that voice in her sleep. “It’s me, Joseph Troglione. You fucked me on getting me to a supervisor. I want your manager, NOW!”

Emma stopped and stared both of them in the eyes, breathing hard and seething with rage.

“My goodness, you have quite the attitude, don’t you, sweetheart?” William said. “Well, I have the account verification form you so graciously requested. Here, TAKE IT!” Seemingly out of nowhere, William produced the document from his pocket and moved quickly toward Emma. Before she could react, he shoved the piece of paper aggressively straight into her face, suffocating her nose and mouth.

“Here, you want your fuckin’ verification form so bad, huh? HUH?”

“Yeah! Get her!” Joseph applauded.

Reacting quickly, Phil grabbed William around the waist and pulled him away from Emma, sending Big Willy and the form flying to the ground.

“Let’s fuckin’ run, people!” Phil cried. “Come on, we’ll get somewhere with service! Or another phone we can use!”

Emma, Jason, and Candy joined Phil as they broke into a dead sprint across the parking lot, trying to traverse the long, twisting path out of the corporate office park and back to the street. The angry mob of clients followed in hot pursuit, but with the weight of the pitchforks and torches along with their older age, they were unable to keep up. Emma, Phil, and Candy continued their sprint out of the office park and across the street to a nearby 7/11.

After a little bit of running, Jason's older age and beer belly began to catch up with him. About halfway across the parking lot, he had to stop and pant for breath with his hands on his knees.

“No, wait for me, guys!” he cried, but they couldn’t afford to turn back. A few seconds later, Kathryn Fobkowski had tackled Jason to the ground, and Jason cowered as the mob stood over him wielding their weapons.

“Okay, let’s try this again,” Emma said, dialing 9-1-1 as the three of them stood in the 7/11 parking lot. To the group’s delight, their Internet service was back and the call went through this time. Silently, they jumped for joy and pumped their fists.

“9-1-1, what’s your emergency?”

Emma had never called the cops before. She didn’t quite know what to say.

“Yes, uh, my colleagues and I were trapped in our office building and uh, these clients came and attacked us. They have torches and pitchforks and stuff, and they’re in the parking lot right now.”

“All right, hang tight, we’ll get officers right over there. What’s your name, and what’s the address?”

“Emma.” She paused for a long time. “Lee. And the address is 27 East 59th Street in Columbus. We’re at a 7/11, but one of my colleagues is still stuck back there.”

“All right, Emma. Stay on the line with me and an emergency unit will be there soon.”

When the emergency police unit arrived at the scene, they were able to disarm the disgruntled customers and place them under arrest, despite heavy resistance put up by all. Joseph, William, Steven, Kathryn, Benjamin, and Ivan were booked at the county jail. While all except William and Kathryn were able to bail themselves out, all still awaited trial, and it appeared they would be facing hefty sentencing for their egregious actions. 

Upon being informed of the employees’ mistreatment at the hands of Jane Reinhorn, the police also sent a unit to her house for questioning, only to find the elderly woman dead at the scene. She had suffered a fatal heart attack when her employees abandoned their Skype meeting, and with her passing, the future of Countryside Financial was left very much up in the air.

Alas, Jason Monasterio also did not survive, with the police finding him dead at the scene. The body was covered in pitchfork stab wounds and torch burns, as he had bled out in several vital areas along with being lit on fire by the clients. When the 9-1-1 operator informed Emma the cops had arrived, the three of them made their way back to the parking lot to witness the arrests — only to see the unsightly remains of their unfortunate colleague being stuffed into a large body bag.

Despite the horrific things they had just seen and witnessed, Emma, Phil, and Candy were ravenously hungry. They chowed down on numerous sandwiches, snacks, and confections they had bought from the 7/11 as they sat in the parking lot in front of their work building, reflecting on it all.

“Yeah, I’m never going in this fuckin’ building again,” Phil resolved, taking a massive bite of a ham and cheese sub. “I don’t wanna work anywhere remotely in the vicinity of a call center ever again. Might go to law school or some shit.”

“I’m with you on that first part,” Emma said as she shoved a Twinkie in her mouth. “Don’t know what the hell I wanna do, though. Just gonna go home and take some time for me.”

“Hell yeah, you do that, girl,” Phil said. “Figure out your passions and follow that shit. What about you, Candy?”

“Oh, I still love helping people,” Candy said wistfully, looking off into the distance as she took a bite out of an apple. “I might check in with Jane, see if she still wants to keep me on board.”

“NO!” Emma and Phil both cried immediately.

“Are you crazy?!” Phil added. “Are you completely, certifiably, clinically insane?”

“I don’t know, I just liked being a part of what we did here at Countryside,” Candy choked out, a tear dripping from her eye. “It’s a shame things have turned out the way they did. But I’m gonna go back in there and see if Jane’s still in the Skype.”

She turned and walked back into the building of their nightmares.

“Wow,” Phil marveled. “Just wow.”

“After all of that, still the old suck-up,” Emma said.

“For real,” Phil laughed. “Could never be me.” 

They paused for a second.

“What are your passions, though?” Phil inquired. “What do you love to do? What’s your dream?”

“I honestly don’t even know,” Emma said. “I don’t really dream too much. When I had freedom, I would just go home, watch a movie or whatever, scroll TikTok and shit.”

“Damn, girl, you need some fuckin’ purpose,” Phil said. “You need some passion!”

"Oh, what about you, Mr. Passionate? What are you so crazy about?”

“Honestly, I like arguing with people,” Phil said. “I like learning about new shit, challenging people’s beliefs, making them keep an open mind. Doesn’t matter if it’s law, history, politics, whatever. I love to debate shit.”

“Interesting,” Emma said. “That’s cool sometimes, but I think maybe you need to chill the fuck out once in a while and just relax. Just enjoy the world around you. Not everything is some big, intellectual thing that needs to be deeply analyzed.”

“You know what, maybe you’re right.”

They looked each other in the eyes and smiled. Slowly, they both started to lean in toward each other. Right at that moment, Candy came bursting back out the front door.

“Jane’s gone!” Candy cried. “She’s not in the Zoom anymore. What are we gonna do?”

Emma and Phil looked at each other again.

“Yeah, that’s not our problem,” Phil said. “We’re getting the FUCK out of here, and I suggest you do the same.”

"Ugh, how could I even consider such a thing?” Candy scoffed. “Countryside Financial is my identity. My LIFE. I can’t possibly move on to something different!”

“Candy, let’s take a walk,” Phil suggested, throwing an arm around her shoulder. The three of them strolled back out of the office park and down the street.

Over three large stuffed-crust meat lover’s pizzas and drinks, Emma and Phil tried their best to get Candy to reconsider her choices. After a long, tearful conversation, which turned into something of a therapy session, they were able to get through to her. It was time for her to move on and find another way to help people. Having sufficiently stuffed their faces, the three of them stood outside Pizza Hut, physically and emotionally exhausted.

“What a bummer about Jason, though,” Candy said. “He was a good guy.”

“Seriously, this world ain’t fuckin’ fair,” Phil said. “Hopefully his wife and kids can at least take those goddamn psychos for all they’re worth in court.”

They shared a somber silence.

“Well, I should get home to my parents,” Candy said. “I guess this is goodbye.”

Another pause as Emma and Phil locked eyes again.

“Yeah, I guess it is,” Phil said. “I wish you all the best of luck. Godspeed.” "Godspeed,” Emma said solemnly, and the three of them parted ways.

THE END

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