"I think she's coming around!" The voices were fuzzy, and sounded like they were floating circles around me. As I tried to blink my eyes open, I could still only make out a blurred mess, coloured blobs that hovered before me but out of reach. A mint-green shape pushed forward, in front of the rest, and immediately I was reminded of that cat-thing that just appeared before me earlier.

"Get away!" I tried to shout, but it sounded like I was trying to talk through a mouthful of wet marshmallows. "I don't want what you're selling!" I tried to swipe as well, but someone grabbed my hand gently.

"Whoa there! Take it easy!" Another voice said. I blinked a few more times and everything started to come back into view. There was no mint-green winged cat in front of me, but instead my coworkers and one older woman whose name I can't remember wearing a bright green scarf.

I groaned and sat up. "What happened?" I asked.

"It looked like you fainted here in the supply room, luckily Janice here knows first aid and you seem to be okay," another coworker said, a very boring-looking man whose name I also couldn't remember. Did he organize birthday card signings or something? No, he's the one who unironically posts those newspaper comics in his cubicle.

"How long was I out?" I  asked.

"It's been only five minutes since I saw you in here," Janice said, helping me sit upright. "I don't think you were out very long before that."

I nodded. My head hurt like something else. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a flash of green and tried to look in that direction, but felt a pang like whiplash in my neck.

"Easy there! I don't think you fell very hard but you can never be too careful! Why, I remember my husband, Jeremy-- you know Jeremy, right? Of course, he was here just last Thursday. Anyways Jeremy..."

Janice continued to rattle on, but I had neither the will nor the energy to pay attention. I scanned the room carefully and there, peaking around the door frame like a child trying to see what they were getting for Christmas was that same damn green cat. So I hadn't imagined it.

"I'm sorry Janice, excuse me," I said, pushing myself to my feet. I felt a wave of dizziness and some nausea, but neither seemed as severe as I feared. "I have something I need to take care of really quick."

"Whoa, you're not seriously going back to work after that, are you?" The comic-strip man said. "Seriously you just passed out, you need to go home. Look, I've already told Grigori that you would need to take a sick day. He totally understands and you're even getting paid half-time for the rest of the day!"

"Great," I mumbled. "Sure, sure whatever. I'll go home. I just, need to do something really quick, okay? I'll be careful. Please, excuse me."

Despite some protests, I pushed through the coworkers crowding me and left the supply room, finding myself back in the cubicle jungle, looking down rows upon rows of desk-spaces that all looked identical. I paced down the rows methodically, not able to find anything and then, finally, giving up on the search, sat myself back down at my desk, running my fingers through my hair. Maybe it was in my imagination? Maybe the stress of the daily grind had finally gotten to me?

"Hello again!" A bright, cheery voice announced right in front of me, and there sitting upright on my desk was the same, mint-green cat.

"Or maybe," I said slowly, "something really screwy is going on right now."

"Nope, not screwy! Though I guess for you it might be," the cat said. "Anyways, that aside, my name is Ping! I just broke the veil cast on you that separates you from the magic of the world!"

I sat there and stared at the cat, hoping I would pass out again, but this time it didn't seem like my chance was going to come. I groaned and slid down, cradling my head in my arms.

"What is happening to me?" I asked rhetorically. "And wasn't there two of you before? Where did that uni-puppy go?"

"I just said! The veil has been broken on you, and together we can fight the Daemons that control your world!" Ping said. "Also, Cant left to see if they could get us some help. I think the whole you-passing-out deal was a bit of a final straw for them.

"I wasn't asking-- Wait, what did you say?" I asked. "What do you mean, 'Daemons'? Like, white nationalists?"

"No I mean Daemons!" Ping was now circling around my desk and then sat down, doing their best to make a scary face but only somehow managing to look even more cute. "They're the monsters that won the war against us thousands of years ago, and now they've been ruling this world by-- Hey, where are you going?!"

I had stood up and already slung my purse over my shoulder. "Home, I think I need to sleep for... well, I need to sleep, and I guess I have the day off thanks to you."

"But wait! I haven't even told you about Synchronization yet!"

"Not interested," I said, waving my hand as I made my way towards the elevator. In the distance I could see the doors part, then before my eyes, and among the crowd of people, came what I could only see as a large eyeball with bat wings folded over like a vampire, and... were those octopus tentacles hanging from it?! I wanted to scream, but I found myself frozen in place, staring at the monster that was no floating slowly through the cubicles. It was huge, at full height reaching from floor to ceiling.

"Shoot! They're already looking for us!" Ping said, now hanging off my shoulder.

"Us?!!" I hissed through my teeth, refusing to take my eyes off that thing. "What do you mean US?!"

"Well I don't exactly have time for the full introduction now, do I!" Ping insisted.

"So now I'm going to get killed by a Peeping Calamari! Great!" I was finally able to find some control of my limbs and slowly crept towards the edge of the cubicle walls, sinking down against them to avoid being spotted. "Just a real Monday for the books!"

"Don't worry!"

"Don't worry?!!" I snarled at Ping. "That THING is REAL and wants to KILL ME!"

Ping shrank down and laughed nervously. "N-no! I mean, it's only a scout! They're, y'know, kinda weak? Well relatively, a normal human would still get torn to shreds, but my point is--"

"I'M A NORMAL HUMAN," I hissed as loudly while staying quiet as I could.

"--if we synchronize, even if you don't know what you're doing, you should still be able to win! Maybe!"

I glared at Ping.

"L-look, just trust me, okay? I can get us out of this! But I need you to work with me!"

I growled under my breath. "Do I have a choice?"

"Kind of, but not really!" Ping said with a smile.