“What do you mean you aren’t coming in today?”

Rod sighed. “I am running a fever and I feel like shit Bill. I need to stay home.”

“Are you kidding me? We have a major milestone coming up and can’t afford for any of the team to be out. You have to come in.”

“No, I don’t. Bill, I have days I can take and I am sick. If I come in then I am going to get others sick as well.”

There was silence on the other end of the line. Rod could imagine Bill grinding his teeth and squinting his eyes as he tried to think of a way to force the issue. “You could just stay in one of the satellite offices so you are available on the phone.”

Rod sighed again. It was a new habit that seemed to piss Bill off every time he did it. Normally, he would have smiled but today Rod just didn’t have the energy. “I am not coming in today Bill. I will try for tomorrow but only if the fever has broken. Goodbye.”

He heard his manager say “But,” as he pulled the phone away from his ear so he could see the little red button to end the call.

***

Rod’s eyes snapped open as he felt his body vibrate. His stomach was in his throat and he rolled over incase he vomited. There was an electric feeling that ran over his skin, making all of Rod’s hair stand on end.

“No,” he moaned as he pulled his knees up under him. He pressed his lips tight together and squeezed his eyes shut. Little flashes of light began flickering in the darkness of his eyelids and a high pitched squeal had him slapping his hands over his ears.

Rod tried to say the word “No,” again, but it was only an indistinct whine that blended in with a tearing noise that sounded like two people fighting over a shirt on Black Friday.

For Rod, everything ended with a soft pop.

***

“Holy Shit,” Bill said as he looked at the crumpled form on the conference room floor. “It worked.”

“Of course it did.”

He turned to look at Shannon, eyes wide and mouth hanging open a little. “How the hell did you do that?”

Shannon smiled and brushed her bangs off of her forehead. “The new employee contracts that everyone signed last year included a bit of the old magic that my gran taught me. I save it for special occasions.”

Bill turned back to the piece of carpet that had been spread out on the floor. When he had went to Shannon demanding a way to force Rod to come in, she had smiled at him in a way that had made his skin crawl.

The roll of carpet that she had made him carry was plain white, but a complicated series of symbols and circles were painted on it in various colors. “I can make him come in, but this is really going to cost you,” she had said.

“We have to have him or we will miss the milestone and then heads are going to roll,” Bill had said. “But what the hell is the rug going to do?”

“You’ll see,” she had said, that creepy smile never leaving her face. “Just watch.”

Shannon extended her hands to the symbol and whispered, “Ego Vocco Vostrod”

As the lights flickered, Bill had said, “Vostrod?”

“The summoning name I gave him when I set this up,” Shannon answered. “Would you like to hear your name?”

Bill hadn’t asked and now that he was staring down at Rod, lying in the middle of the carpet in his pajamas, he realized that he didn’t want to know.

“Get him up and then roll up my carpet,” Shannon told Bill. “Put it back in the closet before someone sees it and then we can talk about what you owe me for this.”

Bill swallowed hard as he realized what owing Shannon might mean for him. After all, he had signed a new contract last year too.