The elevator doors slid open. The doors moved into place causing the elevator car to jolt slightly. The movement stirred the young man from his unfocused staring. Seeming to bolt into action he apologized to no one in the empty car as he exited the elevator and entered his work space.
The building was a high rise, one of the tallest in the city. He knew the office would be busy and bustling with office workers. Early morning through the late hours, the office seemed to always have SOMEONE working.
"Hi Marsha, good morning," he said rushing past the reception area and into the inner bowels of the office.
Marsha mumbles something incoherent as he walks past, ignoring the sounds of his co-workers as they shuffle through the office. Her phone was already ringing off the hook, even this early in the morning. The sound was insistent and constant, the noise fading away to drum steady in the background as he moved through the cubical farm.
His office was on the other side of the cubical farm. As far from the front-desk as possible while still being near the break room. Out of sight of management, the clients, everyone really...
CRASH
The silence of the office, pierced in rhythm by the phone, was broken as something large fell in the break room. Resisting the urge to leap into the air, he glanced left and right to make sure no one had noticed his panic. Fortunately, there didn't appear to be anyone in the office yet except for him, Marsha, and whomever dropped something in the break room.
He could hear them complaining but couldn't make out what was being said.
"Regardless," he thought to himself, "anyone caught unawares would have to help clean and it was far too early..."
Dashing quickly into his office, he left the lights off was he turned his computer systems on and logged in. Working slowly to give the other person enough time to clean up, he logged into his systems and started running morning reporting.
After his computer finished booting up he had begun to run his morning routine and open email when he decided the other person had likely had enough time to solve their problem. Getting to his feet to turn on the lights he heard loud grumbles coming from outside in the hallway.
Grabbing his coffee mug, he flicked the light switch to his office so he didn't look strange sitting in the dark. Heading out to the break room, he noticed that he and "Breakroom Guy" must be the only workers in yet...except for Marsha.
The phone was still ringing off the hook, so obviously she was already drowning. He decided to grab her a cup when he filled up his mug. She was always nice and kept the bigwigs off him...
The break room was pretty standard in his opinion. A medium sized conference room had been converted into a general purpose area with a fridge, coffee machine, microwave and a few amenities. It was a good break room, as far as break rooms go.
As he rounded the corner, he saw the room in shambles. The refrigerator stood open, the contents spilled forgotten to the floor. The tables had been upended and smashed, the legs split or bent. One of his co-workers, a guy named... Walker? Williams? definitely something with a W, was staring down at a pile of garbage. Stepping forward, he nervously tried to identify what he was seeing.
The garbage... it wasn't garbage.
The garbage was, a person? Several persons? Oh my Go-
His thoughts were suddenly snapped to the presence as he heard an sinister sound. A low moaning sounded from somewhere behind him and to the right, towards were Marsha had been. Spinning around he saw her lunge toward him, only it wasn't her.
Marsha looked at him, her milky eyes wept blood-like tears as her lips peeled back to reveal blackened and rotted teeth. She seemed to hiss in her anticipation as she shuffled towards him, her arms outreached and her face a mask of hunger and rage.
"What the fu-" he said, jumping backwards and feeling his feet give out under him. He turned to catch himself on the cold floor and felt his momentum stop as his hands hit something soft. Grasping quickly he looked up to what he held to see "Breakroom Guy", Walter, Walker, Whitemoore staring at him with the same dead eyes.
With a yelp, he felt Marsha on his back as Breakroom Guy began to bit into his chest...
#scarystories #halloween #writing
