The Office

She was always the first one in the office in the morning, she made a point to do so because she could get more work done in the peaceful solitude she enjoyed. Despite her comfort in isolation, she often found the office to be eerie. There was this strange feeling of not being fully alone, although there was not a single person in sight. She checked every morning when she stepped foot into the office to see if any of her coworkers arrived before her.

This particular morning however was a little different than the others. When she arrived in the early stillness of this warm June morning, she felt as though the atmosphere had changed. Something was out of place in the office. She looked around to see if any furniture was rearranged, she checked the closed office doors to see if any were unlocked. Nothing moved, nothing unlocked, nothing unusual. Shrugging it off, she proceeded with her work as usual.

Having a craving for her morning cup of coffee, she got up from her desk and went to the small but well stocked kitchenette. Of all things this place got wrong, this was the one thing they got right. As she stood by the coffee pot waiting for her hot brewed cup, she thought to herself how she couldn’t wait to get out of this place. Tired of being undervalued and underappreciated. Little did she know this would be her last morning in the office.

With her back facing the kitchen entrance, she didn’t see the lurking figure looming just behind her. It was swift, one sweeping motion from the right to the left, her neck had been sliced open with clean precision. She fell to the floor clutching her neck in the same fashion she’d seen so many victims in horror movies do. She was confused and stunned at the same time. Who would do this? Her final vision before everything went black was the department manager.

“You’ll leave when I’m ready for you to leave”, were his final words to her.