“Are you serious?” asked Nancy.
Claire nodded and then rolled back to her cubicle. “Yep. Sorry, honey.”
“I thought computers were supposed to make our lives easier,” said Nancy. “This sucks. Next thing you know they’re going to be installing cameras in here so they can watch us.”
“What’s the email say?” asked Claire.
“Nothing new. He’s just being a dick, reminding me that I’ve already been warned about being late and that our quarterly review is coming up.”
“That doesn’t sound good.”
Nancy was about to put on her headset, but then set it on her keyboard and groaned as she rubbed her eyes. “I swear to God, Claire, this place is going to be the death of me.”
“Don’t be a negative Nancy,” said Claire, and then she turned and chuckled. “That’s a funny name. Isn’t it usually negative Nelly? I’m going to change it to negative Nancy if you don’t cheer up.”
“Thanks,” said Nancy with a groan. “Do you mind if I transfer my calls over to you for a minute. I need a quick smoke. I’m already having a shitty day.”
“Go for it, I’m not going anywhere.”
Nancy hit the numbers on the phone to facilitate the transfer. All calls that went into the center were routed to a free line first, which would ring for a few seconds before being sent back into the round robin exchange, ensuring that no call was left unanswered for too long. Every day a report was generated that showed how many calls each line answered to make sure no one was avoiding work, but Nancy had discovered that transferred calls counted as a hit on both lines, subverting the system. It caused a slight delay in the answer for the caller, but allowed her to catch much needed smoke breaks from time to time.
She saw Darryl peering over the wall of his cubicle and gave him a snide grin. He shook his head and looked back down at his computer as she went outside.
“Why don’t you go and fuck yourself, Darryl,” she whispered as she went out the door. She smacked her hard pack against the side of her hand until a cigarette sprung free. She quickly lit it and took a long, satisfying drag.
Winter seemed unwilling to disappear entirely, and there was a chill in the air despite how sunny it was. She crossed her arms and shivered as she paced in front of the building. The ashtray had been pulled far from the entrance in an attempt to keep people from smoking by the door, surely a result of employees like Darryl complaining about having to walk through a cloud of smoke to get to work. Nancy flicked her ashes onto the pavement and flipped off the far away, waist-high ashtray as if it offended her.
She glanced in through the front window, past the patchy bushes, at her empty cubicle. Claire’s seat faced the window, but Nancy could only see the side of her coworker from this vantage, the rest was covered by the fabric wall of the cubicle.
The phone rang and the incessant buzzing was loud enough to hear even with the door closed. She watched as Claire shifted to click the button on the computer that would answer the call. Nancy took another long drag and looked away from the building, toward the small downtown area of Widowsfield. It was quiet, with only a few cars pulled up to the Salt and Pepper diner on the corner and a UPS truck parked in front of the Anderson Used Book Store. The Widowsfield Emergency Services building shared a parking lot with a local credit union, but there rarely ever seemed to be anyone at the lonely bank.
She closed her eyes and dwelled in her own thoughts for a moment. It had been a long few weeks, and there was no end in sight. She was stuck in a workaday world, at a job she hated, with a mountain of bills waiting at home and no prospect of relief. She felt like crying.
The cigarette was burned to the filter far too quickly. Her excuse for a break, minutes after getting to work, was over. She glanced at the clock on the bank’s sign at the entrance of the parking lot.
3:14
She looked for Darryl’s Chevy and then flicked her cigarette butt onto the hood before flipping off the car. A swirl of smoke wafted in front of her face and she waved it away only to see more smoke appear, as if her arm’s movement had cast a spell bringing with it a grey mist. She looked down and saw the thick smoke filling the parking lot, like water moving slowly through the town.
“What the fuck?”
She kicked at it, and the mist wafted up where it sullied the air. A flash of green light erupted near her and an electric zap cascaded up the gutter on the side of the building. Dogs started to bark as the fog swept through the streets. Then a massive black shadow was cast over the ground as something flew by above, blotting out the sun for a second. She tried to look up, but the fog surged skyward to block her view.
The dogs started to growl, and she saw black shadows zip through the fog in the parking lot. The movement caused the mist to ripple before a green wave of light flashed from within.
Nancy quickly opened the door and ran inside as the fog snuck in by her feet. She kicked at it as if it were a corporeal entity. It dissipated around her leg as she pulled the door closed.
Someone was groaning nearby. It was a wet gurgle, as if someone was choking. She saw Claire in her chair, rolled into the center of the space between their cubicles, staring at her. It took a minute for Nancy’s brain to register what she was seeing. It seemed impossible, and she blinked several times before accepting that it was real.
Claire’s body was partially sunk into the chair and her headset was pressed into her head. The microphone stuck out of her throat and the head band jutted from her ear as if someone had plunged the headset into her, but there was no blood to be seen. Her arm was trapped in the armrest of the chair, and her left leg was below the seat while her right was above. She was twisted, and when she tried to speak only a gurgle came forth. Spittle dripped down her chin as her eyes darted back and forth, terror seizing her as she struggled to get free.
Nancy screamed and backed away.
That’s when she saw the creature outside. It was the size of a child, but with the head of a dog. The monstrosity clawed at the glass door with hands that looked neither human nor canine, but a bloody, pulpy mix of both. The creature snapped its jaws against the glass, spreading its lips wide to bare vicious white teeth. It seemed to be trying to bite her through the glass.
“Somebody help,” said Nancy just before the windows broke all around her. Green electricity cracked through the room as the humanoid dogs rushed in from all sides. She tried to fight them off, but they held her down as their maws ripped at her clothes and flesh. They tore at her, shaking their heads back and forth, nipping at one another to secure a spot for the kill. Their nude, childlike bodies writhed over one another as their grotesque heads gnawed at her bones. She should’ve been dead, but nothing could end the pain. The fog swirled around her and lifted her head to force her to watch. The green electricity zapped in her ears, stinging and burning, as the creatures ripped her apart. She could see her bones, her intestines, her heart, and her lungs. She watched as the monsters fought over her meat.
The fog wouldn’t let her die. The mist was capable of trapping her spirit, and she was conscious even though her body ceased to live. The flashing green fog kept her alive and forced her to witness every agonizing moment until the creatures plucked out her eyes. Then she was forced to listen.
16 Years Later
March 9th, 2012
Alma stared at her apartment complex from the safety of her car. The yellow lights in the parking lot cast a hazy hue over the scene, as if a polluted mist had descended upon her life.
“Are you here?” she asked as she chewed on her thumbnail. “Did you find out where I live, you son of a bitch?”