to pick me up from here, but there’s no need, and for now I want to keep home and work separate. Plus, from a professional perspective, it isn’t appropriate. There’s confidential information stored in this office and Jas would have a fit if she thought anyone other than the team were in here after hours. And it would just be my luck for her to have forgotten something, or to come back to check I’m okay, and find him here with me in the semi darkness.
In the shadows of this office are shelf upon shelf of bulging files and locked cabinets. Among the many notes and records of meetings and decisions are the secrets people hide, the things we have to keep safe. Sometimes in this job, we have to let life spill out in all its filth and horror. But in the end it’s about making lives better.
I hear something, a movement at the far end of the office. Jas said she thought we had mice. I hope not. There it is again. It’s definitely coming from the back of the office. I look round, trying to focus exactly on where the noise came from, but it’s so dim I can’t see that far.
I try to finish what I’m doing so I can leave to meet Alex, but I can’t concentrate. I have this horrible, irrational feeling that someone’s in the shadows watching me. I know there’s no one there, but I turn again behind me into the blackness, and it’s then I see a movement. It definitely wasn’t a mouse.
I stay very still and stare for a while and realise it’s probably just my mind and the darkness playing tricks. I need to stop being stupid and finish filling in the report from today’s meet with Chloe and her mother.
I go back to the task in hand, and continue typing, my keyboard clicking in the deep quiet. I hear something and suddenly stop. And wait. Silence. I gaze around. Nothing. I start typing again, remembering the way Chloe couldn’t meet my eyes, the way her mother spoke her words for her. As Harry said, maybe there’s more to Chloe than meets the eye. Is she the victim this time or the culprit?
I definitely hear something and I stop typing again. I stand up, and my heart starts to thud in my ears so loudly I’m deafened to any other sound. ‘Is anybody there?’ Just hearing my voice asking this freaks me out.
I wait and I’m met with more layers of thick, snowy silence. I stand for another few seconds, aware I have to finish this report, and yet distracted by something – and nothing. I could kick myself for allowing what happened today to fill my mind – if I hadn’t, I’d be finished and gone now. Instead, I’m scaring myself half to death when I should have been home hours ago.
I’m cold and it’s creepy and I need to see Alex, so without finishing the report, I click off the laptop, throw Chloe Thomson’s files into a carrier bag, grab my coat and shoulder bag, and make my way to the door. I know there’s no one here, no one lurking in the shadows, but as I walk towards the door I’m driving myself mad with crazy, intrusive thoughts.
When I reach the outer door, I realise it’s locked. Jas must have done that as she left, so no one could get in anyway, thank God. I smile to myself and roll my eyes at my nervousness. But just then I hear something again, and rummage frantically for the keys in my bag. I’m not usually anxious like this, but I’ve got myself into such a state today. And now I can’t find my bloody keys. The more I feel around inside my bag, the more panicky I become. ‘Shit, shit,’ I’m saying under my breath, I can feel a scream forming in my throat, but swallow it down. Miraculously, my fingers finally grip the keys and I lift my head to put them into the lock when I see the outline of someone’s face pressed up against the glass.
Now the scream that’s been sitting in my throat is released, loud and shrill. I didn’t know I could make such a noise, it’s like it’s coming from someone else. My heart is now wedged firmly in my throat. Do I open the door and let whoever it is in? Or stay locked inside here, alone in the dark?
The