"The Woman In The Office"

A mysterious woman appears in the office of a college's music building.

“The Woman in The Office”

By Cody Williams

 

1.

Elizabeth Hartford stood at the top of the staircase looking downward and slowly removed the RCA branded black earphones from her ears. She could still hear the vocals of Gene Simmons from Kiss blaring through the speakers singing “Rock And Roll All Nite”. Izzy, as her friends called her, looked around for a moment. There was nobody there. She could have sworn that she heard somebody whisper her name through the earphones.

            “Hello?” Izzy called out. She stood there for a moment and waited for a moment for an answer. “Is there somebody there?” She asked again only to get the same result. Izzy shrugged and placed the ear buds back into her ears. She began to walk down the stairs as she whistled the tune just as the chorus hit. When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she walked out of the stair well and entered the hallway.

            “Elizabeth!” She heard the voice whisper again. Izzy pulled the ear buds from her ears and looked around again.

            “Hello? Who’s there?” She asked again. There was still no answer, but something was different this time. Izzy looked out in front of her and could see her own breath. She wrapped her arms around her tight abdomen and her teeth started to chatter. Izzy looked around. There was nobody there that she could see. The hallway was dark and chilling. Usually she would complain about how cold the downstairs for the music building was specifically at night. But this was different. It had to be no more than twenty degrees in there. Izzy put the thought out of her mind and slowly began to make her way down the hallway. With each step she took it looked as if the hallway had grown longer and the temperature had dropped even more. As she reached the end of the hallway, she had begun to notice that the light in the secretary’s office that was usually off this time at night was on.

            Izzy made her way over to the office door and cupped her hands over her eyes, placed her forehead on the glass, and stared inside. There was a woman sitting at the desk with a stack of papers in her hands. She was banging them against the surface of the desk trying to get them lined up. The woman didn’t work there. Izzy knew that. Izzy was convinced that she had never seen the woman in the entire three and a half years she had been attending the school. But still, there was something familiar about her.

            The woman’s skin was a rich golden brown similar to the color of caramel. Her hair was styled like that of a perm and was silver almost entirely except for a few black hairs where her head and neck meet.

            “Where have I seen her before?” Izzy asked herself. Stood there for a few more moments to watch the woman when she felt the feeling of somebody behind her. She pulled her forehead away from the glass and slowly began to turn around. Izzy closed her eyes half way through the turn.

            Something’s not right! Nobody’s supposed to be here but me! She thought as she opened her eyes and held her breath.

            “Hello!” Her friend Richie said staring back at her with his baby blue eyes. Richie was a senior and just a year older than her. He had a short brown beard that covered part of his face. Izzy sighed and slapped Richie just below the left shoulder.

            “Don’t ever do that again you jerk! You scared the piss out of me!” Izzy said as she placed her hand over her heart and continued to catch her breath. Richie smiled at her, but then the smile faded when he saw the woman in the office.

            “Who’s that?” Richie asked as he walked closer to the office window.

            “I don’t know! I don’t think I’ve ever seen her before…but she still looks somewhat familiar.” Izzy told him. Richie stepped even closer to where his face was leaning against the window. He cupped his hands over his eyes and looked in at her. Richie took one of the hands away and softly began to tap on the glass.

            “Hello?” He shouted out. The woman did nothing and just continued to work there as if he had for years. “Mam! Can you hear me?” He shouted out again. The woman still ignored him. Izzy reached up and grabbed him by the arm.

            “Let’s go Richie!” She said as she pulled him away from the window.

            “What are we doing?” He asked.

            “We’ll call security. The woman is starting to freak me out.” Izzy said as the two of them sat down on the bench across from the office window and continued to watch her.

 

2.

Izzy and Richie continued to sit there and watch the woman in the office shuffle papers on her desk when they heard a man’s voice.

            “Hello? Did somebody call security?” He shouted. Izzy and Richie looked at each other.

            “Yes! We’re in here next to the main office!” Richie shouted. The man that came around the corner was short and chubby. His head was almost completely bald except for a few dark brown hairs on the sides of his skull. The man had a thick beard that covered his face but was still nicely groomed. He was wearing a light blue shirt with a security guard’s badge on it and a name pin to the left that said CHARLIE.

            “What do you guys want? I’m missing How I Met Your Mother!” Charlie asked. Izzy and Richie looked at each other, exchanged looks, and then looked back at the man.

            “Yeah, we just thought you would like to know about that woman sitting in there in the office.” Izzy said.

            “What woman?” Charlie asked. Izzy and Richie turned to face the office. They noticed that the light that was once on had been turned off and that the woman was gone.

            “What the hell?” Richie asked. “She was seriously just in there!”

            “Is this some type of joke?” Charlie asked.

            “No! There really was a woman in the office. She was working at the desk like she had always worked here. But we have never seen her before.” Izzy explained to him. Charlie sighed and reached down to his belt to pull out a large flashlight. He turned it on and then shined it through the glass and into the office. There was nobody in there.

            “Look, I’m willing to let this slide. Just don’t call security anymore for your sophomoric pranks.” Charlie said as he turned the flashlight off and stuck it back into his belt. He turned around and started to walk away. Izzy looked down at a picture frame that was hanging on the wall behind him. What she saw sent chills down her spine.

            “Sir, do you know who this woman is?” She asked him. Charlie stopped and walked back to her. He looked down at the photo. Izzy now knew why she looked so familiar. The woman in the picture was the woman she saw sitting in the office.

            “Yeah. Her name was Cindy Wallace. She used to work here in the office many years ago.” He told them.

            “Where is she now?” Richie asked.

            “Dead.” Charlie replied. “She died this morning as a matter of fact.” He said. Izzy and Richie looked at each other and then back at security guard.

            “How did she die?” Izzy asked.

            “Don’t really know for sure. They don’t know yet if it was a murder or a suicide. When the cops found her this morning, she had long streaks of glass lodged into her eye sockets.” Charlie said. He turned his back to them again and disappeared around the corner. Izzy and Richie looked at each other again and then looked at through the office window.

            The woman in the office was back. She was standing right next to the window of the office with two large pieces of broken glass sticking out of her eyes. Richie and Izzy slowly began to back away as she reached up and slowly pulled the piece of glass from her right eye. The woman tilted her head and began to write on the window in blood.

 

U R NXT! The writing in blood said as the woman smiled and slowly began to reach down and turn the doorknob.

Copyright 2014 by Cody Williams

Courtesy of TRUE TERROR PUBLICATIONS

A division of TTP Entertainment

Author's Note

Thanks for reading. Comments and reviews are welcome as always.

-CW

Reviews

[Dayran]

Quite a message here on the perils of workaholism. Its quite a treatment that you bring to it as a message of horror for subduing the mindless enthusiasm ... that we sometimes attach to it. I normally rely on Intel's Office Robot ads to do that. Nice ...

[Cody Williams]

Thanks for reading Dayran!

-CW

[moonbeam40]

Chilling, a spine tingling creepy ghost story, gave me goose bumps, dare I read more,of course I will, love it, smiling at you.Moonbeam.

[Cody Williams]

Thanks for reading!

-CW

[Thomas Fitzgerald]

I will always adore your playfulness with darkness and those slight moment's we tend to ponder and not fully understand, well done.

[Cody Williams]

Thanks so much for reading Thomas!

-CW

[TL Boehm]

another gripping, macabre scribe from you. Well penned.

[Cody Williams]

Thanks for reading TL!

-CW

[C. Rose]

"then looked at through the window" could be "then looked through the window"

"The writing in blood said as the woman smiled" - doesn't make sense to me because the meaning of the words don't occur at a particular time that can be compared to a smile. Does that make sense?

It was well written, if a little over the top at times description wise like Noel says - but the plot didn't hold any twists for me which are needed for thriller writing.

Thanks for sharing :)

[NoelHC]

You have a formula that you stick to, that works, but there were numerous grammar and typographical errors.
I like the style, but I think it could be improved, for example descriptions of objects with the name brand are a bit of overkill. Some sentences tend to ramble on:
She stood there for a moment and waited for a moment for an answer
She stood there for a moment and waited for an answer
Continuity needs to be looked at, Elizabeth has earphone [RCA branded, even : ) ] in the beginning, and then a few lines later she removes earbuds?
Little details like these need to be fixed.

[Cody Williams]

Okay, I'll give it a run down. Thanks for reading Noel!

-CW

[Jack Wolfe]

Your short stories are always entertaining, and interesting, but they need edit. e.g. They don’t know yet if it was a murder (of) a suicide. (or); she had long streaks of glass lodged into her eye sockets, (long streaks? Maybe long 'shards'. and avoid needless words. A very interesting tale as always, your shorts stand out like something from the 'Night Shift' collection,' but they're lacking the fundamentals which can be picked up with a once over.

[Cody Williams]

Thanks for reading Jack! It really does mean a lot. I'll be sure to make the corrections!

[R. A. Merritt]

Cody a really suspenseful piece of work. It left me wondering if the woman was actually murdered or a victim of her own hand. Reminded me of something one might have seen on the old "Twilight Zone" shows. Not the modern version, but rather the ones I grew up watching when Rod Serling was the host. Again you captured the necessary atmosphere with the requisite language. It left one wondering whether Izzy and her companion should make it out of that hallway without a confrontation with this strange specter. Very well done and my hardy congratulation.

[Cody Williams]

Many thanks for reading R. A.!

-CW

[Sami Khalil]

A gripping write till the end. A lot of anticipation and wondering by the reader. I like how you keep the reader looking for more at the end or to fill in the blanks. Excellent...:)........

[Cody Williams]

Thanks for reading Sami!

-CW

[Sami Khalil]

You are welcome...:)..........