Poisoned

9. I Had to Do This Alone

I ordered takeout again, but this time, I put it on a nice dish so that I could enjoy my dining table and it just so happened that when transferring the fried rice to a plate, it all fell to the ground and the plate shattered.

This was in the same spot where I had watched the movie earlier. I'd never broken plates. I know I had to chill out on gambling so I started to just drink and try to watch TV instead.

I was back home and I was just paranoid.

I decided to switch to all-natural ingredients. 

The ones that were in power were in on the tactics to make me suffer and I wasn't going to accept it.

Even though I didn't have any allies, I was going to have a solid report to bring police, so that I could make sure the ones responsible were held liable as the planners of murder they were.

I was cleaning the kitchen sink with Clorox Spray and I looked around and realized all my products had ammonia.

In the interest of health, I collected every single product that I had with gloves on and threw all the products away. I intended to do the same thing the next day, and I would prove to whoever was responsible for what I was feeling that the tools they used were incriminating now that they couldn't blame it on, "Oh, he's OCD, he's constantly cleaning with Clorox so he accidentally poisoned himself."

That theory was out.

-

I was late to the meeting, and due to construction, it was held at a new room.

I ran into Anastasia, who was lost like me, and we walked together being led by someone from HR.

"Your meeting is straight ahead to the left," she pointed. 

"We would've never found this." Said Elley, as we thanked her. 

When we entered the room, everything shifted.

Elley looked at my manager with an evil smile and Maya looked me up and down.

Everyone had been laughing until their door opened, so their smiles were disappearing and they were settling into formal faces.

It reminded me of when the teacher stepped out of the classroom and suddenly came back.

There definitely had been a joke going on, but they weren't willing to pass on the laughs.

"Sorry, we couldn't find it," Elley announced. 

My manager gestured that we sit down and Elley took the only available chair. The team was large and the space was limited, so I stood leaning on the wall, watching everyone take in the information manager delivered.

But then I saw through the mesh of the office chair where Zeob was sitting, his hand was going from his pocket and retracting a yellow squeeze toy.

I figured it would squeak, but it didn't. I had seen similar things be used for people who always had to be busy with their hands, but then I began to not be able to breathe.

I wondered if anyone was seeing what was happening, but everyone was facing away from me. I was in the back of the room, suffocating, but unable to ask for help.

The papers I were holding suddenly became my fan, which I tried to use to air from the bottom my airway.

I looked at Zeob, who was adjusting himself in his chair to still be facing away from me, but using his hand to continue to squeak the toy that looked fuzzed due to the chair's gray mesh.

I looked toward the manager, and instead of meeting my eye, he turned my way and looked at Anastasia and Elley, who nodded with smirks. 

Shockingly, Elley was the first one who confessed when offered a lighter sentence.