The Ill-fated Lovers

Chapter 7

Sleep paralysis, the inability to move or scream after falling asleep or upon waking up, includes hallucinations and a sensation of suffocation. Mix that with morbid nightmares and you'll be late for work.

I rushed into the silver-grey building with a cup of coffee in my hands. I clumsily dodged men and women with briefcases as I tried to keep the remnants of my coffee in the cup. As I made it into the building the lift doors closed and I saw it was going to the sixth floor. It would take forever to come back down again.

I looked at the stairwell and clicked my tongue. Shit. Heels, stairs, and coffee another recipe for disaster. Looking back at the lift I saw it only stopped on the second floor. I waited and after a while, the lift came back down.

I took it up to the third floor. Even though Camilla was nice to me and a very lenient and understanding boss I  couldn't take advantage of her. I had to obtain a standard of professionalism. She was my boss and I didn't want her to think that I wasn't taking my job seriously or was incompetent.

The lift dinged and I walked out. Charlie was walking another man dressed in a brown suit to the elevator and they both glanced at me uttering simple good mornings before they stepped in the elevator together.  I walked over to my desk and then Camilla rounded the corner with a bright smile on her face. "Good morning sunshine," she chuckled.

"I'm so sorry that I'm late," I told her and she waved her hand dismissing it.

"Val chill. I'm not Brosnan," she laughed.

"Well since you here now can you run to the stock room on the fourth floor. The lady that usually stocks our offices is on maternity leave and the replacement called in sick."

I nodded. "What is that you need?"

"Pens and staples."

I started up my computer and left my coffee down on the desk next to my bag. It wasn't a handbag but a fancy backpack my mom got for me. I went back to the elevator and took it one floor up.

When it dinged and I stepped out a weird chill ran down my spine causing all the hair on my body to stand on edge. The place was eerily quiet, there was no one in sight and the floor was cold. Everything looked so clean and neat and there was this strange buzzing noise in the air.

The place just felt haunted.

Shaking my head I walked around and began looking for the supply room. I couldn't leave because I was scared. What would Camilla think if I went back without her supplies just because I got a funny feeling about the place.

I found a door that had a nifty plaque on it that read office supplies. I opened the door and walked in. I touched along the wall for a light switch and then flicked it on upon finding it. The room was clean and well organized. It smelled of detergent.

There were metal pulling drawers with labels of what it contained, stacks of paper, shelves of books, bunches of rulers, bins of erasers, whiteboards, and markers. I found the pens in the metal drawers and began looking for the staples.

I found staplers but was having a hard time finding staples. I heard the door open and close and I looked up to see Nick. Our eyes locked for a minute. Green against blue and I could have sworn I saw a bit of softness in his eyes before they turned hard again.  I quickly looked back down at the drawer I was digging in.

Whether Nick was avoiding me purposely for the last three days or it was a mere coincidence that we haven't bumped into each other was a mystery to me, but I felt and wanted to believe the first option that he was in fact avoiding me like the plague.

In that case, I wish he would avoid my dreams and let the man who dies go back to being faceless because I couldn't stand it any longer. It had gotten to the point where I slept at two sometimes three in the morning.