Bureau of Collections || ONC2021

After Hours

Colin's eyes felt like sandpaper and his shoulders ached. Being the sole network administrator for a rapidly growing startup was really taking its toll. Software upgrades on two entire server farms and then a firewall and backup system needing replacement had left him working without sleep and barely eating for almost thirty-five hours straight, but the end of the digital nightmare was in sight.

He gazed up at the screen, watching the last update tick painfully upwards. Ninety-six percent, ninety-seven, a scowl escaping when the timer beneath shifted down to zero point zero four seconds before freezing and ticking back up to ten minutes. Seriously?!

His attention turned to his phone as it buzzed softly on the desk of his cramped cubicle, his tall lanky frame creaking as he sat upright, joints protesting from hours hunched over programming. It was the wife. Pushing his clear framed glasses up his nose, he unlocked the device and opened the notification.

Kids miss you. Do you think you will make it home for bedtime?

He glanced up at the clock. Six pm. Ah shit. He had promised his two daughters his best rendition of the book 'Piranhas don't eat bananas' to make up for his absence at bedtime. Something about their little giggles as he put on his best cockney accent just made his seventy hour weeks spent in this place worth it. At least that was how he justified it. He provided and gave his family a comfortable life, like any good husband and father. But did it need to stay that way?

He was unsure if it was his fast approaching forties or lack of satisfaction in his work life, but of late he had been realizing just how much he was missing out on. There had to be a better, more satisfied life with his family. Maybe it was time he took up his friend Mark Bishop's offer to consult. The money was good, the hours barely half what he did now and no soul sucking management making poor decisions about the network infrastructure against his recommendation and making his job harder. His family deserved to have him as more than just a breadwinner.

His eyes darted back to the screen as it flashed, smiling to see the server was now rebooting, updates complete. Excellent. Now just to bring everything back online and switch the call centre back over to the main line. Thirty minutes max. Quickly he tapped a reply to his wife, pausing before sending. No. You never give someone a timeframe when upgrading, if the machine knows it will mess with you. It was a universal law. He placed the phone down, gently touching the timber of his desk with both hands. Not tonight.

Rising from his seat, he noticed the shadow of someone lurking outside the frosted windows of the closed office space. Odd. No one usually bothered him here this late. Must be one of the women manning the phones and growing impatient with the slower backup call system. He strode across the room, avoiding stacks and cages of discarded computer equipment, and opened the door, frowning when there was no one on the other side.

"Wendy?" he called out, taking a good guess at who it might be. She was always the first to appear and complain.

He gazed out into the empty open plan office, desks stretching ominously into the dark, the motion sensor lights yet to detect his presence. Stepping out, he turned towards where the call centre was situated down a small side hallway to his left; The lights illuminating through the door, the soft murmur of chatter coming from the other side.

If someone had been there, the motion lights would definitely have activated, yet everything remained quiet in the shadows. He shrugged it off, glancing back at his screens, seeing it was now going through the installation. It would be another ten minutes before he had to do anything important.

Without a second thought, he made his way to the kitchen; the lights illuminating his path in bright fluorescence and affirming he was just seeing things until he reached the kitchen where the lights remained stubbornly in darkness.

He waved his hand towards the sensor in the corner, frowning when it softly clicked in response but did nothing. With a sigh, he made a mental note to lodge a ticket with maintenance before settling for the cool glow coming from the glass fridge and taking a clean-ish cup from the cupboard to pour himself a coffee from the pot he'd brewed earlier in the evening.

It was not till he turned around and walked out, puckering lips to take a tentative sip of the brew that he noticed the dark form again, lurking just on the edge of the darkness in the open office space and just indiscernible enough to be unsettling.

It just stood there, unmoving, somehow almost part of the creeping night and yet somehow solid, darkness seeming to crumble like dust from its form. He locked eyes with it, frozen, a heaviness growing in the air. He knew it was looking directly at him and no matter how much he urged his feet to step backward, they refused. And then it moved.

With a jolt, hot coffee broke free of its ceramic confines and splashed on fingers as it charged at him in an ephemeral instant, and then - nothing.

Swearing and fingers scalded, he placed the cup clumsily down on the bench-top, and looked again, heart racing. The hell? He squinted into the darkness seeing nothing. Definitely gone. A trick of the light? He was not usually the shakeable type and twice in one evening?

"Martin I swear to God if you're messing with me while doing the rounds-" he called out expecting the big security guy to appear from somewhere with a husky laugh. Silence returned. Grimacing, he put his burnt fingers under running water in the kitchen sink, trying to rationalise what he saw until he heard a few distant thuds.

He turned off the tap with his elbow, breath held as he listened, a void like heaviness returning until a distinct shriek rose. Wendy. He didn't think, he just acted, his body moving without much convincing. He had to help. Something was wrong and while he was no believer in spooks or the supernatural, he was pretty sure there was an intruder in the office and he felt it his duty to respond.

He raced down the hallway in long strides, frantically looking around for something to defend himself with, the only thing remotely useable being a small fire extinguisher which he awkwardly pulled from the wall before bursting into the call centre, double doors flinging wide, his bravado plummeting into confusion at the gruesome scene before him, unable to comprehend what he was seeing.

The fire extinguisher toppled from his slackened fingers to the blood splattered floor with a heavy thud. Eyes wide as a man equal to him in height but far brawnier stood over the what was left of the customer service agent, Shiva. The man turned, his expression one of almost indifference as he placed what looked like jewellery he had stolen from his victims in his pocket.

Colin's mouth opened to speak, fear restricting his vocal chords as the man locked eyes with him an eyebrow raising as he adjusted his long black duffle coat, glancing past Colin for just a moment before returning to him and unholstered what looked like a gun.

"Hey 404, there were only two souls on this work order, right?"