The Boss's Favorite (English)

The Cube

Elena likes the new apartment. She can sleep in longer now that she lives so close to work. She has already met a number of neighbors and she also gets along well with Thomas, her upstairs neighbor. He is about two years older than Elena and works as an accountant.

It's 5pm on Friday evening. Thomas and Elena have agreed to spend the friday together in the city and go to a bar.
Thomas is already waiting in the lobby of the office building where Elena works. Elena steps out of the elevator with Mr. Smith and into the lobby. Thomas greets Elena enthusiastically and wants to introduce himself to Mr. Smith.
Mr. Smith's posture changes and, somewhat dominantly, he firmly grasps Thomas's hand and introduces himself briefly but powerfully. He looks irritated and without even saying hello he walks out of the lobby and gets into the car that is already waiting in front of the door.
Mr. Smith is looking out the window of the car and looks straight into Elena's eyes for two seconds. Then he turns his head away and the car drives away.
"Weird," Thomas says and raises an eyebrow.

Thomas and Elena are having a nice evening. They ate something and drank a few glasses of alcohol. Both a little tipsy. Next to them at the bar are two other men with whom they are having a nice chat. Even though Thomas has finished the evening and wants to go home, Elena decides to stay a while. Thomas hesitates whether he should stay or take Elena with him. But Elena is determined.  'Go! I'll stay here for a while!'.

Elena stays to chat with the men at the bar. When she comes back from the toilet, she drinks the last sips from her glass. Time to go home, Elena thinks. The men keep her talking for a while and when she wants to get up to walk away she notices that she can barely stand on her legs. One of the men tries to catch her. "Come on girl, we'll take you home." The men smile at each other.
Elena tries with all the strength she has left to push the man away. The world is spinning around her. 'No no!' Elena shouts and tries to stagger to the toilet again. The men walk behind her and try to follow her. When they reach the toilet they wait outside and Elena stumbles in. Once in a toilet she tries to grab her phone and call Thomas. She taps her screen but she can't see who she's trying to call. Everything is too blurry.
"What's wrong Elena, why are you disturbing me on my night off?" she hears an angry voice on the other end of the line. Elena's hands are shaking and her voice is shaking. "Please help me..." Elena manages to say softly. 'Where are you?!?' the voice follows angrily. Elena manages to say 'The Cube' and then she accidentally clicks out of the conversation. Elena closes her eyes. She is falling asleep sitting on the toilet with her head against the wall.

Elena wakes up from a knock on the bathroom stall door. Everything is still spinning and it is not possible to fully open her eyes. "Damn it Elena!" she hears a man's voice calling. And sees a blurry shadow of that man standing in front of her. The man picks her up. Too weak to resist, Elena allows herself to be carried. She is gently placed in the backseat of a car and the car starts moving.

Elena wakes up slowly. Her whole body is sore, she has a terrible headache and is quite nauseous. After a while, Elena realizes that she is back in her own house. She wakes up on her bed. There is a blanket over her and a glass of water on her bedside table. She sits up on her bed and clutches her head. Ouch, that was too quick to get up. She notices that she is wearing her pajamas and not the clothes she left the house in yesterday. Who changed her clothes?! What happened?! Elena tries to sort everything out. Next to her glass of water is a strip of paracetamol and a note:

Message me when you're awake.
Take some water and some paracetamol.
George