Lost in the Mafia's Game

Chapter 1

"Alright people look alive!" Nancy shouts from her desk six feet away from mine. I look up and glance at her and nod as I stand up.

I clear my throat and all the interns and other writes look at me, "Today is the day, a new year, a new start! We would like to welcome all of the interns that will be joining us for the 2016 winter season." Everyone around me claps as I introduce the new interns, it has been like this every year for the five years I've worked here at Bloomings Magazine. The interns parade in acting like they own they place and the writers who have been here longer chuckle at the arrogant interns and continue sipping on their morning coffee.

Right after I graduated high school I got a good paying job here at Bloomings Magazine, I was going to go to UC Berkley but when this offer came up I couldn't resist and now I sit here in a high-rise in downtown Chicago at seven in the morning, . I get paid decently and people respect me here, I don't know if that is because I'm nice or they actually believe I'm a good writer, which its hard to be approved around here. Only the best of the best could work at Bloomings, I was lucky enough to land a summer internship here my junior year of highschool, being an intern here isn't all its cracked up to be. All you do is make copies, staple, file, check articles for misspellings and get coffee. Around the middle of my intern ship I decided to write an article and pretend for fun that it would get published, well I was trying to send it to myself but I ended up clicking the SEND ALL button and the biggest boss in my building received it.

Lets just say she really enjoyed and published it, once my senior year was over she approached me and offered me this position as head writer which is amazing because normally you start out as an intern then go to full-time assistant to a writer, then a writer, then the head writer, and finally the boss who over sees it all. But I got to skip some of those steps and jump right to the top.

Don't get me wrong I'm very blessed with my career and wouldn't change it for the world. What do they say? Oh yea, its not actually work if your having fun doing it.

I finally sit back down in my chair once the clapping comes to a halt, taking a deep breathe I lean back in my chair and spin around once or twice just to take in how truly lucky I really am.

"Chanel!" I hear screeched from across the room and I dart my head towards the door as my crazy assistant writer runs in with my morning coffee and a bagel.

I thank her and hand her a stack of my writing I need her to check, "Man the pile has really gotten big since my vacation." She states and I laugh and nod.

"I really need those done by two this afternoon because I have to turn them into Nancy." Nancy is my boss and also the boss of the our whole building. My assistant nods and walks to her cubical.

After a few hours of writing and revising I pop my finished article on "Clutch Purses" in Nancy's mailbox and walk over to my assistant's cubical, I lean over the side wall and watch her circle a misspelled word on my article, "Hey, are you also done with those?" I say looking down at my watch "Its almost two".

She leans back in her chair and runs her hand through her tangled hair, "No I'm only a quarter of the way done too." She says clearly stressed.

I smile and give her a break since its her first day back, "Its alright you can go I can finish these for the day besides everyone else left early and are going out for drinks tonight since its Friday, go join them!"

"I couldn't leave you with all these articles." She protests, "No I insist, actually its an order," I reply and she laughs and nods "Alright thanks I'll see you Monday!" She says gathering her things and rushing out the doors to go home for the weekend.

I grab the unfinished stack of articles and head back to my desk and get started.

A couple hours later I look up and run my hands through my tangled curly hair, I look over at the time and my jaw drops when I read, 10:45 p.m., I yawn and bring the finished articles over to Nancy's desk. I look around and notice that absolutely everyone has gone home for the weekend. I finally gather my things, including my purse and travel mug. Once I make my way over to the elevators I press the garage floor and step inside, as soon as the elevator doors shut I lean against the wall and yawn and shut my eyes I brief seconds before the bell dings and the doors open and I walk out in the abandoned parking garage.

"Wow" I mutter to myself, I've never seen it this empty, as I make my way over to my car I notice one other car in the garage parked not to far from mine, taking the time to inspect the car I see three heads, two in the front and one in the back, my head drops to my purse to retrieve my keys and when I look up the heads that where in the car only seconds before are gone. I begin to get a little worried and anxious, just then a rough hand wraps their hand over my mouth and then I feel a tiny pinch in my arm and then everything goes dark...