Haunted

November 2nd

I woke to the sound of Shannon screaming. Still half dozed I ran into her room. Picking her up I held her over my shoulder.
"Hey baby it's okay."

I looked over the clock. It read 9:15 Am. My jaw hit the floor, I had to be at work in fifteen minutes, and there was no way I was going to make it in time.

I rushed back into my room and placed Shannon carefully down on the bed and changed her clothes, before I threw my own clothes on. I picked up my bag and grabbed various things and picked up Shannon's bag too. I lifted Shannon back into my arms and hurried down the stairs as fast but as carefully as I could.

I dashed through the downstairs, putting on my shoes and grabbing a banana. I rushed to the car and strapped Shannon in quickly, chucking everything else all over the back seat. I ran back to lock the front door and sprinted back to the car. I got in and sped away.

My manager, Becca, was going to be livid. There was nothing she hated more than people being late. There was not a chance that I would make it, considering the fact I still had to drop Shannon off at Emma's house.

9:25am
I pulled up outside Emma's house and jumped out of the car. I knocked on the front door, and then headed back to the car getting Shannon and her bag out. Emma opened it, with Danielle perched on her hip.

"Emma!" I cried
"Lola you are going to be late! It'll take you at least ten minutes from here."
"I know, I know. You can say I told you so now."
Emma had warned me not to have a party on a Sunday night, as she knew I wouldn't make it to work on time, and she had been right.
"Hmm, maybe listen to me next time." She laughed.

"Here's Shannon and her bag." I passed Shannon's hand from mine to Emma's.
I crouched down beside her.
"Mumma." She pouted.
"I'll see you later baby, okay." I hugged her briefly, kissed the top of her head and stood back up.
"Have a good day Lola, I'll see you later." Emma called after me.
I waved as I walked back to the car. "Thanks, see you later."
I got back in the car and drove off.

It was a good thing that Emma and Mark lived in the direction of my work, especially today. They lived closer to my work than I did. It would have been awful if they lived in the opposite direction.

Thankfully the roads were clear, but time was ticking by. If I was merely one minute late it would matter. Becca's biggest pet hate was people being late, and I was normally always on time. After all you could say, that Miss Edgeware had trained me well, but today was obviously not my day.

Jack had not come home last night. I had left hundreds of messages and voicemails on his phone, but there had been nothing back from him. He had either not seen them, or he had decided not to reply at all.

I indicated into the car park and drove into the first available space, my eyes came across. I grabbed my bag from the back seat and rushed through the car park into the office. I ran up the stairs and at the top I pushed open the double doors into the office.

I worked in a division of a magazine company. I was literally spending my days reading celebrity gossip and all those weird addicting stories they have in magazines. I was basically being paid to do my hobby.

I walked past desk after desk. It just had to be that mine was the other end of the office. It only bothered me when I was late as everyone else turned to stare.

"Lola, how was your birthday?" Libby from marketing called out.
There was about three Libby's in the whole office, but Marketing Libby was definitely my favourite.
"Yeah it was good thanks Libby" I called back as I carried on walking.

I reached the cluster of desks where my division sat. My division manager Matt had an unamused expression fixed upon his face. Stacey and Harriet, my other two colleagues, turned to look and smiled at me briefly, before getting back to work.