T.E.O.T.W.A.W.K.I

Chapter One.

ESCAPE.

It was only the third week of my internship and I was already struggling, I had a stack of paperwork I had to get through by the end of the week, it was already Friday morning. The elevator dinged and I sprang out on to eleventh floor, also known as ‘cubicle city’. Moving as quickly as possible I weaved between stalls, tightly clutching the stack of papers that should have been on the CEO’s desk an hour ago. Nodding in recognition at the few people I recognised my movements did slow.  As I passed I threw a glance down the dimly lit side corridor that housed the toilets and skidded to a stop.

  “Becca, am I glad to see you” I called happily, sliding a huge grin onto my face. The CEO’s assistant was stood, her back braced against the wall, her head tilted back and her eyes closed. She was breathing deeply, and every other breath sounded wheezy. Her skin lacked its usual radiant glow, which I never failed to compliment her on whenever I had errands to run for the boss. Her cheeks were not their usual shade of rose and sweat beaded her forehead as if she had just returned from a lap around the building. “You don’t look too good” I pointed out taking a hesitant step towards her. “You have the fish too?” I asked reaching a hand out slowly to shake her shoulder. Ever since lunch it seemed, people were suddenly becoming ill, throwing up, collapsing and diarrhoea were just a few of the things I’d heard thrown around, not literally of course. But it seemed to only be the people that had eaten the fish from the canteen, however, it being Friday meant that most people had gone for fish and chips. I was suddenly glad that I chose to work through my lunch break, the last thing I needed right now was to be ill, I didn’t have the time or energy to waste. As soon as my hand came to rest on Becca’s shoulder her eyes snapped open causing me to jump back in shock. “Oh I’m sorry I didn’t mean to startle you” I stammered holding out the papers with a shaky hand. “I was just wondering if you could give these to Mr. Rogers that would be great” I continued as Becca just stood staring at me, her gaze seemed inhuman, there was something strangely animalistic about it. It was like staring down a rabid dog that you knew was going to pounce on you at any moment. “Just I have a million other jobs that I should probably be getting on with, I mean I’m so far behind as it is” I finished with a nervous chuckle, her unwavering gaze sending chills up my spine. Becca’s lips parted slightly, a deep rumbling resonating from her chest. Was she growling at me? “Okay then” I said slowly starting to back up, the girl obviously didn’t want to be bothered, and that was fine by me. Maybe it was her time of the month. I was just about to tell her not to worry about it, I would hand Mr Rogers the papers myself when she snapped, whatever was bothering her seemed to have completely pushed her over the edge.

Launching herself at me with a noise that sounded like an angry lion, I stumbled backwards, the papers fluttering to the floor. I made a mental not of the way she moved, as if she was slightly drunk and beginning to lose full control of her limbs. “What the hell Becca?” I demanded surprise quickly turning to anger, I understood she was ill but boy, she could have just told me to go away. In fact, Becca was the closest thing I had to a friend in the damn city, she’d been nothing but nice to me, so why the sudden change I don’t know. I began slowly moving backwards, one hesitant step at a time, yet she just followed my movements the same predatory gaze in her eyes. I held my hands out in front of me showing that I had nothing to hurt her and meant no harm, as well as an extra safe guard between me and the now crazy woman shuffling towards me. Before I could say anything she pounced again, this time I wasn’t so lucky. My shoes lost traction on the soft carpet as I tried to scurry backwards, and I landed hard on my ass. There was no time to even call out before Becca collapsed on top of me. Her mouth snapping dangerously close to my throat, the only thing stopping her latching on were my arms between our torsos as I tried to roll her off me. After a few seconds of struggle I succeeded and quickly scrambled to my feet while she flailed about on her back. Nobody had seemed to notice what was going on over here, or at least I could see nobody coming to my aid. I contemplated calling out for help, but decided against it, surely we could work out whatever had upset her ourselves.  Somehow during our struggle we’d ended up switching positions, now I was cornered in the corridor, my exit blocked by Becca who was slowly managing to find her feet again.