Chelsea got changed into a shoulder-less blue dress and switched her running shoes to black heels. She unclasp her hair and allowed it to fall freely around her face before fastening two little berets on the right side. As she went back to her desk, she realised that people had begun to come in. A few milled around desks and even a few bits of chatter could be heard. She felt instant nerves and sat down quickly, so as not to be noticed. Peter was greeting everyone excitedly and she knew he would drag her over to meet them, if he spotted her. Checking the calendar she saw that there was only twenty minutes until they needed to be up in the meeting room. She made her way to the stairs and walked up the single flight. Opening the door she surveyed the wide corridor which had several large wooden doors along, each with a number pasted beside them, to mark which one they were. She saw across from her was number three and remembering the invitation had placed them in six, she went to the next and it was marked with a two. Scratching her head at the non chronological numbers, she looked at each of the doors and finally found six between one and five. She went into the room and had to adjust her eyes to the dim light. It had been set up with four seats to either side and four rows. A large screen was in the centre and a old fashioned projector pointed towards it. She was surprised as most meeting rooms should have had the ability to connect to a laptop or any type of computer. She sat down, surreptitiously enjoying the quiet of the large room. Leaning back in the chair, she closed her eyes and prepared herself to deal with people and conversation, which would be coming. The door clattered open and she felt the intrusion keenly. A small mousey woman who had eyes which appeared too large for her tiny face came through. She glanced around like a frightened deer for a moment before settling on Chelsea. “You gave me a heart attack! Did they send you up here to wait for me?” The woman questioned suspiciously.
“No, I’m just waiting for the meeting,” Chelsea assured.
The woman walked towards her and from the wild look in her eyes, Chelsea felt like backing away, if she could pass the odd woman. “That’s my chair. You can sit in the aisle seat,” the woman said and went to the end to wait for Chelsea to comply with her request or command. Chelsea quickly did as the woman asked and looked in concern as the woman smiled at her, “You’re the new person. I’m Margot. Don’t trust what the vice president says. He’s a sociopath or maybe even a psychopath. It’s why the doctor follows him everywhere. In case he decides to kill one of us.”
“Um, what?” Chelsea asked feeling a bit worried from the paranoid little woman.
“You’ll see, they all see eventually. But then they go on,” she put her fingers up in quotation marks, “long service leave, which is actually electroshock treatment!”
“Are you feeling alright? Do you have someone in the building who knows where you are?”
“Agh, just ask once you realise what this town really is. Then we can talk,” the little woman dismissed and sat in her chair. Jody came in and frowned at Margot before looking at Chelsea.
“See you’ve met mad Margot.”
“Aren’t you ever going to forgive and forget?” Margot snarled back, folding her arms and looking straight ahead at the blank screen.
“I happily forgave you for trying to kill me with a hammer, but I won’t be forgetting anytime soon!” Jody laughed and continued as Chelsea looked at her, shocked.
“I thought she was trying to kill me,” Margot explained to Chelsea, “I saw her license which said Doctor Jody Brown and thought she was one of the ones experimenting on me.”
“You’re a Doctor?” Chelsea questioned Jody.
“Yeah, doctorate in astrophysics,” Jody nodded.
“Then why are you working as a receptionist here?” Lucy exclaimed.
“Funny thing is that when you study these subjects, the thousands you spend on an education, they fail to tell you that there are only 3 job openings for every hundred students. So, most academics tend to be a money hole in the pocket that keeps growing larger. So, you end up doing menial jobs, just to slightly dent the massive debt the pretty certificate got you.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Just, how life is. Could be worse. Could have become a paranoid like Margot!”
“Shut up,” Margot snapped back. A tall young man shuffled in and nodded shyly at them before sitting in the front row, which Chelsea thought was a problem due to him sitting higher and blocking the screen. She wondered oddly, if he never understood how tall he was and hadn’t been told to sit in the back row, before. Three more came in, then Peter was ambling through the doors with five people and talking to them animatedly. They seemed to be fastidiously ignoring him. After the seats were mostly full and she counted around eighteen people, the man with the glasses and white jacket strode to the front, flicking on the projector and taking a seat next to the tall young man at the front. The lights dimmed suddenly and Chelsea held her breath as the door opened and closed behind a man in a black business suit, with a white shirt and tie. She could see his unnaturally white teeth, easily, in the almost darkness and without warning he first patted on the shoulder, the the man sitting on the other side of the aisle and then she felt his hand touch her shoulder. He continued down the aisle doing the same to each row. Chelsea felt nauseated thinking of the millions of germs he had just placed on her skin. She could feel the mark where he had placed his hand like a fire that was eating its way through her flesh. She needed to wash it off. She looked up and he was speaking, but she couldn’t concentrate due to the, sure to be, infection starting to spread.
“Is there a bathroom on this floor?” She whispered urgently to Jody.
“Nah, just go to our floor.”
Chelsea nodded and discretely got up and slipped through the door. Once free she took off her heels and ran as fast as she could down the hall and stairs, then through to the bathrooms. She ran the hot water tap and cursed the water regulator that kept it cooler than needed. Making her way to the kitchen she boiled the kettle and got a white mug from the cupboard. She felt her skin itching with whatever infection his hand had given her and she wished that she could peel the top layers of her skin away to cure it. Once the kettle was finished, she poured the boiling water in the mug and got a small packet of salt to dissolve in it. Then closing her eyes and bracing against the pain, she leaned back over the sink and poured the boiled water over her shoulder. She bit down on her middle finger, feeling tears trickling down her face as the liquid burnt her skin. The pain was intense, but she knew it was the only way she could kill the germs. She breathed a sigh of relief from the panicked thoughts as the first stings indicated triumph. Grabbing a couple of paper towels she dried her shoulder carefully, wincing and realising that she needed cool water to stop it from blistering badly. Taking the mug, she ran the cold water tap and quickly rinsed the burnt skin. She felt pain, trying to dry it again, so making sure it wasn’t dripping she held a paper towel below the burn and made her way back to the bathroom. Looking in the bathroom mirror she winced at the angry red mark, which had begun to blister slightly. Fter a few minutes, Jody burst through the door and frowned at her. Chelsea winced as Jody’s eyes quickly locked on the red mark. “What the living hell happened to you?” Jody remarked in shock.
“It’s okay, it’s just a burn,” Chelsea replied almost in tears.
“No, that needs the doctor. I’m going to go get him. Go back to your desk.” Jody instructed, running out of the room. Chelsea looked back in the mirror and sighing went back to her desk and cursed as her shoulder began throbbing in earnest. She looked up as Jody and the Doctor came to her desk. The Doctor hissed at the sight of the burn and mumbled about getting the first aid kit as he went in the direction of reception Jody shook her head, “What were you thinking, Chelsea?”
“I have problems with people touching me,” Chelsea shrugged and instantly regretted the action as her shoulder seemed to yell with it.
“But when you first arrived you shook Peters hand and mine eventually!”
“I was prepared for shaking hands, on the first day and had antiseptic wipes in my bag. This was unexpected and I had no control. None. No control.”
Jody looked at her like she was mental and it made Chelsea feel embarrassed. The Doctor came back and said gently, “This will sting for a few seconds, but it will hopefully stop it becoming infected.”
“No, don’t touch it!” Chelsea panicked and immediately stopped as Jody raised an eyebrow.
“It’s ok, I’m wearing gloves and only this will touch your skin,” he held up an antiseptic swab with some ointment on it. She nodded her head and scrunched up her face as she felt it touching the burn. When she opened her eyes, the young man who was in the front row of the meeting room was standing next to the Doctor, examining his work. She felt like a spectacle and was uncomfortable with the attention.
The man was skinny, as a rake, and tall. His brown eyes kept darting between people and he unconsciously was clenching and unclenching his hand. He noticed her looking at him and cleared his throat, “I’m Steven. I volunteered to take you home when you’re ready.”
“Oh, thank you. Am I allowed to go home in the middle of a work day?” Chelsea asked feeling her annoyance fade to be replaced with relief.
“It’s Friday, so we can call it a long weekend and I can write you a medical note and sort it out,” the Doctor assured.
“Chelsea! Ah, there you are! Oh lord have mercy, what happened? Are you alright?” Peter exclaimed dramatically as he marched up to the group of people around her desk. It was the last thing she had expected and she just wanted to run to the stairs and back home to feel the inevitable shame which came from incidences like those.
“Pete, stop making her uncomfortable, she just needs to chill,” Jody scoffed, in remarkable understanding at Chelsea’s predicament, to him, and smiled her condescending smile as his face fell into a frown.
“I can take you home and make sure you’re okay,” Peter offered hopefully.
“It’s okay, Steven has offered and I really want to get going before more people come surround my desk,” Chelsea commented, quickly standing and picking up her bag, almost slinging it over her injured shoulder but luckily remembering in time. She caught Pete’s glare towards Steven and hoped she hadn’t upset him too much.
The Doctor gave her his business card and said as he handed her a tube of savlon cream and a packet of paracetamol, “It’s going to hurt pretty badly for the first few days, so take some paracetamol and put the cream on if it becomes uncomfortable. Give me a call if you develop a fever or any symptoms of infection.”
“Thank you.”
She followed Steven and grimaced as he went towards the elevators. She felt too rude to suggest the stairs to the almost stranger who was helping her. The elevator doors groaned open and she entered, trying her best to be brave as they closed. Suddenly the elevator made a thumping noise and dropped a little before halting and proceeding again. “What was that?” She asked with higher alarm than was necessary, judging by Steven’s nonplussed expression.
“Always does that with more than one person,” he shrugged, “I wouldn’t worry, the elevator line breaking wouldn’t kill you from the third floor, as the frames strong enough for the impact. Though it would possibly break your legs,” he paused thoughtfully, “If you jumped at the last second it might not, as it’s ment to minimise the impact jarring you.”
Chelsea nodded at his thoughtful expression and hastily exited the elevator on the basement level. She took a moment to adjust her eyes to the near blackness. The odd flickering light showed numerous cars sitting patiently, waiting for their owners. Steven started walking and she had to almost power walk to keep up with his long legged stride. He stopped at an orange Volkswagen Beetle car and she masked her amusement as the tall man had to fold himself almost in half to fit in the tiny vehicle. She opened the passenger door and got in, snuggling her bag securely on her lap, which also helped mask any stomach rolls or creases from her sitting posture. He started the noisy old engine and stalled it a few seconds before the next try and she almost exclaimed with relief as he drove out into the street and daylight flooded the car. She felt slightly uncomfortable with the silence as they continued driving, but also felt oddly awkward at not knowing what to talk about, so silence was preferable. As they turned onto her street he parked at her house and waited for her to get out.
“Thank you Steven. So much,” she smiled at the shy man and he looked up at her, sideways as she opened the door.
“Have you been in the attic yet?” He asked abruptly.
“Um, no, don’t think it has one,” she shook her head as she began closing the door.
“Does,” he pointed up and she saw a window above the second floor. As she closed the door he started driving off and she jumped back from where she had been. Muttering under her breath as she went up the stairs and path to her front door. When she closed the door, she realised, yet again, that she hadn’t given Steven her address…
…
After eating a quick dinner of cheese and mushroom omelette, Chelsea quickly washed the plate and took a quick cool shower to help her blistering shoulder. After inspecting it for any infection, she looked up at the ceiling to try find an entry into the odd third level of the townhouse. A trap door seemed evident by a slight latch poking out of the ceiling. She could make out the very faint lines of a square border. After getting one of the dinning chairs and stepping onto it, she reached up and needing to balance on her tippy toes, eventually grabbed the painted ring and pulled with all her might. As she toppled down, she realised she had used a bit too much force as the ladder unfolded itself and a darkish hole in the ceiling stared back at her. She moved the chair out of the way of the ladder and ascended cautiously. She realised night had fallen, as she poked her head above and got her phone out to act as a torch in the near blackness. She was astounded at the size and space that the attic held and ignoring the old furniture in the corner, made her way to the small window. She looked out and scanned her eyes along the street, then realised that a dark shape seemed to be standing at her front gate. She blinked her eyes, thinking it might be a mirage or her mind trying to create shapes out of shadows. But it remained…
She breathed out trying to control her racing thoughts and panic. Her mind was doing backflips at the new danger. She pulled the stairs up and went back to the window to keep an eye on the dark figure. After minutes of observing, she eventually convinced herself to call the police. She waited, feeling a gnawing fear as the telephone rang for a long time. Finally a disgruntled female voice answered, “What is your emergency, please speak clearly.”
“Hi, there is a person standing at my gate.”
“Ma’am, that is not an emergency. If they enter your property or use any aggressive means to coerce you into leaving your property we can assist. If they are using a public footpath, we cannot assist.”
“Disturbance! It’s passed ten and whoever it is, is making a disturbance.”
“Ma’am that has to do with noise.”
“Please, just send someone to make them stop. Please!” Chelsea begged with bated breath, not knowing what to expect from the surly officer and finally got a sigh.
“Okay, dispatch will send a car to your location,” the woman advised and hung up. Chelsea waited and watched the black shape. It bent it’s head sideways, when the blue and red lights approached, but instead of running away, the figure opened the gate and came towards her house!
TBC 13/03/2026
Maxine the Magnificent 