Working Title
an excerpt

“This is the last time I’m covering for you,” Lisa snapped as she snatched the folder from Jacob. “Damn it, if you would just learn to plan ahead, we wouldn’t have to keep doing this.” She stormed off without giving him a chance to respond, or even react. So naturally he flipped the bird at her retreating back.

Lisa grumbled under her breath all the way back to her office. “Stupid idiot. Now I have to be here late tonight. Why do I keep covering his ass every time he screws up?” The truth – which Lisa wouldn’t admit even to herself – was that she enjoyed this. Every time Jake asked her for something, she took pains to rub his nose in how he was putting her out. Never mind the fact that she demanded twice as much of him. She wanted to move up in the organization, maybe be a manager. She knew she couldn’t do that without managing, so she acted like a queen to all of her coworkers. Especially Jacob.

As five o’clock approached, Jacob gathered his things and got ready to leave the office. He hadn’t seen Lisa again, and he hoped to maintain that status quo. He poked his head out of his cubicle, then headed quickly to the exit once he saw that the coast was clear. Lisa’s office was down the hall, and it looked like her door was closed. Bitch, he thought bitterly as he unlocked his car door. Thinks she knows it all just because she conned her way into an office with a door. He shook his head and stowed his laptop in the passenger’s seat, then slammed the door with gusto. Thinks she’s so superior. At least I have a family to go home to.

His family was the reason why he’d had to ask Lisa to take over the Wilson project. With baby Isabelle sick, and his wife working nights at the hospital, he absolutely had to be home on time. Otherwise, he would have stayed and worked on the stupid project himself rather than have to debase himself to Lisa. All right, that’s it. Sick of thinking about this. Going to put it behind me and go home and be with my loved ones. And with that, he drove away.

The light in Lisa’s office dimmed as the sun went down. She took a break to get a bag of chips and a diet Coke out of the vending machine, then went back to editing the thirty-page paper Jacob had emailed her after she left his cubicle. “I cannot believe this was in such bad shape. Jesus, did he do anything before he gave this to me? I don’t think so.”

Around 9:30, she was putting the finishing touches on the document when the lights went out. “DAMMIT!” she yelled. She frantically tried to remember the last time she had saved the document, and couldn’t. All that work, wiped out. She pounded her fists on her desk.

It occurred to her to wonder why the power had gone out only when she heard the scraping noise in the hallway. She sat motionless, listening.

“H-h-hello?” She swallowed hard, annoyed at the way her voice quavered. Silence, then a scratching that sounded as though it were on her door. It sounded like fingernails, and the old urban legend about the two girls in the dorm over Christmas break popped into her head, unbidden. She bolted for the door and engaged the lock, then fumbled in the dark for the phone on her desk. She finally found it, only to discover that there was no dial tone. The scratching on her door was becoming more insistent. She grabbed her cell phone and sobbed in relief when she saw that she had four bars.

“9-1-1, what is your emergency?”

“I’m at the Goldstein Building and the power’s out and there’s someone trying to break into my office,” Lisa said as calmly as she could. “Please send the police immediately.”

“The police are on their way, ma’am. Are you in a safe area?”

“My door is locked, but I don’t – I don’t know how secure it is. The person – he – he’s scratching at my door.” She could hear the panic building in her voice and hated herself for it.

“Where in the building are you located, ma’am?”

“Fourth floor, room 415.” The doorknob rattled. “Please tell them to hurry!” she whisper-screamed.

“They’ll be there in moments. Just stay calm. Can you stay on the line?”

“Yes, yes, but Jesus God what if –” There was a beep, and her cell phone died. “Oh crap,” she whispered, and sank down to the floor in the corner of the room furthest from the door. The scratching began again, sounding for all the world like a very large dog trying to break down the door.

All of a sudden it occurred to her that this was probably Jacob’s way of getting back at her for snapping at him. Maybe his wife came home early and he decided to come back to the office and play a little prank on her. “Jacob, I know that’s you,” she called out. The scratching stopped. “Very funny. I’ve called the cops; if you don’t want to spend the night in jail, you’d better leave right now.”

Silence from the hallway.

“Jacob?”

She knee-walked over to the door and sat crouched in silence, listening for footsteps retreating down the hall. She heard nothing from the hall, but she was beginning to hear sirens approaching. “Great, now I have to explain to the cops that I’m not a crackpot. Thanks, Jacob,” she hissed as she yanked open the door.

The hallway was empty.

What the hell? I know I didn’t hear him leave. She looked both ways down the hall. It was completely empty. All the office doors were closed, although she supposed he could have ducked into one and shut the door quietly enough for her to not hear it through her own office door. She stepped out into the hall with the intention of looking in the office across the hall.

The cops heard her screaming all the way down in the lobby.