I reign in my glare at Janice and Khent, who are very obviously not looking at me. They reek of their newly reformed mating bond, and I decide to torture them for this later. Preferably when I have a sinus infection and I don’t have to smell the honeymoon phase on them.
I clear my throat, and the two of them jump, apparently having forgotten why they’re here.
Janice’s attention snaps to me, tearing away from the googly eyed stare she and Khent are making at each other. This is why I wrote the no-mate-bonding-with-coworkers policy a dozen years ago.
“Gwen!” she smiles back, looking a little uneasy. Possibly like she forgot I was here. Or because she can sense my immense displeasure.
I flip the manila folder’s top shut, but it doesn’t close, because there’s too much fucking paperwork in here. I’m going to need to go to an office supplies store at some point to get more accordion folders, even if our office supply budget is overdrawn.
“Shall we get started?” I ask, but in the single second I let my hold on their attention lapse, they’re already making goo-goo eyes at one another.
I don’t want to do this anymore.
I never wanted to be in Monster Resources in the first place, but there aren’t many jobs where my abilities can actually be put to use, and get PTO.
Still. Maybe it’s time to put my notice in. I’ve worked here long enough.
After all, I could use something with better benefits.
1
LOVE LAUGH LICH (Claws & Cubicles 1)
Inever knew workingat an office job would be this soul-sucking. I mean, everyone said it would be, and I expected some amount of sucking, but not like this.
It’s one of those Tuesdays that feels a little too much like a second Monday. Specifically it feels like one of those Mondays that every little thing scratches against your consciousness like sandpaper on your face. The ticking of someone’s watch. The creaky chairs that complain whenever someone shifts their weight a little. The smell of burnt coffee seeping out of the breakroom because putting the coffee pot directly beneath the drip is beyond some people.
I’ve never been an I-Hate-Mondays kind of person, but I think I might be turning into one, this very Tuesday.
It could just be because the washed out fluorescent lighting is giving me a headache. The conversation two cubicles over, the not-so-subtle whispering about vacation days, is making my eyes roll back in my skull. I can’t focus on my spreadsheets. I’m not used to working with so many other people around. Maybe the reason I never contemplated hating my coworkers is because I wasn’t with them for the whole day before. The only thing I’m capable of thinking about is how much I want to poke my head up over the divider and ask for some quiet.
Suddenly, I get my wish.
All the chatter silences, a sudden hush that feels heavy and old as a catacomb. A feeling like a breeze ripples through the room, as my skin prickles. An unnatural cold wraps around my body, when I see a dark shadow fall over me.
I look up into the hollow cowl of a black cloak that drapes down to the floor.