Chapter 32

Chapter 32
Chapter 32

The hum of the fluorescent lights and the sounds of keyboards clicking against fingertips could be heard in the cold, small office.

The smell of coffee and donuts filled the air as each employee had their gazes fixed on their computer screens.

No words were said and to be fair, no words needed to be said.

Everyone seemed busy….

Everyone except for one….
Megan Melroy sat hunched at her cubicle in Ainsley Editing House, her red pen tapping against the corner of a thick manuscript. 
As an editor of the company, it was her job to prod read and give her two cents on any manuscripts of the writers.

In short, it was her job to find out if a book was good enough to be published or not.

However, she had been unable to concentrate much on this huge manuscript.

Her eyes kept going back to the title page no matter how hard she tried to make progress.

THE GIRL IN ROOM 324

She had tried reading this story over and over again but if she were to be very honest with herself, she did not know what to make of the story.

It was a good story she couldn’t lie but there was just something off about it.

It resonated so much with her life thag the manuscript felt like a mirror.

It felt wrong….

Megan’s desk was cramped with files and papers scattered all around her desk in piles.

There are manuscripts that she hasn’t even read yet but for some reason, she had been stuck in this particular one for hours.

As she read each word, Megan could not stop the sense of deja vu that washed over her.

“Melroy!”

She heard sharply from behind her. 

Her crane scrambled around to seem busy as the voice was more than about to bring her out of her thoughts and back to reality.

Megan looked up to see her editor in chief….Linda.

Megan had always envied Linda.

Even though she was younger than she was, she was highly successful and well sought after.

Let’s not even start to  talk about her looks as well.

Linda had beautiful blonde hair with bright blue eyes.

She was beautiful and dressed very nicely not to talk about the fact that she kept getting praised for Megan’s hard work just because he was the editor in chief.

She was tall, confident, looked and smelled good. Eyes followed Linda wherever she went.

Linda had guys flocking around her and to be blunt about it, she was everything that Megan was not.

Megan had long black hair and green eyes. She wore thick rimmed glasses and had a very unsymmetrical shaped face.

She was not eye catching and she knew it.

“You’re still on that draft? I expected that you would have had it on my desk already.”

Linda said, crossing her arms over her chest. This action caused her breasts to be more accentuated but it did not seem like she was even aware of this fact.

Her eye narrowed at Megan as her soft gaze pierced at her.

The reaction came in an instant.

Megan instinctively straightens her form in her chair, clumsily fiddling around with papers and manuscripts.

It was clear that she was nervous.

“I-it’s d-different from the others and the s-story line is s-strange.”

Megan’s eyelids shut together as she tried hard to calmly make her point.

However there was just something about the aura that she radiated that was always more than enough to make her nervous and for all that it was worth, Megan hated that she was always nervous around her.

Linda’s lips curled in displeasure as her fingers started to tap against her folded hands.

“If it’s new, then it’s perfect. Just have it on my desk by Friday tops.”

“B-but it has more than two hundred pages!” Megan cried out in protest as she adjusted her glasses on her nose bridge.

She needed more time.

It would be impossible to get such a manuscript ready for publication by Friday when it was just Tuesday.

“Friday Melroy!”

She said with finality as she then walked away.

It had always been this way.

Megan was the backbone behind most of the successful projects in the company but it was always Linda taking  all of the recognition and what made it even worse was that no one saw all of the hard work that she was putting in.

Her chest tightened but she knew she had no choice. She had to get the job done.

Megan started to chew at her fingertips. A coping mechanism that she had picked up while she was still a child.

Beads of sweat started to gather at the small of her back making her oversized sweater stick to her body.

It was a hot day but Megan would rather wear her oversized sweater than to show even a crack of skin.

Megan could feel the eyes in her and the snickers but as usual, she ignored them.

Megan let out a deep sigh and she began to arrange her desk again.

She could try to complain about it but she already knew that the result was going to be the same.

Her eyes shifted to the manuscript again.

THE GIRL IN ROOM 324

It had no author.

That was the most eerie thing about it.

Choosing not to waste anymore time, Cleo opened it up and started to read.

From what she could tell so far, the story was about a young writer who checked into a Hotel called Hotel La Rue, Room 324 to be precise.

Then a wave of strange happenings started to occur.

The more she read, the more fixated she became. It got to the point that she was no longer interested in checking for errors or grammar.

She was interested in the story itself.

Megan could not explain it but if felt like she was reading a story about herself.

The office became quiet as everyone closed for the day but there she remained. Reading carefully line by line.