Chapter 34

Chapter 34
Chapter 34

The sound of Linda’s heels clicking as she walked away echoed throughout the small empty office.

Megan let out a breath that even she did not know that she was holding.

She was finally alone.

She hated to admit it but if she were to be very honest with herself, Linda’s presence coukd still be felt even after she had left.

The scent of her perfume still lingered in the air and Megan found herself turning again to make sure that indeed she was no longer there.

Megan disliked her…..

She always had….

Her eyes fall back to the manuscript in front of her.

The room had gotten darker and colder and this made her run her hands together to help with the cold.

The friction helped hit still, her body visibly shuddered when she set her eyes on the manuscript.

THE GIRL IN ROOM 324

Her eyes peered at the manuscript intensely as if she was trying to make out something about the title.

Megan’s sweat started to drop under the hit desk lamp and that was when she saw it.

A fly…..

A fly landed very close to the top  edge of her cubicle.

Her eyes narrowed at the fly and when it flew away, that was when she saw it.

She had been working here for almost six years now without ever having her cubicle changed no matter what the situation was.

The owner, Cleo Ainsley always thought that she was right where she needed to be.

She had worked in this same cubicle for all of this time  and not once had she ever noticed it.

Inscribed in the cubicle were numbers.

324

The reaction came to her in an instant.

Megan’s eyes slowly peered down to stare at the cover page again…..

Her heart beating violently against her chest walls.

Was she overreacting and was it just a mere coincidence?

These were the thoughts that ran through her mind.

Megan let out a scoff and continued to read the manuscript.

To her, it must have been the stress and lack of sleep that’s as making her feel this way.

After taking a mental note to have some coffee in the morning, Cleo went back to reading the manuscript.

She opened up and turned to the page where she had left off but the sweating did not stop.

athe same fly buzzed around eve ears as if to bring her attention back to the numbers inscribed into her cubicle.

However, wanting to make much progress, she waved the sir around her ears and went back to reading.

The hum of the desk might above her grew louder and  even though the air of the office was cold, more beads of sweat gathered on the sides of her face.

She turned the page.

“Megan Melroy sat hunched at her desk, tapping her red pen against the corner of a thick manuscript.”

Huh?…..

Her vision blurred and for a moment, the manuscript seemed to have gone farther away from her.

The wordings became wobbly and slanty as she continued to stare down at it.
Her eyes blinked rapidly as if to somehow change the wordings that were on the page.

Huh?

But that wasn’t possible….

She was now reading herself?

Her name.

Her pen.
Her cubicle.

The manuscript described everything as it was even down to her features and her desk lamp.
“Her heart hammered against the walls of her chest as she stared down at the strange looking words.”

“Cubicle 324 was just the beginning.”

Cell stood up from her desk unable to keep herself still.

“What is this?”
She muttered to herself as she stepped away from the cubicle like it had somehow caught fire.

Her palms were sweaty and clammy and Megan knew that it was time for her to go home.

A prank…
Yes that must be what it was.

And you never know, Linda might be in on it as well.
Yes because in the first place, it was weird for her to ask her to submit the manuscript in such a short amount of time.

It’s obviously a prank.
The manuscript didn’t have an author. Tht was already strange right off the bat.
Megan thought to herself but at the same time, there was a voice telling her from the back of her mind that such a prank was just not possible.

Would a prank have been able to predict just how things would be right in this very moment?

Impossible?
However, for the sake of things to make some sense, Megan chose to stick to the story of all of this being a prank.

She slowly walked back to her cubicle and sat down.

There was a voice screaming at her not to continue reading but as they say curiosity killed the cat.

“Megan believed that it was a prank even though her heart told her otherwise.”
She swallowed a knot in her throat letting out a small cough to relieve her.

The desk lamp flickered making the air more eerie.

Her chest rose and fell in an unrhythmical pattern as she tried hard to keep her breathing under control.

“Megan, do not let her in after 3:00am” 
The reaction came almost immediately.

Megan’s neck turned towards the small clock she had on her desk.

2:59am
3:00am
Knock 
Knock
Knock 
Her entire body froze as more beads of sweat gathered on her face.
Her bottom lip trembled in anxiety and she visibly shuddered. Her eyebrows were raised up in fear as she started to feel the tears gather at the corner of her eyes.
Slowly, she turned towards the glass door but there was no one there.

Her eyes carefully scan the entire office but there was not a single soul.
The sound had come from the glass door of the editing office but there was no one out there.

Cleo walked carefully towards the door hoping to get a better look of things but still, no one was there.

Knock
Knock
Knock.

Then she saw it….

The silhouette of a woman.