"It's been ever so long since I saw you. Where on earth have you been?"
Her rich full mouth stretched to accommodate a bright smile. A luxurious parting of glossy lips that were painted a brazen scarlet.
She stood in his way as he walked towards the coffee machine...though walking would be a tad overstatement to the discerning eye, for he just about dragged his feet well enough to mimic a half hearted walk.
Her hand was impishly outstretched to block his path and her question doused with a mischievous chuckle. She was childishly knitting her brows to sweetly rebuke him a little more when her words died into a gurgle on the tip of her tongue, and her hot wet smile mutated into a silent scream.
A few moments ago, she'd seen him walking towards her cubicle, knowing full well that he'd take a detour and take the passage closest to her work area, that terminated at the end of the hall in a big coffee machine. He was such a lamb, always scared to even approach her, let alone talk or ask her out.
She'd watched him follow the same pattern for a few weeks, and had laughed at his artless pretense of drinking coffee, in between shooting swift glances towards her. She's laughed even harder when she'd caught him rubbernecking her, and he'd naively fumbled with his glasses, so that it looked like he wasn't really staring, just adjusting his spectacles..and there was nothing else needed to give him away.
She'd often strolled towards the coffee machine, smiling wickedly, licking her full red lips and watching his face grow redder in response.
"you're silly", she'd say and walk back.
These were memories from six months ago. He'd stopped coming to the coffee machine, until today. Though he followed the same pattern she thought, his endearing shy gait was replaced by a faltering trotter, and he didn't as much as recognize that smile he endured a dozen office coffee's for.
She'd decided to take matters in her own hands by blocking his path to learn more of his absence and immediately regretted it.
She had to squint her eyes to look at him. What had been a a handsome bespectacled face now resembled nothing like she remembered.
He looked like death wore a skin.
"Oh. I'm sorry. I didn't know you were unwell. Is that why you stopped coming to work?"
She tried to sound normal, though she did lower her gaze. It was difficult to casually talk to that face. It had taken a ghastly pallid colouring of cold dead flesh drained of any life. His hair were clumps of greying strands and his spectacles did little to hide the broad dark rims of grey under his eyes. Grey, that was smeared with black in creases where the skin hanged like victorian curtains.
Everything about him had drooped.
She looked more closely and saw every bit of him had deteriorated. Like he was disintegrating and would fall into pieces any moment now. Everything about him looked neglected.
"What on earth is wrong with this man" she thought.
His shoes were dirty, his pants were creased and stained at pockets, his shirt looked two sizes too big for him, and his tie was at its unwashed best.
Stains everywhere.
She painfully scrutinized him and saw that he was sweating like he was sitting atop a furnace, even though the ac was set to arctic chill. His palms were sweating like a watering hole, and he kept wiping them to his pants, or hid them in his pockets.
"err, are you okay", she asked him. This time seriously concerned.
"yes I'm fine". he mouthed these words hurriedly and rushed past her.
She followed him, noticing him from the back. His lethargic demeanour paired with his anxiousness made him look all the more pitiful.
"You know you can talk to me. If you're sick I can help you. I work in HR."
her smile growing more sympathetic with each word.
"No, I'm fine. It's nothing"
"I don't think so. You've been gone for so long. Were you sick? when did you join back? let's talk at lunch time?"
He searched her eyes for mocking interest, and saw only genuine concern.
"I'm busy at lunch time"
"Please", she whispered exasperatedly, clutched his arm and disarmed his inhibitions with her ever so sweet a smile.
She waited for him at the cafeteria and left disappointed. She knew he wouldn't show up.
She met him again the next day, and pleaded with him to talk to her. He looked worse than before, and she couldn't help but wonder how a man so irreversibly broken could look even more damaged in a mere twenty four hours.
"Talk to me. I'll be waiting"
After two weeks of lunching with disappointment she saw a dilapidated form of sagging flesh walk towards her.
"Don't say a word, just listen" he said.
"Six month ago I was due for a promotion and had just about finished packing up to shift into a newer, bigger, better house. I'd met a nice girl..you know, you were way out of my league and I didn't stand a chance with you. You were my fantasy, and my reality was a quiet girl who'm I'd often bumped into my building. W'd started seeing each other and soon after I'd shifted to my new house.
The rent wasn't much and the view was great. For all its merits the building was largely unoccupied, probably because it was a new building. I was a happy man. Content and had nothing more to ask of life, and those were my last happiest days.
After a week of shifting in, I realized I couldn't sleep very well. It'd always grow too cold, and I'd wake up parched each night. There was always some noise, like someone knocking or climbing stairs or banging against a wall. It was a new building and work was happening around the clock. Some lifts in separate wings were still being installed, and that noise sometimes grew louder at night.
Most nights, I didn't know if I were asleep or awake and then one day that noise stopped. I thought this would be it, that I'd be able to sleep finally.. and I'd drank an extra beer to aid my sleeping.
I was such an idiot to have such high hopes. At exactly one that night, I woke up because I distinctly heard my door open, and I was too tired even though alarmed to wake up with a sudden start..I'd slowly opened my eyes, half guessing that it was the construction work in the building again, when I realized that someone was sitting on the floor, right beside my bed.
It was a woman and she was sobbing. She'd crossed her hands on her raised knees and buried her face in it. It wasn't a sob like I'm used to hearing. It was a continuous grunt, like five animals moaning in their death throes. It was horrible and echoed throughout my room. It was still pitch dark and I felt like I'd lose all control of my bodily functions. She just sat, her face buried between her knees and making those demonic noises. They couldn't have come from anything alive..those sobs sounded like everything dying, and my heart was ready to cave in. She was inches away from where I slept. What should I do? I couldn't think at that moment. Fear had paralyzed me, and I didn't even realize that I'd sweat enough to soak the sheets. I jumped out of the bed and tried to run, only..hahaha, that creature had a hold of my ankle. I looked back and she was slowly raising her face. That face wasn't even a face. It had no eyes, it had no nose, it had no lips. Just a thick vertical slit. She was naked, and menstruating on my carpet. Her head was sewn with a hellish darkness of hair, and that slit that looked like an incision stretched and spread all over her face.. until her face was nothing but a hole, and she let out an unholy cackle, like a string of helpless screams patched together to form a laughter.
She threw me back on the bed, and went back to burying her face between her knees, and started weeping. That maniacal noise again. I don't remember anymore from that night, because when I woke up, it was morning and I was alone and burning with fever. My ankle had dislocated and I had lost my mind.
I was not sure whether it was paranoia or just a nightmare, but I couldn't spend another night in my house.
Fear had gotten the better of me, and I dared not talk of it to anyone. That night I stayed at my girlfriend's house and did not have the strength in me to sleep, but I must have dozed off because at one that night I woke up..there were muffled noises coming from the kitchen.
I switched on the lights and walked into the kitchen, only to see my girlfriend stuffing her mouth full of broken pieces of glass and chewing on them. Her face was lacerated, there was blood everywhere, and she was chewing on glass. Her features were mangled. lips torn, half her tongue lay on the floor, blood streaming down her chin and her cheeks were punctured. The lower half of her face was maimed..mutilated. Shards of glass stuck out of her cheeks and nose and I spent that night in a hospital.
I got my message. It had to be me..all alone. In my room.
Each night at one she now walks in, sits down near my bed, and sobs. Makes those ungodly wailing sounds―a grim symphony of every abominable ungodly howl. Like a sickening lament of every obnoxious curse..like bawling victims on a torture table about to have their toes plucked out, have their skins pulled out, have their genitals branded with burning needles."
"umm, I have to go. I hope you feel better"
"have their eyes scraped with needle points, have their bones torn out with pincers..."
"have a good day" he said.
Her rich full mouth stretched to accommodate a bright smile. A luxurious parting of glossy lips that were painted a brazen scarlet.
She stood in his way as he walked towards the coffee machine...though walking would be a tad overstatement to the discerning eye, for he just about dragged his feet well enough to mimic a half hearted walk.
Her hand was impishly outstretched to block his path and her question doused with a mischievous chuckle. She was childishly knitting her brows to sweetly rebuke him a little more when her words died into a gurgle on the tip of her tongue, and her hot wet smile mutated into a silent scream.
A few moments ago, she'd seen him walking towards her cubicle, knowing full well that he'd take a detour and take the passage closest to her work area, that terminated at the end of the hall in a big coffee machine. He was such a lamb, always scared to even approach her, let alone talk or ask her out.
She'd watched him follow the same pattern for a few weeks, and had laughed at his artless pretense of drinking coffee, in between shooting swift glances towards her. She's laughed even harder when she'd caught him rubbernecking her, and he'd naively fumbled with his glasses, so that it looked like he wasn't really staring, just adjusting his spectacles..and there was nothing else needed to give him away.
She'd often strolled towards the coffee machine, smiling wickedly, licking her full red lips and watching his face grow redder in response.
"you're silly", she'd say and walk back.
These were memories from six months ago. He'd stopped coming to the coffee machine, until today. Though he followed the same pattern she thought, his endearing shy gait was replaced by a faltering trotter, and he didn't as much as recognize that smile he endured a dozen office coffee's for.
She'd decided to take matters in her own hands by blocking his path to learn more of his absence and immediately regretted it.
She had to squint her eyes to look at him. What had been a a handsome bespectacled face now resembled nothing like she remembered.
He looked like death wore a skin.
"Oh. I'm sorry. I didn't know you were unwell. Is that why you stopped coming to work?"
She tried to sound normal, though she did lower her gaze. It was difficult to casually talk to that face. It had taken a ghastly pallid colouring of cold dead flesh drained of any life. His hair were clumps of greying strands and his spectacles did little to hide the broad dark rims of grey under his eyes. Grey, that was smeared with black in creases where the skin hanged like victorian curtains.
Everything about him had drooped.
She looked more closely and saw every bit of him had deteriorated. Like he was disintegrating and would fall into pieces any moment now. Everything about him looked neglected.
"What on earth is wrong with this man" she thought.
His shoes were dirty, his pants were creased and stained at pockets, his shirt looked two sizes too big for him, and his tie was at its unwashed best.
Stains everywhere.
She painfully scrutinized him and saw that he was sweating like he was sitting atop a furnace, even though the ac was set to arctic chill. His palms were sweating like a watering hole, and he kept wiping them to his pants, or hid them in his pockets.
"err, are you okay", she asked him. This time seriously concerned.
"yes I'm fine". he mouthed these words hurriedly and rushed past her.
She followed him, noticing him from the back. His lethargic demeanour paired with his anxiousness made him look all the more pitiful.
"You know you can talk to me. If you're sick I can help you. I work in HR."
her smile growing more sympathetic with each word.
"No, I'm fine. It's nothing"
"I don't think so. You've been gone for so long. Were you sick? when did you join back? let's talk at lunch time?"
He searched her eyes for mocking interest, and saw only genuine concern.
"I'm busy at lunch time"
"Please", she whispered exasperatedly, clutched his arm and disarmed his inhibitions with her ever so sweet a smile.
She waited for him at the cafeteria and left disappointed. She knew he wouldn't show up.
She met him again the next day, and pleaded with him to talk to her. He looked worse than before, and she couldn't help but wonder how a man so irreversibly broken could look even more damaged in a mere twenty four hours.
"Talk to me. I'll be waiting"
After two weeks of lunching with disappointment she saw a dilapidated form of sagging flesh walk towards her.
"Don't say a word, just listen" he said.
"Six month ago I was due for a promotion and had just about finished packing up to shift into a newer, bigger, better house. I'd met a nice girl..you know, you were way out of my league and I didn't stand a chance with you. You were my fantasy, and my reality was a quiet girl who'm I'd often bumped into my building. W'd started seeing each other and soon after I'd shifted to my new house.
The rent wasn't much and the view was great. For all its merits the building was largely unoccupied, probably because it was a new building. I was a happy man. Content and had nothing more to ask of life, and those were my last happiest days.
After a week of shifting in, I realized I couldn't sleep very well. It'd always grow too cold, and I'd wake up parched each night. There was always some noise, like someone knocking or climbing stairs or banging against a wall. It was a new building and work was happening around the clock. Some lifts in separate wings were still being installed, and that noise sometimes grew louder at night.
Most nights, I didn't know if I were asleep or awake and then one day that noise stopped. I thought this would be it, that I'd be able to sleep finally.. and I'd drank an extra beer to aid my sleeping.
I was such an idiot to have such high hopes. At exactly one that night, I woke up because I distinctly heard my door open, and I was too tired even though alarmed to wake up with a sudden start..I'd slowly opened my eyes, half guessing that it was the construction work in the building again, when I realized that someone was sitting on the floor, right beside my bed.
It was a woman and she was sobbing. She'd crossed her hands on her raised knees and buried her face in it. It wasn't a sob like I'm used to hearing. It was a continuous grunt, like five animals moaning in their death throes. It was horrible and echoed throughout my room. It was still pitch dark and I felt like I'd lose all control of my bodily functions. She just sat, her face buried between her knees and making those demonic noises. They couldn't have come from anything alive..those sobs sounded like everything dying, and my heart was ready to cave in. She was inches away from where I slept. What should I do? I couldn't think at that moment. Fear had paralyzed me, and I didn't even realize that I'd sweat enough to soak the sheets. I jumped out of the bed and tried to run, only..hahaha, that creature had a hold of my ankle. I looked back and she was slowly raising her face. That face wasn't even a face. It had no eyes, it had no nose, it had no lips. Just a thick vertical slit. She was naked, and menstruating on my carpet. Her head was sewn with a hellish darkness of hair, and that slit that looked like an incision stretched and spread all over her face.. until her face was nothing but a hole, and she let out an unholy cackle, like a string of helpless screams patched together to form a laughter.
She threw me back on the bed, and went back to burying her face between her knees, and started weeping. That maniacal noise again. I don't remember anymore from that night, because when I woke up, it was morning and I was alone and burning with fever. My ankle had dislocated and I had lost my mind.
I was not sure whether it was paranoia or just a nightmare, but I couldn't spend another night in my house.
Fear had gotten the better of me, and I dared not talk of it to anyone. That night I stayed at my girlfriend's house and did not have the strength in me to sleep, but I must have dozed off because at one that night I woke up..there were muffled noises coming from the kitchen.
I switched on the lights and walked into the kitchen, only to see my girlfriend stuffing her mouth full of broken pieces of glass and chewing on them. Her face was lacerated, there was blood everywhere, and she was chewing on glass. Her features were mangled. lips torn, half her tongue lay on the floor, blood streaming down her chin and her cheeks were punctured. The lower half of her face was maimed..mutilated. Shards of glass stuck out of her cheeks and nose and I spent that night in a hospital.
I got my message. It had to be me..all alone. In my room.
Each night at one she now walks in, sits down near my bed, and sobs. Makes those ungodly wailing sounds―a grim symphony of every abominable ungodly howl. Like a sickening lament of every obnoxious curse..like bawling victims on a torture table about to have their toes plucked out, have their skins pulled out, have their genitals branded with burning needles."
"umm, I have to go. I hope you feel better"
"have their eyes scraped with needle points, have their bones torn out with pincers..."
"have a good day" he said.
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