This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/PostMortem33 on 2024-10-06 18:39:57+00:00.

It’s not the best or the worst job, but the pay is decent.

At 4:59, one minute before clocking out, my manager sent the following e-mail:

Good morning, William.

I hope this e-mail finds you well.

I know this is super-late notice, but I’m going to need those presentations on Employee Relations, Training and Development, and Workplace Policies Updates tomorrow at noon.

We’re moving the deadline because I just got news the CEO will visit two days from now instead of next week as we all knew.

I trust you can send me the deliverables and whatever overtime you work will be  compensated.

You hard work is always appreciated by the company.

Warm regards,

James Miller

Head of Talent Management Division

I thought long and hard to throw the monitor out the window, but ultimately decided against it. This job provided my only income and although not something super-big, it was well above-average. So, I stayed put and began working.  I had 75% of the presentations already done. I figured the rest would take me anywhere between seven to nine hours. It shaped up to be the first time when I had to work past midnight.

The hours passed and I became more tired. My eyes hurt from the monitor’s bright light, yet I didn’t relent. I had to finish the work. When I’m working, I use focus mode on my documents, so I don’t get distracted. Thus, imagine how my mouth dropped when I saw the time: 2:30 AM. I didn’t even notice the passing of time. I didn’t understand it was humanly possible to sit for nine a half hours on a chair typing. Yet I did it and I was proud. I knew I had some discipline in me, but not this kind.

At 3:00 AM, I typed the THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION! message on the last slide of the last presentation.

“Time to head home, take a hot shower and drift off to the land of dreams,” I whispered to myself

Nights in the office are silent. You can’t hear anything other than the air-conditioning droning or the vents outside.

But, at 3:00 AM you never hear multiple furious knocks on the door. I jumped from my seat and froze with fear. I should’ve just turned on the lights and peak outside in the large hallway but didn’t. I waited to see if whoever were on the other side would enter. I called security to see if any other employees were still in the office, but only got a grumpy, negative reply­.

I moved with slow steps towards the door.

One, two, three, four knocks again.

What the hell was going on?

“Who is it?!”

No reply. Only a prolonged high-pitched scream.

I locked the door, turned on the lights and called security again.

“There is no one there with you, Will. You are all alone now,” said the security guy. The pitch of his voice had changed­­­—he talked like an old cassette recording on low batteries. He struggled to say the word and paused between them. It was as if he was just learning to communicate with another human being.

I didn’t understand what the hell had just happened.

Now, whoever was on the other side banged on the door. The door unlocked itself and opened slowly. My heart nearly shattered into a million pieces. I couldn’t move and the only way out was death­—I had to submit to paralysis and dread. The door opened all the way through. Whoever had knocked earlier had vanished.

On the other side of the door—where the hallway should’ve been—I saw an albeit crooked replica of my office.

Eight cubicle desks. Eight telephones. Eight computers.

All of us eight employes standing on the chairs; hands frozen on the keyboards; lifeless eyes staring into the monitors; mouths wide open. All of them sat in the exact same position and did the exact same thing.

What was I supposed to do? I couldn’t jump out the window. It was too high, last floor of a 33-story building.

“What the fuck is this place…?”

The windows in this room were opaque and I couldn’t see anything outside. At the far end corner, I saw a red door. My office didn’t have one, but I knew I had to go through.

I didn’t want to touch anything because I didn’t know what the whole place was. I glanced here and there at everything as I walked: the numbers on the telephones were not in order, texts on the monitor didn’t make any sense—they looked like scribblings of mad men.

I couldn’t help but go and observe this version of myself. Will-2 had marbled skin. I touched it. Upon careful inspection, I noticed it was a plastic crust over the body. Will-2 was trapped inside a plastic prison. I gently run my fingers on his face. It was cold and shiny. His eyes started moving and stared at me with fear.

He wanted to say something, but only an “Anh” came out.

I moved back two steps, and our visions met. Tears formed in his eyes, and he tried speaking again.

“Aaan. Eee ih ahmin…”

The door to this office closed shut. Steps began running in the distance—heavy, thunderous, and violent.

All eight plastic people tried speaking at the same time.

“Ru… eee is chhhooomiiii”

I could sense the fear under all that plastic. Helpless versions of me and my other colleagues, trapped here forever and cursed.

“Ruuuun… He is coming…” Will-2 said. The plastic under his lower jaw had broken and he could say the words at last.

“Who is coming?” I asked.

“Run, he is coming. Run, he is coming. Run, he is coming,” he just kept on repeating those words like a broken record.

Something tried getting inside the office, forcing the doorhandle, and pushed it down multiple times. I ran toward the red door not looking back for anything in the world. After getting to the other side, I immediately turned and locked it.

I managed to escape by mere seconds. Whoever forced the other door had managed to get through in the office. I heard screams of agony, slashing sounds and bodies thrown around the room. The violent impact with the walls broke those people’s bones. I had my back against the red door and heard nothing for a few moments. The sudden sounds of someone ripping flesh and skin made my stomach churn. Whatever or whoever was in there chomped on those people and their organs. It sickened me and I knew there and then I was mere prey. An apex predator was breathing behind my neck.

Again, I found myself in a large room. The dim light made it creepy as hell to be in there. It was yellowish and sickly, casting cancerous hues on the cream carpet and greige walls. The room was symmetrical. To my right there was a dark corridor, devoid of life. I tried glancing into that darkness. The more I stared, the more I could sense something in there watched back with hungry eyes.

To the far-left side the same corridor, but that one wasn’t dark. I could see a light flickering at its exit.

From the darkness, acoustic music began playing­— dark and haunting. It sent icicles of fear straight to my heart. The tune was sad at the same time­—a musical proof for the existence of depression. What if this was a dirge, a song for the end of my life?

The music stopped and it was replaced by a high-pitched shriek. Whatever that was, it certainly was not human. I ran as fast as I could to the other end of the room where the light flickered with more intensity. It was nerve-wracking to say the least.

As I ran, I heard footsteps coming from that darkness. Again, I didn’t dare looking back. The light flickered and flickered and flickered endlessly. The scream grew louder and more violent. Tick-tock, the sands of time flowed faster in the hourglass. I made a sudden left turn in the corridor. The hungry thing behind me hit the wall, screamed in agony and frustration, but didn’t let.

Now, I saw a door with a red neon EXIT sign above. Surely, that had to be my way out.

I felt something clawing at my ankle. It hurt like hell and warm blood soon came out. I fell and had no other choice but to glance at what abomination hunted me. I’ve tried avoiding it so much, but now I was put face to face with the terror.

It was none other than my boss, James Miller. His skin was grey and  crazy eyes bloodshot. The nails of his hands were black and sharp. His office suit, tie and shirt stained with blood.

He still had bits and pieces of flesh and skin from when he consumed the alternate version of me and my colleagues.

“Did I say you can leave? Why didn’t you finish your presentation?”

“Get off me, you fucking freak!”

He lunged at me and was now standing atop me. He wanted to bite my neck and kill me right there and then.

“You and everybody else are made of plastic, you have no feelings for this company. I’ll kill you and hire someone better!”

I had a pen inside the chest pocket of my shirt. I tried keeping Crooked Miller off me with my left hand and grabbed the pencil with my right. I put him right in his artery and blood gushed out everywhere. It rained red on my face and body. Miller felt lifeless on the floor beside me, trying to breathe but choking on blood. His right leg twitched as his heart gave its last beat.

I walked with a limp towards the door. Freedom at last.

Except not, I was still in my office with the THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION! last slide of the last presentation.

The cuts on my ankle still hurt. The blood was almost black now, congelead.

Before I could come to terms with what had happened, I heard someone banging violently on the office door.

I answered. The security guard was just checking in. I still am not sure what had happened, but I managed to go home immediately.

It was 3:00 AM again.