Chapter 8

Sunday morning I was up bright and early. I had spent the whole of yesterday packing but there was only so much I could do on my own, and Marianna had been called in to help at some point. She was currently asleep on the sofa, a roll of duct tape clutched in her hand that was hanging off the edge of the cushions. She looked kind of uncomfortable and I would have woken her up but she had stayed up pretty late last night and I had been up since five because of bad dreams. Instead, I left her to it, making sure I covered her with a blanket and removed the duct tape from her hand. There was no reason for her to suffer from my sleepless night.

 In truth I was pretty exhausted. Ever since that night at the office I had been having strange dreams, they felt so real but yet I knew they were impossible. People forming out of fog? It was pure madness, I put it down to too many horror films on my part and the fact that my new boss was like a wolf in sheep's clothing. He looked like angel, a badass angel but if there was even a shred of truth in the rumours, well he was more devil than angel.

Flicking on the TV there was a news report about a crash where 13 victims died. I normally would have ignored this type of news item as quite frankly it was depressing but when the pictures of the dead started to flick across the screen, I was startled by the eyes of one man who was a supposed to be a prominent businessman. The image of the masked man with the crossbow flashed before my eyes and I shook my head in denial before looking back at the screen. Several more faces appeared and were accompanied by hazy flashes of red tinted memories. I shook my head as to how impossible such things could be. No, I was going nuts, it was just a dream.

Getting dressed was simple. I had to go by the office today to pick up some files to sort through but I wouldn't start back properly until Wednesday. Mr Watson had arranged it so that I could move into the house in Chelsea and get settled in before I had to be back at the office so long as I sorted through the remaining backlog of paperwork and find any other discrepancies there might be. There's nothing like a bit of corporate espionage, I thought with sarcasm as I entered my bedroom which was looking considerably empty now that all of my personal belongings were packed up in boxes. Slipping on a loose fitting pair of jeans and a black tank top I made sure I was semi-presentable before heading towards the door. Waking Marianna up as I went, I handed her the baby monitor and a card with the office numbers on it, I patted my friend on the head who just waved her arm about and groaned before falling back to sleep.  I then proceeded out of the front door and into the waiting taxi.

It took me less time than usual to get into the office but that was probably because it was before 9 am on a Sunday so there was little to no traffic on the roads. I let myself into the building of Satani Media with my key card and clicked through the reception nodding to the security guard who was sat behind the reception desk, his back stiff and his eyes attentive as he stared at the screen before him. He didn't even really acknowledge me, not that I cared.

Stepping into the lift, I pressed the button to the right floor and stood there absently staring at the reflective surface of the lift. It was difficult to even surmise how much my life had changed in a year and I got the feeling that it was going to get a whole lot crazier in the months to come. But then again, it had already been turned on its head within the last week.

"Doors opening," the tinny elevator voice rang out across the confined space as the metal doors slowly pulled apart, which reminded me of where I was. I stepped out into the deserted corridor and headed towards Mr Satani's office.

The door was closed, but I paid no mind to that pushing it open and stepping into his gloomy office. A sound drew my attention to my right before a definitely male groan echoed through the room. Oh god, that is disgusting. Mr Satani, as I felt inclined to call him now as I distanced myself from the sight before me, was sat in his black leather chair with his head tilted back in delight as some blonde, barely clothed hussy grinded against his lap. She leant forwards and claimed Lucius' lips and his whole body arched up into hers before shuddering as he sagged back into the leather looked utterly depleted of energy. The woman suddenly became the focus of all of my attention because in the gloom of the office, she was hard not to miss. She had taken on an almost ethereal glow that cast the room in odd shadows that looked menacing to me before the light faded as it slowly soaked into her skin.

I stood there gaping for a moment before remembering why I was there and quickly I scurried over to the window and grabbed the box of files that were on the floor with my name in large print on the side. Trying to be a silent as possible, I started to tiptoe back to the door feeling quite embarrassed at seeing my boss with some blonde woman. Now that she had stood up and sorted herself out by pulling her dress down and wiping off imaginary dust, I noticed that she looked less like a hussy and more like a runway model. I managed to get to the door before my foot caught on something and I careened backwards, falling onto the floor so that pain flared where it smacked onto the ground. The box flew up in the air before coming down fast and hard, spilling its contents all over me and the fanning out across the floor as the lid came flying off during mid-flight.

I could hear the two of them coming towards me whilst I lay there on the floor staring at a sheet of paper that had fallen on my face. There was no chance of salvaging any dignity so there was no point trying to get up and look presentable. I already felt bad enough catching my boss and his woman doing the nasty. I just wish he had said he was dating someone so I wouldn't have acted so family like with him yesterday. Not that I didn't already think that that had been inappropriate.

"Savannah, what are you doing here?" My boss asked from behind the sheet of white. I looked at the words that were blurred before my eyes before sighing and pulling the sheets from my face.

"I came to get the box remember, I just didn't want to disturb you guys but I tripped on my way out." The blonde was leant against the doorway looking incredibly smug about something. Rolling my eyes I started picking up the papers and stacking them in the box. I would have to reorganise them later.

"Who is she Lucius?" The blonde asked, her tone not giving a hint of emotions but the nose crinkling up in disgust was the dead giveaway. I scowled at her before roughly dumping the last few papers into the box and firmly placing the lid back on.

"She's my assistant." His voice was cold and had a hint of something else in his tone, it was strange because I had never heard him talk that way before, but nonetheless, it sent shivers down my spine and I felt the weird impulse to lower myself before him or cower away in fear. Did I do something to piss him off or something?

I nodded as if to confirm his words before pushing myself off of the ground and then picking up the box which felt as if it had grown ten times heavier in the last minute or so.

"Can I play with her?" I heard the blonde croon as I started to walk away. My back stiffened as I kept my pace steady and even and pretended not to listen to her words. Play with me? Who does the crazy cow think she is? I could almost picture her pouting whilst her finger trailed up and down Lucius' arm.

"No, she's a protected one, so you can't play." Lucius' deep voice reached my ears even though I was halfway down the corridor and I couldn't help but feel that he had raised his voice on purpose. I heard the woman gasp before begging for an apology. No matter his words or the fact that I didn't understand what protected meant, I felt somehow safer like by uttering them he had just saved my butt from getting into some serious trouble and would, in no doubt, offer me a shield against some unknown foes. I laughed whilst shaking my head. My nightmares were obviously screwing with my head, unknown foes? The only unknown foe was the blonde goddess.

"But you can play with me if you like." His deep voice obviously pleased the woman as she giggled and when I looked up, she had wrapped her arms around his neck and had started kissing his jaw.  What struck me most and made me grateful that the doors to the lift slid open at that point, was the fact that Lucius' bright was gaze was directly upon me whilst his lips were pulled up into a smirk. He smirked wider when he saw me watching and did a fake groan whilst his eyes were smiling at me. "Oh yeah, just like that."

His voice was deep and low and the blonde obviously took the husky quality as desire as she tittered excitedly whilst moving her hands downwards so that she could run them over his well-defined chest. Shaking my head in disgust, I stepped into the lift before the doors slid shut again and I pressed the button for the lobby. It wasn't until my back was pressed against the metal wall of the lift that I remembered what I saw.

"Oh my god, she glowed." Lifting my eyes from the floor where they had been trained for the last few seconds, I saw myself in the reflective surface of the door looking completely shell shocked. It was only for a moment but she had glowed. The box slipped from my grasp but luckily the box just thumped onto the carpeted floor at my feet.  Wiping a hand over my face, I looked around the lift nervously trying to figure out what the hell was wrong with me. Maybe I need to see a doctor? First the dreams and now I'm seeing a glowing girl? This was getting beyond a joke.

The annoying tinny voice reached my ears again as she cheerfully but rather annoyingly announced that the doors were opening. Bending down, I scooped up the box and hurried into the lobby. As I passed the security guard I gave him another nod before carrying on out of the door.

It was hard to believe that less than ten minutes had passed since I entered the building but it felt like I had been in there much longer. I was either going stark raving mad or there was something abnormal going on in Satani Media. I was inclined to say the first because what I've been seeing could not possibly be real but in the back of my mind, there was a small voice telling me that I wasn't imagining it. Either way, I would be keeping my eyes open from now on, and I may even have to do a little digging and find out what makes my new boss tick.

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