Andy's Office

It was five o'clock in the afternoon of Andy's first "D-Day", and the work had just begun.  As was the norm on "D-Day", tension levels were high, particularly Andy's.  In a dark fifth floor office, some 1500 miles away from a certain bank's data center, Andy Muir oversaw the complicated remote installation and testing of Overlook's software.  Andy had asked Ben what he should expect from his first "D-Day" at Overlook Incorporated.  Ben, a "D-Day" veteran had said, "It's like trying to climb out of quicksand for six hours with a couple of hecklers tossing tomatoes at you."

Andy was reviewing the list of procedures for what seemed like the tenth time today, when an internal chat message popped up on his computer.  Andy looked at the message, which read, "Hi Andy, how are you?" and frowned.  The message came addressed from someone named Ariel Capulo, an unusual name that he had never heard before. 

He typed, "Hello Ariel.  I'm fine.  How are you?  Have we met?"

A moment later the reply came, "I'm good.  I work down on the fourth floor in an office by the Tempest conference room.  I noticed you walk by the other day.  You must be new."

She noticed me.  He thought this was very interesting, and typed, "I've been here about three weeks.  How did you figure out who I was?"

Ariel replied, "I know everyone at Overlook.  I didn't recognize you, so I checked around to see who the new, good looking guy was , and you were the only match."

She thinks I'm good looking, he thought.  I like when they're not bashful. 

He typed, "I must have been late for a meeting.  I'm sorry, I would have introduced myself."  He was about to send the message than decided to add, "But I've been in that conference room a lot since I've been here so I must have seen you."

"I'm about five foot five, with brunette hair."

Andy thought hard about this description.  Ever so slowly, an image of a very pretty woman began to form in his head.  However, he could not remember where he had seen her before.  Nevertheless, he typed, "I remember you now.  You're very pretty."

"Thank you."

"What do you do here?" Andy asked.

"I've been here about five years.  I do the same thing as you."

Before Andy could reply, Ariel continued, "How are you getting along here at Overlook?"

"I'm getting along pretty well.  Today is D-Day for me.  So it looks like I'll be stuck in my office all night."

After a moment's pause, Ariel's reply came.  "Me too."

He began to type an answer when his phone rang, startling him.  He answered it.

"Hey Andy, we're ordering Chinese for dinner.  Do you know what you want?"  It was Ben's voice.

"Yeah," he said, and relayed his order to Ben.

"Done," said Ben.  The phone clicked off.

Andy put the phone down and looked at Ariel's last message.  He typed, "Are you part of a D-Day crew tonight?"

"No," she answered, "I just have something I have to get done tonight and I'll stay until I get it done.  I always do."

Andy smirked.  "Sounds like you're quite the dedicated employee."

After waiting but seeing no reply, Andy shrugged and got back to work. He checked his email and saw that there were already several new issues.  He would have to deal with these quickly, and so proceeded to look at the first of them.  Before he could expend a lot of thought on it, however, a new message appeared from Ariel. 

"I am very dedicated.  I leave no job unfinished."

Andy smiled and began to think unclean thoughts.  Their "conversation" continued, on and off, along this flirtatious vein for the next half hour.  During the "off" moments, Andy tried to focus on his job.

While working through a particularly vexing problem, his phone rang again.  He sighed, and answered it.

"Andy, food's here," said Ben.

"Can you bring it by?  I'm right in the middle of something."

A heavy breath, then, "Okay."

Two minutes later, Ben appeared at Andy's office door holding a white plastic bag tied at the top.  He looked nervously into the office and said, "Here you go."

Andy glanced over and waved him in, saying, "Ben, I can't figure out why they're getting this error when they search for gold prices by date.  The code looks all right."

Still at the door, Ben said, "Are you sure you're looking at the right program?  There are two of them that do the same kind of thing."

Andy raised an eyebrow.  "Really?" he said.  Andy looked at Ben who was still standing in the doorway.  "Ben," he said, motioning to the table, "can you please put the bag down and sit?"

Ben looked at the table then back at Andy.  He blinked hard then sighed.  "Okay. Sure." 

With that, he cautiously walked in, gingerly setting the bag on the table, and pulled the spare chair over to the wall between Andy's desk and the doorway.  He sat down, took a pencil from Andy's desk, and pointed to the monitor.

"It's that file, right there," he said jabbing the eraser end of the pencil at the name of a file listed on the screen.

Andy opened the file, scrolled down the screen and found what he was looking for.  A tiny smirk crossed his face and he looked sheepishly back at Ben.  "My bad.  Looks like I made this change my first week here.  Apparently, I had no idea what I was doing."

Ben briefly smiled and said, "That's okay dude.  You're not the first and won't be the last."  He stood up and began to back out of Andy's office.  "Got what you need then?"

"Yeah I've got it. Oh..." he said as he watched Ben stumble over the chair he had been sitting on.  The chair now lay on its side with Ben's leg bent awkwardly through its arm.

"Are you all right?"

Ben stepped from the chair's clutches and picked it up.  He went about straightening the cables it had become entangled with, and set it back on its legs.  "I'm fine.  Sorry about that.  I'm going to go have my dinner.  I'll catch you later.  Let me know if you need anything."  He was gone in an instant.

Andy rolled his chair over to the table and opened the bag.  It held a warm Styrofoam container and a warmer can of soda.  He took both of them out of the bag and rolled his chair back to his desk with his dinner in hand.

There was a new message on his screen from Ariel.  It read, "So how do you like your office?"

Andy raised both eyebrows.  Funny you should mention it, he thought.

"It's kind of small, but at least everything is new."

"Aren't you lucky?" she answered.

"Yeah, Ben said a pipe burst in here or something.  They had to replace all the carpet and furniture.  Even got a new paint job."

"Nice."

Andy thought for a moment and then typed, "Do you know Ben Stiles?"

"Yes."

"He acts weird when he's in my office.  I get the impression he doesn't ever really want to come in, and when he does, he can't wait to get out.  He's always falling all over himself to get out."

"Really?"

He pondered this some more and then typed, "Yes.  And you know, now that I think about it, I don't actually recall anybody else ever coming in since I've been here."

"Well..."

He looked at this response and waited patiently for her to finish.  When no response came, he typed, "Go on."

"Your office has something of a history."

"A history?  What kind of history?"

"You don't know?"

"No," he answered, "like what?"

There was a pause between messages.  Andy was getting impatient and was about to ask again when a reply came.

"Before you got here, somebody else used to work in your office.  A woman.  She left under strange circumstances."

"Go on."

"As a matter of fact, over the years a lot of people have worked in your office and as far as I know they all left Overlook at one time or another."

Andy considered this.  "So you think maybe Ben's afraid of bad karma?" he typed.

"Are you?"

Andy immediately answered, "I don't believe in karma."

There was another pause, then, "Good."

###

As evening became night, Andy's pace grew frenetic as dozens of issues cropped up.  By around 10:30, however, he had managed to dispense with all the problems that had come to his attention, and finally found himself with some idle time on his hands.  He could not leave, however, because the complex testing and installation process was still ongoing, and it would likely continue until the very early hours of the morning.  It was now nearly midnight, and Andy was becoming bored and tired.

He had not heard from Ariel for over an hour and assumed that she had gone home, when a new message suddenly appeared on his screen.

It was from Ariel.  "Have you seen the new training facility up on six?"

The entire sixth floor had been unoccupied for several months, but then Overlook leased it with the intention of building a training facility for its customers.  The construction was nearly finished.

"I thought you had gone home," he replied and then, "no I haven't seen it.  What is it like?"

"I'm still here.  I have one thing left to do before I go.  It's pretty cozy up there.  Do you want to see it?  I can get us in, if you are interested."

He typed, "Well I suppose I am, but I'm really not supposed to leave the floor until we're done."

"It could be worth your while, ".

Oh my god, he thought, his excitement growing.  However, he realized he still had to stay on the floor until "D-Day" was over.  He tried to get hold of himself.  He told himself to act like an adult, not a teenager.  Use your big head, he thought to himself.

"I can't.  We're not done.  Maybe another day?"

Ariel answered quickly, "Are you that busy right now?  Can't you get away for a little while?"

"Actually, things have been very quiet for a while, but something could come up and if I'm not here..."

"Bring your cell phone.  They can always reach you that way."

"Why didn't I think of that?" he replied.  It did not take much to persuade him.  The little head had won again.  It had a habit of outsmarting the other head on such matters and he typed, "When should I go up?"

She replied, "Right now."

Andy stood and picked up his jacket from the back of his desk chair.  He reached into the inside pocket and pulled out his cell phone when a responsible thought occurred to him.  He reached over to his desk phone and pressed a series of buttons, instructing it to forward his calls to his cell phone. 

Satisfied, he stepped out of his office and looked around.  Nobody was in the immediate vicinity, so he headed for the elevator bank.  Once there, he pressed the up button and waited.  There were only two elevators in this building along one wall in the elevator bank. 

Waiting for the elevator, he thought of Ariel's name.  Ariel, he recalled, was the name of the mermaid from that Disney cartoon.  A memory from a deeper recess of his mind surfaced.  There was a character named Ariel in something by Shakespeare.  He could not exactly remember the details, though.

Presently, the elevator arrived and the door opened.  He stepped in and pressed number six.  The door silently closed and the elevator rose two floors.  The doors opened and Andy stepped out to find himself facing a long wall with a glass door in the center.  Beyond the glass door was a semi dark room with what looked like a receptionist's desk along the back wall.

He approached the door and tried to pull it open, but could not.  It was locked.  He would have to wait for Ariel, he thought, and was looking back at the elevators when he heard a soft "click" emanate from the door.  Andy turned back to the door, reached over and found that he was able to pull it open.

He moved a few steps into the darkened reception area and then heard another "click" as the door closed.  He called out, "Hello?  Ariel?" but there was no response.  He felt along the walls for a light switch but found none.  To the right of the receptionist's desk was a hallway.  Andy stepped in.  Immediately inside the hallway, he found a light switch and flipped it on.  The lights in the hall came on, partially illuminating the reception area as well.

He called out again, "Hello?  Ariel?" but there was still no response.  She must not be here yet, he thought, but then wondered who opened the door to the reception area.  He moved back to the glass door separating the reception area from the elevator bank, and with an unobstructed view of the elevator doors, he waited expectantly.

After a few minutes, he heard a loud "ding", and the light above one elevator illuminated.  Now, he thought, at last he would meet her, and so he reached for the reception door.  However, he found that he could not open it, try as he might.  There was apparently no latch on the door to unlock it from the inside. 

The elevator door slid silently open and Andy frowned.  Nobody was inside.  He turned and moved back to the receptionist's desk when two things happened at once.

First, the lights in the elevator lobby went out, accompanied by a loud hammering that seemed to come out of thin air above his head.  It came in sets of three loud thuds that sounded like enormous wooden doorknockers.  Next, the glass door swung violently open, and the lights in the hallway went out.  The banging grew louder and Andy, not able to think of what to do ran for the glass door.  It was too late, however, as the door slammed shut and locked itself again.

He saw the elevator doors closing and suddenly felt a presence, and something else as well.  It was a scent -- the unmistakable scent of perfume.  He called out again, "Who is that?  Ariel, is that you?"

Terrified, Andy backed into a corner of the reception area behind the desk, and as his back touched the wall, he felt the wall pulsing out at him as if to caress his shoulder blades with the rhythm of the din that was all around him now.  He jumped forward, striking his hip on the desk, and ran to the door again in a panic.  His muscles strained as he pulled at the door with adrenaline when the banging stopped.  He let go of the door and looked back into the ominous quiet of the office.  All that he could hear now was his own breathing.

Shaking, Andy looked around the room, when, all at once, his cell phone rang and the lights in the hall came back on.  He startled, and then reached for the cell phone clipped to his belt, but dropped it instantly from his shaking hands.  He stretched down to pick it up, never taking his eyes off the room.  Finally, he answered it. "Yes?" he hissed.

"Andy, where the hell are you?" asked Ben, sounding very anxious.

"I'm up in the training area on six," he replied, still staring around the room.

"Well you need to get down to your office.  QA found something new and it's holding everything else up."

"Okay.  But Ben, I think I'm locked in up here," Andy said, shifting his eyes back and forth.

Ben did not answer right away.  "Ben?  Ben are you there?"

"I'm here Andy. What do you mean you're locked in?  Where are you?"

"I'm in the reception area on the sixth floor and the door won't open."

"Andy, there's a big red button on the right side of the door.  Push it, then push the door."

Andy stepped carefully back from the door and saw the button.  Feeling relieved and slightly stupid, he pushed the button, and then threw his shoulder at the glass door.  It opened easily and he sprinted out.  "Okay, thank you, I'm out.  I'll call you when I get to my desk," he said, and hung up.

Andy glared at the elevators, and then pushed the down button that was between them.  He was staring back through the glass door when the elevator arrived and the door slid open.  He raced in, hammered his fingers on number four and waited.  As the doors slid shut, he thought he smelled something -- the scent of a woman's perfume and he began to panic.  Before he could lose control, however, the elevator doors slid open on the fourth floor and Andy bolted out into the elevator bank and turned around to face the closing doors.

Shaken, he turned, and walked quickly back to his office, sat down and took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down.  What had just happened up there? 

After a few breaths, he called Ben, who answered on the first ring.

Andy said, "Okay, what's up?"

"Open that same file I showed you earlier tonight,"

"Okay."

"What were you doing up on the sixth floor?"

Andy was so flustered that he did not attempt to conceal what he had been doing.  "I was meeting Ariel."

"Ariel?  Ariel who?"

"Ariel Capulo.  I was chatting with her today.  She invited me up to see the training facility, but then..." he stuttered, "then, well then I think she decided to play a trick on me."

Andy tried to open the file he had opened earlier, but he could no longer see the file.  He tried a few more times, but still had no success.  "I can't seem to find the file, Ben," he said, and then, "wait, is there something wrong with the network?  I can't see anything."

"The network is fine," said Ben.

A message suddenly appeared on Andy's screen from Ariel.  "Are you there?" it said.

He stopped what he was doing and stared at the message.  Slowly, he typed, "yes, very funny, hang on a minute."

"She just started chatting again," Andy spoke into the phone, "She must think she's pretty funny."

"Who?  Ariel?" asked Ben.

"Yeah.  Let me try the file again."

As Andy unsuccessfully tried to access the files again, he noticed, out of the corner of his eye, that the cable that connected his computer to the Overlook network was unplugged.

"Huh," Andy said, "the patch cable isn't plugged into the wall.  It must have come unplugged when you tripped over the chair before."

Another message from Ariel appeared, "I need to talk to you."

Andy looked at the message, and then saw another one appear.  "I really need to talk to you now."

Andy said shakily into the phone, "Ariel's telling me that she needs to speak with me now."

"But how can that be," asked Ben slowly, "if you're not on the network?"

"I, er, don't really know," said Andy, flummoxed.

"Andy, what did Ariel look like?" Ben asked.

Andy said dreamily, "I've never met her, actually.  She's... well she says that she's a brunette, about five foot five.  She sits in an office by the Tempest conference room."

"Andy," said Ben.

Another message appeared from Ariel, "Andy, can we meet?"

Andy looked at the message.

"Andy, there is no office by that conference room.  It's next to the bathrooms; remember?

"I..." Andy trailed off.

Another message appeared, "Andy, please."

"Andy," said Ben, "are you sure her name is Ariel Capulo?"

The question seemed to stir Andy out of his stupor and he looked away from his computer screen.  "Yes, why?" he replied.

"Are you definitely sure?" Ben asked

"Yes," Andy said firmly, "why?"

"Because... there was an Ariel Capulo at Overlook.  In fact, she used to work in your office and had your job.  But, she... Well, she... she killed herself a few months before you got here during the last D-Day."

"She... she killed herself?  Why?" asked Andy.

"They, er, thought it was stress related.  I heard that she had trouble with a boyfriend too."

"What are you saying Ben?" asked Andy.

"It's just that, well, she killed herself in that office.  Your office.  It was pretty awful."

"What happened?" asked Andy.

"It was about midnight on D-Day, and I came over to show her a problem we had found, but her door was closed, which was weird.  She never closed her door.  Nobody closes their door on D-Day.  But the weirdest part was the laughing."

"The laughing," repeated Andy, as another beckoning message from Ariel appeared.

"Yeah, the laughing.  As I got closer to the door, I could hear her laughing, but it wasn't the kind of laugh you heard when something was funny.  I've never heard laughter like that.  I knocked and asked if everything was all right, but she just kept right on laughing.  Then it stopped."

"What happened, Ben?" asked Andy.

"After the laughing stopped, I waited awhile, and then knocked again.  There was no answer.  So, I opened the door."

"What did you see, Ben?" asked Andy.

"There was blood on everything.  The desk, the table and carpet and walls.  She had slit her wrists and wiped blood all over everything.  It was... it was very bad.  I  can't imagine why someone would do that to themselves." 

Andy did not know what to say and could only murmur, "Oh."

His face pale, Ben continued, "The thing that keeps me up at night... the reason why I don't like to be in that office -- your office -- is the laughing.  I won't ever forget the laughing."

Another message appeared on Andy's screen and he stared at it, then over at the disconnected network cable. He read and reread the five words contained in this last message. 

"Ben?" said Andy.

"What is it Andy?"

"Do you believe in ghosts?"

"I --", Ben heard a "click". 

Andy had hung up the phone.

Andy looked back at the last message.  It read, "I'm sorry.  It wasn't funny."

He reached over and unplugged his computer.