A period in hell

A period in hell.

Jan looked at her self in the mirror, Looking GOOD! She had on a black pencil skirt, white blouse with a red and white polka dot scarf around the neck. Black hose and black mid high pumps with a red handbag and belt. Very attractive, she thought. She had to think, all this for lunch with the girls. However she knew that all of them would be dressed to the nines, it was expected. Half of the conversation would center around their outfits.

She looked at her watch, 10:00 AM. Lunch at 11:30 AM. Forty minutes to the restaurant. That would give her enough time to go to her office to pick up the cards she left in her office and get to the restaurant on time.

Since it was a Sunday she experienced no traffic problems, found a parking spot right in front of the building. She entered the building saying hello to Mr Springer, the security guard. He was such a dear, a really kind old man. Unfortunately a little past his prime. He wouldn’t be a threat to a troop of Brownies. As she waited at the elevator she heard the old man mutter about having to use the men’s room again.

Arriving at the fourth floor she steps out and proceeds to the office door. She unlocks it and enters. Her office is at the end of the room. The floor is nothing but modular cubicles. Three rows of them and three isles. The place seems so eerie when empty. She opens her office door and on her desk she see’s some notes her secretary left. She sits down to read them. Then she examines her diary to acquaint herself with tomorrow’s agenda. She grabs the greeting cards, stands up and see’s that there is a man in the doorway.

Excuse me but the office is closed, come back tomorrow.

Naw, I just opened the office!

What! What do you want.

YOU, Sweetie.

Now the fear starts to build. Oh my God, he wants to rape me! Her mind is racing, what to do?

OK honey, give me your office keys.

She fumbles in her purse, finds the keys, then promptly tries to throw the keys past the man so he would have to leave the doorway to get them. That didn’t work, he just raised his arm and caught them.

He laughed, you throw like a girl. He takes the keys, and says “Now we’re soon to be alone, girlie.” he slowly proceeds to the nearest door and locks it, then the furthest doors and locks it. “Now we’re alone, babe, time for the entertainment.”

While he was locking the doors, she ran out of the office and entered the maze of cubicles. Her first thought was flight, escape the immediate situation! She runs out of her office into the maze, no thought, just instinct.

At this point her mind was barely functioning, fear overwhelmed her. She realized that if she wanted to live she had to overcome fear. She had to make time so that she could think. She saw her antagonist four cubicles away, she immediately ran in the opposite direction. She stopped and saw him, he had stopped at one cubicle, his arms laying on the cubicle wall, laughing!

You son of a Bitch, she thought. Now loathing was slowly replacing fear. Then the desire to live was the dominant emotion. The synapses in her brain were firing like a mad electrical storm. As son as she saw him move she again ran away from him.

Now she started to use reason, her first thought: the cubicles were shoulder height so she could always keep him in sight. That’s the good news, the bad is that he walks and I run. He’s controlling the situation, all I can do is respond to his actions. As she stares at her attacker she notices something that could be her salvation. Yes, God YES!

Again he moves, she moves.

This time she realizes that her high heels reverberated on that hard floor, she sounded like a pony running down the hall. He could be blind and half deaf but could still follow her footsteps. She removes her shoes, she was going to leave them but remembered something from her self defense class. She recalled the instructors suggestion that a female shoe, especially the pointed toe kind could save ones life. Applied to the groin it would stop any male in his tracks.

Again he moves, she reacts.

This time she notices that her hose does not give a good grip on this flooring. Off with the hose. Damn, I hope I’m not just making it easier for him. I can’t worry about that now. I have a much better contact with the floor this way. She stares at the SOB again, he starts to move, so does she, but, this time she stoops down so that her body is below the upper edge of the cubicles. She can’t be seen. His heels also echo on the flooring so she knows where he’s heading. He’s heading where she has to be. She has to divert him. She looks in the cubicle and sees a stapler. She takes it and heaves it in the direction she wants him to take. I may throw like a girl but it’s good enough.

It worked, he took the bait, as she heard him move in the direction she wanted.

Now to collect what I need. She lucks out, this office has a metal waste basket. Looking at the desk she see’s nothing else she needs. After a few more diversionary moves she’s collected what she needs and soon she arrives at where she has to be. Thank God that guy is not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

She’s ready, this has to work. She empties the basket on the desk. She takes a legal pad, rips out some pages, forms then into balls and places them in the wastebasket. She then places her hose on top. She notices a sweater hanging over the back of a chair. Yes I need that.

She takes another sheet from the pad, lights it and throws it into the basket. She rapidly takes the sweater using it like oven mitts to pick up the basket and place it beneath the fire sensor. Please, please work. It did! The noise was horrible and beautiful at the same time.

She drops the hot basket, She removes that tight skirt to gain some movement, puts her shoes on, grabs a paper opener and a pair of scissors. I’m not going down without a fight.

She has her back against the wall, weapons in each hand. She hears a smashing noise. Can it be true? The fire department is here.

She slowly folds and sinks to the floor, all adrenaline and courage drained.