Into the starlight

Ashley's world glimmered with ethereal magical lights. She knew no one else saw things as she did, at least a part of her realized this. This creamer was safe because it glowed green but that disposable cup was evil because it had no glow. Try explaining that to the barista daily. Every person place and object held its own numinous qualities, its own spirit. She couldn't force things that hated each other together, like her spoon and the artificial sweetener on the counter.

Finally having navigated the intricacies of getting coffee for her entire floor, Ashely cradled the souls of the beverages in her arms onto the elevator. Perhaps this time the cinnamon in Christine's latte wouldn't slow the elevator too much. Ashely was running late and didn't have it in her to run up four flights of stairs. Besides that side of the building had been getting darker and darker as Ashely's coworkers stopped coming in. She closed her heart and mind to the auras of her world and pressed the button for the fourth floor.

Darkness not related to the brightly sunlit cubicles access to plentiful windows nearly physically knocked Ashely over when the doors to the elevator opened. She couldn't bring herself to step out into the hallway. The door eventually closed and she rode back down to the first floor. when the door opened there Brilliance knocked her as physically backward. Several men boarded the elevator and Peculiarly Ashely couldn't tell who the glow was coming from. One man held a phone like a sword before him chattering into the microphone of his headset. One man cowered in the corner with nothing more than a mop. A third man stood between her and the door in a sharp business suit. He was the most attractive and she felt drawn to him, to all of them like there was a magnetic pull within the elevator.

Could she have found the other half of her that could make her whole? She shrugged it off spilling every drop of the forgotten coffee's she still bore. Actually she now wore them. The man with the mop slopped around her feet sopping up most of the liquid then he stepped back. THe man in the suit took a step to back away from her. THe man wielding a phone glanced at her and tapped his phone. From the color of its glow the service had been cut off when she released the chaotic auras of the flavored coffees into the elevator's space.

Mop man got off on the second floor and the elevator didn't dim. Suit man left on the third. And digitally armored man seemed willing to continue on past the fourth floor until the door opened and his glow aurally clashed with the darkness . He looked up at the resounding bell like clang, that only Ashley expected to hear.

He stopped the elevator and stepped off bringing light into the numinous darkness of the springlit office. Ashley dropped the empty cups. Her spill had killed the distraction that his phone had posed. "Excuse me, but who is in charge in this office?" The man said in a voice musical from his inner light.

Dwight, the suit from corporate headquarters marched right up to the Digital Knight who still held his phone at ready though reception had not returned. "Dwight Timble, head of corporate restructuring."

Ashley watched as Dwight handed the stranger a business card that only Ashley had ever seen prominently highlighting corporate restructuring and beheading department.

The stranger looked at the card and blinked then he scanned it into his phone. He pulled a card from his pocket It glowed so brightly that Ashley couldn't even see what it said. She gasped, as Dwight flinched, his horns glowed darkly and prominently through his hair plugs. "I wasn't expecting anyone else from corporate... Certainly not the development division!"

"Exactly who are you here after?" The stranger asked.

Dwight frowned and glared af his own feet, "I am not quite sure. Their influence is everywhere and nowhere."

An awkward evesdropper at a certainly celestial exchange, Ashley made herself as in conspicuous as she could. Neither man seemed to make any note of her. Suddenly she questioned if either were really there. She looked around the office. Everyone's morale and energies seemed off kilter without the ambrosia she usually delivered them. Ashley turned to get back on the elevator to fetch another load of coffee. The stranger's phone pinged the return of service and he slashed at the air in front of Dwight. Dwight staggered backwards and green ooze began to show through in a stripe on his shirt and suit.

"I invite you to return to corporate. Before your employment is terminated!" The stranger stated. Dwight put on a determined face and stepped boldly back into confrontation with the stranger. He pulled and ax shaped rubber stamp from behind his back.

"Don't be so certain that the termination would not be yours. "

The stranger laughed, held his hand over the microphone on his headset, "Hold on just one second." He pulled a sword shaped rubber stamp from his pocket and stabbed through Dwight's business card with it , leaving a golden imprint of "TERMINATED," upon it. Dwight collapsed backward within himself as all the darkness in the building was sucked within him. Within moments light filled the floor as the darkness swirled away. The stranger ended his call and turned to Ashley.

"My dear I have been searching forever for you. You were supposed to have been recruited to Corporate HR long ago dear. He wrapped a heroic arm around her and pulled her to him caring not one whit about the spilled coffee down her front. "And you and I were supposed to have founder long before that. You have hidden yourself well from harm, too well. If you hadn't spilled all of those souls in the elevator I would have missed you as well!" He planted a soul completing kiss on her lips and his glow filled the office tenfold when combined with her.

-----

"Look Maxine, Ashley's kissing the Ups pickup man."






1027 words


prompt ▼

For

SURVEY

Tales Shown, Not Told Contest  (E) A short story contest from the Crosstimbers Author Association. #2300358 by Max Griffin 🏳️‍🌈

Choose ONE of the prompts for your story. This round's prompts are:

Genre Prompt: Horror/Supernatural. There's something scary or spooky going on.

Words Prompt: Write a story using the words ethereal , numinous, and glimmer.

Character prompt: The protagonist has at least some symptoms of either a dissociative Open in new Window. or delusional Open in new Window. disorder.


Choose ONE of these prompts for your story. You're free to explore these prompts in whatever way you wish, but the prompt must be part of the story.