Amelia’s day had started off as any other, she headed in to the office early, to beat the seven am rush, stopping along the way to get her and Mr. Fitz Kirkpatrick, her boss, their favorite brews at a coffee shop. She was always reimbursed for the coffee and Fitz, let her charge her entire trip in to the company at thirty six cents a mile, plus the cost of the coffee to his expense account, a win-win for everyone. She liked Fitz, he knew she had gotten the job on both her ability to make order out of chaos and her trim, fit body that indicated Fitz was a player in the MAC company politics. He even took her on two company trips, she had been half expecting a pass or maybe a demand for a sexual favor, one she may or may not have declined, she was a free agent after all. Although Fitz was as old as her father, the man oozed charisma and charm. He never even made a play for her and after the first trip she decided she did indeed love him exactly how he was and their relationship grew closer in a father-daughter kind of way. He even reprimanded that guy Steve in front of everyone at the company holiday party, Amelia would never forget it, “Steve, back off, everyone is trying to have fun here.” With extra sarcasm on the ‘Everyone’, thinking of it still made Amelia smile.
The second trip with Fitz his wife had come along and she was trophy in her own right, but that is not all she was. In her Amelia discovered the woman behind the man in power, if anything she played politics more viciously than Fitz ever did and when she saw Amelia it took her about twenty seconds to decide to bring Amelia ‘into the fold’. The minor benefits soon followed and started added up, Amelia knew she was only attending college in the evenings because of Mrs. Kirkpatrick, the connections that woman had never ceased to amaze her.
Arriving at work Amelia dropped her purse into her desk drawer and headed into Fitz’s office after knocking softly once, their pre-arranged signal. She backed into his office using her behind to push the door open, as both hands were full of coffee then turned to put Fitz’s coffee on his desk, as she sat it down she froze. Kirkpatrick had blood on his arm, which was sitting on his desk at an unnatural angle. His dull eyes tracked her movement and seemed to focus on her in a strange way that made Amelia recoil in fear.
“Fitz…Fitz what happened, what is wrong. Oh my God I am calling an ambulance. Don’t die, don’t die!” Kirkpatrick slowly stood in his chair, the chair he had finally succumbed to undeath’s harsh embrace only twenty minutes before and started to climb over the desk towards Amelia, a groan escaping his throat.
Amelia back pedaled bumping into the door from his office and stammering, “Fitz…stay, st-st-stay right th-there, I ww-will call an ambulance and g-get you h-help.” Her voice shrunk to a whimper, “No Fitz, stop. Stop..”
Amelia turned and fled the office closing the door behind her. She then raced behind her desk and stood watching the door, somehow knowing Fitz would be trapped inside his office, knowing he could not open the door handle anymore, not in his condition. She squeaked out a cry worthy of a mouse when the handle slowly started to turn. Then ducked and hid under her desk, pulling her chair in as far as it would go after her. Thankfully her desk front went all the way down to the floor something she really liked as she could kick off her shoes when she was working during the day. Thinking of which brought to the fore front of her mind the fact that she was sitting uncomfortably on a spare pair under the desk, she maneuvered slightly to get them out from under her then froze when she heard the door swing open from Fitz’s office. She heard her former boss step-shuffle-step away from her, heading towards the hall and elevator and thought she was in the clear when the phone on her desk started ringing. Between rings she held her breath and listened for footsteps, they appeared to be heading back her way, mercifully the phone stopped ringing, “Praise the lord and voice mail too.” She thought hysterically to herself as she tried not to breath. The footsteps stopped a few feet from her desk. She heard the low grunts that Fitz had been making come from above her desktop, she heard the papers and ‘in’ box being shoved around and some paper and pens fell off the back of her desk, making her flinch, then the steps started to move away again. Amelia sighed quietly and relaxed, then jumped again as her hand got burned by the hot coffee cup she had somehow retained for her entire flight from Fitz’s office. Shrugging she took a sip. 'Fucking good.' She thought, 'This is the taste of life!' In that moment she felt more alive than she had in a long time.
As she was reveling in her victory her phone started to ring again, and ring, and ring, and ring, it did not cut off after four rings as it should have, but continued to ring, she did not hear any grunts or footsteps returning to her desk and in a brief, maniac moment, Amelia jumped up and grabbed her phone. She saw Fitz as she rose, he was only ten feet away and between her and the elevator, worse he was coming right towards her. This phone call had better have been worth it, hopefully it was the police, the army, or building security.
“Hello? Is anybody there, Kirkpatrick’s gone crazy he…he’s noticed me! Help me! Send help! Oh God! Stay away from me!” It took her a second to realize she was speaking to a dial tone.