Monsters are real

Filled with growing dread I walked down the long hall way slowly. Each time I passed by a set of office doors I cringed. Fractured splinters of conversations sliced through the air "finish it."

The sun was casting long shadows on the creating more gloom. I had taken a bathroom break but I would have to go back inside. I pulled up all my shields.

"Time is running out" the voice slithered across the room heads bobbed up and down in agreement.

A tentative hand went up as I slid into my chair I perched ready to flee at the first sight of blood. "According to the calendar you gave us we still have another month."

Cold dead eyes locked on the he who dared speak. "Do you know who I am?" The voice was cold and vicious, he was brave he was wearing his medal that would protect him from harm.

He picked up a copy of a piece of paper from where I sat I could tell it was a print out of an old email.

The air changed, it had been cloying and heavy since the meeting began but now it was completely leadened.

"It is dated." He didn't finish his statement, he never would, he was about to become a walking dead and he sensed that his death was near. He watched her the way an animal watches a venomous snake before it strikes. He had had been brave, logical, polite, he cared those were all errors and she would squeeze all those thoughts from him.

I knew what was coming, the beast needed to be fed and its victim had served itself up. She would feed off on his feelings. The paper in his hand wavered, he lowered it to the desk, he shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He sensed danger and he knew it was to late.

"I created the calendar with the deadlines, therefore I am the calendar." He flinched, he mumbled, he shuffled more papers in front of him. "Do you understand?" she asked her voice dripping with malice, he jerked and nodded dumbly.

Around him glazed eyes stared ahead, past victims, they no longer had any of the energy needed to appease the monster. Hope, compassion, kindness they had been drained.

The meeting was over, I had escaped yet again, but I knew that time was running out. I was hiding in plain sight and the beast needed a supply of fresh victims.