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[Office Ninja]

Four forty two.

The bright numbers on the face of the alarm clock cast a red glare across the darkened room. A bottle of sleeping pills, half empty, stood next to it, the lid casually thrown aside, a few of its previous occupants scattered about the wooden nightstand. An empty glass stood beside them, its contents consumed hours ago with some of the pills.

Four forty three.

The sheet covering the open window rose gently in the breeze. As it shifted little shafts of yellow light from the street lamp were allowed in temporarily hiding the red glow of the alarm clock. Next to the nightstand on the floor was a mattress with a man sleeping peacefully. His body was entangled in the mess of sheets strewn about on the bed.

Four forty four.

The mans eyes opened. The ceiling fan above his bed squeaked as the force of the spinning blades shook the wobbly base. He stared at the fan blades for what seemed an eternity, not wanting to look at the clock. He knew it didn’t matter because he was already aware what he would see when he broke down and turned his reluctant gaze toward the red numbers.

He watched the spinning blades of the ceiling fan in hopes that they will distract him long enough to fall back asleep. In his mind he knew this was foolish, but something about the time of morning made him feel unsettled. Every morning for over a year now at four forty four in the morning he just woke up like clockwork. The place did not matter, as it still happened on the rare occasion that he slept in the library office where he worked.

The doctors tried prescribing sleeping pills, but never fail at four forty four he still managed to wake up. The sleep aids did however help him sleep in the morning when he was supposed to be working. He tried researching online to see if anyone else might have a similar issue and turned up nothing. He was alone.

After what seemed like hours of just staring at the fan he reluctantly turned his head toward the alarm clock. It felt ominous, and the feeling only grew worse with each passing day. He knew something was not right about this, but had no idea how to go about fixing the problem. The red numbers met his glaze and burned into his retina. In his mind he knew it had been well over a minute but the clock still read four forty four.

The world seemed to fade away around him as his eyes met the clock. He no longer heard the fan squeak, or felt the breeze coming in through the open window. The car that ran into a trashcan as it drove down the street no longer existed, there was only the clock and its red numbers. He stared at the clock unable to blink.

Four forty five.

The man was asleep.

[df2506]

Very cool preview Kikaro! Looking forward to reading the story.

DF2506

[Office Ninja]

A VERY rough draft on a scene I wrote tonight. Wanted to share Vortia's introduction.







Alex sat down in his seat as the lights dimmed for a moment. That was the signal that the show was about to start and the staff were trying to get the guests to find their seats. The seats in the theater were unexpectedly comfortable considering how small they were. The music of the orchestra warming up filled the large hall almost drowning out the noise of the crowd chatting while waiting for the opera to start. The soft chords being played seemed to calm Alex down. He was glad to be able to relax after the day he had. He hoped that he would never see Calista again.

He had never been to the theater. He remembered years ago when they did the restoration on it, and had photographed the building many times for the magazine, but had never been invited to watch one of the shows. He was glad that Chris had called out sick for this event, even if it was unlike him to ever miss something like this.

The people in the theater finally seemed to be quieting down as the lights went down for the final time. The orchestra went silent as the conductor prepared his music. Alex checked his camera and made sure the flash was disabled, it would be his luck to blind the singer on his first theater assignment. After he made sure his camera was ready he began snapping a few shots of the room as people waited for the show to start.

“Excuse me.” A chubby woman said as she walked in front of him blocking a good shot of the orchestra he was about to take.

Alex stood up to allow her to pass.

“Thank you young, man, its rare to see actual courtesy out of normal folk like you.”

Alex ignored her irritated to have missed the shot of the orchestra.

“You and I can chat after the performance. I’m sure whichever periodical you work for will want an interview; I am only the biggest donor to the theater. My husband was the head of the renovation. I look forward to talking to you.”

“I’m just a photographer ma’am. The writer isn’t here.” He already hated the snobby woman.

“Oh, well I would like a few pictures then. We can talk more after the show.”

“I’m not sure that…” Before he could finish she cut him off.

“Hush hush, we will talk after the show. I do believe it’s starting.”

Alex looked up to the stage. The heavy red curtain began to lift slowly. He could see a figure standing in darkness behind it. As the curtain lifted the lights slowly faded out completely leaving the entire theater in total darkness. As the darkness engulfed the theater the patrons went silent in anticipation. Alex was eager to hear the singer perform. He had heard of her, but had never heard a performance. He also realized that until some lights came on his job as a photographer was pretty much not happening.

The orchestra began playing. A soft melody made by the strings filled the hall and echoed throughout. It was almost eerie. The dark sounds began to grow in strength as a light began to slowly brighten behind the stage. The curtain was gone completely leaving only the silhouette of a woman. As the music grew the figure moved towards the front of the stage. Alex was already snapping pictures of the dark figure with the illuminated background. He thought the effect was extraordinary.

Another light crept up on the stage finally revealing the woman. Alex was struck by how beautiful she was. He had seen pictures of her before but nothing prepared him for seeing her in person. She wore a dress made of red leather. As she walked to the front of the stage he could see the red trail of the dress going on forever behind her. The top of the dress was a red corset with black lace tying it together. More black lace wrapped around her arms like gloves and fell off of her wrists hanging down to the ground. She wore a black veil over her head hiding her face and hair.

She stopped at the front of the stage and looked out into the audience. The music was still moving through the majestic hall as she lifted her arms up stretching them towards the audience.

Alex was unprepared for the voice that came out of the woman. Its power swept over the audience as she began to sing along with the dark music. He was lost in her voice instantly, forgetting that he was supposed to be taking pictures. The chubby woman to his left had been chatting with her neighbor until the woman began to sing. She was transfixed on the opera singer along with everyone else in the audience.

The woman spread her arms to her sides and sang a deep chorus as the strings in the orchestra played a soft duet. She reached up and pulled off her veil. Alex was not surprised to see tears streaming down her face. He was surprised that she seemed to look right into his eyes. For a moment it were as if she was singing directly to him with her sad song.

“Resist…”

Alex did not know where the voice came from but he seemed to awake from a dream. He looked around and saw the audience still transfixed on the singer. He met her gaze and noticed her shocked look. She didn’t stop singing but he could clearly tell she was surprised that he was not as transfixed as the rest of the audience. She broke their gaze and reached up high above her as if she were singing to the heavens. Alex gasped as her hair began to spread out and move around her. He thought it was just a wig at first, but he realized that her hair was actually made of what appeared to be metallic wires. He didn’t understand it but the wires were lifting up as the opera singer sang her siren song. They spread across the stage and moved down to the floor where the orchestra was.

Alex stood up to see what was happening as the first body lifted up, entangled in her hair. One of the band members was pulled up on stage and his head wrenched off by the wires. Blood sprayed all over. The singer continued her song as her hair continued to move around her. It spread out into the first rows of the audience grabbing people murdering them. One man went flying into the air as the hair threw him up. Before he reached the ground more strands of the metallic hair had wrapped around him pulling him in two at the waist spraying blood all over the people still alive under him. No one reacted to the blood pouring on them.

The hair reached up into the ceiling, lifting the singer up above the stage. It began moving her towards Alex over the audience. As she moved above the people the hair was killing them. The music of the orchestra no longer echoed throughout the theater because the entire band was dead.

Alex was screaming at the people around him to react. They sat still enthralled by the voice of the singer. She moved closer still. He slapped the chubby woman but got no response, she just smiled still enthralled by the siren song. He tried to run down the isle to get away from the woman but dripped on a man’s foot. His camera smashed against the ground.

He reached up and held onto the back of a chair, pulling himself up. He watched as the woman hovered towards him, her arms outstretched as she continued singing. She was still crying.

People all around her were being ripped apart by her hair but she was transfixed on Alex. He pushed himself up and began moving down the isle trying to avoid the hair. He turned back as the hair ripped into the chest of the chubby woman. She still had the smile on her face as the wires tore her apart.

Alex reached the isle looked for the closest exit. The pause allowed one of the wires to wrap around his leg pulling him back. He stumbled and fell to the ground on top of a corpse lying in a pool of blood. He screamed as the wire pulled up lifting him above the ground. It turned him so that he was facing the woman as it pulled him toward her.

“What the hell are you doing this for?” He screamed. She just continued to sing, tears streaming down her face. “Please you have to stop!”

She looked at him, her eyes full of sadness. He met her gaze and time seemed to stand still.

“Call my name…” The voice filled his thoughts.

“What is your name?” He tried to keep more wires from wrapping around him but was quickly being engulfed. They were tightening their grip cutting off circulation to his legs.

“My… name?” For the first time she stopped singing.

“Yes, what is your name?” He could already feel the wires loosening. Somehow he had gotten to her.

“My name is…” She couldn’t finish the sentence as she started sobbing.

In that moment a blood-curdling scream echoed throughout the theater. Alex looked and saw the people that had been spared so far seemed to be out of the trance. In a few seconds the remaining people were screaming trying to run out of the room. People were tripping over bodies as they tried to escape. It was chaos.

The woman looked back into Alex’s eyes and opened her mouth to speak. No sound came out.

“You have to stop this massacre.”

“My name is… Vortia.”

Alex was released and dropped to the ground. He looked up as Vortia began screaming. Her hair seemed to explode at the sound of her scream. Wires flew in all directions out of her head. Her scream turned into a shriek that was more mechanical in sound. Alex had to cover his ears as he tried to back away from the unnerving sight. Metallic wires seemed to be ripping out of her skull with no end in sight. He didn’t understand how this was even possible.

He stood up and turned towards the exit seeing a large mass of people trying to squeeze through the small doorway. A large stream of her hair crashed into the group of people in an explosion of wires and bodies. Alex fell to his knees feeling helpless as he watched the people ripped apart.

Vortia’s scream grew louder covering the screams of the dying people. Soon all he could hear was Vortia echoing in the bloody theater. Alex almost threw up from the amount of carnage filling the place, the stench of death filled his nostrils. He stood up and ran for the door. The hair seemed to ignore him as he ran through the mess of bodies out of the hall. The lobby was less chaotic with a few survivors still trying to make their way to the front doors. Outside the theater Alex could see a mass of spectators crowding around police cars trying to see what was going on. It looked as if the police were trying to form a barricade to keep people away from the building. Alex looked back as the wires emerged into the lobby. One of the stragglers who managed to make it into the lobby was unfortunate enough to be stopped short of his escape. Alex watched as the wires wrapped around his neck lifting him towards the ceiling. He could hear screams of the onlookers watching through the large windows. The man was kicking and reaching up trying to pull the wires from around his neck. More of the hair wrapped around his arms and legs and began pulling. He screamed as his limbs were ripped from his body and discarded in a shower of blood.

The large crowd of people outside saw the horrible scene and began running in panic. The police didn’t seem to comprehend what they just saw and just stood there dumbfounded ad people stampeded trying to get away from the theater.

Alex ran out of the lobby into the street as the crowds were clearing. He could still hear Vortia’s scream from inside.

The building began to shake as wires began to break through the walls. The building was old and began to crumble. Alex realized that Vortia’s hair was trying to escape the building. He didn’t understand how it could grow so large.

The hair wrapped around the pillars and moved down the steps towards the street. One of the police cars was picked up and crushed by the wires. Wires began breaking out of windows and parts of the roof. As more of the hair started escaping, more of the building began to fall apart. Soon Alex could see the roof was starting to collapse.

There was a large rumbling and within a few seconds Alex watched as the rest of the building went tumbling down. Smoke billowed out of the crashing building and spread all around. Alex shielded his eyes as the wall of smoke crashed into him and the few remaining people watching the horror.

As the building finished collapsing the scream of the opera singer finally ended. The dust began to clear and Alex saw that the wires had stopped expanding.