The Audit (in progress)

Derrick sat at the front desk for the Von West building, his hand barely holding up his head. The building was unnervingly quiet. The type of quiet where you could hear water moving through the pipes, the hum collective hum of electronics and even the wind cutting through the parking garage. None these sounds were helping with keeping him stave off sleep. As his elbow slipped forward he nearly face planted on the faux marble countertop. He stopped himself and looked around a bit startled before glancing at the time on the monitor, 1:30 AM.

“Sure, I can work the graveyard no problem.” He sarcastically said to himself before sighing. It was a fairly easy job, at least that was what the manager said during the interview. Two person shift, one at the desk while the other does patrols. He watched Angel the other security officer checking the doors on the 5th floor. As he walked by the security camera he gave the rookie a thumbs up before heading up to the next floor. Aside from a few cleaners on every other floor there shouldn’t have been anyone else in the building. At least that was what he was told.

Someone passed by the camera on the 6th floor but the image was full of static as they moved. He wiped his eyes to get a better look but the image was clear again, showing an empty hallway. His walkie talkie chirped and Angel’s scruffy voice came through. 

“How ya doing rookie?” He asked. 

“Eh, I’m okay. Just 5 more hours to go.” He huffed. 

“Hey start a pot of coffee would ya? I’m on my way back down.” 

“Sure thing boss.” He said, pressing the button on the Mr. Coffee pot on the table next to the cameras. Probably not the best place for it, but it looked like it had been there for years. The water started to boil and hiss like a tire deflating when something caught in his periphery. The door to the south end stairwell on the 6th floor closed. He checked the stairwell camera for that area but there was nothing but a blinking light. He leaned in to the camera and for a moment there looked like a shadow passing underneath it and “Ding!” The elevator opened and out came Angel. Derrick gasped and held his walkie talkie to his chest. That woke him up a little more. 

“Alright Rookie, hope you didn’t see too much excitement when I was away.” He said walking into the security office and going immediately for the coffee. Derrick looked at him for a moment then at the camera’s again. 

“Sure, tons of fun.” Derrick said, looking back at the camera’s. Angel’s large caterpillar like mustache flapped up and down as he worked the first sips of coffee into his system. 

“The cleaners should be gone by 3, then we can run the security audit.” He said stepping over to the screens. Derrick looked down at the pre-audit sheet with the list of floors and suites on them. 

“We don’t audit 6th floor?” He asked. Angel smacked the bitterness on his lips and then grabbed the sugar from the table next to the Mr. Coffee. Shaking it a bit he looked at the camera’s. 

“The 6th floor is all for one tenant. Some kind of doctor, a real pretty number though. Kind of reminds me of Pam Grier.” 

“Who is that?” Derrick asked. 

“A reminder of just how old I am.” He said with a little pain in his voice.

“What do they do up there?”

 “Not sure, no one else has access to the floor but her.” Angel said then looked around for a moment before leaning in. “Few months ago one of the cleaning ladies never clocked out. When we checked the tape she was seen going into the 6th floor stairwell entrance somehow but she never came out. Police did a full sweep with the doctor and found nothing. If you ask me I think she just walked off the job.” He added. Derrick thought about it for a moment and then tried to remember the shadow he saw on the screen. There was on way to tell if it was a woman or not or if he really saw anything at all. 

The next hour was spent with Angel telling Derrick more about the building, the camera blind spots and the strange tenants. He didn’t think there would be anyone stranger than the doctor but there was apparently a lawyer who was always took off his shoes in the lobby and walked around barefoot. At around 2:55 AM it was time for the audit. At least it was close enough, the last cleaners had already left and were accounted for. He looked over and Angel was leaning comfortably in the rolling chair with his hat a bit lower on his face. The sounds had lulled again and as much as he tried to keep himself awake he was finding himself falling lower and lower on the desk. 

“Come on man.” He said shaking his hands and pressing the audit button on the screen. The camera’s all rolled through to the screen sending data for each floor and stair case. The clock struck 3:00 am as soon as the camera’s made it to the 6th floor and everything went dark in a dead silence. Angel smacked his lips and woke up to the red emergency lights glow coming from the lobby.  

“What did you do Rookie?” He asked. 

“Uh, I didn’t do anything. I just ran the audit and the lights went out.” Derrick said. His skin already getting slick with sweat due to the thought that he might have messed up big time. 

“I’m just messing with you…this happens from time to time but the security system is on a backup battery just wiggle the mouse, it probably went to sleep.” He said. Derrick wiggled the mouse and sure enough the process was still running but all of the camera’s were going black one by one. 

“Does this happen too?” He asked. 

“That’s a new one.” Angel replied rubbing his chin. 

“What do we do?” Derrick asked. 

“Well, we have to make sure all of the floors are clear. All of fob doors disable in an outage.” Angel replied leaning back and stretching. Derrick looked down into the dark lobby and gripped his flashlight. 

The two of them had to use the stairs since the elevator was down which Angel wasn’t a fan of. Good thing there were only 12 floors in the building. When they got to the 5th floor Derrick shivered as the temperature dropped a few degrees. The floor was the lawyers and Angel joked that it smelled like corn chips but Derrick was too busy being unnerved to laugh. It might have been quiet before, but now with the dead silence he could hear Angel’s thoughts if he wanted. As he was checking the door to the main office the sound of feet trampling in a run darted across the ceiling. He immediately shone his light up where fresh dust fell from the light fixture in the beam. His heart beat a bit faster as he looked over to Angel who was also looking up. 

“Did you hear that?” He asked. For once Angel was speechless, there wasn’t supposed to be anyone else in the building so he tried to rationalize it. 

“Could be a rat, some people bring pets in here.” 

“A pet rat?” Derrick asked. 

“I told you these people are strange.” 

“That was way too big to be a rat, sounded like a person.” Angel looked around the room for a moment and then rubbed his head. Derrick knew what he was going to say but hoped that he didn’t. 

“Well Rookie, time to get your stripes.” He said. 

They walked out into the stairwell where the 6th floor entrance was even colder than the one below. When Angel put his hand on the handle it was cold to the touch which made him clear his throat. The eeriness of the situation started to chip away at his grizzled exterior. Derrick stood there scanning the stairwell with his light. 

“Alright. Let’s go.” Angel said as he opened the door. It was pitch black on the floor with no emergency lights at all. Carefully they checked the doors, opening them and peeking inside. Angel was the more vocal of the two asking if anyone was in there while Derrick just moved his light around. They found that there were half eaten refreshments in the lobby along with overturned wine glasses, purses and shoes. In one office he slowly shone his light over some pictures on a desk next and a bottle of whisky. As he focused on the bottle a hand reached for it. 

“Ah!” He screamed fumbling with the flashlight before shining it into an empty chair. 

“Rookie you okay?” Angel asked. Derrick took a few breaths and laughed. 

“Yeah, I just thought I saw something.” Derrick said stepping out into the hallway. “You’re right, it was probably just a ra—“ Derrick’s face went cold as the words fell into the pit forming in his stomach. 

“What’s wrong?” Angel asked his breath floating in front of his face as a cold blast of air hit his back. Derrick just looked at him his mouth still trying to make the sounds. Angel squinted and could barely make out. 

“Be-hind?” He asked, as what looked like flowing hair fluttered around him. He slowly turned around seeing nothing but darkness. “Doctor Loomis? That you? Didn’t know you were still here.” He said shining his light into the room. 

“No don’t!” Derrick said but it was too late. His light beam stopped in the middle of the room where his eyes narrowed on something. 

“Oh sweet Jesus!“ Angel yelled as he was snatched inside, his scream fading in the darkness as if he had fallen down a well. Derrick just stood there for what seemed like an eternity but was only just a few seconds. His body refused to move and his brain refused to think. There was no flight or fight, just fall as his legs finally gave out and he was sitting in the beam of Angel’s flashlight. A hand then slammed on the marble floor from the open door next to him and something pulled itself out. Derrick looked away and gripped his flashlight hearing the thing groan and with air bubbling in its throat. Whisky then splashed out on the ground next to him and he went to scream but a hand covered his mouth. He looked over to see a woman with a grey streak of hair falling into her face with her finger over her lips. She then motioned for him to quickly follow her to the other end of the hall. He almost tore a ligament with how weak his legs were. More groaning began as more of those things stood up and emerged from the offices. They went into a room with an iron door and candles lit in a circle, with a ritual board inside it. 

“What the hell is going on!? What happened to Angel?” Derrick asked. As the woman held herself up on the door for a moment, breathing heavily. 

“Hell is correct.” She said, turning towards him. 

“What?” He asked blankly. 

“My colleagues were trying to perform a ritual to speak with the other side and things didn't turn out like we'd hope. Though I did try to warn them." She said, groaning began from behind the door.

"Well no one warned us...and something took Angel." Derrick replied his body slowly calming off of the adrenaline.

"What an unfortunate name." She said as the groans outside became louder.

"No...no no no. This is just a dream. I'm still at the front desk with that stupid audit running listening to Angel snore." He said.

"I really wish that were the case kiddo but I'm afraid we're in a living nightmare and unless we put things back to where they were it's only going to get worse."

"We? I'm just security and it's my first night! I don't know anything about..." He looked around the room confused about exactly what he didn't know about.

"The paranormal? No one does, it's all theory and experience." She said rolling up her sleeve where there was a bandage wrapped around her arm. She then grabbed a knife from the floor and walked over to the middle of the room.

"What are you doing with that?" He asked.

"It's not for you, unless you starting feeling a little hellish." She said. He cleared his throat and shook his head as she looked to be preparing something. "I've already used my blood so it won't work. We need a new source." She said handing the knife to him. He looked at it as if to say, you can't be serious but she shot back a glance of all confirmation. He reluctantly grabbed the knife and looked at it for a few minutes before taking a breath and putting it up to his forearm.

"Hey...Rookie. You in there? I'm okay, let's head back down. I think I want some more coffee." Angel's voice said. Derrick turned and looked at the door.

"Angel?" He asked but Dr. Loomis snapped her fingers.

"It's not him anymore it's using him to try and get you to come out. It did he same with all of my friends." She said. Derrick then gripped the knife at touched it to his skin but it was too much.

"No! This was supposed to be an easy overnight job. I'm not supposed to be fighting demons and definitely not cutting my arm open to perform some kind of ritual. I haven't even taken my lunch break yet!"

"There are circumstances always out of our control! What matters now is that we close this rift before something worse comes out."

"Something worse than that thing that took Angel? There's no wa-" he stopped as his eyes caught something behind her. A cleaning uniform laid out on the floor.

"It's not what it looks like."

"Oh yeah? You didn't do something weird to that missing cleaning lady?" He asked.

"We don't have time for this." She said grabbing the knife and trying to make him cut his arm.

"Hey, stop!" He said as they struggled. Trying to pull away from her he accidentally slashed her fingers which dropped her old blood on he ritual area. Which began glowing red.

"What have you done?" She asked.