Behind closed walls

She slowly woke up from her slumber, her neck and her back hurt from the awkward position sitting at her desk. Usually the cleaner would wake her up when he came to work at five. Maybe he didn’t see her today? She rubbed her eyes and wiped the drool off her cheek. She looked around to see that everybody had already left and that the shutters were all closed. It was almost nine so she must be the last one remaining. She turned her computer off, gathered her belongings and turned off every light of the floor. She then walked down the stairs to the back door of the building which... didn’t open? She pushed it with all of her force, which wasn’t much, and managed to open it slightly before it closed immediately after. It felt like someone was pushing the door from outside. This startled her so she quickly left to the hall. Here she saw the root of her problem through the glass door: a violent blizzard. Oh, this made sense. The cleaner probably couldn’t even reach the building. As for her colleagues, they probably all left before it started snowing although she doubted the fact she might be the only one remaining in the entire company.

The only thing she could do for now was wait and hope the snow would stop before the next day. She tried recalling if she ever saw cameras somewhere in the company. At the same time, she made her way to the security room. At least the power didn’t shut down, yet. As she had expected, the screens in the security room only showed the hall and the outside of the building. She couldn’t see anything except for some street lights and snow. Too much snow. She thought of maybe going back to her desk to work since she slept all afternoon. However she was quickly discouraged when she felt her stomach rumble. Since the building was supposedly empty, she could just take what she’s always wanted. She usually couldn’t go there and now was probably her last chance to.

She took the stairs to the second floor and stopped in front of the door she always passed and never actually opened. Would they collect her fingerprints if she touched it? But her hand was already on the door handle so there was no going back. She went in and rummaged in the cupboards and quickly found what she was looking for: baby food. It’s been almost thirty years since she ate some and because she didn’t have any kids she wasn’t allowed in the company’s childcare. Moreover baby food was insanely expensive and the quantity was too ridiculous for her to spend money on it. So today would be her last chance to eat some before she finally won the lottery to buy everything she didn’t need. The numbers only had to cooperate for once. She ate a pot of mashed carrots and made herself a glass of baby formula. She contemplated the bookshelf while sipping on the sweet milk and wondered why the books were so high when the kids were so short.

She washed the spoon and the glass she used before taking out the children’s books one by one from the bookshelf, looking at the covers and putting them back right after. She was a little disappointed when she put the last one back and didn’t find any secret passage. When she pressed the switch to turn off the light however, the room remained lit and she heard something move behind her. She turned around to look at the bookshelf slowly sliding toward a large toy box. She stood there flabbergasted. Not only there really was a secret passage but its button was right next to the switch. It was far too obvious to be true. Still, she walked through the newly found path, stealing glances behind her just in case the bookshelf moved back by itself, we never know.

What she saw at the end of the past was quite… peculiar to say the least. It looked like she arrived in an arcade, the room was dark and the light was blue. However every arcade machine was a Dance Dance Revolution platform. She turned one on and was about to look for a coin in her purse when the screen showed her she needed a token to play. Sadly, there seemed to be no device to exchange coins. Defeated, she turned it off and looked around the room to find something interesting to do. A poster for a dance competition was hung on one of the walls. Upon further examination, she realized it was actually a Dance Dance Revolution competition. Also the competition was actually a championship where the winning team would receive a lot of money and plane tickets to contest the world finals in Bali. That was… pretty serious. Did the people working with their colleagues’ kids have a dance team? Did they train with or without them? Was the boss aware of the existence of this secret room? Why wasn’t she a part of the team? She definitely needed to question everyone next day, including the kids.

There was still a room she wanted to visit: the director’s office. Nobody was ever allowed there. Rumors said the director wasn't even working when he was there, that's why he didn't want employees to see. And tonight she would discover the truth herself. She took the elevator to the ninth floor and tried turning the door handle but it didn’t move. Why would he lock the door? Directors weren’t supposed to keep secrets from their employees, were they? She took her library card out of her bag to open the door just like in movies which surprisingly didn’t work. She then looked under the pot next to the door. The plant in it was pretty dry and moving it wouldn’t help it staying alive, but she found a key there so it was worth it. She was now entering the office where she found nothing. Literally nothing. There wasn’t a single furniture there. She looked outside the window and saw it was still snowing but she could go through it. However now wasn’t the time to go home, it was the time to investigate this empty room. She pressed the switch, hoping it would reveal a secret passage like before, but it only turned on the light. Disappointed, she pressed the button closing the shutters. Instead however, parts of the walls started to turn, revealing various furniture. Some also came out of the floor. Yet there weren’t what someone would expect to see in an office: there were Dance Dance Revolution platforms. Did the whole company just forgot to tell her about this? She felt left out, betrayed and disappointed. She put everything back to normal and just went home.

The next day she decided to confront her boss about what she discovered. She waited for the elevator but when it took a little more than ten seconds to arrive at her floor she decided to take the stairs instead. After climbing seven floors by foot, she knocked on the director’s office door while trying to catch her breath. As soon as he opened the door she crossed her arms and said: “Dad, you have some explaining to do.”