by Mac Flynn
Chapter 7
To say I bunkered down in my little cubicle for the rest of the day was an understatement. I barricaded myself in with the pile of documents and worked my way slowly through them. Each completed work was a victory and an anxiety-inducing act. I felt eyes on me and swore the men pressed close against the exterior walls of my cubicle, begging me to leave and satisfy their desires.
Ann came to me at ten minutes till five and stood in front of the single document that remained on the floor in the entrance. "Wow, you got through them all," she commented.
"Almost," I agreed as I snatched the last folder from her feet and furiously typed the contents into the computer.
My friend leaned her shoulder against the opening and acted as a surrogate barricade. "So I heard you got taken to the boss' office. What did he say to you?"
"Um, he-uh, he just moaned about a couple of things and let me go," I told her.
"So no firing?" she guessed.
"If I was fired then I wouldn't have done all this paperwork," I pointed out. The last folder was finished and slammed shut. I tossed it onto the stack to my right and leaned back with a sigh. "And speaking of fired, you really shouldn't be here. He's probably watching me like a hawk and you'll get in trouble for standing there."
She smiled and shook her head. "Nope. I saved my last ten-minute break till the end. I could leave if I wanted to, but I wanted to know about that whole date thing we talked about yesterday. You up for it?"
I groaned and slumped over my desk. "Probably not. I feel like I need to sleep the whole weekend away."
She cringed. "And it's only Monday."
"Thanks for reminding me," I grumbled.
"Well, maybe tomorrow will be better. Did the dictator say anything about laying off on you?" she asked me.
I looked at the time. Five o'clock. Time to escape. I stood and gathered my things. "Nope, but I'll see if I can't fix his blackmail tonight with some begging and pleading," I told her.
She raised an eyebrow. "Begging and pleading? To him?"
"No, somebody else, but I'll explain things if I succeed," I replied as I stood by her side and peeked out my cubicle. A few men leaned out of their caves and stared back. I ducked into my cubicle. "Um, mind walking me to the elevator?"
She glanced over the cubicles at the elevator and frowned. "Actually, it might be better if we take the stairs today like you do at your apartment. There's some sort of a crowd at the elevators today."
I stood and followed her gaze. Half a dozen guys, among them Johnny, stood at the elevator doors talking among themselves. Their focus was on me because more than one let his eyes roam in the direction of my cubicle.
"You know, I think I do need some exercise," I agreed as I grabbed her hand and led her to the stairwell.
We passed close to the men on our way to the door, and they stopped their mindless chattering and turned their focus completely on me. Smiles brightened their faces and their glossy eyes glistened with a hint of lust. Nothing as bad as the secret lust Lenin held for me, but now there were far more men than in Lenin's office.
"Don't mind us, boys," Ann spoke up, oblivious to their vacant stares. In the zombie apocalypse she would be doomed.
We slipped into the stairwell and hurried down the stairs. I glanced up when I didn't hear the door shut behind us and noticed the men congregate on the upper landing. They gazed down on me with all the longing of a love-sick puppy, but hopefully tomorrow would change their wish for a pet adoption.
We reached the bottom floor which was the sub-floor parking lot and parted ways at the door. Ann grabbed my hand as I pulled away to my car far down the long rows. "I know I'm bothering you about this whole guy date-thing, but could you at least keep considering my proposal? I don't really want to see you hugging that wall on your own during the party," she pleaded.
I pursed my lips. "Ann, I-"
"Please?"
I sighed, but gave a nod. "All right, I'll keep considering it, but I'm not saying I'm going to change my mind." That had as much chance of happening as a snowball surviving in hell.
She smiled and released me. "Good, now you get a good night's rest. You look exhausted."
"I will," I promised, and hurried away. I would if Magnus could fake me a doctor's note.
I returned to the cemetery and found Mo waiting on his usual granite pedestal, his tail wrapped around the foot of the solemn angel. His face was almost as solemn as I walked up to him. "I'm guessing you know why I'm here," I commented.
He gave a nod. "Magnus is home," he told me.
I snorted. "Does that guy ever leave?"
"On mushroom hunts, but I told him he'd have to stop taking so many trips because I got tired of having to lead him back home whenever he got lost, and he always got lost," Mo told me.
I raised an eyebrow. "Doesn't he know his way around here?"
"He doesn't know his own name when he starts tasting those mushrooms," Mo explained.
I cracked a smile. "I thought that guy was always on something."
Mo stood and dropped to the ground. There'd been no new snow so I could still see my tracks. He left none. "Let me lead you. The dead are more restless today because your powers are growing stronger."
I cringed and let him lead me through the gravestones. Every shadowy angel made me think an undead male had risen in the hopes of getting some from me. "So did you hear what David told me in the bathroom?" I asked the cat.
Mo nodded his head. "Yes."
"What do you think about it? Him training me, that is."
"I think the choice is up to you."
My shoulders slumped. "Thanks, really helpful."
He glanced over his shoulder at me and his eyes shone with a glistening yellow light. "I'm not here to tell you what you need to do with your life. I only watch over the city and see that it doesn't descend into chaos."
"Damn, because I could really use a guardian angel about now. Or an exorcist," I muttered.
"Start with the doctor's note you want from Magnus, and go from there," Mo advised.
"I thought you weren't here to tell me what to do?" I teased him.
A sly smile slipped onto his fiendish face and he shrugged. "It's merely advice. You can take it or leave it."
"I'll take it. I just hope Magnus can give it," I commented.
We reached the shack and I saw light flicker behind the animal-skin curtains. The guy must have wiped out all the animals in the area to supply him with so many skins. I stepped up to the door and rapped on the entrance. Magnus peeked out. His gaze fell on me and his mouth spread out into a toothy grin.
"I need your help again," I told him.
"The doll isn't working?" he asked me.
"The doll's was working fine until I got it taken away from me," I replied.
Magnus frowned. "You show very little care with my dolls," he commented.
I rolled my eyes. "It was my boss, now I need your help to get it back. Please?" Magnus sighed, and he stepped back and opened the door wide for me to enter. I stepped inside with Mo at my heels and turned to the old witch doctor. "You have to forge a doctor's note for me. It's the only way I'm going to get my doll back from my boss," I pleaded with him.
Magnus raised an eyebrow. "Forge? Forge nothing. I'm really a doctor," he informed me.
I started back and blinked at him. "You are?"
"I may be a quack, but I'm a licensed quack," he told me. He turned away toward the rickety old table, but paused and glanced over his shoulder at me. The old man rubbed his bony hands together and licked his lips. "But it'll cost you. How much do you have?"
I peeked into my wallet and cringed. "Twenty dollars."
He turned his nose up at the amount. "Too paltry, especially for the risk. I don't like writing my name to anything without more reward than that." He turned back to me and took a step closer. I noticed his nostrils flared and a thin haze slipped over his eyes. "Of course, if you care to please this old man's desires-ah!" Magnus pi
cked up his foot and I saw Mo was attached by the teeth to his skinny, bony leg. The old man jerked, kicked, danced, hopped, and waved his leg, but Mo held tight with his powerful jaws. "Get off, you demon! Off, I tell you!"
Mo released his victim and landed neatly on the floorboards beside me. He spat out some spit and wrinkled his nose. "You need to think about bathing more often."
"I wouldn't need baths if you'd stop meddling with my business transactions," Magnus growled.
Mo's eyes narrowed and he pulled his ears back. The end of his tail twitched like that of a snake. "I'm the spirit of the city. Meddling in chaos is my affair," he spat out.
Magnus glared at him, but the next moment he stuck his palm out to me. "Give me the twenty bucks and I'll write you that note," he grudgingly agreed.
"You have to mention it's for therapeutic purposes," I added as I slipped him the dollar bill.
Magnus raised an eyebrow. "'Therapeutic purposes?'" he repeated.
I sheepishly grinned and shrugged. "That's what I told my boss it was for."
"Women. . ." he grumbled as he pulled out a paper and pen. In a thrice the note was written and handed to me. I looked down at the signature. It was unreadable. Definitely a doctor's signature.
"I don't know how to thank you. This is really going to save my ass," I told him.
"Just stop asking me for favors. I can't keep giving this stuff away for practically free," he growled.
I smiled, leaned toward him, and pecked a shy kiss on his cheek. Magnus' eyes widened and he reached up one bony hand to touch the kiss spot. "Thank you," I told him.
In the background Mo chuckled, and Magnus rallied himself. He turned away with a scowl on his face. "W-well, that's enough of that. You get along and leave an old man in peace for a day, you hear?"
"Thanks again," I repeated, and hurried from the shack with a skip to my step and the note safely tucked into my coat pocket.
The cool winter night air welcomed me with its frosty arms and I breathed deeply. Above me was the starry night sky with its twinkling lights that smiled down on me. Mo came up to stand beside me. "You've made his week," he commented.
"Well, he's made my life a hell of a lot easier. Now I just need to get back the doll and everything will be fine," I replied.
"What about David?" Mo reminded me.
I frowned and glanced down at the feline. "What about David?"
"Will you really be fine knowing he can't come near you anymore?" he asked me.
I strode forward toward the graveyard. "Why shouldn't I be fine with that? He's the whole reason for my problems," I pointed out.
Mo sat and shrugged. "You seem to hit it off when he's around."
"That's because he controls me with his incubus powers," I argued.
Mo's eyes flickered up to my face and there was a strange glint in them. "Is that what you think?"
I didn't know why, but his look frustrated me. "Well, yeah! He's been controlling me since the beginning, so it's good riddance! I can have my life back and he can torture some other poor sap!" I marched away, but Mo followed.
"You ever thought about your feelings towards him when he's not around?" he asked me.
We reached the graveyard and passed through the memorials of death. "I try not to think about him when he's not around, and that's the way I like it," I countered.
"Is it?" he wondered.
I stopped in my tracks, put my hand on my hips, and glared down at the cat. "Mo, what are you getting at?"
He jumped onto one of the numerous granite pedestals and curled his body around a small cherub. "Only that maybe you don't know what you want, and maybe it's time you stopped your running and thought about it."
"All my thoughts are screaming at me to stop myself from changing into a succubus, so that's what I'm going to do," I insisted.
Mo shrugged and slipped behind the shadow of the small statue. He was out of sight, but not out of hearing. "All right, but don't say I didn't warn you."
"I won't, and I hope I don't have to come back here and say anything to you," I growled.
I stomped off through the graveyard and back to my car for the drive home.
Chapter 8
During the drive all I could think about was what Mo had advised me to do. "Think about what I want. . ." I mumbled. My hands tightened on the steering wheel and I scowled at the windshield. Of course I knew what I wanted. I wanted to be a normal human woman for the rest of my life, even if it was shorter than eternity.
I arrived at my apartment and was grateful when I saw the front-desk was empty of my male apartment manager. The last thing I needed was an old geezer jumping me, or worse, turning into some sort of a lust-monster and his clothes tearing. No amount of eye-bleach would have rid me of the sight of his wrinkled naked flesh. I slipped into the stairwell and up to my floor. Beside my door stood Tiffany, and she had her arms folded which meant she and I had something important to discuss.
"Where have you been?" she asked me.
"Um, out," I replied as I tried to sidle past her.
She stepped in front of the door, shutting off my escape. "And yesterday? I didn't see you at all then, and that's just not like you."
I shrugged. "I had stuff to do."
Tiffany tilted her head to one side and scrutinized my appearance. "Liz, you look exhausted. Is everything okay?"
My shoulders slumped and I sighed. "Yeah, it's just that-well, thinks have been hectic with me," I admitted.
"And your boyfriend?" she guessed.
I cringed. "Yeah, and him."
Tiffany stepped up to me and put her hand on my shoulder. She looked me in the eyes and her voice softened. "Liz, I'm really worried about you. You can tell me what's going on between you two, really." No I couldn't. Or rather, I'd already tried.
"It's just-well, kind of complicated," I admitted.
"Maybe you need to break up with Mr. Complicated," she suggested.
"If only. . ." I muttered.
"What was that?" Tiffany asked me.
"I said I'll think about it," I rephrased.
"Listen, if you're worried about hurting his feelings, don't be. You need to think about what you want. Period," she advised. Her face lit up and a smile graced her lips. "I know. If you're worried about telling that guy off then why don't you make a date and both of us go together? That way I can back you up if you try to back out."
I slunk past her and unlocked my apartment door. "Um, I don't know. I'll have to think about that, too. Anyway, I'll talk to you later." I slipped into my apartment, shut the door, and leaned my back against it.
"If you ever need somebody to talk to, call me," Tiffany called through the door.
"I will," I shouted back.
If only she could be a willing ear, but she was part of a different world than the one I found myself trapped inside. I slumped my shoulders and shuffled off to my bedroom to await the coming work day. The note in my pocket would be my salvation.
The next day was dull and gray. I slid out of bed and onto the floor, and groaned. Another day in the life of not-normal me, but the note in my coat pocket gave me some hope, or at least enough to risk the male population and shuffle to work. I arrived with ten minutes to spare and went directly to Lenin's office. I had to admit he was at least consistent with arriving early, and I found him in his office.
I knocked on the door. "Come in," his barking voice called to me. I opened the door and the usual frown on his face deepened and his eyes narrowed. "What do you want?"
I walked over to him and pulled out the note. "I have my doctor's note for the doll," I told him.
He snatched the outstretched paper and perused the contents. His lips curled down into a snarl, but he grudgingly pocketed the note into his suit pants. "I'll put this in your file, but if I find you even once without that note and with that doll then it's getting taken away permanently." I had a hard time controlling my temper. He treated me like a damn school kid bringing toys to school.
Le
nin stood and walked over to the couch. He knelt down and pulled the bag out from beneath the furniture. Oh, if only I'd known that yesterday. Lenin stood and held out the bag. "Take it and get to work."
I took the bag and had to suppress the urge to skip out the door. My exit caught the attention of those on the floor, and I clutched the bag close to my chest. Much was my relief when the eyes of the men didn't gloss over. Rather, they turned away and ignored me like the ugly duckling that I was. I strode to my cubicle and found Ann at the entrance.
"You're looking happy today," she commented.
"And feeling happy," I added as I plopped down into my seat.
"So you got out of your blackmail?" she guessed.
"Scot-free," I told her.
She raised an eyebrow. "How did you manage to do that? Find some mercy in that cruel Lenin?"
I shrugged. "Nope. I just got back what he was holding against me." I held up the bag, and she peeked inside.
"A doll?" she mused.
"Yeah. He said it was against the rules to bring toys to work. They're distractions," I explained.
She snorted. "He's a distraction."
I smiled. "That's what I thought."
"Speaking of distractions, did you think about that double-date this weekend?" she wondered.
"Not yet, but I'm still trying to decide. I'll get back to you by Friday," I promised her.
She grinned and nodded her head. "Great. Guess I'll get to work before he finds something to blackmail me about."
Ann left, and the rest of the day sped by in a wonderment of nothingness. No man stalked me, Johnny brought my documents and left without so much as two sentences of talk, and I didn't feel any eyes on me. I did feel a bit sluggish by the end of the day, and when I stood from my chair. I clutched my head until the cubicle stopped spinning.
"Easy there, Liz. You really need to stop working so hard," I muttered to myself.
I clutched the doll to myself and took the elevator. It was crowded with men, but they ignored me. I breathed a sigh of relief, then gagged on the air that smelled of male and sweat. In the parking garage a brilliant thought came to mind. It was a little foolish, but I had to know the limits of the power of this doll. Instead of going home I turned toward the park. The weather was darker and grayer than before, and it threatened to snow any minute, but I just had to know.