It was a dark Tuesday night. One of those nights when neither the moon, nor the stars were even so much as peeking through the black sky. Even the street light seemed overwhelmed by the oppressing shadows. The various blinking lights and flourescent tubes that the town's businesses used to lure its customers in, looked as if they were straining to shine their light. It almost felt as if the sun had set for its last time, and the world would keep growing darker and darker until there was nothing left to illuminate our lives.

Christine Evans and her husband, Gary were walking briskly down the somber promenade toward Christine's office. Earlier she had a strange intuition that something iniquitous was going to occur in the building. After a couple of hours of ongoing worry, she finally convinced her husband to walk with her to the building, to prove to herself that nothing was out of the ordinary. Now, as they walked in the pitch-black night, she felt an even stronger pressing to arrive at the office.

Christine worked as head secretary for the vice president of a large company called Gorplex. It had taken years and years of hard work to obtain her status in the company. She had always felt bitter toward the secretaries who slept their way up the corporate ladder. Christine was a beautiful woman, and at first sight, some might think that she too was engaged in the secretarial "Affairs" of the company, but that was far from the truth. This was a small part of the reason why Gary loved her. She was faithful.

Gary looked worriedly toward his wife as they walked hand in hand down the slightly illuminated street. He was concerned about her. All evening she had been pacing about the house, talking her way through the procedures she took to secure the office, as she left at closing time. He knew that she had been under an enormous amount of stress with the project that Gorplex had taken on just recently, but his wife wasn't the type to overlook anything, even under pressure. That's what made her such a prominent secretary.

Tonight, she had shown a side of herself that Gary didn't know she had. She was anxious and paranoid, not the ususal rock-steady woman that he knew. Something was wrong, and that's the reason why Gary accepted the offer to journey with her to the building to probe through the office. After all, he wasn't going to let her go alone in case something was wrong, and no one, not even Gary could stop her from going down there right now. To fathom what was in her mind was a useless waste of energy. He'd wait until she was ready to manifest her insights.

As Christine walked on, the oppressing feeling of death grew stronger. She couldn't apprehend the source of her dread, maybe it was the stress, maybe it was the obscurity, but nevertheless, she was frightened.

Christine was never the type of woman to be afraid, and as soon as Gary sensed that she was, he too was scared, probably more for her than for himself. He wondered what on earth could have happened that would make his wife so unnerved. That thought also frightened him. There must be something important going on in the Gorplex building.

Christine was worried that her husband might think she was going insane, and when he looked at her with his worried eyes, she knew that he was starting to doubt her mental state. This wasn't a feeling of just forgetting to lock the doors, or turn on the security system, or anything like that. This was a premonition that something awful was happening and if she didn't stop it, then she would die, or perhaps a whole lot of people would die. Christine knew that even though she was trying to save her life, that might not be the case. Whoever or whatever was in the office building was a threat to her no matter what she did. She might, just by going to the office be risking her life, and the life of her beloved husband. She wished she never would have invited him to come with her. But she was glad for he company. She was glad for the reassuring hand that he gave her, even though he had no idea what he could be plunging into. She glanced at him and smiled weakly. She loved him so much. She hoped that by the time this night was over, Gary would still be alive.

"I love you," Christine stated.

"I love you too," Gary replied, wondering where the sudden urge to express her feelings came from.

"No matter what happens tonight, Gary, I want you to always remember that." She had the worst case scenario in her mind.

Gary stopped walking, and pulled her close to him. He looked into her troubled eyes, and told her, "Nothing is going to happen tonight. Please believe me. Everything is going to be O.K. We're going to the office to show you that there's nothing to worry about, then we'll go home, and things will be back to normal."

"What if there's something wrong?" she asked, staring up at his countenance.

"Then we'll deal with it." Gary swung his arms around his wife, an held her tight. After a few moments, she pulled herself away.

"We've got to get to the building, we'll have plenty of time for this later."

"I'm glad to see you changed your mind," he said with a grin.

"About what?"

"You just said that we'd have plenty of time for this later, meaning, you believe that pretty soon, everything will be back to normal."

Christine thought silently to herself that he was wrong. Things were going to turn completely upside down, and nothing was ever going to be the same again.

They rounded the corner onto Main Street, and both of them looked hard at the Gorplex building to see if a light was left on. As soon as the building was in sight, Christine felt a crushing feeling inside of her. It was as if an evil presence in the building was sending out signals, and until now the houses and businesses standing in between the presence and Christine, were blocking most of the signal. Her intuition told her to turn around and run, but she couldn't back down. She tried her hardest not to let her husband see the effect the presence had on her. She didn't want him to make her go back. Christine was trying to peer though the walls to see where the vibes were coming from. Every once in a while, she could almost feel where it was, but it left as fast as it came, and she was growing more frustrated by the second. She didn't know what she would do when she finally arrived at the building. And she definitely didn't know what would happen if she encountered what she was expecting to encounter. Deep down, she wanted to believe her husband. She wanted everything to return to normal. She hoped that she could walk into the building, go through the closing procedures, finding out that she forgot to lock the safe, or the doors, or something like that. But she knew that wasn't the case. She'd been through the whole day over and over again in her mind, and she knew that she didn't forget a thing. Something was calling to her, and that something wasn't good.

Christine and Gary were within a hundred yards of the front doors. They could see the elaborately decorated 20 foot tall Christmas tree that made the lobby seem less of a business place, and more like the richly furnished living room of a tycoon. Someone had strung miniature light strings on the potted schefflera plants that sat near the ends of each plush velvet couch. That act alone had turned the living room back into the lobby that it was.

Christine reached into her pocket to pull out the identification card, and keys that would permit her access to the building. The sound they made reminded her of Santa Claus's sleigh bells. She remembered all the children who were counting on the jolly fat man to deliver their wishes. For a moment her thought drifted from the catastrophe that was about to happen, to the world, and its joy. When Gary stepped up the first stair, and pulled is wife with him, she snapped out of her trance, and followed him to the door.

Christine walked up to the right hand side of the doors, and peered inside to see where the night watchmen were. They were no where in sight. That bothered her. She carefully pulled back the leaves of the golden privet, to reveal the electronic lock system. Gary left her side, and tried to open all of the doors. She knew that he didn't know why they were there. He still thought that she forgot something. She slipped the plastic card into the slot, and entered her six-digit access code. The machine buzzed for a few seconds then the display read "unarmed". Christine pulled out her card, and headed for the second door. The other doors were equipped with what looked like keyholes, but were really disguises for those who might have stolen an access card. There was only one door that would open with a key. The others had to be unlocked with an identical machine located in the made desk in the lobby. Gorplex had taken intense measures to insure that no one without authorized access entered the building. After Christine pulled open the door, and her husband walked in, the machine started beeping. She only had twenty seconds to close the door, before the authorities were called. She hurried herself in, and pulled on the latch. The door locked automatically. This startled her. It was like she was in the movies, and some evil spirit locked her in the room, so it could torture her. Even though she knew that the locks would do that, she was still afraid to turn around.

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