Chapter 32

Aria

Sarah came storming out of Darren’s office that morning like hell on wheels, her shoes clicking loudly on the polished floors. I couldn’t help but watch her as she swept past. Her face was as red as a beet.

Curious, I glanced up at Darren’s office, wondering what had just happened. But all he did was blink at me for a moment, as if surprised, before turning and disappearing from view.

Throughout the course of the day, I noticed that Sarah wasn’t performing her usual work duties—sitting behind her desk and online shopping. Rather, she seemed to be pacing back and forth between the receptionist’s area and the cubicles.

When she gave Lily a sticky note, glared daggers at me and then strutted off again with a “Hpmh,” I finally got too curious to ignore it any longer.

“Hey.” I poked my head over the wall separating my cubicle from Lily’s and nodded toward Sarah’s retreating form. “Do you know what’s going on with her today?”

Lily glanced up at me. “Oh,” she whispered with a little laugh, holding up the sticky note. “Didn’t you hear? Sarah got demoted to receptionist for a month.”

Receptionist…

I frowned, glancing up at Darren’s office again, but it was dark. He must have stepped out for a bit. But why demote her? He seemed to have been on her side last night after the printer incident.

Growing even more curious, I hurried over to Liam’s office and knocked on the frosted glass door. His voice answered me and I stepped in to find him typing on his computer. He looked up at me, seeming surprised or maybe even flustered for a moment, and cleared his throat.

“Aria. Do you need something?”

“What’s going on with Darren and Sarah?” I blurted out before I could stop myself. I composed myself before adding, “I mean, I heard that she got demoted.”

“Aria, if you’re just here to gossip…”

“Hey,” I said, folding my arms, “you owe me this much.”

Liam opened his mouth, but then closed it again, no doubt recalling the night that I had taken the fall for him over what had happened in the park. Finally he said, “Darren had reason to believe that she may have tampered with the printer after all. Also: insubordination.”

I stared at him for a moment, stunned. I’d just seen Darren last night, and he never mentioned anything about the incident.

“If you’re wondering why he’s still docking your pay if he’s punishing her,” Liam clarified, “that’s a question you’ll have to ask him when he’s back in the office.”

I nodded, turning to leave. But before I could reach the door, I found my footsteps slowing. Darren… he had put in the effort to investigate the situation himself. And he had sided with me against Sarah, in the most appropriate manner he could.

I wanted to make it up to him.

“Is there any additional work I could do?” I asked, turning to face Liam again. “Something that Darren might appreciate?”

Liam’s eyes seemed to flicker first with surprise and then with amusement. “Um… There are the archives,” he said.

A little while later, we found ourselves in the basement of the building. Liam unlocked the door to a small room at the end of a hallway, and I was immediately hit with the scent of musty books and the taste of dust in my mouth.

“These are the archives,” Liam said as he flicked on a yellowish fluorescent light. “As you can see, they haven’t been maintained in some time.”

I coughed, waving a cobweb away from my face. “Good lord,” I rasped as I looked around at the half-rusted filing cabinets and stacks upon stacks of books and papers and old newspapers. “This place looks like it’s been abandoned for years.”

Liam sighed and ran his hand across the back of his neck. “Yeah… Darren’s father never maintained it, and Darren hasn’t gotten around to it.” He turned to me. “You don’t have to do this, you know.”

I shrugged as I wiped my finger across a nearby shelf. It came away black. “It’ll be nice to get out of Sarah’s way today,” I said. “And besides, Darren has been…” I swallowed around a sudden lump in my throat. “He’s been kind to me. I’d like to return the favor.”

Liam looked at me for a moment before he nodded and said, “I’ll talk to him about your pay. I think he just didn’t want to seem like he was playing favorites since there’s no solid proof as to who started the fire, but if you’re doing this, I think that more than makes up for the incident.”

“Thanks,” I said, although I didn’t really mind.

With that, Liam left me to get to work. I started by dusting the room, using a long broom to get the cobwebs off of the ceiling. Every surface seemed to be covered in a thick layer of dust, so there was a lot to do. But thanks to the modern invention known as headphones, the time passed quickly while listening to ebooks and podcasts.

Before I knew it, I had cleaned up most of the dust and moved to organizing. I started at one end of the room and began carefully sorting papers, books, and photos into filing cabinets, making sure to categorize everything as best I could.

About halfway through, I stumbled across what appeared to be a letter in a child’s handwriting. I carefully unfolded the paper, scanning its contents.

My eyes widened as I recognized it.

“Dear Mister Lunar Labs,” the letter read in haphazard crayon. “Thank you sooo much for the special medicine that you make. I gave some to my puppy…”

“...And he lived when I thought he wouldn’t. I’m so grateful,” I breathed. Tears blurred my vision, cutting off the rest of the letter, but I didn’t need to read it to know what was written on that page.

Because I had written this letter.

I’d almost forgotten about that day, all those years ago—when I found that sick puppy on the side of the road and took him in. I’d used the money I’d earned doing odd jobs for the neighbors and had purchased medicine and food for the dog.

The puppy had hardly been able to swallow on his own, so I had given him the stomach medicine in an eyedropper. Within a few days, he had shown signs of improvement. And I had been so moved by it that I had written a letter to the Lunar Labs headquarters, thanking them for creating that medicine.

I never got a response, so I figured the letter got lost or thrown away. And eventually, I forgot about it. Until now.

“I guess they did keep it,” I murmured.

Maybe it was cheesy, but I thought it might make a nice gift to Darren—maybe he’d find it cute or funny or just ironic that I’d found my own letter. So, after some digging, I found a little picture frame that fit perfectly and placed the letter inside, planning to give it to him later.

After that, I got back to work.

Eventually, I got too tired to do much more and decided to sit down with my back against a filing cabinet and rest for a bit before finishing up. I must have been more tired than I realized, because before I could stop myself, I was dozing off right there on the floor of the archives.

Just five minutes…

…

Sarah pulled her fist back, her teeth glinting in the low light of the barn.

“This’ll show you, freak!”

I lifted my arm to protect myself. “Help! Somebody, help!”

Suddenly, a flash of black fur leapt over me—my puppy, only he was bigger now, his mismatched eyes glowing unnaturally in the light of the barn.. He was trying to help me, just like before.

But this time, Sarah had come prepared. She plunged a knife into the dog’s side, hot red blood spraying down on my face. With a crunch and a whimper, he went limp right beside me. And then Sarah’s knife came down on me next.

I screamed…

And screamed…

And screamed.