Free Darkhouse (Experiment in Terror #1) by Karina Halle

properly. You are, after all, the face of the company. So go home; again, it’s no big deal, but just go deal with whatever it is you need to deal with. And if you need assistance from the company, you know, in medical terms…if you need to talk to someone and that sort of thing, please don’t hesitate to ask. We have some really lovely benefits in that area.”
    My face was red and I felt sick. All this talk about panic attacks and I was about to have one in this empty office. Frida was watching me closely. The hint of trepidation across her forehead told me that she was a bit afraid of what I might do or say.
    Ridiculous. I have one bad morning of answering phones and I get sent home.
    Well, I had no choice but to take the professional route. I told Frida that if that’s what they thought was best, I would do what was best for the company. I’ve never cared about the company a day in my life, but suddenly I wanted nothing more than to prove them wrong. I’d go home, graciously and with understanding, and come back tomorrow full of pep and beans, or whatever the hell she was talking about.
    Back at my desk, I quickly gathered my stuff as Frida was gathering Alana to take over my duties for the rest of the afternoon. Because of that, she was going to be an even greater bitch tomorrow.
    I suppose I should have been happy to have such a concerned workplace, but it just didn’t bode well for me. Call me paranoid, but I felt like this was the start of my job heading in the absolute wrong direction.
    With no choice and under my boss’s watchful eye, I quickly grabbed my purse and headed to the elevator before Alana showed up and undid me with her ice queen glare.
    I got in the elevator. The doors shut just as I saw Alana coming around the corner, the metallic closure eradicating her sneer in progress. Good timing.
    The elevator started to make its way down. I thought about what I would tell my mother when she caught me coming home early.
    The elevator lurched to a stop.
    The motion caught me off guard and I fell over slightly, catching myself on the rail. I had fears of malfunctioning elevators but always brushed them off as irrational. Luckily, it seemed to have stopped with that one lurch.
    But I still wasn’t moving and the elevator doors didn’t open.
    The floor buttons on the console were lit up in the shape of an X. It flashed “X” – three times.
    What the—
    The doors opened, faster than normal, like they had been oiled with speed.
    A man dressed head-to-toe in raingear stood on the floor staring at me. His coat and pants were wet and he was standing in a puddle, the carpet soaked through and spreading out in a radius around him.
    Before I could even comprehend any of it, the doors shut. The man didn’t even make a move for them. The elevator lurched again, seeming to drop a floor.
    I let out a scream, feeling like I was in the Tower of Terror but with no safety belts.
    The elevator stopped abruptly and once more the doors opened.
    I expected to see the fisherman again but the doors revealed the lobby, lit with daylight from the building’s front entrance. Two straight-laced businessmen were waiting impatiently on the tiles. They gave me a suspicious look. I must have looked scared out of my wits.
    I quickly walked out of the elevator, stopped in the middle of the lobby and looked back at the two men. The doors closed on their amused faces and off they went.
    “What. The. Hell?” I said aloud, my hand at my chest. I almost (almost) wished that the Creepy Clown Lady from last week was down in the lobby again, just so I could have someone to talk to. But alas, I was alone. I rubbed my fingers along my temple, trying to bring a sense of peace and clarity to my head, which now felt dangerously overloaded.
    I walked out of the building, gasping for the damp air outside and avoiding the eyes of the business people passing me by on the busy street. What just happened?
    I looked back at the ugly building, its