AGAIN
A SHORT STORY
KRISTINA RIENZI
CONTENTS
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Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
A Note from the Author
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To Preserve, Protect and Defend: Chapter One
Also by Kristina Rienzi
About the Author
AGAIN
Copyright © 2015 Kristina Rienzi
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, stored, scanned or distributed in any printed or electronic form, whole or in part by any means, without express written permission from the publisher. Please purchase only authorized editions and do not participate in piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of author’s rights.
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Book Layout: Kate Tilton (www.katetilton.com)
Author Photograph: Jaime Lynn Photography (www.JaimeLynnPhotography.com)
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Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s creative imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.
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This book is dedicated to Tom, my partner in all matters of the heart, soul and the unknown.
I love you.
Quoth the Raven, “Nevermore.”
―EDGAR ALLAN POE
CHAPTER ONE
LUCY PRACTICED HER venomous script, role-playing with the vacant chair opposite her. "Today…is your last day. Today is your last…day. Today is…your last day."
As the human resources director, Lucy Matheson wore a plethora of hats at work, many of which she would have preferred to toss. Especially the dark one, the hat that required she fire people with professionalism and grace. She rolled her eyes at the thought. There was no such thing as gracefully firing someone. No matter how one lost their job, it was never pretty.
Lucy straightened, cleared her throat, and then suited her energy up for the person without emotions. She sharpened her tone and demeanor until the message sounded clear, concise, and indisputably final. "Today is your last day." She smiled to herself, pleased with her ability to pull it off.
Tightening the silk scarf around her neck, Lucy recalled the recent meeting with her boss, who also happened to be the CEO and namesake of the firm.
"As you know, once Edmon Enterprises acquired this company, our first order of business was to clean house." Mr. Edmon adjusted his tie as he spoke. "The first week we took over, we promptly walked most of the employees, one by one, straight out the front door. That day wasn't one of my proudest moments, but it was essential to the future of our business. It wasn't personal. It’s still hard to believe our mass layoff was six months ago already. Many times it feels like yesterday." He closed his eyes and shook his head at the memory.
Lucy remained silent since there was no easy way to agree or disagree with him. She had heard all about the terrible day in the company's history and was very grateful she had not been around at that point.
"As I'm certain you've heard, management wasn't prepared to handle the mayhem that ensued from the remaining staff after that massacre. No one was productive for weeks. They spent their days crying, or gossiping, or calling out sick in protest. Rumors started spreading like wildfire around here. The employees left behind were in an uproar. And I suppose I can't blame them one bit."
Lucy chimed in, offering her support. "You did the right thing. I know that's not always popular with everyone, but it is business, not personal like you said."
He pursed his lips. "Well, that may be true, but look at it from their point of view. Hard-working folks were forced to sit back and watch helplessly as their coworkers, their friends, carried cardboard boxes filled with years’ worth of belongings out to their cars."
"It must have been a difficult time." Lucy gave him her best sympathetic look. She had been hired shortly after that incident, essentially walking into the aftermath of a war zone. It hadn't been an easy transition for anyone to have a new hire show up amongst a sea of terminations.
Mr. Edmon continued. "Your accomplishments in the Human Resources industry are very impressive. Did you know your nickname behind closed doors is The Terminator?"
Lucy nodded and felt her face warm. She was compelled to explain her often-misguided nickname. "It's not something I brag about, but yes, it's a part of my job that I take quite seriously." An apologetic half-smile was all she could muster.
"And you're damned good at it, Ms. Matheson." Mr. Edmon's expression lit up, as though he were proud of her. Then it quickly turned serious. "That's why you're the one who's going to handle Edmon Enterprise's final termination."
Lucy scrunched her face in confusion. "I'm sorry if I misunderstood, but I thought we eliminated all of the positions from Volger Industries already?"
"That's mostly true." Mr. Edmon shrugged. "However, given the sensitive circumstances when a corporate firm acquires a family business, we made an exception for one employee."
Tatiana. The name came to Lucy like a tsunami. How had she forgotten? A sharp pain electrified her chest, and she put a hand over her heart. The twinge of an impending panic attack always rocked her world, even more so after her parents' unexpected death one year ago. She took a deep breath in recovery and tried to clear her mind, but the reality of her assignment didn't sit well with her.
Tatiana Volger, the daughter of the firm's founder and lone survivor of Volger Industries, was still employed. And she was untouchable.
Despite the distaste of the undertaking, Mr. Edmon was giving Lucy an opportunity to prove herself. Decidedly, she was ready to step up to the plate and swing.
CHAPTER TWO
LUCY MATHESON SHUDDERED as her office door flung open unexpectedly, and Tatiana Volger sauntered in.
After arranging her body into a composed form, Lucy clasped her hands together to mask her nerves. "Ms. Volger, please have a seat."
The woman's raven locks were a severe contrast to the pale eyes that seemed to be protruding from her skull. Straight out of a horror movie, a frosty breeze trailed the ice-eyed lady, blowing strands of hair past her wrinkled brow. The gossip and whispers that Lucy had heard about Tatiana now birthed goose bumps on Lucy’s arms.
Tatiana practiced the devil's work, people said. She had powers…Maybe she was even a witch. No matter what was true or false, people stayed away from her, and for good reason. She was terrifying to look at, even more so if the rumors were partially true. Lucy had experienced enough darkness in her life. She certainly didn't need any more black clouds following her around.
Regardless of her unsettled feeling, Lucy was a professional. She stuck firmly to her script and carried on with the task at hand. "Despite efforts to streamline costs, the company is still over budget on staffing expenses." Lucy paused for a moment before continuing. "Effective immediately, your position has been eliminated." She swallowed hard and then took a deep breath before she spoke the words all employees feared. "Today is your last day."
Be the decision wrong or right, be the whispers true or false, Lucy was following orders. The choice wasn’t hers, but the realization gave her the confidence she needed to finish the meeting.
Tatiana's vision seared into the human resources director,
although, the raven-haired woman never uttered a sound.
Lucy continued. "We are offering you a severance package to help with this difficult transition." She felt Tatiana's stare grow deeper and denser with each word spoken, like a knife boring slowly into her chest. "Once you sign the Agreement," Lucy said, pausing to slide an envelope across the desk. “There is a seven-day waiting period before we can issue you the lump sum severance payment."
Tatiana remained silent, yet she continued to scrutinize Lucy, her eyes narrowing until they were slits.
Finding herself intimidated by the woman yet again, Lucy took a deep breath to calm herself before finishing. "However, a silver lining is that you can continue your benefits for up to eighteen months under the law, for which Edmon Enterprises will pay one-hundred percent."
On and on, Lucy went. And on and on, Tatiana glared.
When the meeting adjourned, Tatiana did not move. She remained as still as stone.
True to her training, Lucy methodically moved the tissue box from her side of the desk to within Tatiana's reach, expecting the usual tears once the shock of the job loss had dissipated.
Instead of tears, Tatiana's bony arm launched from her lap. Her gnarled hand clutched Lucy's wrist hard. She winced but had no time to react because it all happened so fast. With the other hand, Tatiana fondled the bronze medal draped around her neck. Her crystal irises vanished as she swayed, mumbling an undecipherable verse with closed eyes. Then, in one fluid motion, the horrifying scene was over as fiercely as it began. Tatiana was motionless, her eyes transfixed on the space beyond Lucy.
Lucy considered reacting but was in too much shock to do anything.
Without warning, Tatiana released her rooting from the chair and headed for the door. Just before exiting, she pivoted slightly and caught Lucy's gaze one last time.
Then she whispered one, terrifying word. "Again."
CHAPTER THREE
ON THE DRIVE home from work, Lucy couldn't help but feel uneasy. It was as if someone was watching her every move, yet she knew she was alone.
At the stoplight before turning down her street, she decided to ease her mind and confirm her assumption. Lucy checked the rearview mirror and then turned around to make sure she hadn't missed anyone hiding in her backseat.
Without relief and still feeling as though she had an invisible companion nearby, she turned up the radio instead. Lucy wanted nothing more than to take her mind off of the day that didn't make sense, but the foreboding seemed to be growing in intensity the closer she got to home.
Typically a pro at leaving her work stress at work, Lucy brought it, or something, home with her today. And it was something she couldn't shake off no matter how hard she tried.
As Lucy pulled into her driveway, the chills that had been forming intensified. She took a deep breath and opened the car door. Heading toward her house, she spotted an odd sight. It was a crow, not a familiar creature to appear in her neighborhood. In fact, she couldn't recall a time she had ever seen one, except perhaps in a horror movie.
Lucy stared up at the tree, examining the bird for a few moments. It seemed to consider her right back as it sat silently perched upon a rotting limb above her head. Then its ebony wings fluttered, shimmering in the dusky fog. The jet-black bird moved its head slightly to peer past the decomposing branches.
It was acknowledging her appearance.
Lucy took a few steps back. She hugged herself, shivering, as she stood there, unable to move while exchanging silent glances with the dark creature.
Once inside, Lucy tried to shake off her thoughts of her odd encounter with the creepy bird and began her nightly routine of feeding her cat, Whiskers, instead. Once he was eating, she emptied what was left in the bottle of Bordeaux on her counter into a stemless wine glass.
No matter how she tried to distract herself, her workday had left her inexplicably shaken. She had done exactly what her boss had expected of her, and she had done it well. It did not stop the negativity from breeding in her soul and spreading with deadly intent. Impending doom was all Lucy felt, and she couldn't help but think it had something to do with Tatiana's strange behavior in the office.
Lucy slumped on the couch with her wine to sift through the mail. One of the pieces was a large bundle from Arnold J. Stevens, Esq., which grabbed her attention. She was far from a person who got into trouble, so what would an attorney want from her? It couldn't be anything good.
With her stomach fluttering in anticipation of some terrible news, she ripped the envelope seal open with her nail. Just as Lucy suspected, the enclosed document named her, Ms. Lucinda Matheson, as the defendant in a lawsuit from a car accident almost two years ago—narrowly within the statute of limitations. She had already forgotten about it, yet it had come back to haunt her with a vengeance.
The paperwork stated that Dr. Francine Watkins had been deemed “permanently disabled” as a result of Ms. Matheson’s negligent driving. Dr. Watkins was seeking compensation for "lost wages" in conjunction with the accident. Lucy's quick math revealed that after her insurance company paid the claim, her personal liability for crashing into the accomplished surgeon's SUV, not counting the unknown amount of medical bills, would be six to seven figures—more than she had ever seen, or ever would see, in her back account.
Lucy needed an attorney of her own, and a boatload of good luck, neither of which she imagined would be easy to obtain.
She tossed the paperwork on the coffee table, chugged the entire glass of wine, and went upstairs.
Retreating to her bedroom in angst, Lucy went through the rest of her evening ritual hoping it would put her in a better state of mind. She removed her watch and silver hoops and placed them in her jewelry box. While it was open, something told her to take note of the contents. Sure enough, her gut instinct was on point. Her mother's two-and-a-half-karat diamond ring was missing. It was always there, like a lighthouse on her darkest days. She never wore it, but seeing it there gave her comfort.
Where could it have gone? Her heart began to beat out of her chest. Had she been robbed?
Lucy sifted through her jewelry box in a frantic frenzy, inspecting every worthless piece of metal only to come up empty-handed. It was as though the ring had disappeared. There had to be an explanation. Maybe it had been tangled up in another piece of jewelry and had gotten misplaced in one of her rushes out the door in the morning. She was always five minutes off and trying to play catch up. That had to be it. No matter, Lucy was going to find her mother's ring. It meant too much to her. It meant everything.
Lucy closed the jewelry box and moved on to her bedroom at large. She spent the next half hour ripping it apart from top to bottom. Nothing was off limits. She even crawled underneath the bed to search like a bloodhound for the vanished rock. She probed below the dressers, moving dust bunnies as she eyeballed the floor and everything on it. In her closet, every shred of clothing was taken off the hanger and twisted inside out, examining every single garment.
With no luck, Lucy fell heavily onto her down comforter. Her room looked like a tornado had hit it, yet she still hadn't been able to find the single remaining relic of her mother. The ring had also dearly departed.
Her heart, already utterly broken by loss, ached. She had lost the one thing that connected her to her mother on a physical level. It was almost too much for her to bear.
Lucy scanned her bedroom for her inhaler. On top of the paralyzing anxiety, she had developed asthma. She often forgot how much the two were connected, one regularly causing the other to rear its ugly head. She had gotten herself so upset; she hadn't even realized what was happening.
Of course, she couldn't find the damn thing when she needed it most. And now her panic was setting in, silently coaxing her airways to constrict even faster until she passed out. Lucy tried to calm herself and wheezed deeply to recover her breath, but it wasn't working. Anxiety and asthma were working together against her. On a scale of one to ten, her dual attacks were rapidly increasing t
o an eight.
Refusing to lose complete control, Lucy attempted to keep her mind clear as she hunted down her nebulizer. Once she was able to focus, she spotted the medical device on the far corner of her dresser. She seized it, then began puffing with intensity until she lassoed the medication into her lungs, and could breathe again.
Exhausted, Lucy gave up on her ring hunting for the moment and decided that spending the night on the couch with Whiskers was in order. And, more importantly, another bottle of wine.
Right before she reached the stairs, she could have sworn a single black feather billowed onto the carpet in her peripheral vision. But when she turned around to see if she was hallucinating, it was gone.
CHAPTER FOUR
INSTEAD OF SUFFOCATION, Lucy resolved herself to drowning in her favorite red wine. Oak and cherries permeated her taste buds as she swigged a desperate mouthful. Her muscles relaxed on cue. Nothing pleased her quite like the flavor of a fantastic fermented grape on her tongue. It was sheer perfection.
Lifting the kitchen window, she leaned out to suck in the crisp night air. She took a vigorous, chest-heaving breath, which combined with the wine, instantly calmed her. She felt like herself again, normal and at peace. The day had been a calamity of terrors, and she was ready to put it all to rest. Too often, she allowed outside influences to affect her inner serenity. It was something she needed to get control over if she was ever going to rise above the horrors she had experienced in her life.
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