A/N: Thanks to TheWeddingFairy for spotting Loch Ness Monster – I've edited it now ;-) x
CHAPTER 7
Wendy Bowman looked out of the window at the drumming rain and sighed. She had only been in the job for two weeks, and it was already beginning to take its toll: the paperwork, the meetings, the long hours. It was hardly The Apprentice but at least it paid the bills. With a husband and four kids at home, she needed all the money she could get, especially if they were going to afford that holiday to Florida…
She looked around her office: a coffin-sized room, with a small desk and a lacklustre colour palette that would make Picasso turn in his grave. She had brought in the chair from home.
Wendy looked up at the framed photo on the wall and smiled. Her family was the only reason she could drag herself into this hellhole each day. She was willing to do anything to provide them with a good life, even if it meant sacrificing a little bit of happiness on her part. This was the wrong job for her skill and intelligence; she knew that. Wendy had a great scientific mind; however there had been no related jobs available in the area. She leaned back in her chair and rubbed her temples. She was not usually prone to migraines, but today she had a killer of a headache – it had only come on in the past couple of hours or so, but it had ambushed with a vengeance.
Opening her handbag, she rummaged around for the packet of aspirin and popped out two tablets, swallowing them quickly with her vending-machine tea. Wendy sighed once more, and turned back to the mound of paper that had been accumulating in her tray.
Unexpectedly, the door of the office creaked open. She looked up and waited for someone to poke their head around the corner (people didn't seem to knock in this place), but alas, no one did. Hmm, she thought, I must get that door seen to… She reached over and picked up the first sheet on the pile: a tax return form. Lovely.
She set it down in front of her and, before she had the chance to sign on the dotted line, a pressing shadow was cast upon the desk.
"What the…?" She looked up, her eyebrows knitted in confusion. Before her loomed a dark figure, it had no distinctive features but was definitely human in form. Similar to those ghosts that appeared a few years back – something to do with Canary Wharf, wasn't it? The thing extended an arm that levelled itself against the crown of Wendy's head. It remained very still, but seemed to flicker occasionally. With each one, the pulsing of her headache increased in volume and scale. If this was one of Barry's jokes, then it wasn't very funny.
"Look, I haven't got time for silly pranks! If you don't mind, I need to get this finished…" She winced; her head was now thumping unbearably.
Silence human. We require your mind. You will comply. Four tendrils uncoiled from the extended arm and snaked towards her. Wendy screamed piercingly, but was promptly silenced as the tendrils plunged into her brain; the pain excruciating as the vines twisted and turned inside.
As all sensation gradually died away, the blackness closed in. She could feel nothing; not the frantic beating of her heart, or the warmness of the blood that trickled between her eyes and onto her tear-stained cheeks. She tried to fight it but the darkness was overwhelming. Giving in, she let it cloak and strangle her in its sinister shadows.
Wendy Bowman was no more.