"Should have farted in the elevator before I got out," Chrissy said once the silver doors shut.
"You'll get her next time," Elise replied with a laugh and headed for her corner of the office.
Elise had a standing desk with a computer and scanner next to the storage compactors that housed all the hard copies of employee contracts and files. A half-dead succulent and a picture of her Dad were the only decorative touches she had bothered with.
What's the point of decorating when I'm going to be out of here in two months? She had said over a year ago. I really have to get out of this place.
Elise dumped her coat over a chair, found the clean shirt she kept for emergencies in a drawer, and headed for the bathroom to change.
By the time she got back to her desk, Chrissy was waiting for her, shuffling her deck of faerie creature oracle cards and looking at her curiously.
"What? Is there still a coffee splash on me somewhere?" Elise asked.
"No, your aura just looks a bit ramped up today, like way more than usual," she said.
"I tried a new cereal today, if that counts? It's bran heavy," Elise replied. Chrissy rolled her eyes.
"Trying to stir me up today won't work. I'm too charged with dark energy."
Elise turned on the computer. "Hmm, sounds dodgy."
"We are made up of both light and dark, Elise. You have to accept both sides whether you like them or not," Chrissy replied, unperturbed. She fanned out the deck and held it out to Elise. "Pick one."
Humoring her, Elise shut her eyes and ran her fingers over the deck. This was a fun thing they did at least once a week, so Elise was surprised when she pulled a card she'd never seen before.
It was of a tall male fae, with long scarlet red hair and a set of antlers like a stag rising from his head. He had two swords strapped to his back, with his torso covered in woad tattoos. His golden eyes were savage, with a sensual mouth curled in a smile the kind a wolf gave you…right before it tore your throat out.
"Please tell me it means I'm going to win the lottery," Elise teased. Chrissy was frowning at the card, deep in thought. "What?"
"Nothing. This card is a heavy masculine energy card. I've never seen a woman pull it before." Her voice deepened, and her eyes glazed over. "You're going on a journey, and you're going to face darkness and hardship. You will have a protector from the shadows, but you're never going to be safe." Chrissy shook herself. "What did I say?"
"That I'm going to meet someone. Hopefully, he's hot and not like…Barry from Accounting," Elise joked. Barry had drunkenly groped her at the last Christmas party, and since then, he had kept asking her out once a month like clockwork.
No, thanks.
"No, it won't be Barry."
"Then the only other man I see regularly is Glenn down the pub every Monday night," Elise said, determined to make her laugh. Glenn was her Dad's old drinking buddy and best mate that wanted to keep an eye on Elise and make sure she was doing all right. It was nice to hang out with the old guy and have someone to talk to about her Dad. Besides, Monday was Cheap Night at the local pub, and Elise could never say no to a pint and meal deal.
Chrissy shook herself and propped the card next to Elise's succulent. "I don't know, honey. I'm probably just jittery or hungover. You can hang onto the hot fae warrior for the day," she said with a smile.
"I'm going to go with hungover. Maybe get some water into you with all the pastry you're inhaling."
Chrissy flipped her off. "I drink heaps of water, asshole."
"You have crystals in your water bottle. I worry about you."
"Whatever. I'll see you at lunch."
Elise frowned as she watched her walk away, her eyes eventually drifting back to the card.
"Looks like it's just you and me and the adventure of all the scanning from the last Staff Quarterly Review."
The vicious fae only smiled a little wider.
2
As Elise predicted, the day was a drag. The sandwich roll she bought from the building's cafe had hair in it, and the coffee was cold. Her computer shut itself down twice for updates. The scanner alignment stretched all the writing on the pages, forcing Elise to do them again. Chrissy got more anxious as the day went on, her buzzing from the night before wearing off, leaving her nauseous and twitchy.
"What the hell did they put in that homebrew?" Elise asked, passing her some stomach tablets that she always kept handy. With a two-hour commute every day, you learned to always be prepared.
"I don't know, maybe someone put fun mushrooms in the salad," Chrissy complained, looking gray.
"Not so fun now, are they?"
"Eat a dick," she groaned and downed the tablets. "It doesn't feel like a hangover. It feels like dread and really bad juju."
"That's a typical Monday for you," Elise said, rubbing her back.
By the time five o'clock rocked around, Elise was packed up and ready to go. The stag fae on the card looked at her with enough judgment that she stuck her tongue out at it.
Stupid Chrissy is making me paranoid now. Elise just wanted to go home and have a hot bath.
The footpaths on the way to the train station were already packed with people. Elise had her arm tucked through Chrissy's to help keep her upright.
"I need to sleep for a week," she said.
"Drink some electrolytes and feel better," Elise replied, letting her go once they reached the bottom of the stairs and heading for her platform.
Three women and a man walked past Elise dressed as some kind of crazy forest nymphs. They wore leather leggings and their long hair in braids decorated with feathers. They had dark blue war paint all over their arms and face in intricate spirals.
Looks like these guys managed to get the Solstice off work. They were probably off to a party at a pagan convention.
"Cool costumes, guys," Elise said with a smile. One of the women hissed in reply, flashing her fangs. The others merely stared at her before walking away. Weird. No one else was looking at them as they walked the opposite way through the crowd; people just got out of their way. Honestly, it wasn't the oddest thing Elise had seen on London public transport.
Elise had to stand for the first thirty minutes next to a guy with a nasty body odor and a woman who wouldn't stop talking on her phone. Still, by some miracle of the transport gods, she managed to get a chair in the front of the carriage once they got to Woking. Elise pulled out her eBook reader, but it refused to turn on. She tried resetting it, and still nothing. She could have cried out of sheer frustration.
This day can't get any worse. Then her phone died.
"You've got to be kidding me," Elise muttered. It had been fully charged when she had left work. She looked up at a man cursing across the aisle. As she stared around, she realized everyone's electrical devices had died.
Elise didn't have a chance to contemplate it because the lights flickered and turned off next. People complained as the train ground to a halt, and the side doors opened, sending icy wind into the carriage.
That was when the screaming started.
"What the fuck is going on?" a woman said somewhere in the dark. Elise looked through the glass panel in the door that connected to the next carriage just as a man's face got slammed against the glass, his blood spurting everywhere.