One Shot Wednesdays -Kelen at work (Patreon)

Please enjoy this one-shot written in a writing challenge/spree with a friend at the start of October

The prompt was: Write about someone who gets stuck in their workplace during a blizzard and decides to explore rooms they aren’t normally allowed in.

Working overtime wasn’t always what it’s sometimes cracked up to be. For one, not all employers guaranteed time-and-a-half. This employer certainly didn’t. But Kelen couldn’t afford to lose this job, whether time-and-a-half or not. The demands of the position stated that all work must be completed by end of each shift or… well reprimand and termination.

So here he was finishing the last of the stitching on the Savon piece and using the lamplight from outside to do it. The lights inside were always turned off exactly a half-hour after his shift was set to end for thirty minutes was the allotted time for the cleaning staff to finish their work.

Things were needless to say pretty strict around here.

It was dark early because of winter but as he pressed the needle through to complete the last few passes to attach sequins to the fabric the light darkened even further and he looked up to see a pouring of snow passing so quickly by the window carried by a fierce wind that it almost looked like a white sheet being draped just behind the window pane.  A blizzard.

Kelen did his best to complete his work quickly hoping that he could get out of here but those hopes were dashed when as he prepared to set out into the cold he could barely get the door open because of the wind. Once he did, he knew there was no chance of getting out of here safely without first being taken down by alarming gusts and freezing cold precipitation. The snow was already to his knees he noted and in a quick decision he slammed the door shut and took a heaving breath. It appeared he would be stuck here overnight.

In that case, he was going to at least try to enjoy himself. He knew where the tea was stocked and how to open the locked cabinet that contained it -something he would never do during work hours knowing he would be caught taking more than his share but this was important. He was tired and cold and he imagined he would be facing even colder temperatures once the building's heating system slowed down for the night.

Finding a package of hidden cookies in the cabinet as well he felt a bit more delighted about the prospect of spending tonight here unsupervised and alone. All he had to do was make sure he didn't leave any garbage lying around and no one would be the wiser.

An hour later, restlessness sunk in. He began to wander through the corridors in search of something to do. It only took a quarter-hour of this before he decided to start trying doors. Most people left theirs unlocked, surprisingly. He found out he had access to the associate director’s office as well as 6 other lower-level associates that he had never once met. Either they were all forgetful, or cocky enough to think no one would dare go in. Their loss.

The director kept a case of whiskey under her desk. Cocky indeed. No one but you gets to come back here do they? Thought no one would know. Well ya thought wrong!

He wondered, momentarily, if he could get away with taking some. After all, it would help keep warm and if he watered it down to keep the levels up to what they were now in the bottle how would she know upon first glance? Great.

The whiskey not only helped keep warm but also helped with the entertainment value of going around the offices. Soon he was warm enough to decide to use dry erase markers on people’s personal photos in frames they had on their desks and walls. This only lasted so long, however.

Kelen realized he had bigger fish to fry upon seeing the door of the highest-ranking member of this company. The asshole who imposed all of the harsh working conditions that Kelen and the other colleagues in his pay rank were subjected to. He easily realized his opportunity, seeing that door.

It only took going back into the associate director’s office for her keyring (which she kept conveniently stored in the top drawer of her desk) to gain access to Mister Fillim’s room.

For not the first time tonight, Kellan wondered how it was that all of these high-strung socialite-type assholes could have made things so easy for him? They always had imposed such harsh restrictions on the day-to-day life here in the offices but when it came down to it after hours, so many things were easily unlocked or easily accessed by use of what he termed fucking ridiculous means. Who in their right mind would think to keep the keys to the highest access office on a keyring and store it in an unlocked drawer in an unlocked room no less? You're going to tell us we can't have more than two cups of tea a day and lock up the rest but you're not going to keep higher security on the head of this company. Makes sense. Kelen laughed to himself as he turned the doorknob having successfully turned the lock with the key. This was far too easy. They were asking for it.

What struck him first was the shock of the lights all turning on in this room once the door was open. It must have been on a motion sensor and he recovered himself momentarily before stepping in, leaving the keys dangling and clinking softly like a wind chime in the door.

He took a few steps forward and then noted that he made no sound on the polished floor. Huh. Nice. Soundproofing was expensive. Of course, Mr. Fillam could afford it. That was no surprise.

The air in here was warmer than the rest of the building and smelled like cloves and cinnamon, and a trace of honey as well. It was pleasant. It reminded Kelen of a long-ago field trip with his school where he has visited a forest. Only the rich lived in such luxuries now. Privileged bastard. They may be smack dab in the middle of a city but Mr. Fillam was certainly not going to let that stop him.

Kelen stumbled forward with a grin as he spotted a basket of fruits and a decanter of what he assumed to be wine. He barely remembered the taste of apples that he had tried in his youth but he was about to enjoy them once again.

Tonight was shaping up to be more than he bargained for and in such a good way that he wondered whether he had fallen asleep sewing and was now dreaming.  Not wishing to crush the illusion he set the thoughts aside and took the seat on a divan in the back corner of the room. He was going to enjoy whatever this was -dream or luck- for as long as he could.

He hesitated before biting into the apple. He was nervous that it wouldn't taste as amazing as he remembered. But then if it didn't, he decided, at least he would have the grown-up knowledge that memories don't always serve the best and he needn't be so envious of those above him with all of their extravagant luxuries. The crunch that the fruit made under his bite and the succulent juices that flowed onto his chin were in and of themselves an experience that he hadn't remembered from childhood. They had only been allowed to a small slice of apple -it was much different to this now.

He was torn between devouring the apple -core and all- in a quick succession or savouring it mouthful by mouthful. Oh Fey-Zuu there’s another one in the bowl just enjoy! he told himself silently before consuming the fruit like a blood-frenzied dog on a fresh steak. He pocketed the second apple, intent on enjoying it slowly after work tomorrow, and then looked around the room properly for the first time.

There wasn’t actually a desk for Mr. Fillam. Strange. In fact, the office was laid out like the corner of a tea shop or comfortable sitting room in a mansion. There was nothing but plush seats, small side tables and neatly arranged counters and a couple of shelves. This was no office at all. And it was no wonder that it took up half of the top floor of the building too, with all the space and comfortable items dotted throughout.

Kelen grinned in glee. This is where he would spend the night. Absolutely. He’d be warm, fed and comfortable. Then so long as he woke on time he could be out of here before anyone suspected his involvement with the missing apples or the movement of anything he might forget to place back.

He poured himself some wine and selected a comfortable seat on the far right side of the room where he could get settled. Once the glass was drained, he began to sing to himself. “I’m an asshole on the brink-oh! Sitting at the top of the stairs! I run everyone underfoot, though, I take the time to- scare! How wondrous is the cavern that I live in each and every morn!? How happy I would be amongst the...corn!”

“Fira? Is that you?” a feminine voice responded.

Kelen was so startled he dropped his empty wine glass on the couch and almost leapt backwards over the cushions. “Who the hell is there!?”

There was a pause and then he saw movement ahead of him. A creature was coming towards him. Slim, draped in silk, hairless but for the cascades of gold that ran down its back and eyebrows that had not yet furrowed over ice-blue eyes. Oh those eyes. Eyes that were startling not just for their colour but the kindness they seemed to have in them. But then he caught sight of her body and could have screamed. The silk which came to her knees revealed two pale legs that brought her closer to him. Two legs that ended in feet barefoot on this polished floor. Human legs. Human feet.

“Wh-wh-”

“Oh who are you? What are you doing here?” the feminine voice of this human woman asked him with some concern.

He had to wake up. This was...unnerving. Or, he was more drunk than he thought. Or the apple had been drugged. Or a combination of all of that. His brain wasn’t working fast enough to decide what was the feasible option. He smacked his cheek and found himself facing the pain of it. Could you feel pain in dreams? He’d never had that before.

“You shouldn’t be here,” the woman told him in a delightfully airy voice but he found no pleasure in it. There weren’t supposed to be any women in existence. Or men. Perhaps she was a mare or a female satyr but he was so drunk he couldn’t actually see her other legs or her hooves, whichever.

“Which are you?” he asked and gave her options. She frowned those golden brows and came within ten feet of him and he could see that he hadn’t been imagining the legs or the feet with toes. “Stay away!” he cried out as he struggled to stand and get away himself.

“Please, don’t be frightened,” she urged but it did no good to calm Kelen down. “I’m not going to hurt you. I’m just trying to… I’m a human, yes,” she explained as she realized what he must be thinking, “but I am not going to hurt you.”

There had not been humans for over a thousand years. And even then Kelen wasn’t entirely sure that they weren’t made up. But here in front of him was a human woman with impossible coloured hair and impossible coloured eyes speaking to him. He was terrified.

“Stay back!” he screamed as he managed to get traction and get behind the couch before decided then and there that he’d make a run for it. Not waiting for an answer, he did and felt even more horrified by the realization again that his two hooves made no sound on this floor. She could be following and he wouldn’t know it unless he turned his brunette head around to look.

The descent from the office seemed to take an eternity and it was all a blur to him as he heard only his own heartbeat in his ears and saw shapes of things as he rushed past them before finally he slammed into the front door of the building and escaped out into the snow where he was sure to lose himself to the blizzard.

But that was better than staying inside with a woman.