I’m a smoker, and that is what finally got me. In the worst way.
I work from 3-11pm, roughly, every night. I was lucky in that they were very flexible in my hours, considering I was over an hour from my job in Indianapolis.
It all started when the craving hit, yet again. It wasn’t even the first of the night– I needed to go outside and puff on my new ecig. I “quit” shortly after college and took up the electric poison over the one that comes wrapped in paper.
Well, I stepped outside, my face buried in my phone, and realized my keys and badge were inside shortly after the mechanical click of the security lock. I had done my usual, which is throw on my jacket, take a sip of my soda, then step out… however I forgot my lanyard which had my badge and my car keys.
We were dead, and by that I mean we had almost nothing to do inside, but outside in Indiana weather, it was -5 farenheit. I’m terrible at remembering to lock my car because I work in an industrial park, and live in a nice neighborhood, so I decided to sit in my car until my coworker, who works two jobs and takes 30 minute lunch naps came back from her nightly nap.
It took far longer than 30 minutes.
I’m huddled in the drivers’ seat, looking past the fogging glass to the inside of the building, just waiting for my coworker Alice to come back from her nap. We’re slow, so maybe she’s sleeping late? Her car is running, but of course mine isn’t because I can see the black bundle of keys and fabric that is my fucking lanyard from the parking spot I’m sitting in. Joe-shmoe from over in Wet Chemistry is sitting in the break room that I’m facing, oblivious to my predicament. I can see his airpods glistening in the fluorescent warmth while he studies his phone, oblivious of my position. Thank god my dad bought me this heavy-ass coat, otherwise I’d probably already be an icicle. Ice-cicle? Whatever.
The only way I can describe me pounding on the glass between me and Joe-schmoe was “Wet”. My fist hit the glass, but the noise I heard was like it was underwater. Just a “Worb worb” sound. I pounded and pounded, but he never even flinched.
My coworker, Elena, was a friend of mine and she’d pick up right? I texted her. I called her. It made no difference, because despite me seeing her from my desperate, frigid position, it was like my calls go through despite having perfect cell reception in the middle of Indy. I sent her a funny meme on facebook, and she laugh-emoji’d it… but didn’t respond when I said I needed help.
The guy, with his Airpods in, didn’t react at all even when I angrily threw the jack in the back of my car at the window. I swear I saw a bubble of force as if the glass of my own workplace was against me.
“Alice” I thought, “surely Alice will let me back in!”. My arms and hands were warmer than my legs at this point, but I clumsily walked my way to her window.
Its -4 farenheit, but her car was on and she had to be in it. While I hated to disrupt a woman who works two jobs getting her rest, I was literally going to freeze to death in the parking lot if I didn’t try…And of course, the car was empty and the door was locked.
I could practically feel the heat of the vents as they were still defrosting the windows. I could almost feel the hot air rush against me, but nobody was there to let me in and the door was locked. Fuck.
The jack from my backseat did fuck-all to the last window but did crack this one. Three desperate hits and the window shattered. Sorry, Alice.
Crawling inside, I ripped off my coat. My hands and arms were beyond numb, and the minimal warmth seeping through the vents was like the first glimpses of summer. Almost at once, I saw my phone was at 5%, and the car’s mileage counter was a flat dash, meaning it was almost out of gas.
At this point, I’m shaking. Unbreakabl glass, blind and deaf coworkers… something felt horribly wrong. I called 911, but the last 5\^ of my phone had died as soon as I heard “911 what’s your emergencyyyyyyyy”. The last sound of my last hope screamed out at me, loder and louder, until I fled my coworker’s vehicl.
The only thing I had left was in my cars center console, but of course I somehow locked the fuckwr before I went to see what Alice could do for me. Thankfully, the jack I retrieved from my trunk shattered the driver’s side window with ease. At this point, however, my hands felt like iron and my face burned now with the increasing wind and snow.
I’m at the end of my ropes. Freezing to death sounds romantid but everything fuckinh hurts. I have my gun from the car but the frst 3 shots to the plexiglass did nothing. Coworker in the breakroom didn’t react. I see someon in the parking lot. Who do I shoot? Myself or himn? He looks like me but colder deader. Pale as deatj.
Edit: I woke up in cuffs. My fiancé gave me my phone to edit this. According to their story, I stepped outside, texted my coworker, and in a couple minutes broke Alice’s window, sat on her dead body, pulled the gun out of my car, shot my oblivious coworker dead through the window, and tried to kill myself but the gun didn’t go off. Cops almost killed me but I was so stiff from hypothermia that I practically fell over trying to point my gun at them. None of that makes sense. How was Alice dead? Where was the cold? The other me? How was I so cold I couldn’t move if I was outside only a few minutes? I was out there for more than a few minutes. Help me…