Wednesday
As I pulled into the parking lot, I navigated through the minefield of potholes that led up to the entrance. I was blaring the Mama Mia soundtrack as I came screeching to a halt. My headlights illuminated the entire front office of my wife’s work. She had recently got into an accident and her car was out of commission. Luckily our works were near each other, and I loved the time we spent communicating to and from our apartment. I lowered the volume and was about to become absorbed in TikTok while I waited for my wife. As I pulled my phone out I saw some movement in front of me and looked up. The front office was small and contained a receptionist’s desk, a coat rack, and not much else. I immediately saw the source of the movement as a pair of eyes leered at me from behind the desk. I couldn’t make out any details besides brown hair and blue eyes that were gleaming from the spotlights trained on them. I saw my wife come walk into the main office and look at me through the glass door. She started chuckling and mouthing along to “Dancing Queen”. She was so beautiful I almost forgot about the odd pair of eyes. As I gave her a thumbs up and I looked back over at the desk. There were no eyes to be seen and no signs of movement. Tristen leaned over the desk and grabbed a piece of paper. If there was someone there, she definitely would have seen them. As she came out of my car and opened the door I started laughing.
“You’ve got some weird coworkers you know that?” I leaned over the center console and kissed her.
“What do you mean?” She said this through a smirk buckling her seat to stop the incessant beeping.
“Oh nothing, anyway, should we keep listening to Merryl or does Rent sound like the better option?” I laid my hand on the back of her seat and started reversing.
“Is there any possibility that we could listen to something besides show tunes this evening?” She reached over and held my hand in hers.
“Hey if you wanted to make choices about music you shouldn’t have hit that poor defenseless tree.” I stuck my tongue out at her as we were urged to “Lay all your love on me.”
Thursday
Tonight, I decided to play some classic rock to appease my wife. I went through the familiar thump thump of potholes in beat with the song. My brakes whined as I stopped in my usual spot. I would need to get those changed soon. My headlights once again lit up the office and I made the instinctive move to pull out my phone. I was fighting off the urge to look at the desk, but I finally relented. There they were those two eyes staring at me once again. I knew they would be there I knew it but the idea versus the reality skewering me with its gaze filled me anger almost as much as fear. My wife once again walked to the window this time she gave me an approving nod and played some air guitar. In the split second I took to see her shred the eyes had disappeared.
Click ding ding ding ding
My wife closed the door and buckled her seatbelt. She leaned over and I gave her a quick peck.
“Finally, you choose to play some real mus…”
“You know whoever that is pranking me could you tell them to knock it the fuck off?” I cut her off my knuckles white as I started to drive away.
“What are you talking about baby?” The joy had left her voice and she put her hand on my shoulder.
“That guy behind the desk who just stares at me.”
“I don’t know what you are talking about.” She removed her hand, and I could hear the fear in her voice.
“You must have seen him you leaned over the desk and probably shared a laugh as he lay on the floor.”
“Honey, I close up alone there is no one else with me.”
Friday
The only sound I could hear was my engine and screechy brakes as I stopped outside of my wife’s work. I looked at the desk immediately to confirm that the eyes were there. I tried to point them out as I dropped my wife off this morning, but they were nowhere to be seen. We were exhausted and the bags under our eyes spoke volumes. We hadn’t slept much that night. She thought I had made up the eyes and as every fight does it got back to old stuff. I don’t know why but I brought up her cheating something that we had dealt with but apparently, I wasn’t over it. I slept on the couch and in the morning, I apologized, and we made enough peace to drive to work.
Those fucking eyes were here again and this time I wasn’t going to let them do this to me. I ran to the front door so fast I left my car door open. I started pounding on the glass keeping my eyes fixed on the eyes. I sensed my wife near the door but didn’t dare look away. I heard the lock unclick and I threw the door open.
“What the hell are you doing!” My wife’s tone wasn’t enough to snap me back to reality. I ran behind the desk as I did, I tripped over an extension cord and landed on my face.
“Oh baby, are you ok?” I saw her reaching down to help me up. I looked around the underside of the desk that I was now eye level with, and I saw nothing.
Monday
I was up the entire weekend. Tristen had gone to stay with her mom to cool off and suggested that I get help. I didn’t care that she thought I was crazy. The only thing that mattered to me was keeping her safe. I spent the entire weekend sedating myself with beer waiting for her next shift.
My car didn’t have to maneuver through the potholes this time. I parked in the lot next to hers about twenty minutes earlier than her shift ended. I was still drunk but was relying on any amount of courage even if it was liquid to get through the night. I walked over to her building trying to look as nonchalant as possible. I was going to do whatever it took to protect my family.
As I made it to the front of the building, I put my face up against the glass door trying to catch the room off guard. As I did it opened slightly… it was unlocked. I flew into a panic and ran inside yelling my wife’s name. I went around the entire building looking for any trace of her. As I made it to the final room, I knew what had happened. It was those eyes, and I was going to gouge them out. I ran back to the front and nearly dove behind the desk trying to catch the assailant off guard. As I recovered from my leap, I found myself alone in the place that had haunted my nightmares. Just then a noise coming from the parking lot caught my attention. I peeked my head over to catch a glimpse of whatever it was. The sound was “Dancing Queen”, and a chill went up my spine as I was blinded by headlights.