Hidden Sanity

Warning

Inside Alice’s apartment, her phone rang. She was in the bathroom, brushing her teeth so she hurriedly finished her business there and got out to answer the call. She grabbed her phone quickly.

“Yes, Joe?”

“Alice, are you home?”

“Yes. Hours ago. Why?”

“Nothing. I’m just worried.”

“Joe, we just met each other lately. You can’t be too worried.”

“Right. Oh, by the way, I want to ask you something.”

“What is it?”

“I saw Sir Jorge lately and he came into the same building of your apartment. I just want to ask if you know where he lives by chance.”

“He’s living beside my apartment.”

“Beside yours?!”

“Yes. Why?”

“I’m just curious. Wow. He’s living beside yours. Isn’t it awkward?”

“Actually, very.”

“That’s what I thought too.”

“But yeah? Have you seen him lately? Thank God, he’s back.”

“Why?”

“There are a lot of calls to him that have been passed to me since I’m his secretary! That was a hell of a work he left to me. Did he tell you where he came from?”

“No. But he sure did look like he was in a bad mood when I saw him.”

“Is…there…anything that happened?”

“I talked to him about what happened lately and checked him out for where he came from, but he neglected to answer any of my questions.”

“Get used to it. He’s normally like that. Quite unappealing to people.”

“Really? How do you get on with Mr. Jorge? How do you deal with that kind of boss?” He asked with an irritated manner.

“I don’t know.” was the reply. “Sometimes he tells you to do something and then you get blamed for doing it.”

“Like?”

“Like asking you to do so many tasks and then telling you that you were some kind of a work freak.”

“Is he like that all the time?!”

“I’ve been working for him for so long. I get on like that. Like, ‘okay’. I do what he tells me if I think he really means it and if I don’t think so, then I wait and see.”

“And what happens if you don’t follow?”

“Then he yells at me. But I don’t care. It means nothing. Yelling was his hobby.” She chuckled.

“Is it like that with all the staff?” asked Joe.

“More or less. If you get used to it, you stay and you get on in the firm. And if you don’t get used to it, then you leave or you get the sack.”

“What an extraordinary way to run a business,” said Joe. And Alice immediately jumped to Jack’s defense. “He was a genius. He’d built up the business single-handedly. Well no, not exactly single-handedly. There’d been others at first, of course, they’d started the business. But Sir Jorge was the force behind its success. Kind of an amazing job he did there.”

Joe asked further questions but Alice didn’t know much more. Jorge Kione was a genius and therefore to be forgiven at everything. They kept coming back to that.

“And he’s got the madness of a genius, I don’t know how he does it but yeah,” added Alice.

Joe longed to question her, but she was much too busy with the script she’s making for the presenters next week. Now because Alice cleared Jorge’s image to Joe, the whole scene had shifted completely. But Joe was still not keeping his eyes off their boss. Might be some kind of suspicion or jealousy.

“Do you two have a connection going on inside that building?”

Alice thought that Joe would freak out once she told him what Jorge did to her so she decided not to tell it to him and just keep it to herself. Besides, it was not a matter to think about. Joe would just be overreacting over things if she told him yes.

“No. Just another neighbor of mine. Why?” She answered.

“I see…….” He calmed down. “Hey, are you done with your work?”

“Not yet.”

“Finish it as soon as possible.”

“What? So you’re Jorge now?”

He laughed. “No! I mean, I want us to hang out again some other time when your work is done.”

“I’d like that.”

“Tomorrow’s Friday!”

“And?”

“Nothing. Aren’t you free?”

“Since when did I become free?”

“Oh… Got it.” He laughed again. “Alright, that’s it. I just checked you out. Good night.”

“Wait…… I’m going to ask you something too.”

“What?”

“You said you saw Sir Jorge enter the same building from where I live…… then that means you’re near our building lately. Am I right?”

“Why are you so damn smart?”

She smiled. “I told you, graduating with honors is not necessarily needed in society to be considered smart.”

“Are you trying to pick on me?”

“No? Am I?”

He chuckled with his deep voice. “That’s what I like about you.”

“What? Answer me. Why are you near our building lately? Stalker.” She joked around again.

“I…. was supposed to come to you and say good night but I thought doing a call is much better.”

She laughed. “You got that.”

“Okay, so you should be resting now. I don’t want to be bothersome. Good night Alice.”

“Okay. Good night Joe.”

She hung up the call with a smile on her face then she lied down to her bed.

Dawn is pretty much a thing for Alice. She took that time to pamper herself through having enough sleep.

Jack slept early and came to the office early in the morning too. It’s a new thing. He’s not late this time. He sat on the chair inside his office and grabbed a book, a book about marketing. He spent his leisure time reading it even before the office hours began.

Alice came to the office early as well. It’s a normal day for her. She put her things on her table and opened her unit to check if there are new files sent to her from the other office.

Then the vice president passed her by and said “Hey, the president is here. Might want to update him with the progress again. 2 days left and it’s the presentation day already. Hurry up. It’s a must.”

“Oh, okay sir.”

The vice president left. He’s like that, more of a supervisor in their office. When he left, Alice thought “He’s back? Wow….” She took the hard copy from her table that she was supposed to pass yesterday.

Before leaving, she remembered that Joe had made one for her so she came back, plugged in a hard drive on her unit and copied the file. She was proud that she had made two presentations within a few days. Thanks to her efforts and thanks to Joe.

She went to the president’s office, knocked then entered.

“Sir? I got updates. I have a hard copy with me and another project done.”

He looked at her. He looked emotionless and just too serious. “Is there already a hard copy for the other one?”

“Still working on it, sir.”

“Come back when you already have the hard copy. Put the finished one on my table.”

“And then?”

“What do you mean and then?”

“Wouldn’t I be presenting the soft copy of the other one?”

Jack gazed at her with a cold look in his eyes. “Present everything to me when the other committees are done with their jobs.” Then he looked away and read the book again.

He never said anything again so Alice felt that her purpose there inside his office was done so she prepared to go. She left the hard copy on his table and turned back.

Jack said, “Kindly gather the reports of the other employees to me that I missed yesterday.”

“Ah yes. Uhh… Why aren’t you around yesterday sir? Just to let them know the reason.”

“Meeting.”

“The whole day?”

“Yes.”

“Is that all?”

“I’m afraid it’s none of your business.”

“Okay then, I’ll get the lists of reports from my table and leave it here to you right away.”

“Yes, please.”

She walked out of his office very upset. She thought “What? Another mood swing? Geez, I hate my boss for real! Why does he have to be an asshole every time?!”

She grabbed the things from her desk, with the updates and brought it to his office. She opened the door and said, “I’ll just leave them all here at your table, sir.”

She placed the papers there and when she’s done putting them all on the top of his table, Jack spoke to her.

“Thanks. By the way, I'd like to acknowledge you for finishing two presentations within 2 days. Good job.”

“Joe helped me, sir. I don’t deserve all of the credits.”

“Joe who? Joe Schmidt?”

“Yes sir.”

He looked away and got back to reading. He said “You got a pretty good back-up huh. Where’s Morrie?”

“Morrie was busy handling the other projects I assigned her to do while I was busy doing two of the presentations, sir.”

“Got it. You can go now.”

“OK,” she went out and closed his door gently. She sat back to her chair and she just felt extra annoyed. “Asshole!”, she murmured.

Other than that, it didn’t ruin her whole day because she was relieved that she’s almost done with the job. She just had to let the rest of the employees know about the program for the presentation on Monday. She typed it on the computer and printed lots of copies of it, enough to let all the members of the office know and sent the printed copies to them personally. She did it the whole day. Very tiring.

It’s almost midnight already and she was socializing with the night shifts in the office.

She went to their office’s vendo machine to get some coffee before she went home. Her feet were aching.

“Why did I ever decide to wear heels at the office? I hate corporate outfits!” She nagged as she got in front of the machine.

And then, Noreen, the project manager, appeared beside her. “Hey Alice.”

“Oh hi Noreen!”

“You look exhausted.”

“Do I? I hate my job.”

“Come on, everybody does when it gets officially tiring.”

Alice smiled. “Yes, exactly! Plus the boss that irritates you so much! If only I don’t need money to earn for my family’s living, I would honestly quit.”

“Don’t. I love it when you’re here.”

“Really? Thanks for that though and no offense to what I just said.”

“Yeah I understand.” She silently laughed. “Why do you hate our boss by the way?”

“Isn’t he too much? Can’t you think of it? He’s gone for one day. He let me handle the things he was supposed to and now he appeared out of nowhere, saying he was in a meeting last day and acting like he was not gone for one freaking day! Oh he was not bothered at all! Is it that easy for him to take a leave and then keep his business hanging and leaving me to do the entire job instead? Noreen, that is frigging ridiculous! He is a president! He should set a good example!”

“Uhh… that’s a whole lot of hatred you got there. But I think the meeting is also serious stuff for the better condition of our company.”

“Then why didn’t he contact me?! Is it too hard to say?” She raised her voice.

“Wait, are you sure it’s nothing personal? Because I kind of think it was headed to that.”

“No. Noreen. No!”

“Okay. You said so. Well just let it be Alice. He’s our boss. You can’t do anything about it. And oh, do you hate him because of his attitude or the jobs he left you?”

“Both!” She pressed in for an iced coffee to the vendo machine. Seconds later, her coffee is up. She got it and drank a bit. “You’ll never know how I feel until you become a secretary. I’m not trying to be conceited to you but you should consider yourself lucky that you don’t get loads of jobs like I do.”

Noreen cackled seeing her bursting out in anger. “I guess I’m lucky enough. But Alice, just sleep it off. Maybe you’re just lacking, you know.”

“You’re right. You on the night shift too?”

“Yup!”

“Oh, I guess I would have to go home alone.”

“This time?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh no Alice, you were wrong. You are lucky you’re going home tonight.”

“I see that!" She chuckled. "Okay! I’ll have to hurry up so I can get some good sleep at least!” She started walking backward away from her.

Noreen said “Take care!”

“Yeah.” She had gone back to her table while drinking her coffee. She grabbed her bag and left the office. She threw the cup at the trash can in front of their building after she emptied the cup on her way down to the ground floor.

She said “Darn it! I forgot to bring my car. Why didn’t I think of that? Now I have to walk my way home through this dangerous path.”

Barely anyone was around the streets. The ground is wet. There was steam coming out from the sewer holes. She didn’t know it rained the whole day because she was under the roof and working her ass off inside the office. She felt cold so she embraced herself as she walked.

She can’t hear anything around but the heels of her shoes touching the ground as she took one step at a time.

The silence was unbreakable. It was an empty street. No cars are passing by and certainly no people around. Obviously, she was alone walking.

Then suddenly, her phone rang.

She took her phone from her bag and saw that it’s from an unknown person. She answered it just in case the call was from someone in the office.

“Hello?” She answered in the most business-like tone of her voice.

She heard background noises but not a single voice from the caller.

“Hello? Who’s this?” She talked again.

The caller finally made a sound. It was a man’s voice. He chuckled with such a creepy tone. He remained anonymous.

“Hello? May I ask who you are?”

But the voice kept laughing silently. Alice began to feel scared. She said “Joe? Is this you? Come on, this is not funny! Don’t pull a prank on me!”

The man replied, “Who’s Joe?”

Alice realized that it was not Joe’s voice. She said “Who are you?! Goddamnit, speak up!”

“Me? Just someone following you.”

Alice became anxious. She felt frozen in her position. “Identify yourself! Don’t joke around! Are you someone from the office? Allan? Robert? Stop this! This is not funny! I’m serious!” Her voice started to shudder at the same time with her whole body.

Her hands were sweaty and her fingers were shaking to an extent. She remembered that the famous killer in their town killed girls at night. It frightened her more. She didn’t want to die yet. And just by thinking of how Jack Kinley killed people, it already made her stomach turn. She didn't want to be one of his victims. She didn’t want to be killed that way. Unfound, unidentified, just rotting on the secret corner Jack hides the corpses. Who knows where?

She felt extremely tense.

The caller replied “I’m behind you, Alice… You want to know who I am? Look back.”

That made her neck stiff. She didn’t want to look back. She was afraid that someone might stab her anywhere in her body parts or just strangle her to death. But she had to be brave enough to answer the anonymous guy. The guy might be fooling around so she intended not to fall too hard on his trap, whoever he is.

“Why are you calling me? Don’t call me again, jackass!” She disconnected the call and walked again. She was secretly wishing he’d never call again while she walks.

But he still did. She said to him, “Stop calling me! I’ll call the police! I got your number! I can track you down!”

Then the man replied, “Oh Alice… I’m not afraid. I can see you right now. What are you going to do? Call the police? They would come after 20 or 15 minutes. By that time, you’re already dead. Don’t wish. They can’t do anything.”

She was startled because he knew her name. “Please! Whoever you are! Stop this! I’m scared!” She couldn’t help her emotions anymore so she cried while trembling in fear.

“What? You just got out from your office? Great opportunity.”

She didn’t reply. She cried in silence and listened to his voice.

“I know where you live. I will kill you in your sleep so better keep the lights open and stay awake. I’ve wanted to get a knife and see your red blood streaming down your neck… ‘Till then Alice, good night…” His voice that whispered in her ears made her hair rise.

She said “Please don’t hurt me! I’m serious about this!”

“Oh I’m dead serious too. Now I will give you 5 seconds… I’m coming near you.”

“What do I have to do?!” She looked back and no one’s in there but the street behind her is dark so she wasn’t rest assured that nobody’s really in there. He might be there hiding somewhere. She panicked. She cried out loud, “Please don’t kill me! I’m begging you! I’ll give you what you want! Just don’t kill me!”

The man didn’t answer anymore but the call is still ongoing.

She talks, “Hello?” and then she realized that 5 seconds were just over so her eyes widened, feeling the creeps behind her. She could clearly feel his presence behind her. She didn’t want to look back. She was just as still as a statue standing from her place, holding her phone on her ear.

It was very quiet. Her heart raced. She could almost feel her heartbeat in her chest. She felt the breath of someone from her back. He was very close.

Until she heard him speak on the phone, “Run.”

It sounded very close to her ears. She ran without any more ado. She ran as fast as she could, thinking he was behind her and running after her with a knife. She screamed for help but no one was around to rescue her. She felt helpless. All she did was cry and shiver while she ran.

When she was busy running, she could hear his footsteps and the knife’s point scratching on the walks, seeming to be playful with her. There she knew that her instincts were right. He was really behind her with a knife.

She couldn’t run well because of her high heels but she couldn't remove it in the middle of the chasing so she just bear with it. She was gasping so loud, a mixture of exhaustion and anxiety. She wasn’t thinking of anything but running for her life and saving herself from danger.

She can’t feel any kind of feeling but fear and fear itself. She was running from the darkness.

What can a girl do without any knowledge about self defense and weapons with her to fight a killer? She’s hopeless.

She took a turn to her right, away from the narrow and dark alley, trying to hide from the killer. She looked back while she’s running and saw nobody was chasing her already. But she couldn’t calm herself just like that. He might be somewhere else planning to surprisingly jump in front of her or beside her or just anywhere near her. She could be dead any moment. She can’t speak a word. She was supposed to be screaming and asking for help but no words would come out of her mouth.

Her feet kept on moving fast then she faced her front.

She bumped into someone's chest. She panicked, that's why she hit the man’s chest continuously.

The man held both of her arms but she kept on punching.

She shouted. “Let go of me! Let go! Help!! Help!!!”

She was trying so hard to get away from the grip of his arms and just away from the man itself.

He got her around his arms. That moment, she expected him to cut her neck or beat her with a knife. She was closing her eyes. She didn’t want to witness her own death.

She felt weak, like all of her strength was taken over by the man’s clutch. She thought “I don’t want to die. Someone help me please…… someone…………………. Please.”

Words she could say in mind but can’t decipher in a spoken language.