Women In The Night

Reunion Pt I

Seraphina woke to Carly Rae Jepson’s “Call Me Maybe” playing on her phone and she groaned, sitting up in her bed and rubbing her eyes. Sunlight streamed through the windows into her apartment and after a moment of stretching, she got up.

Sera went through the motions; poured herself some sugary cereal and orange juice, ate an apple. She got dressed in a blue pencil skirt and blazer. Pulled her curly black hair into a poofy ponytail. Applied simple makeup. Watered her plants. Put in her earbuds and selected a pop playlist. Took the subway to work. Stopped by the café in the lobby of her high-rise office, grabbing a mocha before heading into the elevator.

Sera couldn’t help but sigh to herself quietly as it ascended. She’d only been back a week and a half and she was already feeling like she was back in the rut she’d been so desperate to leave in the first place. Everything felt like a broken record yet again, the beginning to some mediocre indie movie about the miseries of everyday life.

Trying to keep a positive mood about the day, she forced a smile and made her way to her desk. As soon as she sat down, her desk neighbour, Jared, approached and sat on her desk.

“Good morning, Sera!” He greeted cheerfully, smiling down at her in a way that suggested he had some juicy gossip, “How are you doing this fine morning?”

“You know,” Sera sighed, “same as always. What’s up? You seem like you have something to tell me.”

“Oh, do I! Did you hear about the night janitor?”

Sera frowned as she started up her computer, “No. Why, what happened?”

“He’s in the hospital – he was supposedly attacked.”

“Oh my god!” Sera cried quietly, “Is he okay? Who attacked him?”

“He’s in rough shape,” Jared admitted with a shrug, “but he’ll be alright – we’re sending him a fruit basket, so I need some money from you for that, but that’s besides the point. Apparently, he was attacked by a ghost.” At this, he looked rather smug, which was fair as this was rather juicy.

“A ghost?” Sera echoed, “Okay, now you’re messing with me.”

“I am not! You’re the one that’s always saying this building is haunted!”

“And it is, but the spirits here have never attacked anyone, and I’ve never felt any malicious intent.”

“Uh-huh, you and your weird ghost sense,” Jared said doubtfully. Then he glanced around them to make sure no one was listening before leaning in closer and dropping his voice, “Anyways, one of the other janitors found him with claw marks all over his body, just bleeding out on the floor. He was conscious, babbling about a woman with mangled hair in a torn-up pantsuit.”

“That sounds like Anita,” Sera said, “that’s so weird. And kinda freaky.”

“I know, right?” Jared smiled proudly, “Thought you might like to hear about that, since you’re into all the supernatural and stuff. Crazy, huh?”

“It really is,” Sera admitted, “I mean, I know the cleaners have all heard stories about seeing her wandering around and stuff, and I’ve felt her presence here on late nights. It’s never been malicious though.”

“Well, either Anita’s ghost is real and she’s suddenly homicidal, or the night janitor is on something.”

“Maybe… it just…” Sera sighed a bit, “It’s really weird because this isn’t my first time hearing about something like this.” She lifted a hand to her chin in thought, “I know a bunch of haunted places around Toronto, of course.”

“Of course,” Jared agreed with a wave of his hand.

“And a lot of them have ghost tours and stuff, and for the majority of them, the most major incident might be the odd nosebleed or a couple of scratches. But there’s been a weird spike in unexplained hospitalizations on these tours.”

“Okay, that’s definitely weird,” Jared admitted, “Hey, maybe you should check it out, start your own ghost hunting business.” He laughed and shoved her shoulder playfully, “I know you’ve been kinda depressed lately, ever since you got back from your trip.”

“Yeah,” Sera sighed, swivelling in her chair a bit, “but can you blame me? It’s the same s**t, day in and day out. I thought I was just in some dumb rut, and that the trip would help me get out of it but…I don’t know, I feel more miserable than before. Like, it’s just proof that the rest of my life is going to be like this no matter what I do.”

Jared laughed and clapped Sera’s shoulder, “Hey, welcome to corporate life. Well, I should go before Mr. Scott rips me a new one for slacking off.”

Sera waved him off as she turned to her computer with another sigh, looking at a picture pinned to her desk from her trip. She touched it longingly before opening up her programs to begin her work.

Sera sat back at her desk with a heavy sigh as she rubbed her eyes, looking around at the dark office.

She was the last one on the floor – even Mr. Scott had gone home about thirty minutes ago. Sera had claimed that she wanted to catch up on her work, which was partially true, but she also did want the building to herself.

She looked around, feeling a tad uneasy, the silence around her stifling. Sera had stayed late at the office before, and while she’d been able to feel other presences often belonging to spirits, she never felt threatened. However, there was an air of danger in the vast room, and she clutched her selenite necklace as she stood.

“Hello?” She called out, with no response.

Sera took a steadying breath as she began to meander around the office, calling out again every so often.

Finally, near the windows, she felt a sudden cold breath on the back of her neck and she whipped around.

“Get….out….” a feminine voice rasped, coming from all around her.

“Who’s there?” Sera asked, “Anita, is that you?”

“Get out!” The reply came louder, more forceful.

Sera tried to calm her beating heart, clutching her crystal and speaking with as much confidence as possible and recalling all the other instances she’d come in contact with the supernatural, “Anita, it’s okay. I’m not here to hurt you. I don’t think you want to hurt me either.”

“GET OUT!” A shrill voice cried, ringing in her ears as a ghost appeared in front of her, causing Sera to shriek and stumble back.

Anita certainly was ghastly, with incredibly pale skin, matted dark hair, and hollow eyes. She had a classic blue 80’s pantsuit on, but it had several large tears as well as a large bullet hole in her chest, surrounded by dried blood.

Sera tried to calm herself, but she had never seen a full-body apparition so close before, and certainly not one as malicious as this. This was a far cry from the occasional whisper or scratch.

“Anita,” she began, speaking in a soothing tone, “it’s okay. You don’t need to be afraid or angry. This isn’t your office anymore. We all work here too, you have to accept that.”

Anita’s mouth unhinged like a T-rex’s, her scream shaking the glass – “GET OUT!”

She lunged for Sera, her fingers digging into Sera’s arms. Sera cried out but Anita just growled and swiped at her chest. However, she hissed when she made contact with the crystal and let go, allowing Sera to scurry back.

Just as she was wondering how the hell she was supposed to get out of there alive, a more human and somewhat familiar voice called out, “Get down!”

Without any hesitation, Sera dropped to the floor, flinching and shouting in shock as she heard a shot ring out. It hit Anita and she disappeared in a cloud of smoke and a ghostly wail.

Shakily, Sera stood, clutching onto the nearby desk as her saviour rushed over to her.

“Hey,” she asked, looking Sera over, shotgun in hand, “are you okay? I didn’t hit you, right?”

“No, I’m –” Sera gasped as she looked at the other woman’s face, “Dean?!”

Dean had changed a lot over the past twenty years – her blonde hair had been cut short, with the sides shaved, allowing for a mess on the top that fringed her face, accenting her impossibly green eyes. She was tall, taller than Sera at least, and wearing some jeans, an old band tee, a red flannel, and a battered leather jacket.

Still, Sera would recognize her anywhere.

“Who –” Dean stammered, stepping back, “How did – Opal?!”

“Yeah!” Sera cried, pulling her friend into a quick hug, ecstatic to be embracing her again and hearing her old nickname.

“What the hell are you doing here?!” Dean demanded.

“I work here!” Sera explained, “What about you? I haven’t seen you in, god, fifteen years!”

Dean opened her mouth, but a ghostly wail rang through the air. She switched her shotgun to one hand and grabbed Sera’s, beginning to run away.

“We can do the reunion s**t later, but we gotta get outta here now. That ghost’ll be back any minute.”

The two women ran out of the bullpen to the elevators, and while they waited for it to arrive, Dean stood guard, scanning the hallways, shotgun in hand.

“Dean, what the hell is going on?” Sera demanded, “Why do you have a shotgun? I thought that was a ghost!”

“It is a ghost,” Dean assured, the elevator dinging to announce its arrival, “and the shotgun has rocksalt rounds. Won’t get rid of a spirit, but it’ll keep her out of our hair for a bit. Get in.”

Sera obeyed and Dean slammed the down button, taking them to the lobby.

The ride was silent and a bit tense, but it allowed Sera to get a better look at Dean, now that they were in the light and away from a murderous ghost.

She still had freckles spattered across her face, and she had several scars on her hands, wrists, neck – even one on her lips, running in a small vertical line on the left side.

“Dean,” Sera finally began, “what the hell is going on with Anita?”

“Anita?” Dean echoed, glancing at Sera, “You know her?”

“Well, sorta. She’s the office ghost – some manager in the 80s that was killed in this building, part of some mob scheme or something. All of the midnighters know about her, but she’s never been so violent before!”

“Yeah, well,” Dean huffed, clutching her gun, “blame that on a witch. Someone has been leaving curses all over the place, causing the local ghosts to go berserk. I’ve been following the trail, destroying the spell as I go, but it only does so much good – I need to find the one casting these spells. If I kill the witch, I stop the ghosts.”

“Wait!” Sera cried, “You’re just going to kill someone?!”

“So far, seven people have either been killed or seriously hurt because of this witch – and you were almost one of them. That number is just going to keep going up unless the witch behind all of this is stopped.”

“So call the cops! Have them arrested!”

Dean scoffed, “Oh, and say what? ‘Here they are officers, the witch responsible for the dangerous hauntings!’ Tch, no. Cops are useless as always. Now let’s go get your arm bandaged up.”