The shadow of a man slid across the wall. Donna caught it out of the corner of her eye. She glanced across the hall and saw Jack, still sitting at his desk, his head bowed, reading the spread sheets laid out on his desk. His door was slightly ajar as she saw him and a tingle of adrenalin shot through her body. She quickly gathered her jacket and her lap top from her desk, grabbed her purse and looked up and down the hall. She pushed Jack’s door open just a bit and said, good night Jack, I’m leaving now. He looked up, smiled at her and said okay, be careful out there, it’s late. You should have gone home hours ago.

Donna gave him a little wave, and thought to herself, yes I should have, but here I am so intent on getting everything just right for that darn presentation in the morning, that it is after midnight, and who was that that just left here, I thought Jack and I were alone in the office tonight.

She pushed the down button on the elevator and stood looking at the patterned carpet on the floor, then glancing up, saw the arrow above the door of the elevator light up, and looked around, she was alone. The door opened and she entered, digging for her keys to her car in her purse.She entered the elevator, the door closed and she looked up and saw the tall thin man in the back of the elevator. He had piercing eyes and they seemed to look right through her. Her heart started to beat rapidly her mouth dried, the strangeness of the man permeated the tiny space they occupied. She turned her back on him and
as she did, she felt his hand go up her back and startled she turned to look
at him, seeing his mouth in a wild looking grin, and then his hand was
around her throat, and he twisted her around to face him, the force of
that move causing her to drop her belongings onto the floor, the contents
of her purse spilled out, lipstick, mirror, brush, all the things , her wallet, spreading out over the floor of the elevator. She felt the elevator stop its downward movement with a quick jerking motion, and she fell towards
the man and his leering eyes now even with hers, his hand tightening
around her throat as his mouth opened and reached for hers, and she
felt him press his lips on her and his tongue reached deep into her throat
stifling the scream she knew was there, then his other hand lifted her to him, and she felt the cold steel of the knife under her breast. Donna looked into his eyes, with a pleading look, she couldn’t speak, he had stopped the kiss and was now running his hand all over her body. His acrid breath filled the small elevator and terror filled her eyes, she knew a fear like she had never felt
before. She tried to pull away and as she did, she felt the tip of the knife dig
into her soft skin, just beneath her left breast, her head began to spin and
her breathing was labored. All the things she had ever read and heard about getting out of this kind of situation had vanished suddenly from her mind. He took his hand from her throat, and she knew he was not through with her, and suddenly all blood drained from her brain and she fainted, fear had saved her.

She didn’t feel the knife digging into her flesh, or feel her heart stop beating,
she didn’t know that she hadn’t needed to stay late to finish her report,
nothing mattered anymore.

Jack, folded up his spread sheets and put them under the mat on his desk,thinking if I don’t go home now, there will be no sense going at all.
He took his jacket from the hanger and put it on, straightened his tie, and locked his door, and walked to the dimly lit elevators. He pushed the arrow
and brought the elevator up to meet him. The doors opened, and his eyes
filled with horror. He saw Donna lying there sprawled on the floor, laying on
her laptop and jacket, the contents of her purse scattered about, her blood covering the small elevator floor. Her eyes were closed and her face contorted in a grotesque way. He felt for her pulse, there was none.

The headlines read in the morning paper, “Female Executive Murdered by Coworker”. A tall thin man with piercing eyes, and a crazy cockeyed grin read them aloud, and tossed the paper in the wastebasket. He unhurriedly walked down the street, smiling while passing the building where Donna had died so horribly in the elevator, his shadow slid across the wall.