Encounters With Abigail

Chapter Three

    Dragging myself into the office on Monday dreading the stack of paperwork I abandoned here on Friday. My insomnia is completely unbearable again, maybe I should go back on the meds as my brain is in a struggling to make even the most basic of connections and my limbs feel too heavy to continue holding my body upright. 

   It doesn't help that whenever I do manage to sleep my mind is consumed with helplessly watching her drown over and over. I should be better it's been years, but the anniversary is growing closer, and the nightmares are stronger than my exhausted mind.

  I'm contemplating going home with my hand on the door handle, while absently gazing into the small white tiled reception. Edward appears around the corner with who I assume is the new start. Edward is a balding man in his sixties he set up this foundation in his twenties and has become the wife and children he should have had.

  Often I've thought that its such a waste he isn't a dad since he's always been so good at it, but I guess we are his kids now so he's not entirely wasted. I've never seen the man frown for more than a handful of minutes, He is an optimist to the end. The way I wish I could be.

  The new start towers over Edward probably a few inches taller than my six-foot height, blonde hair so light that it is closer to white, he is wearing a black shirt that is clearly too small for him as it's strained around his muscles. If he is looking to impress the women here, he's in for a shock we have a grand total of two women that work here and both are over fifty.

  Edward guides the new guy over to me and introduces us in his normal jolly tone "Alexander, this is Matthew he is taking over from Deborah in HR" my hand automatically extends to him. Meeting his almost entirely black eyes unease creeps up my spine as I stare into those deep void's. His mouth is pulled into a sneer completely ignoring my outstretched hand so I quickly whip it back before he decides to break it and make a mental note to never end up in that office with him.

 "Yeah, nice to meet you but I really should get going. No rest for the wicked and all that." I rake my hand through my hair and escape into the office but once my desk is in view, I wish I was anywhere but here. How are more files on it already we just started. I slump into my chair not even knowing where to start when a familiar dull ache begins behind my eyes, I know that a migraine is on the way. Today sucks.

   It only takes a few hours for the migraine to properly take hold the repeated thumping making any work progress ridiculously slow in comparison to the volume of files that are being constantly piled up on the corner or my desk. It gets to the point that every time one of them put something on my desk I'm met with a remorseful look on their face. 

  The pain begins to ramp up rapidly, so I search through my bag for pain killers and could scream when I remember that I used that last of them two weeks ago and like the dumb fucking idiot I am forgot to get them re-filled. This is going to be hideously shit.

  Decimating the last of my coffee I attempt to focus on work but my computer screen is just aggravating the pulsating in my head. Grinding the heels of my hands into my eyes I try to breathe through a particularly violent round of stabbing.

   A loud clattering noise right by my ear makes me cringe and clench my jaw against a pathetic whimper threatening to leave me lips. Lowering my hands, I follow the scrambling to the side, papers are scattered all over the ground Neil -a lanky fifty something with a buzz-cut- is wiping coffee off his tie while a furious Matthew collects the papers and files from the floor next to me.

   I gingerly lean down collecting the print outs that have slid under my chair and when my head doesn't protest too much, I grab the last few from behind my desk and turn to Mathew he glares at me before snatching them from my hands. "I don't need help," his snarl has such viciousness that I literally flinch away from him.