When The Light Goes Out

Chapter - 17

It was about an hour later that Monique woke up confused and not very well rested. She was fully awake once she remembered she had not been home when she fell asleep. Her body ached as she slowly moved into a sitting position. The room she occupied was empty but for the bed she sat on. There was nothing on the walls or the floor. It wasn't very welcoming. Well, it wasn't like he was expecting anyone any time soon.

She got up and walked the length of the room. There was a bathroom. At least there was that little accommodation. Monique noticed there was another bed in the room too and that the bags from breakfast were sitting there. That effectively squashed the idea that he might have stayed in that room. It did raise the question as to what exactly the room was for. It felt odd, like it wasn't finished or something.

There wasn't much to look at in the room so she ventured to leave. She turned the handle and slowly opened the door. She remember where she was so the less noise the better. She didn't want to get him in trouble or anything. The next room held racks of clothes and seemed more like a storage area: clothes, the desk, a table, a rack on the back wall for hats and scarves but not much else.

A note on the door drew her attention. The other employees are here. Please stay in these rooms until I come get you. Monique sighed heavily. How long would that be? She took out her phone and looked at the time. She was already late for work. She couldn't not show up after how upset the editor was from the first time. Luckily, there seemed to be somewhat of a signal so she called in to let him know that she would be late. Seeing as it was already past the time for her to be in the office, he was rather upset, but she explained that she had a situation and wasn't sure how long it would take to rectify it.

"I'm so sorry for the inconvenience," she said. "I'm so close to finishing the work you assigned me. I can still meet the deadline."

"Just try to get here whenever you can," he said. "I've never known you to wreck a schedule like this. Is everything alright with you?"

"Y-Yes, it's fine," she said. "I'm just going through somethings. It's nothing serious."

"If you say so. I'll be looking for you, alright?"

"Yes sir, I'll get in as soon as I can."

Monique returned to the room and sat on the bed. There wasn't much of anything to do in either room so she laid back down. There were no windows in the room or any way to tell what time it was. It was kind of a creepy room, if one so scantily decorated could be called that. Maybe it was creepy because it was underground. After walking through the maintenance tunnel she hadn't expected to see the room or anything that wasn't work related.

She stared at the ceiling for awhile before realizing that she was wasting a perfectly good opportunity to look for any clues as to what the horde was planning. Monique went back into the other room and snooped about. Honestly, she felt a little guilty looking through their belongings although it was for their benefit. The clothes were labeled for each alter. The style of clothes changed with the names and she could remember...some of them. She hadn't met any of them other than Barry and Jade more than once. Looking at them made her chest tight. She might never see Barry again or any of the others for that matter.

She shook off the sadness she felt creeping up and moved on to the computer. There was no internet connection, first of all. Second of all, there were only folders labeled with the familiar names of the alters. Monique clicked into a few and found that they were all video diaries. Diaries were good for expressing your emotions without feeling like you were going to be judged. They were private. She couldn't tell herself it wasn't an invasion of privacy, but she couldn't say it was entirely a bad thing to do considering the circumstances.