Violence

Johnny was having a strange week. Johnathan by birth, Johnny to his friends, he had grown to be a cubicle worker who sat at his desk, made calls, sold product, and at break he spoke with the boys at the water cooler. His life felt like that show, the office, he was Jim and he even had a Pam, named Amber. The two were often found flirting in the break room when he wasn’t talking to the watercooler gang, and often exchanged glances from across the room.

Amber was a nice girl, working as a secretary for their boss as a part time deal to help pay off college tuition. In the meantime she waited for the job of her dreams that she had spent four years learning to perform to open up in a market swimming in potential people just like herself. She had a nice apartment she was just in budget for without making any of her other budgets suffer to much.

It was obvious to everyone in the office that the two liked each other, and their little Johnny/Amber moments were becoming a little tiring for everyone. So everyone was more than relieved when Johnny finally approached Amber at lunch Monday and asked her out to dinner Friday evening. One of the worst things for an office of cubicles is the sexual tension that the felt dividers can’t block out.

After this happened Johnny was the only one who now seemed on edge and unnerved. He had been planning on how he was going to do it for weeks, and everytime he was going to put a plan into motion he would psych himself out. So he finally just got up the nerve to ask her out, and she was so excited it warmed his heart. He found out she had been wanting to ask him but didn’t have the nerves either. The two made some vague plans to be determined later and then Amber reached out and hugged Johnny.

Johnny was a little shocked at first,  but grinned and hugged her back, taking in the intoxicating smell of her perfume. It lasted longer than a normal hug and when he opened his eyes Johnny abruptly ended the hug with a spooked shout, pulling Amber with him as he went. She turned to see what was behind them, which should have just been then counter where it met the wall, and found nothing. She turned back to Johnny looking confused and Johnny laughed and apologized.

“Thought I saw a spider, they freak me out big time.” he explained. This went over well with Amber who, as it turned out, also had a big fear of spiders and was impressed with Johnny’s initiative to pull her away from what he saw as a dangerous situation. They went back to their respective workplaces after this and Johnny dived back into his work.

However he had been lying, there had been no spider, in the shadows caused by their embrace Johnny could have sworn he saw a face. It materialized, two wicked looking eyes and a horrendous toothy grin staring straight at him. He had heard a voice as well, but looking back on it he felt that maybe his terror had made it up. “Can you take her?” what did that even mean? H e had to of been imagining the whole thing!

He didn’t mean to grab Amber to pull her away either, it just happened with them still locked in their embrace, and as their shadows disappeared, so too did the face. Fearing he’d look like a crazy fool Johnny quickly improvised and was happy to have gotten away with it. However for the rest of the day he found himself having a hard time working, and his thoughts kept turning to that face.

Finally the day came to a close and Johnny gathered his things to leave. As he was about to exit his cubicle Amber stepped around the corner. His thoughts were still on the disturbing, and what felt very real, moment at lunch and her sudden rounding of the corner made him shrink back. She laughed at his reaction and teased him, letting him know she wanted to walk him out.  They both laughed and made their way out of the office together. The whole time Johnny kept his eye peeled for anything, but, to his relief, nothing happened.

Several days went by, and things got better for Johnny, he hadn’t forgotten about the face, but he wasn’t thinking about it anymore, and that night he and Amber were going out for their date. He was much more worried about getting out of work on time, getting ready, picking Amber up, and getting to the restaurant in time for their reservation. So far, everything was going according to plan. That was, until their second break of the day, about two hours before the end of the day, when Amber came over to his cubicle.

“Oh hey Amber, what’s up?” Johnny asked without looking at her as he filled out some online forms.

“It’s second break and you haven’t left your cubicle all day! You okay?” she asked concern apparent in her voice. Johnny took a moment to process her words and jerked himself away from his computer to face her,  spinning in his computer chair and leaning back.

“Oh, sorry! I’m fine, I am just excited for our date tonight. Working through breaks to try and steal out of here a little early is all.” He explained with a charming grin.

“Ooooo~” she said with her own grin. She was wearing a form fitting modest red dress that stopped just above the knees, with the black triangle tipped shoes with the little heel. She stepped over to him, exaggerating her hips as she went, and leaned down, only an inch away from his face. Her black hair was pulled back and done up in a bun. Her blue eyes stared into his. “I do love me a hard-working man.”

Johnny grinned at this. “Oh yeah?”

She grinned and nodded. “I always reward hard workers.” she then leaned in, her lips puckered for a kiss. He leaned forward to meet her and heard a deep malicious laughter from behind Amber. Now, of course office romance was frowned upon, and PDA’s generally got you in trouble, so Johnny tilted his head to see who was spying on him and Amber, receiving her wet kiss to his cheek. She tore back, surprised at his action.

“Did you not hear that?” he asked as he stood up and went onto his tippy-toes to see if there was anyone in the aisles around them who might be sneaking away.

“Oh, no one cares Johnny!” she laughed before giving a little sigh as she looked him up and down. “Well, I will see /you/ tonight.” Johnny grinned and nodded as she walked away. Johnny stayed on his tippy toes a little longer to watch her go, his thoughts dragged away from the mysterious laughter.

The date went perfectly. He picked her up right on time and she was ready to go. He held her door for her, and when they got to the nice restaurant he had reserved a table for them at, he made sure to scurry around and get the door for her again. The dinner was lavish and they talked and talked having a wonderful time. By the time they had finished their meal and were ready to leave they had consumed an entire bottle of wine.

Johnny drove them to the pier and the two walked up and down the beach where they held hands and took in the beautiful sight of the moon on the calm ocean, and the peaceful sounds of the waves washing up against the shore. Once they were less drunk and more buzzed Amber made the excellent suggestion of getting more drinks at her place. Johnny happily drove them there.

As expected things got hot and heavy then. They had their drinks, they touched, they snogged like two high schoolers. Then Amber broke away from Johnny suddenly leaving him confused but she smiled and everything seemed to be alright again.

“Give me one second!” Her smile was mischievous, and Johnny grinned back knowingly.

Johnny was pretty confident he knew what was coming next, and he began to unbutton his shirt and drop the trousers she had already unbuckled.

“Oh Johnny boy!” came Ambers call from down the hall a moment later. Johnny grinned and began to disrobe faster, noting that her apartment was rather cold, but that wasn’t going to matter as they were about to warm it right back up. He was now wearing nothing but his underwear, his button up shirt, now unbuttoned, but stuck by his tie which he was wrestling with.

Again Amber called his name, she was closer now, he finally wrestled the tie from around his neck and tossed it to the floor.

“I’m coming!” he called back, only to recoil a little as the cold fog that escaped his mouth.

“Dirty boy.” Amber said coming around the corner of the hallway that he suspected led to her room. She was wearing a see-through red nighty, her hands behind her back, pushing her breasts forward. The cold suddenly didn’t matter, if anything it helped. He grinned at her playful smile and began to cross the living room towards her, as he did so the room began to darken, even in his drunken horniness he was able to catch notice of this though and gave pause.

“What is the matter Johnny boy?” Amber’s voice was no longer playful, she almost sounded annoyed at him stopping in the middle of the room. “Aren’t you coming to get me?”

The room darkened further, and Ambers face began to take on a different look. She was no longer looking like a playful lover but an excited hunter, like a cat about to claim its dinner by pouncing on a mouse.

“What’s going on?” johnny asked, looking around at the darkening apartment. The shadows stretched and darkened, and he thought he could see horrible faces staring back at him like in the break room. He looked back to Amber who had begun laughing at him in the same way he had heard that morning at work.

“Amber had to go away for awhile.” she grinned. “Let’s have some fun Johnny-boy! Can you take her? Can you take me?””

She stood straight then and brought her hands from behind her back revealing two long kitchen knives in either hand. She flicked her wrist and one of the knives was sent through the air hard into the floor where Johnny’s pants were.

“What the fuck?” he said, sobering up quickly, excitement gone. “Amber? What the-” but Amber just laughed louder and charged him. He threw up his hands to try and bat her away but she drove her knife through his left hand and stepped forward kneeing him in the gut. Johnny screamed in pain but stopped suddenly by the knee as he dropped to the ground retching.

“Come on Johnny-boy! Play play!” she shouted before kneeing him in the face.

“What the fuck is wrong with you!?” He shouted as he began to pick himself up. Only deranged laughter was returned in answer. He grabbed the kitchen knife that she had thrown to him earlier and leapt up. She was already swinging, her kitchen knife cutting deeply into his face.

“Not pretty anymore!” Amber, or whatever this was, laughed. Johnny didn’t know what was going on but he was certain he could overpower her. What a psycho she was! He growled and ran at her, intending to tackle her and muscle the knife away. She laughed harder as she kneed him square in the face making him land to the side of her with a cry, grabbing his now very broken nose.

“Gonna have to try harder than that! Come come! More violence please!” she yelled as she then kicked him in the side sending him crumpled to the floor before moving away from him. He yelled and rose in a run, anger clouding his eyes and judgement as he brandished the knife. Amber grinned triumphantly and didn’t make a move to stop him as he plunged the knife into her chest, the two falling to the floor.

“I love it when they fight back.” she breathed with exhilaration, blood beginning to pool at the corner of her mouth. Johnny screamed then as her arm shot up and she brought the knife into his back. As she pulled the blade out Johnny made a move to get off of her but her freehand shot up and grasped one of his arms pulling her form with his. She stabbed him in the chest then, bringing the blade to the hilt. Johnny paused and fell to the side.

“I wonder who my next victim will be.” Amber mused, no longer moving as she stared at the ceiling.

“Amber…” Johnny breathed only to start coughing up globs of blood. “Amber... why?”

“I told you Ambers not here right now.” she responded turning her head to face him. She grinned, and coughed blood as well.

“Then...who the hell?”

“My name is Violence.” Amber responded with a truly evil grin. “Thanks for playing with me. I was starting to get bored.” She grinned once more and slowly brought up a hand to her blood soaked lips, kissing the tips of her finger and flicking them his way. She went limp then, as his vision began to blur.

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Some time passed, responders on the scene pronounced the two dead on arrival. The scene was grotesque, but from what they could find they assumed the two were drunk and got in a fight. One of them, unsure of which, grabbed a knife and attacked the other. With the damage to the male they assumed it was the female.

The two detectives assigned to this case came the next day once the scene had been cleaned up. One an older man pointed out things to his partner, a pretty redhead, who was still pretty new to the force. They had chemistry, everyone at work thought so, and it was cute. They just hadn’t admitted it to themselves quite yet. The redhead, Janice, takes the living room while Alex decides to take the rest of the apartment.They were speaking loudly, almost yelling as they did their investigation when Janice suddenly fell silent. When Alex came around to check on her she was looking out the window. She came to as he approached, and said she had just gotten lost by the view from the apartment. Alex, deciding that they should break for lunch, began to lead Janice out.

Alex holds the door open for the redhead and as she passes she steps down wrong, losing her balance and catching herself on his strong chest. The two smile shyly, and as they part Alex hears a thick malicious laugh from behind him. He turns back sharply to look into the apartment as Janice exits but after a moment of silence decides he was hearing things. He shuts the door behind them and suddenly moves to catch up with his partner, as if struck by inspiration.

“Hey Janice! Hold up! Would you mind if I took you out tonight?”

He doesn’t hear the laughter a second time as Janice screams in delight. As they hugged officially for the first time a voice whispered in Alex’s ear.

“Can you take her?”