Serpentine Embrace

The day had begun to wind down all over the city. The sun sunk lower in the sky and many people streamed out of buildings and into their cars, eager to go home after a long day at work. As their day ended, someone else’s began.

Raymond Gallagher stared at the ceiling of the utility room as he lay on a worn old cot. His leg swung over the side and it began to sway like a pendulum. He pretended it was ticking off the seconds to when he would have to get up and start his daily routine in cleaning the corporate building he worked for.

A light sigh passed his lips. In his twenty-nine years of existence he had many ideas on where his life would go, what things he would see and experience and what he’d become. Ray never once thought he’d end up here. Being a janitor for some business that he didn’t even know what they sold. Cleaning up the dirt and grim that collected throughout the day. Until this job he never knew just how disgusting people could be.

No, before this Ray had everything going for him. He had a beautiful wife and they lived in a gorgeous house in a lovely neighborhood and he owned the family furniture store his grandfather had built with his bare hands. His life and been perfect. It was like living in a dream.

Then, all at once, the dream had transformed into a nightmare. His wife Judy had slapped him in the face with divorce papers and with the lawyer she hired she had taken just about everything. The house, the cars, and most of the money Ray had been saving almost his whole life. He had given her six years of his life, being the most devoted husband he could be and she repaid him by saying he was too, “Suffocating and overbearing,” and left without a backwards glance. Last he heard Judy had gone to the Bahamas with a new boytoy and was living it up without a care in the world.

If that wasn’t enough to crush Ray’s spirit the business that his grandfather had started, and that had lived through three generations, went bankrupt. A brand name furniture store had opened up in the area and it delivered a crippling blow to Ray’s business and finances. No matter how many loyal costumers supported him and tried to help, it wasn’t enough to keep the store afloat and it sunk like a stone.

With his wife gone, his business gone under, and hardly a penny to his name, Ray did everything he could just to survive and not lose his mind. That was when he landed the only job he could get his hands on and that’s where he was now.

Ray lifted his watch to look at the time and he, “Hmmmed,” deep in his throat. He still had a few minutes before he had to get started. With a grunt the man hefted himself up into a sitting position and snatched the Chinese food carton he had placed on one of the supply shelves.

He jabbed at the chow mein with his chop sticks, debating on whether to finish it or not. Never one to waste food the man grabbed a good helping of the noodles that were left and crammed them unceremoniously into his mouth. In a few minutes the carton was empty and Ray tossed it into the nearby trash can, making sure to lift his arms in victory when the box rolled around the rim then tumbled inside the can.

With that taken care of he grabbed the brown paper bag his food had come in and took out the best part of any Chinese take-out meal. The fortune cookie. Ray made quick work of breaking it open and devoured the sweet little treat in a heart beat. After wiping his hands on his pants, and crunching away merrily on the cookie, he picked up the scrape of paper that had been inside it. He smoothed it out with his thumbs and read the little black printed words.

“Fortune shall soon smile down upon you.”~

Ray smiled in spite of himself. The inspirational message warmed him somewhat, though he knew it was just a silly piece of paper.

“I sure hope you’re right,” he told it with a lopsided grin before folding the strip of paper up neatly and putting it in his pocket. It would go well with his collection of fortune cookie messages he had stored up. It was an odd little hobby of his.

Ray stood up and groaned as he stretched and felt the strain in his muscles and heard the pops from his joints. He really needed to treat his poor body better. Once he loaded his cleaning cart with everything he needed he left the utility closet to start his nightly work. Oddly enough he went on his way with a whistle singing from his lips. The fortune cookie had brightened his day more than he had first thought.

Ray had always considered himself to be a happy-go-lucky kind of guy. It took a lot to knock him down and yet he still managed to look on the bright side of things whenever possible. Even though he had such a devastating blow delivered to his proverbial stomach, he knew things would get better. After all, once someone hits rock bottom the only way to go was up.

A couple hours into work Ray was listening to the rhythmic sound of his mop sloshing water across the tiled floor. Slosh. Squeak. Slosh. Squeak. Over and over and over the sound issued. The repetitiveness had bothered him when he had first started the job, but now it was soothing in a way.

After he made it halfway down the hall he was cleaning he stopped and checked his watch. An irritated growl sounded from his throat and he looked toward the elevator doors then the door that led to the winding stairwell.

“Damn it,” Ray muttered as he repeated the process. Watch. Elevator. Stairwell. “Where the hell is Eddie? He said he’d be here by eight at least.” The man shook his head, causing his short, sandy blonde hair to sway too and fro across his eyes and brush against the bridge of his nose. “This is the last time I’m covering for his sorry rear-end.” It was a phrase he had spoken many times before and one he knew he’d say a hundred times more.

Eduardo Martinez, or Eddie, as he liked to be called, was a young Latino man that worked the nightshift with Ray, or he did whenever he bothered to show up. Eddie was kind, funny, and the most laid back man Ray had ever met, but the twenty-two year old was as lazy as they come. Almost any night they worked there was an eighty percent chance that Eddie would call Ray and would give some lame excuse on why he would be late and it always ended with Ray covering for him. Ray was too nice to ever say no and here he was, almost half the building already cleaned and not one sign of Eddie. Typical.

Raymond leaned against his mop and sighed. He really needed to be firmer with Eddie about their work schedule. He used to run his own business for goodness sake, so why couldn’t he crack one coworker into line? It could have been because whenever Eddie looked at him with those warm, deep, chocolate eyes so sheepishly and apologetic that Ray lost all will to be mad. The older man was a big softy, plain and simple.

Once the moping was done Ray left the floor to dry as he began to polish the shiny elevator doors. His rag squeaked against the surface and when he was done he could see his reflection.

“Oh man, I look like a wreck.”

Before his life crumbled on top of him, Ray always thought he was slightly attractive, but the stress of the past few months had definitely had their toll on his features and aged him a good few years. His once finely cut, dark blonde hair had grown out and was now shaggy and hung around his ears and eyes. His usual clean shaven face now had rough stubble all along his chin. Black bags had formed under his soft, light green eyes, making him look tired and worn. The baggy jumpsuit he had to wear wasn’t helping anything either. He liked to think his body was in fine form considering, but the suit made him look shrunken and malnourished, not the sturdy bodied, six foot tall man that he was.

Ray smiled at his reflection. He used to be able to give a full, glorious smile to anyone that passed by, but the one his twin gave back to him was weak and he was only able to raise up one side of his mouth.

“You are one truly pathetic man, Ray,” he told himself and his reflection nodded in agreement. Not bothering to speak anymore words of self-pity, Ray gave the doors one last rub down.

As he used the rag to scrub at one obstinate smudge something caught his eye in the reflection. At the end of the hallway a dark form dashed across one wall to another in the blink of an eye.

Ray’s entire body froze and his heart stilled. He wasn’t sure what he had just seen or even if he had seen it at all. It had happened so fast he wondered if his eyes were playing tricks on him.

Regaining the ability to move Ray spun around. After a quick once over Ray saw nothing, but his heart was hammering in his chest and all the hairs on his body stood on end.

“E-Eddie?” he called out. He cleared his throat after hearing it crack and he tried again. “Eddie? Is that you?”

When Ray received no reply he slowly walked toward where he had seen whatever it was move. He took hold of his broom as he passed by his cart just in case. His footsteps echoed eerily off the walls and caused his body to tense more with each step he took.

“Eddie, this isn’t funny,” he said, almost hoping the man would jump out and yell, “Gotcha!”

At the end of the hallway it branched out into two other hallways, making a T shape. When he reached the end of it he looked down the length of each of the hallways, but they were deserted. Ray sighed in relief and walked out so he was standing right in the intersection of the three hallways.

“I think…my mind is just playing tricks on me,” he said and chuckled at himself for being so spooked at nothing. But when the man was staring down the right hallway a sudden breeze passed by him, making his clothes and hair ruffle a bit. Before Ray could even find it odd, since the air conditioning had long since been turned off, the door to the stairwell slammed.

Ray nearly jumped out of his skin and whirled around to face the hallway he had just come from. His breath shortened as his eyes darted around every inch of the hall, but could see nothing. He backed up into the wall of the intersection and dropped his broom. With shaking hands he grabbed the radio at his waist and brought it up to his mouth.

“G-George, this is Ray, p-pick up, please!” he nearly shouted into the radio in his fright, his eyes never moving from the stairwell door.

The radio crackled with static and it seemed like forever until a voice spoke.

“Hmm? Ray, whas the madder?” the groggy voice of George asked.

George Turner was the night guard. He was in his mid fifties and served as a better lump on a log rather than a guard. It was a well known fact that he spent most of his shift sleeping in the security room. He was even lazier than Eddie, at least when Eddie showed up he did his work and did it well, unlike George who, if he had to chase an intruder, would most likely be weighed down by his beer belly then die of a heart attack. Knowing that wasn’t helping Ray calm down one bit, but George was the only one on duty that night so he had little option.

“George, I think someone is in the building,” Ray whispered urgently into the handheld machine.

“Someone in the building?” George repeated, sounding more alert. “Hold on one sec.”

For a few agonizing seconds the radio went silent. Ray breathed harshly as he looked from one hallway to another then trained his eyes back on the stairwell door. What if there was an intruder in the building? What could they possibly want?

The radio crackled to life once more and Ray was relieved to hear the other man’s voice.

“Ray, the only person I’m seeing on the monitors is you and boy! You look more scared than a jack rabbit at a Fourth of July party in August!”

Ray refrained from stating how utterly absurd that sounded and spoke into the radio again.

“No, George, you have to look again. Please look again. I know I saw something and someone just ran by me and went through the door to the stairs. I just know it!”

“All right, all right, will you calm down? I’ll look again. Just stop getting your panties in a twist.”

Irritation started taking over Ray’s fear as the radio went silent again. Here he was, possibly in mortal danger, and George couldn’t give a rat’s ass. Ray was as good as dead.

“Ray, I’m tellin’ ya, there is no one else in the building. It’s just you and your cleaning buddies on that floor,” George assured him after a few minutes.

Ray’s pulse slowed a little and the tension in his shoulders eased just a bit. The news relieved him, but didn’t ease his fears completely.

“Are you absolutely sure?” he asked.

“Yes, yes, I’m sure, don’t you trust me? Maybe Eddie is just goofing around or something, or maybe the lazy bastard is trying to sneak into work so he doesn’t catch hell from you,” George suggested.

The janitor had to bite his tongue so he didn’t give George a scathing remark about being lazy.

“No, it couldn’t have been. Eddie doesn’t sneak and certainly not because he’s late for work. He’s usually very upfront about it.”

“Well, I don’t know what to tell you then, Buddy.” The little machine went quiet again, as if the man on the other end was contemplating something. “Ray, I’m going to ask you something and I want you to really consider it.”

Ray finally took his eyes off the stairway door to look up at the security camera that George was no doubt looking at him from.

“What is it?” the janitor asked curiously.

“You think you been workin’ the nightshift just a little too long? Maybe its time you switched with one of the mornin’ boys. I mean, if you’re starting to think you’re seein’ things then–”

“George, working nights is not affecting my mind or anything like that,” Ray cut him off, offended by the very suggestion. He recovered enough of his composer to push away from the support of the wall and scowl at the security camera.

“All right, all right, no need to get testy,” George said. “It was just an idea, but I’ll say it again. There’s no one in this building besides you and me, you’re fine, nothin’ is gonna jump out of the shadows and get you.”

Ray bit his lip and glanced at the stairwell door. He knew he saw something. He knew he felt someone run past him. And he knew, without a doubt, that the stairwell door slammed. Someone had to have gone through it. The door was just too heavy to be opened and shut by a breeze.

“Ray, come on, talk to me. Stop scaring yourself and trust me. You’re fine,” George insisted when the man was silent a little too long.

Ray took in a deep breath and let it out. He could have been wrong. He could have mistaken everything and he could have been wrong…he prayed to God in heaven that he was wrong.

“Okay, yeah, you’re right. Maybe it was just my imagination,” he said, though there was no conviction behind his words.

It seemed to be enough for George as the man said,

“Good! I’m glad you’ve come to your senses.”

“George, just do me one favor,” Ray requested.

There was a short pause on the other end before George’s voice spoke.

“What?”

“Please keep a close eye on all the monitors and tell me if anything is even slightly out of the ordinary,” Ray said and before the night guard could say anything he added, “Just for my piece of mind. If I don’t have someone looking out for me and making sure everything is all right I’m going to spook myself again.”

“Okay, I guess I can do that,” George said reluctantly, the “Okay” coming out as a long, drawn out sigh.

“Thanks, George.”

“No problem, just try and hurry up so you don’t manage to work yourself into a panic. Oh, and I’ll tell you when Eddie does show up so he doesn’t scare the living shit out of you.”

“Much appreciated.”

The radio went silent and Ray hooked it onto his belt. He took in a deep, calming breath before he bent down and picked up his broom. He felt better, but not completely reassured. As he walked back to his cart he tried not to think about how it was impossible for the door to open and close without someone’s help or about the dark figure he had seen in the reflection of the elevator doors. No, he was fine. He didn’t have to worry about anything. George was watching over him and everything was fine.

After putting his broom away he stared at the door that led to the stairs. He stood there for a couple of seconds before approaching it slowly. Each step was careful and he was ready to spring back at the slightest hint of danger. When his shaking fingers were around the doorknob he stilled and had to take deep gulps of air to work up his nerve.

He gave a start when his radio crackled and George’s voice said,

“Ray, leave it alone and go clean.”

The janitor put a hand to his chest and sighed deeply. He then smiled sheepishly up at the closest security camera. At least he knew George really was watching the monitors instead of going right back to sleep. With one last glance at the door Ray went back to his cart to finish cleaning the hallway. George was right, to save his peace of mind he had to clean fast and get the hell out of there.

An hour passed and Ray was strolling back to his utility closet to restock on some of his cleaning solutions that had run low. He was almost done with the entire building. He had never cleaned so fast in his life, but he wanted to get done and get out. He was continuously wary as he worked and looked over his shoulder almost constantly. His paranoia hadn’t lifted and he had checked back with George more than once to make sure everything was okay, to the great annoyance of the night guard.

“Now I just have to do the first floor and I’m done,” he said to himself, mostly to give himself motivation to get it done. The only thing that really had to be cleaned on the first floor was the lobby and, even though it was the largest room in the building, Ray was sure he could finish quickly.

A jingle chimed as Raymond pulled a ring of keys off his belt. He flitted through them to find the one to the closet. It was annoying how it automatically locked once the door closed. Once the key was found Ray took hold of the doorknob and was about to insert the key when he stopped. His brows furrowed as he held onto the handle tighter. Was it vibrating?

Ray was only able to ponder on it for a moment before he felt the vibration in the floor. The man cried out and was slammed into the door when the light vibration turned into violent tremors.

“An earthquake!?” Ray cried out as he held onto the doorknob for dear life.

The lights flickered and Ray watched as his cart rolled erratically before it toppled over. He followed soon after as a particularly violent jolt ripped the doorknob from his hold and sent him tumbling to the floor.

By the time the quakes subsided Ray was curled up into a ball with his arms over his head. He slowly came out of his fetal position and looked around. His vision was met with a wall of darkness. All of the lights had gone out, signaling the earthquake must have knocked out the power. Ray sat up and shielded his eyes when the lights abruptly came on, but were fainter than normal. The back up generator had kicked in.

“Crap, since when do we ever have earthquakes?” Ray murmured as he rubbed the back of his neck. He froze and his eyes widened when he had a thought. He hastily pulled his radio off his waist, which, thankfully, hadn’t been damaged in his fall.

“George! George, are you all right?” he asked worriedly. Dread swelled in his chest when there was no reply. “George! Answer me! George!!!”

Fearing the worst Ray scrambled to his feet and sprinted in the direction of the security room. Visions of George’s body buried under a wall of monitors kept dancing across Ray’s eyes and only made him run faster.

Luckily the security room was on the same floor as the utility closet, so Ray didn’t have that far to go. But to get to the security room he had to go past the boiler room, and that’s where Ray’s frantic running slowed into a trot then down to a mere walk before he stopped all together.

“Oh…my God.” The words slipped from Ray’s lips before his mouth fell open fully.

Where the door to the boiler room used to be was now a giant, gaping hole in the wall. Rubble and debris of the destroyed wall littered the floor and Ray almost tripped over a big chunk since he couldn’t take his eyes off the giant hole.

“What…what happened here?” he questioned, hoping someone could answer. Did the earthquake create it? Could an earthquake make one giant hole?

That was when Ray turned his head to look at the wall across from it and, if possible, his jaw dropped even further. Engraved in the other wall were four, extremely deep, gashes. The width of one mark was the size of Ray’s head.

Ray slowly went to the wall and, with a shaking hand, reached out and touched one. Since the area he was in was considered a “basement” of sorts the wall was made of pure concrete. What could possibly make such perfect marks in concrete?

In a wild moment of thought Ray lay his hand out, palm down. He gasped when he saw them for what they were with such clarity. With three of the marks different sizes, but the same shape and the fourth one much smaller, but further away from the other three there was only one thing they could be.

“Claw marks…”

He couldn’t believe it even as the words slipped from his lips. Claw marks. They couldn’t possibly be claw marks. What had claws that big?

Ray looked back to the gaping hole in the wall. He realized the earthquake hadn’t caused the hole. Whatever had made the claw marks was the culprit. Was whatever it was responsible for the earthquake too?

He wasn’t sure what made him do it, but Ray moved away from the wall and walked towards the “new door” and entered the boiler room. What he saw just made his jaw want to go completely to the floor and pop his eyes right out of his skull.

Right in the middle of the floor was another giant hole similar to the one in the wall. Ray inched towards it cautiously. When he was at the edge he looked into it. It was a pit of pure darkness and the man could get no sense as to how deep it was. If Ray had been in a humorous mood, and not completely petrified, he might have made a joke about the building being infested with giant gophers, but this was no time for jokes, nor was it a laughing matter.

As Ray examined the enormous crater his very blood turned to ice and a shudder wracked his body when a sound reached his ears. It was a sound that issued from somewhere in the building and made the very foundation, as well as Ray’s bones, quake and tremble.

A roar. A roar ripped through the halls of the building and left a deafening silence in its wake. It was like the roars the dinosaurs made on Jurassic Park, only this roar didn’t entertain Ray, but left him feeling short of breath and terrified.

“Holy Mary mother of God,” he whispered as he looked up at the ceiling toward the upper levels, where the roar must have come from. He whimpered and covered his ears as another earsplitting roar shook the building and was closely followed by a loud crash.

Ray loved fortune cookies more than most foods. They were crunchy, sweet, and their little messages always made him smile. He had been happy when his most recent one told him that fortune would smile down upon him. He just hoped this wasn’t what it had in mind.

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Hello all, I hope you are all having a wonderful summer vacation (depending on where you are of course.) I’d like to welcome you to my new story “Serpentine Embrace.” I’ve been thinking of it for the last few days and have become completely in love with it, and, after reading the first chapter, I hope you all are interested in what’s going on. It’s funny, if you just read the summary I’m sure you would have a completely different thought on where this story is going to go, then you actually read it and it’s something entirely different. It makes me giggle for some reason. Well, I hope you all enjoyed it and are interested enough to come back for the second chapter once I finish it and get it posted. I would love to hear some feedback on how it’s going so far and if anyone has any ideas on what I can improve on I’m all ears. See you next time!