Wronged First Day

Aimee left the elevator but the two men behind her didn't. After locating her office, she put her iphone into her bag to get a better view of the office undistracted. The office was not what she expected though. She had thought it would be a personal office but it had four tables( though well spaced and arranged). All tables were occupied excluding one which she guessed was hers and moved towards it.

“ Hey, how can we help you? " A voice called her. It was a tall slim dude around his middle 20s that had called her. She turned and saw him approaching her,

“ Hi, I'm Aimee..sorry for just walking in just like that"

“ it's fine, I'm Henry. I should blame the security personnel for not doing his job properly by stopping you" “So how can we help you? You lost your way?" He asked with a smiley face.

“No, not at all. I'm supposed to come tomorrow but was too eager to check out my new office."

“Ohhh..! A..im " he said pronouncing her name by leaving out the ‘ee'.

“Aim-e-e rather" she said correcting him as they chuckled.

“Well, my table is the one beside yours" he winked, “ And that's Rachel's and Eve's at the other end. They'll soon be here though." “Besides, where's the security guard in charge of this floor" Henry asked looking around then back to Aimee, “ Well, have your time and explore the building. I'm right here if you need assistance" he said tapping her shoulder and giving a grin, then walked towards his table as Aimee also went to hers to put her stuffs.

After putting her stuffs in order, she left the office after a futile effort of patient waiting to see Rachel and Eve.

“Where are you off to? Henry called as her saw her leaving the office. “ I can show you around" Henry offered.

“ I'm just thirsty that's all...and I think I saw a dispenser on the ground floor while heading to this place"

“ Oh okay then...help me ask around too for the guard in charge of this floor" Hebert said as he fell back to his computer screen.

“Not as if I know him" she murmured to herself as she pushed the glass door and left the office.

As she walked past other offices, she noticed that there was no one inside them as well looking through the glass doors.

She soon got to the elevator, when it opened, she saw those same men she had seen earlier,they were still in the elevator.

She was confused and her guts told her something was odd but she ignored it, giving herself countless reasons why the men being in the elevator was normal.

Soon, the elevator stopped at the ground floor and she left while the men didn't. She scanned through the floor looking for the water dispenser she had seen earlier. She finally found the dispenser but something was wrong...the whole room was empty. It was just a little girl and a guard at the main entrance.

She decided to approach the guard to ask what was happening,

“Hello? What's happening? Are you the guard for the fifth floor? Where are the other security personnels?" Aimee asked but didn't get any response from the man. So,she repeated the question but he didn't even move.

“Hello" she said waving her hands over his face.

“ He won't respond" the little girl told her as the guard looked at the little girl and back into space.

“Hey,what's your name? " Aimee asked as she squatted to lower her height.

“ Annabelle, Anna for short"

“Okay Anna, where's your Mommy? How old are you? Aimee asked with concern as she out her hands on the little girl's shoulder.

The little girl didn't mention a word and pionted to the elevator.

“Oh! Your Mommy took the elevator?"

“Yes"

“Okay..so what about everyone?"

“ Some bad guys took them" Anna said as she pointed again to a door. Aimee laughed as she stood up right. She didn't believe the little girl though her instincts sensed something was wrong somewhere.

“Lets go find your Mommy, shall we?" Aimee said as she patted the little girl's head. She took Anna's hand and eyed the security guard as she headed to the elevator.

Aimee was a little scared as she had noticed that things were not normal when she got into the bank. There was nobody at the entrance when she got in, now there's a dumb security guard there. She didn't want to overthink and wavered the feeling as she thought of other things to counter her doubts.

On her way to the elevator, Aimee stopped and turned towards the guard and asked again,

“ Where's everyone?"

This time around,the guard made some movements in an attempt to adjust his earphones,

“Okay boss, banks sealed" the guard said in response to whoever that was at the other end of the call.

“ Why's the bank sealed? What's the problem?" Aimee asked after failed attempts of covering up her fears.

The man smiled and spoke again,

“Okay, I'll be there shortly" he said as he disconnected the earphones, then he replied her,

“ Everything is fine Miss, I'll be going to the fifth floor soon, just go back to your office. We are just having minor issues so we sent some of the customers away."

The guards words were not enough to put Aimee's mind at ease as she didn't trust the man.

“ Come on Anna, let's go" Aimee said as she took Anna's hand again and headed towards the elevator. As the elevator opened, Aimee expected to see the two men she had seen earlier but they were not there again.

Immediately she entered the elevator, she saw an object rolling into the elevator as it was about to close. Few seconds later, the small space was filled up with gas. Aimee was struggling to breath but couldn't hold up any longer. Meanwhile, Anna had already passed out.

**********

“. Aimee?" Joe asked as he saw her standing and hugged her.

“Whats wrong? Why are you standing here? Are you not supposed to be at work? You did say today was your pay day." Joe asked with so much concern in his voice as Aimee kept on sobbing.

He took her from the bus stop where she had been standing all along for the bus to arrive. He took her to his car as he opened the door for her to get in. As she got in, she raised her head and rested it on the seat to stop her tears from rolling down her cheeks.

“Whats wrong?" Joe said getting into the car.

“ I..." Aimee wanted to speak but kept sobbing.

“ it's okay, just cry it out" Joe said as giving her his handkerchief to clean her tears. She took the clothing and cleaned her face then spoke again,

“The bar...the bar I worked at..." She paused again to sniff in the fluid coming out from her nose then continued,

“ I got fired" she said as she started crying again.

“Oh Aimee...I'm so sorry" Joe said as he raced his mind for a comforting word or statement to say to her,

“Who would want to sack someone as hardworking as you?"

“Well, my boss invited me to his home to collect my pay. When I got there, he offered me a drink then left to his room to get the money...so he said. I didn't take the drink because it was alcoholic"she paused to sniff again.

“Ya I know you don't take alcoholic drinks" Joe interrupted.

“Yeah"she sniffed again.

“So what happened?"

“ When he came out of his room,he wasn't holding anything and he seemed surprised seeing me sober and still conscious...so maybe the drink was drugged or..."

“ Wait!...he wanted to drug you" Joe said furiously.

“ I'm not sure Joe. It seemed as if...."

“He better not...so how about your pay? Did he pay you??"

“ He told me he wanted to double my pay but I'd have to sleep with him and..." Aimee was still talking when Joe cut in again,

“What? I'm going to sue him for that... taking advantage of a little girl. Hope he didn't hurt you? Hope you are alright?" Joe asked turning her face to check for wounds and injuries.

“ I'm fine Joe,don't worry about me. At least, he didn't do anything to me and I don't have proof that he drugged my drink,so let it slide."

“ I don't care Aimee...hope he paid you?"

“Nope he didn't, but don't do anything, Okay? Let Karma deal with him...I'll just go get a new job"

“ Fine, if that's what you want. But on one condition"

“Which is?"

“You'd go to college"

“But..."

“No buts, the expense is all on me and I'm happy when you and your grandma is happy. It really looks good on you two."

“ Joe..."Aimee called him as she looked at him with so much gratitude in her eyes.

“What?"

“Thank you so much. I don't know what I would have done if I didn't meet you"

“Well, you didn't meet me, I did and I've never for one day regretted having an amazing person as a friend" Joe said as he patted Aimee's shoulder.

Then he brought out some papers from the back seat,

“ One more thing" he said , handing the papers to Aimee as she went through it.

“Y..o.u.."

“Yea, I did as promised" Joe cut in as always, “ So your grandmother's bill is good and now college is next and..." this time around, Aimee interrupted as she hugged Joe tightly that he couldn't breathe properly.

“Thank you Joe"