Into The Cubes

“So what kind of mischief are we getting into tonight, boys?” Jason asked, grinning at the other three high school boys standing at the end of a driveway on a Friday evening.

Sam smiled and pulled a key from his pocket.

“What does that open?” Danny asked, bouncing excitedly on his feet.

“My father’s office building,” Sam responded. His father had gone out of town for the weekend, and Sam snagged the key.

“Won’t we get caught?” Forrest asked. “Can’t we hang out at the lake?”

Jason rolled his eyes. “We always go to the lake.”

Sam punched Forrest’s arm playfully. “Don’t worry. The company is ‌between security systems, so we won’t get caught. Just make sure you don’t break anything.” 

“No guarantee,” Danny said, raising his eyebrows. 

Sam hopped into the driver’s seat of his car. “Let’s go.”

The other boys joined, and Sam drove to his father’s company building. A massive square edifice loomed before them at the end of town. The sun had just set when they arrived and parked in the back lot so as not to be spotted by a passing vehicle. They exited the car and Sam led them to a backdoor, sticking the key in to unlock it.

“You sure the cameras are off?” Forrest asked, pointing to a camera above the door.

“Yes,” Sam responded, annoyed. Couldn’t Forrest just chill for once? He was too much of a rule follower.

Sam swung the door open and stepped in, followed by Jason and Danny, while Forrest hesitated outside for a moment before following the others inside. Sam flipped a switch, and the ceiling tiles flickered on.

“Woah,” Jason gasped, “this place is huge!”

Cubicles stretched for as far as the eye could see, or until the far wall a football field's distance away. A staircase to their right ascended to a second floor.

“What’s up there?” Danny inquired.

“The same as down here,” Sam answered. 

“So what are we doing here?” Forrest asked, gazing at the monotony before him. He could not imagine working in such a dull place as this. It felt suffocating. 

“Let’s play hide and seek,” Danny said, turning toward Sam. “Let’s come here again but bring girls with us.” 

“So we have more people to play games with?” Jason asked sarcastically.

“Yea, if that’s what you want to believe,” Danny responded with a smirk.

“Who’s counting? Forrest asked as he walked to an aisle and peered down it.

“You,” Sam said.

Forrest frowned. “Absolutely not. You brought us here. You count first.” 

Sam sighed. By the look on Forrest’s face, there would be no arguing with him. It had been hard enough to drag him here in the first place, and Sam didn’t want any more conflict. He wanted to have fun. “Fine. I’ll count to one-hundred.”

“Great,” Forrest responded as he sat his water bottle near the exit.

“Can we go upstairs?” Jason asked.

“You can go anywhere except outside,” Sam responded. He pressed his head against the wall, closed his eyes, and counted. Feet scrambled ‌in different directions. The place was huge, but he had been here several times and thought he would find all of them within an hour. Ninety-nine…one hundred. Sam spun around and opened his eyes. He was certain Forrest had run off to his left and probably hadn’t wandered far from the door, so he headed that way, picking the farthest left of eight aisles and heading down it. He paused momentarily at every doorway, taking a quick look under desks and in far corners. 

Every cubicle followed the same layout: matching desks placed along the back wall with a basic black chair, two monitors, and a place for the company laptop to be used as a third screen if desired. A filing cabinet sat just to the right of the desk. Some contained bookshelves; others had small tables or an extra chair. Most were decorated, giving each one a uniqueness that told a story of the person who worked in that specific cubicle: family photos, fake plants, trinkets and memorabilia, calendars ranging from nature to sports cars. People made every effort to make their cubicle distinguishable. 

Forrest was nowhere to be found, at least as far as Sam could tell, and Sam excelled at the game of hide and seek. 

“I’m going to find you all soon,” Sam shouted. His voice echoed faintly off the walls adding to the bigness of the place. He jogged to the nearest bathroom, checking the women’s first. Empty. 

As he opened the men’s bathroom door, he heard what sounded like shallow breathing. I’ve found you, Forrest. Sam strode into the room, bending low to check for feet. Nothing. Forrest must be standing on a toilet.

“You’ve been caught,” Sam announced as he kicked in the door of the first stall. It was empty. The other four were void of humans as well. 

That’s odd. I swore I heard breathing. Maybe the quiet was playing tricks on him. Yea, that was it. He exited the men’s bathroom and ascended the nearest stairs to the second floor; similar layout but with conference rooms along the right wall and a shorter ceiling. 

Choosing the middle aisle, Sam slowed as he passed each cubicle. This was taking longer than he thought. He certainly didn’t want to be the seeker the whole night. What if they were moving hiding spots? Dang. He should have forbidden that. This might be harder than he thought.

“Starting now, you can’t move once you’ve picked a hiding spot,” he yelled.

The lights flickered, and the room plunged into darkness. Sam turned and sprinted down the stairs, thankful for the emergency lights to guide his way. He intended to catch whoever shut the lights off. He didn’t need any more of a challenge.

“You can’t move once you’ve picked your hiding spot,” he shouted to whoever hid on the first floor and hoped they would listen. 

Out of the corner of his eye, a shadow darted from one of the break rooms into an aisle. Sam sprinted after it, turning onto that aisle and halting. 

“I said you can’t move,” he retorted. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea. He liked his friends, but they loved to mess with each other, and it seemed they were really messing with him now.

“Danny… Jason…” he called out as he checked the nearest four cubicles. It was difficult to see in the dark, but he felt around and found no sign of whoever had darted into this aisle. Sam would have seen whoever it was if they were further down the aisle. Sure, it was dark, but it wasn’t pitch black. Forest was the fastest, and he was skinny. Maybe…

A gut-wrenching scream filled the air, hitting Sam like a burst from an air horn. He jumped and spun around. It sounded as if somebody had gone to the top of the stairwell and yelled at the top of their lungs.

Somebody was trying to scare him. Sam didn’t scare easily, but he had to admit that it was an effective scream. It had freaked him out. Just a bit.

“Haha, hilarious,” Sam shouted, attempting to steel himself. I’m going to turn on the lights first, and then I’ll find these jokers.

Sam raced down the aisle. He burst from it and angled left toward the office, reaching it and flicking the switches. Fluorescent light flooded the room, and he breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness.

“Don’t do that again,” he shouted as he jaunted up the stairs, intending to find whoever screamed and ring their neck.

Reaching the second floor, he slowed to calm his breathing and glanced around the room. A figure darted into the bathroom. Sam raced down the last aisle and into the bathroom. 

“You can’t escape now.” He kicked in every door. All the stalls were empty. “What the hell?” There was no other place to hide. Sam slapped his hands to his side, flummoxed and frustrated.

He spun around toward the exit and shrieked. 

“Got ya!” Danny said, cackling uncontrollably and pointing his finger at Sam.

“Screw you,” Sam responded, shoving Danny.

“You should have seen your eyes. They were as wide as the moon.”

“Shut up.” Sam wasn’t having it. His heartbeat was through the roof and he didn’t want to be in the bathroom anymore. “How did you get behind me?”

“What?” Danny asked as he tried to catch his breath. He stood a foot from the bathroom exit.

“You ran into the bathroom, so how did I miss you?”

Danny cocked his head to the right. “What on earth are you talking about?”

“You ran into the bathroom. I saw you.”

“Bro, I followed you in,” Danny stated.

“Don’t lie to me. I know what I saw,” Sam snarled, heat rushing to his face.

Danny put his hands up and backed away. “I’m telling the truth. I wondered why you stomped across the room like you were chasing someone.”

“I was chasing you!” Sam shouted. 

Danny shook his head, eyes darting around the bathroom.

“Are you being serious?” Sam asked.

“I’m not lying.” 

Sam’s hair stood on end. He pushed past Danny and jogged out of the bathroom. The room plunged into darkness.

“It’s gotta be Jason,” Danny said, bumping into Sam.

“Did you scream?” Sam asked, hoping beyond hope it was Danny. It would certainly calm his nerves.

“No. I’m assuming it was Jason.”

“I sure as hell hope so.” 

Sam didn’t want to be here anymore. He wanted to be at the lake around a fire with a bunch of hot chicks to flirt with.

“Let’s head downstairs,” Danny said quietly, the tension in his voice palpable.

“Agreed.” 

Thankfully, the emergency lights were still on, so they could find their way to the far stairwell.

“You think Jason was just messing, right?” Danny asked, brushing shoulders with Sam as they stopped at the top of the stairs. 

“Jason, we’re not playing this game anymore. Please come out,” Sam demanded.

“Maybe he’s down–” Danny began but paused at a sound. 

Sam swiveled on his heels, glancing every which way. It sounded as if someone was moaning in pain near them. 

“Jason, come out, you jerk,” Danny said, peering down the nearest aisle. “Come on, bro.”

The moaning continued, growing louder, but it was hard to locate, as if it came from all directions. But that couldn’t be right. It was confusing and frightening. 

“Where on earth?” Danny whispered.

Sam stepped forward, and the direction of the sound changed. It was now slightly behind, which meant…

Both boys looked up. 

Jason’s head, half his torso, and one arm protruded from a ceiling tile, the back half of him hidden in the ceiling. It was as if his body had phased through and was stuck.

“Help me,” Jason groaned.

“What the hell, what the hell?” Sam stood frozen in horror.

“That’s not possible, this can’t be real,” Danny said, staggering backward. He stumbled off the first step, yelping as he fell down the stairs. Sam heard a distant crash, but his mind was too bewildered to register what had happened to his friend.

“Help me,” Jason pleaded.

A figure appeared at the other end of the room, its features blurred like a picture taken slightly out of focus. For a long moment, the thing and Sam stared at each other. Then it surged forward, floating across the ground at a rapid pace.

Sam turned and ran, bounding two steps at a time down the stairs. Halfway down, he jumped over Danny’s limp body. He reached the first floor and sprinted into the nearest aisle. At the other end, Forrest’s legs dangled from the wall of a cubicle, kicking wildly. Sam attempted to slide past, but it was too narrow, and a foot caught him in the chest, sending him spiraling to the ground.

Footsteps neared. In the darkness, something blacker took form. A long, spindly arm reached out to touch Sam’s head. A prick between his eyes. 

It felt as if Sam’s body was being sawed from his shoulder to his opposite hip. He blinked and opened his eyes to an aerial view of a room of cubes.

Sam screamed.