In The Dark

Her office door was slightly open, but with the light off.

“Surely, my open door policy isn’t that intentional. I shut that when I left, I’m sure of it. Where’s my medical examiner when I need him? These people will think I’m still on the bottle when I start talking”, Celine spoke to herself while she stepped closer to her office.

Celine Harris was a routine kind of girl, so her presence in the office, during the wee hours of the morning was highly unusual and potentially risky. When she’d taken the job as CEO after her father, she knew and had prepared for backlash and resistance. But someone was crossing a serious line and Celine was not going to trust anyone but herself to deal with them, as soon as she discovered who was doing what exactly.

Many nights, she battled with the aspect of revenge that inspired her sudden zeal for this mystery, along with buying wine bottles and then discarding their contents in her kitchen sink. She appreciated the guilt she’d suppress each time she entered a bottle store but, simultaneously despised herself for buying anything at all. Celine was two years sober, and proud of it not because her family and friends were commending her efforts but because her relationship with God gave her confidence she was conquering this thing. Following her choice to befriend Jesus, her weekly therapy sessions and that emergency check-in to a rehabilitation center, she wanted nothing more than to be of sober mind indefinitely.

Alcohol abuse hadn’t felt like an issue to her since she’d started back in university. She’d enjoyed all that it had come with and managed some good, final grades that led to her graduating. She’d loved the parties, romantic partners and bad friends. She and her crew were the known party-makers, and everyone who had an occasion planned knew they needed Celine & Co. to be present or at least show face.

The beginning of the end of her drinking sprees occurred a while after she’d joined the advertising firm. Her father wanted to see the returns of his investment in her education and Celine joined reluctantly. She worked more hours than all the misogynistic men who were her superiors, and knew the bottom of every wine bottle from the store down the street by her second year.

Her father called it out and suspended her pay for a few months as an attempt to help her slow down on the hard liquor. He'd failed dismally. The suspension had only sent Celine on a rebellious bender across the world, where she’d spent all her savings with a few of her old friends, who attended daily wine-tasting events right beside her.

The criticism and whispers from the Board were a thick thorn in her father’s flesh and he reluctantly called her back to work just to appease them, and save face. He’d not been interested in her well-being as much as he’d wanted to control what picture of him she painted.

Celine returned to the office with more sass and indifference to him than four teenagers with raging hormones and no supervision. Yet, even with all that, Celine remained his top performing employee and even saved a potential loss of a major client by, ironically, inviting the client over to the firm for a negotiation and some wine.

When her old man fell ill a few years later, Celine and her mother were his caretakers until his death. Celine’s patience with him had first made him wish the illness would kill him sooner, until one day which was a better one than most, while they sat in his backyard where Celine read to him. She’d started off with an article that celebrated his company for landing one of its biggest clients yet, and then moved to a book she’d bought to read to him.

Celine had specifically picked a Danielle Steel, Hallmark romance novel, to agitate her old man because she didn’t know him to be sentimental. To her surprise, and secret relief, he grew fonder of the story while she read it.

Mr. Harris, soon after that day, decided that his drunkard daughter would be his successor and when he informed the Board over a Teams call, Celine had been just as gobble smacked as the members who murmured inaudibly at the announcement.

“What? Celine!?”

Others gasped and ooed.

“That’s final. It’s in my will as well, and if any of you have a grievance…”

Mr. Harris coughed painfully.

“…you can speak to my attorneys and Wick. Thank you for your attention, and with your support henceforth, I know we all know Celine will take us...” he choked. “Will take the company to greater heights. Good day, ladies and gentlemen.”

David Wick was the COO of the advertising firm and had secretly approved his boss’s choice to appoint Celine as successor.

Mr. Harris ended the Teams call and the Harris household experienced a siege of silence.

Mrs. Harris leaned on the frame of the kitchen door, looking at her offspring and husband in awe. Her eyes watered gradually.

“Dad. I…” Celine began.

Mr. Harris put up his hand to silence her.

“There’s a clause in your contract, that you’ll sign probably when I’m gone. It states that in a case where you breach the provisions regarding drinking, you’re out. You hear me?!”

Celine looked right into her father’s eyes, searching for something but unsure what that was. She moved from uncertain to absolutely ready, in her mind and responded.

“Yes sir!”

Celine burst into tears as her mother embraced her from behind.

They all shared a sacred moment then, that none of them ever imagined would occur in their lifetimes.

Mr. Harris passed in his sleep that very night and Celine knew she had to make sure his decision wouldn’t blow up in her face. Some days she wanted to hate him for pushing her without asking first, but one constant thing was her appreciation for his foresight. He’d shown her that he could see her potential, and more than that, he saw her. Her mandate at the firm would always be to show up her best and make him proud.

Today, however, while inspecting the office building at 3am, Celine wasn’t feeling too grateful for her position. It was nearing the anniversary of her father’s demise and Celine had been feeling more lethargic than usual. She initially counted it as fatigue and visited a clinic for an immune booster shot.

To her fortune or misfortune, depending on perspective, one night when she was leaving the office, she caught the elevator with two new trainees who were too ignorant to notice that their boss’s boss’s boss was in their midst. They went on and on about office politics and mentioned spotting one of the Board members lingering in the premises at awkward hours twice in the same week. If Celine was naïve at all, that moment would’ve proven otherwise because it was the detail that confirmed her gnawing suspicion that she was dealing with a potential saboteur.

She’d noticed that recently, a few items in her office would be misplaced slightly or absolutely, and assumed that maybe her designated cleaner, Angie, was having some rough mornings and simply missing some things.

Now, she was caught between excitement for the catch and annoyance over the discovery of what was really going on. Her visit to the clinic had also included a check-up for all her vital organs. The doctor discovered traces of Xanax in her system, to both their surprise because Celine had not visited a pharmacy nor hospital since the drinking spree that nearly killed her, and also hadn’t been on any medication for a long while . The immediate assumption was poisoning but Celine, employing the calmness she inherited from her mother, declared that she’d figure out who was doing that before involving the police.

To her, it wasn’t simply a threat to her well-being, but a big threat to her father’s legacy and their clientele. Her mother. When she thought about it she felt her blood boil and was adamant that she’d face this head on before protocols and legal got involved. This was personal.

Celine had taken a shower around 2am and driven to the office for a full day of work, but first she hoped to get lucky and spot any irregularities on the premises, that would give her some answers. She set her bags on her desk, quietly and casually walked out again, moving around. She targeted the kitchen area first.

Inside the spacious kitchen, she could hear the soft sound of the refrigerator as she pulled one of its two doors open. She had her own bar fridge in her office but she surveyed all the products in this one, looking for Xanax or anything else that was odd-looking.

Nothing.

She was about to examine the cupboards, one by one, when she heard something falling a distance away. Carefully, she followed the echo of the fallen thing. When she’d reached the janitors closet , the door was opened with the light on. Celine stepped inside and let her eyes browse the room. She heard footsteps getting louder and ran to hide behind the coat cabinets in the back. She wasn’t sure if it was Frank, the janitor designated to this floor, but if it were, Human Capital would need to explain to her why he was clocking in this early in the morning. She wanted to peep from the side of the beige cabinet but her heart was racing and she didn’t know which direction the person was currently facing.

She decided the risk was worth it and took a peep. If anything, she had more of a right to ask what anyone was doing here at this hour.

It was David Wick.

What was he doing in the janitor’s closet? This man will fuss over a waiter nudging him on his shoulder and now he was hanging out with mops at three in the morning? Weird. She lingered to see what he was up to. Maybe she could wait him out and see what he was doing in here first, in his absence. He left the room again.

Celine worried he’d lock her in but he didn’t close the door, she caught a glimpse of white latex gloves on his hands as he stepped out, carrying what looked like a packet of tablets.

Celine held her hand to her mouth. The Xanax.

“That bastard”, she whispered.

She caught the stench of old shoes and wet cloths and figured she could walk out to see what he was fiddling with in there. His phone was on the bench beside a bag she figured was his too. Celine felt a flush of adrenaline and placed her hand on her chest. She sat beside the bag and started searching for Xanax or any evidence of it inside.

And there it was. A receipt from the pharmacy just two blocks from the office building. He’d purchased them weeks ago according to the date on it.

That’s premeditation, she counted. Attempted murder, possession of drugs with illegal intent or intent to kill, whatever the law called it. He was going down.

Celine held the receipt in her hand and closed her eyes. She propped herself up just enough to reach the light switch and switched it off. She sat back down to wait for her potential killer. While waiting, she whispered a thank you into the atmosphere and bowed her head in anticipation. The footsteps were audible again.

David paused at the door, pondering whether or not he’d turned the light off when he’d stepped out earlier. Then he turned it on to his horror.

Celine raised her head and looked him dead in the eyes.

“You know what’s crazy about the dark, Wick?” she prompted him with the same frown her father wore when he addressed a grievance.

“It’s that no matter how dark it can be or seem, the moment light comes through, that’s it. End of story. Darkness goes poof like a bad dream”, Celine gestured fireworks with her hands as she spoke.

The receipt in her hand made David blink twice as she held onto it. Celine’s eyes were boring into the candidate retiree.

“Celine, it’s not what it looks like. I- “

“Don’t! You’re a coward. You want me to die so you can what?! Rule here for a measly two years. Or were you going to forge your birth certificate to get a few more years on you?”

Celine held her tongue and let the discomfort of the moment linger.

“You’re dead to me Wick!”

Celine hit his chest with the receipt in hand, making sure not to drop it. She moved past him and stepped out of the closet.

“Clean up that bag and whatever else belongs to you. I want you out of this building in the next hour. The police will be contacting you. Don’t travel anywhere far”, Celine spoke coldly with tears in her eyes.

Wick had been a bit like a stepfather to her. She loved him as her father’s friend and advisor. He’d approved her appointment. Why would he want to kill her?

She heard all the questions flooding her mind as she paced to her office. She breathed heavily and sat down, crying out.