Chapter 20

"Omar?" Elise gasped, still trying to catch her breath. They were all sweaty and boiling from the inside out. Elise was almost too exhausted to really acknowledge the fact that she had just witnessed Omar, a man she mostly remembered for that one Christmas party she was invited to where every time she saw him he was holding at least three beers, throw a man to his death. "What the fuck?"

She slumped onto the floor, unable to stand anymore, and Holden joined her, leaning slightly against her, but she barely noticed.

"What been going on here? Where are the security guards?" Meagan asked. Her breathing was just as ragged as everyone else's, but she seemed too concerned to take a break.

"Things got real bad last night," Omar began. "They took over the restaurant and those not wanting to put up with their shit joined me and moved down here."

"Jesus Christ Omar, you start a revolution or something?" Elise asked.

"Wait, no more talk. Water, for the love of god," Steve finally managed.

"We do have a limited supply..."

"We brought guns," Elise held up her pistol.

"And granola!" Meagan offered.

"All right, follow me," Omar held the door open for them and the four weary travellers entered the Tower. "Holy shit. Did you guys bring a cat?"

***

Yesterday:

Krista was working a late shift that day. She started work about the same time Elise was going home, before the outbreak has garnered real attention, before the dead outnumbered the living. When she arrived they were having an oddly slow day seeing it was so sunny outside. That was the first and last warning she would get that something wasn't right.

An hour later she was on the glass floor level, trying to mind her own business and avoid tourists who looked like they needed someone to take their picture. She was terrible with a camera, always had been. She felt like she was doing them a disservice whenever she took a picture for them.

"What's going on out there?" One of the tourists asked, staring down through the glass floor.

Krista peered over the edge and saw a large crowd of people standing around at the base of the Tower. She couldn't tell if they were coming or going, but they all seemed to be moving, buzzing around each other like they were having a rave. Her first thought was that it was a flash mob, but for the life of her couldn't figure out what they were doing.

"Code 99. Code 99, please be advised-" came over her radio, and then it suddenly flared feedback as a good five people started speaking into it at once. She could barely make out anything being said, except for a snippet here and there:

"... banging on the doors..."

"... glass is break..."

"... what are those..."

Mostly it was just jumbled swearing and, she thought, someone started screaming giraffes over and over again. Suddenly she noticed that tourists were looking at her with worry and she turned off her radio, looking around nervously for a captain or a security guard.

"What's happening down there?"

"I, uh, I'm going to find out."

She saw another red shirt wearing host by the elevator and ran over. "Are you listening to the radio? What's going on?"

"Stop that elevator!" A security guard came around the corner and pointed at one of the hosts loading people onto an elevator to go back down.

"Hey, we've been waiting 5 minutes for this elevator," a tourist protested.

"Elevators aren't moving until we figure out what's happening-"

All their radios suddenly transmitted a final, frantic scream, and then white noise droned on until they turned them off.

The silence only lasted a second, before a tourist screamed in panic. The word "terrorist" was screamed more than once.

Krista was too stunned to move, until someone grabbed her shoulders and started violently shaking her. She felt her neck snap back and then one of the security guards grabbed the tourist and punched them in the face. The security guard had a glint of joy as his fist impacted with the man's face and an all out riot was suddenly in motion. Tourists frantic to escape and security guards happily beating them into submission.

All the hosts ran to the next floor up, just in time to see an elevator open, three security guards standing ready as three pigmy giraffes ran out, some sort of gelatinous goo still glazing their bodies. The guards only looked shocked for a brief second before they stomped on the tiny things, crushing them under their great black boots, grinning at each other as they ground blood and fur into the carpet.

When they were finished, the guards turned around at the shocked people.

"Everyone listen up! We're in charge now!"

Chapter 18

The instant Milo saw Elise he became attached to her, turning into a blur of fluff that circled around her feet. For a moment she couldn't move without kicking the cat, so stayed still as she smiled at her best friend.

"You weren't picking up your phone," Elise finally managed to say.

"Crap," Meagan hadn't thought to turn her phone back on after they lost contact. "I was saving battery power."

"New rule: If we get separated again, turn on your cell phone."

"Well hopefully we won't have to worry about that again. C'mon, let's go to the elevators and get your sister."

"Seen any of those security guards around?" Holden asked, holding his gun apprehensively. After that encounter with the man on the street he realized just how useless this gun was against a human - unless he was at point-blank range aiming at their eyes.

"It's been quiet-" Steve began, but a noise coming from below cut him off.

"Up the ramp," Meagan whispered, not wanting to waste any more time. Something was in the building with them.

"C'mon Dave," Elise pushed Holden forward, Milo letting up enough to allow her to walk, but not getting more than an inch away from her.

"Who?" Holden looked at her in confusion.

"Dave Holden."

Blank stare.

"Do androids dream of electric sheep?"

Holden turned to Steve. "So, Elise has apparently lost her mind."

"You just noticed?"

"Dave Holden is a character from the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"

"For the last time: I am not a literary character," Holden hissed, trying to keep from yelling.

"Tell yourself whatever you want - no one is named Holden in the real world."

They were almost at the end of the ramp when they heard the giraffe's wail.

"Run!" Meagan took off through the security checkpoint that once herded tourists, but was now abandoned, and headed towards the elevators now in sight.

Below them was the gift shop, a railing separating the two floors, and when they took a quick peek over they saw hundreds of giraffes in a nest made of cheap stuffed Moutie bears and the skeletal remains of tourists and staff.

"Fuck me!" Elise screamed. They had just found the motherlode of giraffes, and as she turned around and saw even more giraffes streaming up the ramp towards them she realized there was no escape.

Meagan reached the elevators first and screamed in frustration as the others turned and pulled out their guns to fire at the giraffes and give Meagan enough time to get them out of this situation.

"The elevators are out of order!"

"You told me once they could never break down!" Steve yelled.

"They can be turned off!"

"Plan B! PLAN B!!!" Holden screamed.

"THERE IS NO PLAN B!!!"

"DOESN'T THIS PLACE HAVE STAIRS!?!"

Meagan whirled around until she found the door to the stairwell, a skeleton still wearing black pants and a red shirt gripped keys in his hands. She grabbed them and reached the door, unlocking it and motioning her friends through.

"C'MON!!!"

The others turned and dived through, Steve was the last person, backing up as he kept shooting at the giraffes. They were about to overwhelm him as Meagan slammed the door on their tiny faces.

"Is everyone all right? Anyone bit?" Meagan started grabbing people's arms to check for bite-marks.

"Lay off," Elise pulled away, looking at the first flight of stairs.

"We can't be too cautious," Meagan frowned. She still couldn't believe Elise wasn't onboard with being overly cautious yet.

"Uh... Meagan?" Holden looked troubled. "Exactly how many stairs are we talking about here?"

Chapter 12

When they climbed out onto the fire escape there was a moment of dread as they looked at the blood red sky. The sun was setting.

"How long will it take us to get to the Tower?" Steve looked at Meagan.

"30 minute drive?" Meagan estimated.

"We won't be able to drive downtown," Holden shook his head.

"Why not?" Elise asked in annoyance, but she already knew the answer. They all knew that the main population of Toronto was downtown when the outbreak happened, which meant the cars were all downtown.

"The road's going to be clogged with abandoned cars," Holden still answered.

"Careful Meagan, Mr. Caulfield here might take your job as walking guidebook on how to survive the apocalypse."

Holden muttered something angry under his breath about his last name not being Caulfield, but the others had already started heading down the metal stairs to freedom.

The streets were silent, and they couldn't see any movement. The giraffes were all on the main street, either because they had already been through this area, or because there was something delicious over there left to eat.

"It will take too long to walk," Meagan was shaking her head.

"So we find a place to sleep tonight," Elise said, reaching the bottom first. Steve was next, and he helped Meagan down, the two exchanging awkward smiles and thanks as they moved away.

"Thanks for helping me down," Holden said sarcastically as he jumped down after Meagan.

"Listen you," Elise pointed at Holden, having a hard time keeping her voice down. "Stop complaining and be helpful for the next five minutes or I-will-feed-you-to-my-cat."

Suddenly they heard a high pitched wail and all turned to see a giraffe standing across the street, staring right at them. It made no move to attack, but kept making that noise until three more giraffes appeared, and then three after that.

They all pulled out their guns, ready to defend themselves, when Holden ran to a nearby car. He tried the first door, it was locked, but the second car's door opened and he jumped in.

"Get in!" He called over to them.

They stood for a moment, firing into the giraffes, but soon realized there was no way they could hold back the flood of furry vengeance, so they followed Holden into the car, slamming the doors shut and looking around frantically as the giraffes started jumping onto the hood and roof.

"Great fucking idea! Now what?" Elise punched the back of a seat to keep from punching Holden.

"Look for keys!" Holden suggested, but the fear in his eyes showed he hadn't thought this one through.

"That never works in real life!"

"Fighting doesn't help," Steve sighed, feeling like a man trapped in a car with children.

"Hang on," Meagan pulled out a screwdriver from the glove compartment and crawled into the driver's seat.

"Oh right," Elise rolled her eyes, "you know how to hot-wire a car."

"I do," she said blankly and the three watched on in silence, Milo meanwhile batted at the window in an attempt to fight the giraffes.

Then the car roared to life and everyone was still too stunned to speak as Meagan put it into gear and kicked the gas pedal, living behind a trail of giraffe jelly.

"How the hell did you learn how to do that!?!" Elise finally managed to ask.

"How many times do I have to tell you? I've been preparing for this all my life. I've known how to hot-wire cars since Grade 7."

***

It didn't take long before the cars became so dense they were constantly swerving around them or mounting the curb to keep moving forward. Before long it became too much trouble and they knew they had better find a place to hide soon - a place with food preferably.

Holden started directing them, telling them he knew just the place, and after five minutes of Meagan's road rage they crashed into a parking lot of a Scarborough plaza.

"What is this dump?" Elise looked weary of the place.

"My parents own a restaurant," Holden explained, pulling out a key chain, "and I have the keys.

With a final glance for giraffes, they grabbed all their gear and ran for the door. Once inside Meagan immediately started searching the small dining room for giraffes. As Steve barred the front entrance Meagan started looking around for emergency exits.

The restaurant was small, which made it easy to defend, and the windows had shutters over them to keep any kamikaze giraffes from coming through the window. Best of all - there was food.

Meagan couldn't keep the smile off her face as Steve and Holden started cooking something up for them. The gas was still working, though she imagined this would probably be the last night any of those amenities ever worked again. The thought didn't lessen her spirits.

This was a moment she had not only been preparing herself for, but a small part of her massively enjoyed the fact that she had been right all along. Plus she had her best friend, the man she had been secretly fantasizing about for as long as she had known him, and Holden in case she needed something to distract the giraffes with while she got away. She even liked having Milo around, who purred loudly as he ate two entire salmons in the corner of the restaurant.

If you were going to live through an apocalypse, this was the way to do it.

The night was peaceful, but all of them knew that tomorrow would be hard as they started their hike into the infested city, a city no longer owned by them, but maybe the greatest predator that ever lived - the lap giraffe.

Chapter 10

"You tried to kill Milo!" Elise's voice had become a shrill whip. She gathered the bundle of fluff that was Milo - who had hardly noticed the BB barely missing his head and imbedding itself into one of the shelves - and glared accusingly at Holden.

Holden, a tall thin man with dark hair an blue eyes, who looked to be about the same age as her and Meagan lowered his BB gun. "I'm sorry! I thought it was a giraffe!"

"Are you fucking blind!?!"

"You know what, it's been a pretty fucking crazy day! Their colouring's similar, I just reacted!" He looked towards Steve for help, but Steve shrugged in a manner that said: "I don't really know her - deal with this yourself." Elise looked at Meagan, also wanting someone to back her up, but Meagan was just gazing up at Steve with adoration, so Elise rolled her eyes and went back to glaring at Holden.

"You should be more careful with that thing."

"Why did you even bring your cat? Don't you know it's the apocalypse?"

"He followed me - and he's already taken out more of those damn giraffes today than you ever will with your crappy shot."

"Hey! My crappy shot saved your cat's life!"

Milo had begun to purr rather loudly and started licking Elise's face, which made arguing considerably difficult, so Elise decided to let the matter rest and walk away to pick a gun.

Holden still continued to mutter to himself as she walked away: "Like I ever fired a gun before - I'm a god damned artist."

Elise put Milo down and started stuffing her pockets full of ammo. The first gun she picked up was an uzi replica, but Meagan tsked behind her.

"Don't grab anything automatic, you need to conserve your ammo. Semi-automatic is the best," Meagan said as though it were the most obvious thing in the world, looking up at Steve with a smile and Elise realized Meagan was just trying to show off all her insane survival knowledge.

Elise couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealousy as she put the uzi down and watched Steve and Meagan laughing together. After all the insanity they had just gone through to find each other, Meagan was completely ignoring her best friend for some guy.

And who was this Steve guy anyway? Meagan always went on and on about them, but how come they didn't just date? Was Meagan too nervous to ask? Was Steve too much of a jerk to notice her? Were they both just really socially awkward? Actually, that last theory sounded pretty sound.

Elise found a loaded Tommy gun replica and feeling a slight twinge of nostalgia for WWII movies - and never one to follow rules very well - she threw it in the bag Meagan had given her, then grabbed a hand gun to appease Meagan's insistence they only bring semi-automatics. Elise was pretty sure there would come a time when a mob of giraffes would be on them and a Tommy gun would come in pretty handy - even if it was only firing pellets.

Meagan and Steve were discussing their game plan and Elise noticed Milo had gone over to Holden who was petting him. "Traitor," she thought to herself.

"We have to go north," Meagan was still speaking in a matter-of-fact voice.

"Why?" Elise was beginning to feel annoyed and couldn't help but question her logic.

"Because giraffes are from Africa. The cold will kill them. So long as we survive the winter, we'll survive the apocalypse."

"... But it's August."

"Yes, well, winter will come eventually."

"And what do we do until then? Do you have any idea how hard it is to survive in the wild? Not to mention even if we did make it until winter we have no winter camping gear. You know, my sister and I-" Elise felt her stomach twist. "OH MY GOD!!! KRISTA!!!"

She had been so concerned with her own survival she had completely forgot to call her little sister. She had no idea if Krista was alive or dead, but she had to find out. She fished her phone of out her pocket, spilling BBs on the floor that Milo immediately started playing with and dialed her sister's number.

It rang one, twice, three times... Every time it rang Elise got closer and closer to bursting out in tears. Then, finally, miraculously, someone picked up and she heard the scared voice of a young woman answer.

"Hello?"

"Krista! Are you all right? Where are you? Who are you with? Do you have a weapon? You haven't been bitten, have you?"

"Elise? Calm down, I'm fine," she sounded like she was crying. "I'm at work, we're okay. We stopped the elevators and everyone up here is fine."

"Wait... you're still at the Tower?" Krista worked at the CN Tower. When she said she was upstairs she didn't mean on the second floor - she meant on the observation deck over 300 metres in the air. "Jesus Christ..."

"Is she okay?" Meagan asked, concerned that I suddenly look worried.

"Krista, it's okay. I have guns."

"You have guns?"

"Well, they're guns in principle. Look! I'm coming to get you." I hung up, turning it back off to conserve the battery and looked at Meagan. "We have to rescue Krista. She's in the CN Tower."

"Um..." Meagan started.

"Going downtown is not a good idea," Steve shook his head, but he wasn't saying no.

"I like the plan where we go north - away from the things trying to eat us," Holden walked over to them.

"No one invited you," Elise glared.

"Oh yeah, because I really want an invitation to the suicide run," but Holden still looked slightly disappointed.

"I can't leave Krista. She's all the family I have. None of you have to come with me, but that's where I'm going. That being said..." she looked back at Meagan, pleading with her eyes, "I don't suppose you wanna help me rescue my little sister and a bunch of tourists trapped in the Tower?"

Chapter 6

Elise was dizzy and in pain as she sat up, unsure of where she was. She grabbed for the car's door-handle, opening it and falling out onto the pavement. It took a moment to remember why she was in a car and why there was a dead cyclist on it, and when she did she didn't feel hysterical anymore, because the dizzy feeling didn't go away. She felt her head and when she looked at her hand it was covered in blood. The airbag had deployed, but when she saw the cracked window of the car door she realized her head had hit that instead.

Milo jumped down from the car and began to nuzzle his face against her arm, apparently unharmed from the accident. She thought he was going to scamper away in fear, but he seemed reluctant to leave her side.

Good, she thought, maybe he'll scare away those things.

She got to her feet, looking around at the quiet street. If Meagan had taught her anything it was that the sound of the crash and the smell of blood was going to attract any giraffes within range. She started walking, still too dazed to really care what direction she was going in, and Milo dutifully followed.

Elise used to laugh at Meagan whenever she would start on a rant about being prepared for the apocalypse, but she had been patient with Elise, ignoring her jokes and drilling the importance for survival into her brain. For her birthday every year Meagan would buy her a book; The Road, World War Z, essentially every novel written by John Wyndham, all to get Elise to soak up some knowledge on how to be prepared for when the day came. She in turn would jokingly buy Meagan SARS masks and mace refills.

And now... Elise still couldn't believe crazy-ass Meagan, who always checked for emergency exits when they walked into a room, had been right all this time. She reached for her phone and realized she had left it in the car. It didn't matter, the damn thing was dead anyway. She could find a new one, and while she was at it she could find a weapon as well.

She thought about backtracking, but it was clear that the giraffes were more concentrated in that direction. She guessed that in a panic everyone had started running in the same direction, but they probably hadn't gotten far. The images of the dead she had passed flashed through her head like a slideshow she couldn't turn off.

They reached a crossroad and looked down at Milo who had begun inching towards the right. She always used to say that in an emergency you should follow the animals, so they went to the right. It was a quiet road with large houses. She decided she needed to get a hold of Meagan if she had any chance of making it out of the city alive and walked up to the first one.

The door was locked, so she grabbed a rock from the garden and smashed the front window. She didn't care if she made noise, she didn't plan on staying long. She picked Milo up and deposited him into the empty house. The inhabitants had probably been at work when the attack had begun. Where had it begun anyway? The airport, she imagined. There was were two in the city, one half an hour from downtown. Meagan would probably have a better idea where this might have come from, and more importantly: how far it might have reached by this point.

She found a land line. It was dead. Feeling frustrated she decided find a weapon and a cell phone - which probably meant digging through pockets of dead people.

First she opened the fridge and grabbed some chicken. She unwrapped it and threw it on the floor for Milo to chew on. He deserved a good meal after saving her life. She went to the bathroom to look at the cut on her head. It was hidden somewhere in her hair, but the left side of her face was covered in blood. She tried to wash it quickly and found some Polysporin to rub on the wound. She bet all her money that Meagan would know how to stitch it up.

She found a bag of golf clubs and grabbed the big one, feeling silly that she didn't know what it was called, but she had seen one of these crack open a skull once when she was a kid and had no doubt it would be able to seriously fuck up a tiny giraffe.

Milo hissed and she heard the sound of the wailing giraffes outside. They had begun to wander down the street. Swearing softly she grabbed Milo.

Two giraffes saw her and ran towards the porch. Milo attacked first, but Elise was right behind him, swinging the golf club at the nearest giraffe and sending it halfway down the block where it splattered into a heap of evil giraffe goo. More were coming and her and Milo turned to run - that's when she saw the dead body being chewed on by giraffe. She almost left it behind, but her need to contact Meagan was becoming imperative.

A Blackberry was in his hand and on the other end of the line she could hear a woman's voice saying hello over and over again. She gave the giraffe a good whack and it flew into a tree with a satisfying crack. Then she grabbed the phone.

"Lock your doors and don't go outside!" She yelled and hung up, then she started dialing Meagan's number. More giraffes were appearing from everywhere and she started running aimlessly trying to get away, Milo on her heels.

At the first ring Meagan answered.

"Hello???" Meagan sounded frantic.

"My head is bleeding and Milo is with me!"

"What???"

"Meagan! Get me the fuck out of the city!"

Chapter 5

“Dammit! Hello?!?!” Meagan screamed into the phone, “Elise are you still there?”

Okay, stay calm. No reason to panic, Elise said they were giraffes. Think Meagan! How is a giraffe different than a zombie really?

She pulled over onto the side of the westbound lane and this time she noticed a few other crazy people headed towards the city. But they weren’t driving offensively; this was all defence. Something in Petesborough was literally driving people out. The cars drove too erratically, like rats evacuating a sewer. These people were definitely running from something.

Meagan hopped out and opened her trunk. She removed the thick grey tarp her father made her – that looked exactly like the bottom of a trunk – and opened a large black case marked Peavey. “I always knew guitar lessons would come in handy,” she muttered as she dialled in the combination. She had only actually attended three lessons when she was seventeen, and she did show quite promise – until it occurred to her she might actually be seen playing by someone – but she was more interested in the highly secure packing most instruments and amplifiers came in anyway.

She popped the case open and surveyed the contents. Crowbar, GOOD bag (or Get Out Of Dodge), liquefied food she ordered off that bizarre Republican website, and most importantly... the crossbows. Maybe zombies weren’t real, but crazy serial killers were and for whatever reason, crossbows were perfectly legal in Ontario. So she’d bought three of them as soon as she turned eighteen.

“Who’s crazy NOW, mom?” she said, but her triumph was short lived. Behind her came the familiar sound of burning, screeching rubber followed by breaks, and then the inevitable shattering of glass.

She squinted against the sun to see a young couple shove open the door of their Prius about fifty feet behind her. The boy stumbled over to the girl as she hobbled to the curb, and Meagan gave a fleeting thought to just completely fuck off before they saw all of her supplies.

But instead, she grabbed a fistful of granola bars and some water, slammed the trunk shut, pocketed the crowbar, and took off for the kids.

“Hey!” Meagan shouted, waving her arms as much as she could. “Are you guys all right?”

They looked up at her, their eyes completely glazed over. “I, I think so...” the girl replied. “Who are you?”

Meagan stopped ten feet short of the curb. She pointed a shaky hand at the boy and said, “You’re bleeding.”

“I know that. Do you think you could give us a ride to the hospital?”

“...No, I’m sorry. Here just take these. I’m sorry.” Meagan tossed the water at them and slid her crowbar out of her jeans for easier mobility and turned at once to hightail it back to her car. The couple shouted and swore after her, threatening all kinds of bodily harm but she knew they would never catch her.

The boy wasn’t just bleeding.

His face was practically melting, as if his body was rejecting the skin. And the girl didn’t have a scratch on her.

Jesus, Meagan thought. Whatever had sliced that kid open happened before the accident, and it certainly wasn’t getting into her car.

She tossed the crowbar into the passenger side and peeled off the highway, watching in her rear-view for the couple. But they had obviously given up, or were hopefully using her water to tend to their wounds.

As she drove away Meagan had no idea that the “ailment” the boy had suffered was now, quite literally, eating his girlfriend.

Chapter 2

Elise got off work early that day. Something had gone wrong with the security alarm and it wouldn't stop going off. It was a new building with construction workers coming and going. She was positive one of them had accidentally cut a wire, but no one would own up to it. As she left she saw three of them holding some frayed wires and looking perplexed.

"Does this building have mice?" One of them asked, but Elise didn't stick around to hear the rest, she wanted to get out of there fast in case they fixed the alarm and made people get back to work. Besides, she was eager to have the free time in order to finish the work she had promised Eric she would do for the blog that week.

Luck was with her, the red TTC streetcar pulled up right as she reached the stop, and without rush hour to contend with she had a seat all to herself. She opened her book and started reading, settling in for the half-hour long ride before she got home. A few minutes later the lady in front of her gave an excited exclamation.

"Is that a giraffe???" She pointed out the window.

Elise looked, but could see nothing on the street other than people walking by. She looked at the lady as though she might be crazy, but she lady looked like a well put together business woman.

"I swear I saw a giraffe," she said, looking a little flustered now that everyone on the streetcar was giving her a funny look. "It was a baby or something... ran around the corner..."

Elise shrugged and went back to her book. The lady had probably seen a dog. She was pretty sure an escaped giraffe would have been news - and besides, they were nowhere near the Toronto Zoo.

When she got home her phoned chimed, a text message from Meagan.

"My boss had a heart attack! Looks like we get to go home early today."

"Me too," she texted back. "Something chewed through the alarm system. What a weird day."

She opened the door to her ground-floor apartment and her cat Milo started purring and rubbing against her leg, not even letting her take her shoes off before it began begging for food.

"Shoo," she managed to step over the ball of fur as she made her way to the bathroom. She turned the radio on as she washed her face, putting her dark brown hair back in a ponytail.

The song on the radio ended and the DJ came on. He was laughing. "Well here's a weird news story. Apparently there have been a few sightings downtown of giraffes. Yes, you heard me, giraffes. Only apparently these giraffes are the size of chihuahuas," the DJ broke off into hysterical laughter.

Elise frowned and turned the radio off. Okay, she thought, this is getting weird.

"Have you seen giraffes today?" Elise chuckled to herself as she texted Meagan again. "Apparently Rob Ford slipped something into the water, because they're being seen all around the city."

Her phone chimed again almost instantly, but she didn't check it right away, because Milo was no longer waiting around the kitchen entrance. He was at the window sill, his spine arched and his ears pointed back. His was hissing at something. Elise walked over and looked out, but she couldn't see anything in the bushes around her apartment. She batted Milo away from the windows, but it made her feel uneasy, so she made sure the windows were all locked and the closed the curtains.

She forgot to check the text message Meagan had just sent her and sat down at her desk to get to work. The thought of giraffes fading to the back of her mind.

Chapter 1

“I will absolutely go Nancy Grace on this fucking kid!!!”

Meagan could practically feel Elise rolling her eyes over the phone. “All he did was call you a troll. And you did sort of disturb shit in his little group...”

“I didn’t disturb anything! I said I didn’t like his web design because it was totally fucking absurdly hideous, and I wasn’t the only person who thought so. Look at all those people who liked my comment!”

“I know, and you were right,” Elise soothed. “But Eric is like the king of those nerds, and somebody came along and embarrassed him in front of his court and he got on his hind legs about it.”

“It’s not my job to feed his ego,” Meagan spat. “He’s narcissistic and unprofessional and you shouldn’t be wasting your time working with him. He’s only going to embarrass you.”

Elise sighed. “I know, but it’s just a little blog project to keep me busy. At least I’m not so bored at work that I’m screaming about some guy deleting me from a Facebook group...”

Meagan tossed the pen she’d been chewing on across her desk. Elise was right. She was getting worked up over this little asshole for no reason because she was bored, and making Eric Beauren look stupid on Facebook wasn’t going to cure her. “I know, you’re right. Beauregard isn’t my problem. I’m just...” she lowered her voice and looked around first, “kind of bored here I guess.”

“You’re a fact checker. That’s boring work.”

“Yeah I know but I don’t think I just mean with my job. I mean with everything. Ever since I moved to Petesborough from the city every day seems to be exactly the same, like they’re just folding in on each other. Every Wednesday I do the laundry. Every Saturday I cut the grass. Every week is the same.”

“So come back to the city. And why do you do your laundry in the middle of the week...?”

“Because it’s more energy efficient or something; I got a flyer in the mail about it.”

“Uh you do realize that they wasted thousands of pieces of paper for—“

“Elise I gotta go,” Meagan cut off. She could see her boss’ office door creaking open above her cubicle wall. “I’ll call you later. Let me know how your date goes tonight!”

She hung up the phone quietly and looked around. Nobody had even moved; most were still using their headphones and probably didn’t hear a single word she said.

But when Meagan looked up at her boss, she noticed that Mr. Wittmore hadn’t noticed her on the phone at all. Or anybody for that matter. Because he was staring out the window that overlooked the parking lot, with an expression Meagan could only describe as sheer horror.

She watched him approach the window slowly, entranced by whatever he was witnessing. The old man placed his hands on the glass and leaned forward, his eyes focused on whatever madness was happening below. And just before he reeled backwards, clutched his chest and succumbed to a massive heart attack, he whispered,

“Giraffes...”

Test...

Coming soon:

Evil has a new face.