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Description
A/N: Please read info below first before continuing with this story.

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"Would you like to hear a story?

Good, are you listening? Make yourself comfortable, grab a blanket if you can, lay down or even sit down, and relax. I don't know how you feel right now, I can imagine it is cold and dark where you are, but then I really can't tell.

Oh, but I'm sorry, I almost started from the end and that just won't do. Every story, every life, begins the same. And to make it short, it's a beginning, it's birth. Hearing of your birth though would not make much of a difference, you know more about it than I could ever tell you, and for all intents and purposes it is unnecessary for me to repeat what you already yourself know.
But all stories have a beginning, a middle and an end. You learnt this in school, you wrote it for your test, you memorized it then discarded it as unnecessary information later on.
But let me tell you something, each story has a beggining.

And your story ends the same way it begins... In darkness."

---

You smiled, a sigh of relief escaping your lips as you hear the rustling of your colleagues packing up calling an end to the day. Not for you, of course, having worked so hard to finally get where you were, you also were expected to keep up the same level of devotion to the company. Having taken upon yourself the role as honorary supervisor to your project (without actually reaping the rewards apart from a, possible, pat on the shoulder and a warm "Thank you"), more often than not you'd stay after work for maybe an hour, helping your actual supervisor and team lead filling out reports and providing solutions or brainstorming necessary ideas for the day to come.

It could be a bit tedious of a job, but it gave you a living, and to be fair with yourself, you quite enjoyed working.

It thus of course came as no surprise as Cathelyn, the actual leader of the project, approached you with the request to double check some fact and make sure the progress was steady, and accepted the small pile of documents to go over.

You sighed, enjoyed the calm and peace of the office, the quiet silence soothing your frazzled nerves , like a balm for your still ringing ears. Working with hundreds of people in a relatively moderate sized office, where talking and joking was allowed and quite frequent, the decibel levels where a bit elevated during the day. On Fridays one could hear Rebecca Black screeching "It's friday, friday" in the halls, while on Mondays mourning songs and songs filled with doom filled the office area. You were happy you didn't work at a call-center anymore, but could definitely attest for the matching decibel levels during the day.

You concentrated and hadn't been working for 25 minutes when the power cut out. The entire office was suddenly bathed in blackness so thick you thought you could taste it, the air charged with the static of thousands of suddenly dead computers releasing their pent up energy into the air.
Your groan was eerily loud in the now completely silent, quite large room, annoyed at all the progress you had lost. Great, you thought to yourself, extra work for me later.
Cathelyn opened her door, which you could only tell by the general location of the sound of the door opening, shuffling quietly towards your seat. You heard a bump, a moan of pain, then heard her get closer before you could feel her presence at the general area you were sitting at.
"[Name]?" her whisper broke the tense air, and you let out a sigh you had no idea why or even that you had been holding.

"Yeah I'm here, what happened?" you whisper back, [E/C] eyes blown wide open trying to discern anything in the inky blackness.

"The power went out." her statement of the obvious almost made your eyes roll, but a strange shuffling sound on the other far end made you both hold your breath quickly, heads turning toward the sound.

Voice lowering even more you turn your head towards the general vicinity where Cath had been standing "Y-you think theres-" your whisper is cut off as the woman calls out, a slight shake in her voice.

"H-hello? Is anyone t-there?"

Her question seems to be met with even more deafening silence, pressing down on your ears.
You feel and hear her moving closer to you, settling a hand on the back of your chair.
"The emergency lights should be coming up any moment now... back up generators here are quite old so they take a while to recognize the failure." she murmurs but you can hear a slight tremble in her voice.

This is stupid, you think. We're not 7 anymore, hiding under the blankets with the fear of the darkness. You would be able to see anything at all with the phone you have. You want to smack yourself as you remember the tiny light in your phone as you pull it out.

"How about we call it a night?" you murmur, pulling the phone out of your pocket. You fumble with it, turning the back light on and pointing it at the entrance of the offices, which, of course, was completely and utterly devoid of human life.

Cath's murmur of agreement is cut in half as another shuffling sound is heard, closer to you this time, at the same time as a loud "Bzzt" fills the room, the red otherworldly glow of the emergency lights filling the area. And it is then that your heart stops. You barely register Cathelyns surprised scream, as you stare wide eyed, at the figure standing not even 3 rows away from you. It is tall, very tall, all dressed in black or something of the sort, as the red light barely lets you distinguish it's contours let alone any coloring. You can tell from the shadows cast on his face that the figure, unsure if male or female, wore a hoody pulled low over it's face. You couldn't actually see any part of the face apart from its chin, which seemed to shine in the red light drifting from the walls. Unable to tell the color due to the hue, it seemed more like a glossy mask than actual skin. The figure stood for not even a second before it turned and fled the room, movements graceful and almost feline, even as you called after it to wait. It seemed to falter slightly at the sound of your voice, but you put it down to your imagination as it turned the corner and was gone.

You both shared a moment of silence, absolutely baffled by the events, before sharing a look, grabbing your personal belongings and bolting out of the room. Cathelyn was on the phone with the reception desk who really hadn't heard anything and had been able to turn on the light due to a malfunction in the original back up generator.

As she finally hung up, she turned to face you as you both stood at the exit of the building, unwilling to leave the still red light of the building and start your journey home.
"You think that was just some employee?" you ask finally, breaking the uncomfortable silence between the both of you. She shrugs, pulling her coat closer to her body.

"I don't know to be honest. And I'm also not about to call the police because... I mean..." she trails off with another shrug, pulling her bag further up her shoulder.

You let out a small laugh, nodding, the put your hand to your ear as if holding a phone "Yes, uh, hi? The power died at our company and when it came back up there was a person standing in the room with us who then left after we screamed bloody murder." You let your hand fall down, an amused sound still clinging to your sigh. "We're nut jobs and that definitely was nothing."

She nods her agreement, yet still holding onto her jacket like her life depended on it, forcing it closed over her small frame. "In any case, [Name], it's getting late. You want a ride? My husbands picking me up in a little." it's a well meant offer but you also know she lives the complete opposite way of your own place and would mean an almost 2 hour detour to her journey.

"Nah, it's fine. Look, we got a bit of a scare but to be honest... it probably was just someone from the company below and, well, probably for embarrassed for being on the wrong floor or something." you reason, trying to make yourself believe your story.

You nod, as you sling your own bag over your shoulder, taking a few steps outside of the building. It's not cold, yet not warm either, the end of January bringing a few cold showers with it while some flowers break from the almost frozen ground here and there. You can't help but smile as you wave goodbye to the blonde woman shouting a quick "See you tomorrow" before stepping into the night.

Description
A/N: Please read info below first before continuing with this story.

-----------

"Would you like to hear a story?

Good, are you listening? Make yourself comfortable, grab a blanket if you can, lay down or even sit down, and relax. I don't know how you feel right now, I can imagine it is cold and dark where you are, but then I really can't tell.

Oh, but I'm sorry, I almost started from the end and that just won't do. Every story, every life, begins the same. And to make it short, it's a beginning, it's birth. Hearing of your birth though would not make much of a difference, you know more about it than I could ever tell you, and for all intents and purposes it is unnecessary for me to repeat what you already yourself know.
But all stories have a beginning, a middle and an end. You learnt this in school, you wrote it for your test, you memorized it then discarded it as unnecessary information later on.
But let me tell you something, each story has a beggining.

And your story ends the same way it begins... In darkness."

---

You smiled, a sigh of relief escaping your lips as you hear the rustling of your colleagues packing up calling an end to the day. Not for you, of course, having worked so hard to finally get where you were, you also were expected to keep up the same level of devotion to the company. Having taken upon yourself the role as honorary supervisor to your project (without actually reaping the rewards apart from a, possible, pat on the shoulder and a warm "Thank you"), more often than not you'd stay after work for maybe an hour, helping your actual supervisor and team lead filling out reports and providing solutions or brainstorming necessary ideas for the day to come.

It could be a bit tedious of a job, but it gave you a living, and to be fair with yourself, you quite enjoyed working.

It thus of course came as no surprise as Cathelyn, the actual leader of the project, approached you with the request to double check some fact and make sure the progress was steady, and accepted the small pile of documents to go over.

You sighed, enjoyed the calm and peace of the office, the quiet silence soothing your frazzled nerves , like a balm for your still ringing ears. Working with hundreds of people in a relatively moderate sized office, where talking and joking was allowed and quite frequent, the decibel levels where a bit elevated during the day. On Fridays one could hear Rebecca Black screeching "It's friday, friday" in the halls, while on Mondays mourning songs and songs filled with doom filled the office area. You were happy you didn't work at a call-center anymore, but could definitely attest for the matching decibel levels during the day.

You concentrated and hadn't been working for 25 minutes when the power cut out. The entire office was suddenly bathed in blackness so thick you thought you could taste it, the air charged with the static of thousands of suddenly dead computers releasing their pent up energy into the air.
Your groan was eerily loud in the now completely silent, quite large room, annoyed at all the progress you had lost. Great, you thought to yourself, extra work for me later.
Cathelyn opened her door, which you could only tell by the general location of the sound of the door opening, shuffling quietly towards your seat. You heard a bump, a moan of pain, then heard her get closer before you could feel her presence at the general area you were sitting at.
"[Name]?" her whisper broke the tense air, and you let out a sigh you had no idea why or even that you had been holding.

"Yeah I'm here, what happened?" you whisper back, [E/C] eyes blown wide open trying to discern anything in the inky blackness.

"The power went out." her statement of the obvious almost made your eyes roll, but a strange shuffling sound on the other far end made you both hold your breath quickly, heads turning toward the sound.

Voice lowering even more you turn your head towards the general vicinity where Cath had been standing "Y-you think theres-" your whisper is cut off as the woman calls out, a slight shake in her voice.

"H-hello? Is anyone t-there?"

Her question seems to be met with even more deafening silence, pressing down on your ears.
You feel and hear her moving closer to you, settling a hand on the back of your chair.
"The emergency lights should be coming up any moment now... back up generators here are quite old so they take a while to recognize the failure." she murmurs but you can hear a slight tremble in her voice.

This is stupid, you think. We're not 7 anymore, hiding under the blankets with the fear of the darkness. You would be able to see anything at all with the phone you have. You want to smack yourself as you remember the tiny light in your phone as you pull it out.

"How about we call it a night?" you murmur, pulling the phone out of your pocket. You fumble with it, turning the back light on and pointing it at the entrance of the offices, which, of course, was completely and utterly devoid of human life.

Cath's murmur of agreement is cut in half as another shuffling sound is heard, closer to you this time, at the same time as a loud "Bzzt" fills the room, the red otherworldly glow of the emergency lights filling the area. And it is then that your heart stops. You barely register Cathelyns surprised scream, as you stare wide eyed, at the figure standing not even 3 rows away from you. It is tall, very tall, all dressed in black or something of the sort, as the red light barely lets you distinguish it's contours let alone any coloring. You can tell from the shadows cast on his face that the figure, unsure if male or female, wore a hoody pulled low over it's face. You couldn't actually see any part of the face apart from its chin, which seemed to shine in the red light drifting from the walls. Unable to tell the color due to the hue, it seemed more like a glossy mask than actual skin. The figure stood for not even a second before it turned and fled the room, movements graceful and almost feline, even as you called after it to wait. It seemed to falter slightly at the sound of your voice, but you put it down to your imagination as it turned the corner and was gone.

You both shared a moment of silence, absolutely baffled by the events, before sharing a look, grabbing your personal belongings and bolting out of the room. Cathelyn was on the phone with the reception desk who really hadn't heard anything and had been able to turn on the light due to a malfunction in the original back up generator.

As she finally hung up, she turned to face you as you both stood at the exit of the building, unwilling to leave the still red light of the building and start your journey home.
"You think that was just some employee?" you ask finally, breaking the uncomfortable silence between the both of you. She shrugs, pulling her coat closer to her body.

"I don't know to be honest. And I'm also not about to call the police because... I mean..." she trails off with another shrug, pulling her bag further up her shoulder.

You let out a small laugh, nodding, the put your hand to your ear as if holding a phone "Yes, uh, hi? The power died at our company and when it came back up there was a person standing in the room with us who then left after we screamed bloody murder." You let your hand fall down, an amused sound still clinging to your sigh. "We're nut jobs and that definitely was nothing."

She nods her agreement, yet still holding onto her jacket like her life depended on it, forcing it closed over her small frame. "In any case, [Name], it's getting late. You want a ride? My husbands picking me up in a little." it's a well meant offer but you also know she lives the complete opposite way of your own place and would mean an almost 2 hour detour to her journey.

"Nah, it's fine. Look, we got a bit of a scare but to be honest... it probably was just someone from the company below and, well, probably for embarrassed for being on the wrong floor or something." you reason, trying to make yourself believe your story.

You nod, as you sling your own bag over your shoulder, taking a few steps outside of the building. It's not cold, yet not warm either, the end of January bringing a few cold showers with it while some flowers break from the almost frozen ground here and there. You can't help but smile as you wave goodbye to the blonde woman shouting a quick "See you tomorrow" before stepping into the night.