Work with Spirits

 Not for the first time that day, Alan couldn’t help but preach to his exhausted coworker about the miracle drink; coffee. Not the instant kind, but the ones made with real ground coffee beans. There’s nothing like a shot of caffeine to get you out of the slump of a Tuesday morning.

“Well,” he said under his breath, a frown tugging at his lips as he quickly glanced at the clock on the wall. “It’s more like a Monday night.” The warmth from the cup of coffee seeped into his hands, banishing the chill of the November winter.

“Oh my god, Alan, shut up.” groaned the previously-mentioned coworker, slumped over his desk next to Alan. “My head feels like it's going to burst looking at this stupid presentation for what feels like the millionth time. I can’t deal with your ramblings at the same time as well.”

Alan smiled at the grumpy attitude of his friend. When people saw the two of them chatting, they would always remark at the stark difference in their personalities, with one being loud and energetic, while Henry was quieter and moodier. But either way, they both enjoyed each other’s company.

Well, at least they enjoyed their company on most days. It didn’t seem like today was such a day for Henry. It was understandable, he had been in the office that day for far longer than Alan, and probably wanted to get his work done with and go home as fast as possible.

“Let’s take a break, shall we? I heard a cool story from Emily, and I want to tell it to you as well.” suggested the less-tired friend. The only reply he received was a muffled groan of annoyance, but he heard no refusal.

“See, I heard from her that a few years ago, there was some kind of problem in the air conditioning, and the boss had to call in a repair-man to fix the ventilation.” began Alan, gesturing towards the ceiling. Unfortunately, Henry was still slumped over his desk, and so wasn’t looking at him. “So, the specialist crawled into the vents, where he could see everything in the office from.”

“Something happened- Emily wasn’t very clear on what- and he got stuck up there while fixing them, not able to call out for help. Everyone just assumed that he had left for the day, and never checked on him.” the storyteller shuddered in fear, imagining himself in the place of the man in the story. “He stayed there for three days and three nights, before he died at midnight of dehydration and suffocation.”

Alan paused, waiting for some kind of reaction from his friend, but received none. With a sigh of disappointment, he continued his retelling, not as enthusiastic as before. “Apparently people still hear the rattling of the vents, and say his ghost still haunts the office. Pretty spooky, huh?” he finished lamely.

There was a pause, the only sound being the whirring of the computers in the office, before a reply came from Henry. Lifting his head up, bags under his eyes prominent, he said, “Well, it could have been better, the story. Not very terrifying, and the details were unclear.”

The tension was broken as laughter rang out in the empty room, and Alan smiled at his friend. It was nice to know that even in his exhausted state, Henry was still listening to him. Just as he was about to reply with a witty comment, they heard a sudden loud sound from overhead.

“What.. was that?” questioned Alan tentatively. He looked up at the ceiling, but saw nothing on the roof. Although, he wasn’t sure what he was expecting to be there.

The sound reverberated through the office again, this time far louder, and crashing noises could be heard. It seemed like it was coming from the vents. A feeling of fear enveloped the two coworkers, as they quickly looked at each other.

“Martha won’t be upset if we don’t finish our work, right?” asked Henry, cringing at the sounds. “It’s probably just a squirrel, but it’s pretty late, and I want to sleep.” he continued hastily, not wanting to sound afraid because of some silly ghost story.

However, he didn’t need to try and seem macho, as his friend was in the same boat as him. Laughing nervously at the remark, Alan nodded as well, and soon they were out of the office building. Alan still had his hands wrapped around his paper cup of coffee, which had long gone cold.