So that’s why when I pass the block of knives on her kitchen counter, I pull one of them out. Better safe than sorry.
My fingers are bloodless, wrapped around the handle of the knife. I push open the door to the dark living room, and the first thing that hits me is a strange smell. It’s not something rotting or anything like that. It’s almost like… wet seaweed.
Before I can spend another second wondering about the strange smell, I catch sight of the giant tank filled with water. It’s a fish tank, illuminated by a glow from within, but I don’t see any fish inside. I lower my head to peer into the water.
It’s a turtle.
An ordinary turtle, about the size of my hand, swimming around in this giant tank. Well, it’s not so much swimming as much as sitting perched on a rock, its dark green shell glistening as it stares at me. I’ve never had any strong feelings towards turtles, one way or the other, but this turtle is unnerving me. I want to snap at it to stop staring. It’s rude.
Turtles just don’t have any manners, apparently.
“Dawn?” I call out again.
No answer. Where is she, dammit?
Next to the turtle tank, there’s a large bookshelf. The room is dark, but I can still make out the contents. I always thought Dawn had a lot of turtles in her cubicle at work, but I was wrong. I didn’t know what a lot of turtles meant until I saw this bookshelf.
Every single shelf is bursting with turtle figurines. Turtles, turtles, turtles. Glass, ceramic, marble, even stuffed turtles. Every single inch of the bookcase bears the likeness of a turtle, except for one bare space in the middle of the second-highest shelf.
Something about that bookcase makes my skin crawl. I take a step back, but I nearly trip over an unfortunately placed ottoman. I look down—the Ottoman has been overturned.
But I didn’t knock it over. It was toppled over like that already.
That’s when I notice the chair overturned, lying on the floor. I creep closer, squinting into the darkness. And then I see what’s on the carpet.
And I scream.
Chapter Six
EIGHT MONTHS EARLIER
To: Vixed Employees
From: Natalie Farrell
Subject: Welcome party!
I hope everyone will give a wonderful welcome to our newest employee, Dawn Schiff! She’s replacing Edgar Hines as our new accountant, so she has some big shoes to fill, but I can tell already that she will do an amazing job. I brought some refreshments to enjoy in the break room at 3 as a welcome to the newest member of the Vixed family.
Please join us!
Natalie
To: Mia Hodge
From: Dawn Schiff
Subject: Re: Greetings
Dear Mia,
This week, I decorated my cubicle. I wanted to do something similar to what Natalie has because I love her sense of style. She has a plant growing in a pot in her cubicle, with pretty purple flowers, which I noticed her watering every day. I asked her about it yesterday, and she said it was an iris plant.
So yesterday, I went to the grocery store after work and I bought an iris plant just like Natalie’s.
I know what you’re thinking. You always said I shouldn’t try to be like other, more popular girls. I should just be myself, yadda yadda yadda. But I didn’t do exactly what Natalie did—I added my own unique touch. I decorated the plant with some of my turtles from home. I don’t mean real turtles, of course. I have a bunch of glass turtles in different shapes and sizes and even colors, although it isn’t really biologically accurate.
I put one of the turtles in the soil next to the flowering iris. Then I surrounded the pot with a few more turtles. I also have a turtle mouse pad that I brought in for myself—it’s a photograph of a sea turtle swimming through the green-tinted ocean. Even though I still feel uncomfortable working in a new place, it made me feel better to have my turtles with me.
Natalie has made me feel welcome though. She has been so sweet. At the end of my first week, she threw a little welcome party for me in the break room with refreshments and everything! Well, the refreshments were just a bag of Doritos and a bottle of diet cola, but it was still very nice of her. I don’t know if anyone has ever thrown me a party before in my entire life.
You always asked me why I never had birthday parties as a child or allowed you to make me one, and I was afraid to tell you. Well, here’s my confession. When I turned five years old, my mother threw me a large birthday party in our house, inviting every child in our preschool class. But the children wouldn’t stop playing with my stuff and I started screaming, threw my beautiful vanilla frosted cake on the floor, and then locked myself in my bedroom and refused to come out. After that, I was too traumatized to ever want a party again and my parents weren’t excited to make me one.
I always preferred to have a private party with just you and me. Remember when we made that cake together, including our own buttercream frosting made entirely from scratch? Except we accidentally used double the butter and the buttercream frosting tasted like pure butter, and the cake was underbaked. We still ate it all though, and it was better than any party with a bunch of kids from school.
But Natalie’s party was nice. Even though I dislike Doritos. And diet cola.
There’s a café downstairs where a lot of people purchase their lunches, but I bring my lunch every day and store it in the refrigerator, although I strongly suspect nobody is cleaning it on a regular basis. I suggested to Seth that I could create a schedule for people to alternate cleaning days and post the schedule on the refrigerator door. He told me he would think about it. That was a week ago, and he hasn’t given me an answer. Maybe I’ll ask him about it again later today.
Today my lunch was white. Yes, I still prefer monochromatic meals. I can’t explain why. I just feel uncomfortable when, say, I’m eating a sandwich that is mostly white and then there’s this big hunk of green lettuce in it. Not to say I won’t eat it, but I would prefer the sandwich was all one color. You’re the only person in the world who didn’t judge me for it. Remember how in the cafeteria at school, the other kids would play a game to try to squirt some ketchup or mustard onto my lunch to ruin the color integrity of it?
I’ve been eating lunch every day at approximately 11:40, give or take sixty seconds. I walk to the break room, retrieve my sandwich from the refrigerator, and then I fill up my mug with cold water from the filter. I was just sitting down to eat when Natalie and Kim came into the break room with their lunches (salads) in identical Tupperware containers.
Natalie and Kim spend a lot of time together. You don’t have to ever worry about me becoming best friends with Natalie (as if anyone could ever replace you!), because Kim appears to have filled that role. Kim recently got engaged, which I know because Kim keeps coming over to Natalie’s cubicle and then they talk about wedding planning for an hour or longer. Sometimes I consider joining in the conversation, but I don’t know anything about wedding planning so I have little to offer. I wish they would ask my opinion on one of the dresses in the magazines Kim brings to show Natalie, but so far, they haven’t. But today they asked if they could join me, and of course, I said yes.