Company Policy Pt. 12

Shelby nodded and left the bedroom.

When night fell, Shelby was still on the couch. She was reading some bad fan fiction about a couple characters in a book she'd read a few years ago. "I could probably write something better than this crap," she muttered to herself.

Finally at 1AM Shelby decided to turn in for the night. But seeing Nancy still breathing heavy and sound asleep made a thrill shoot through her.

Did she dare? Did she try to escape? Now?

Shelby froze, the thrill of doing something this big fluttering around in her tummy. She then started to move.

Shelby felt as if she were moving in a dream. She turned on the oven. She nervously got up on the stepstool and got down her candle. Luckily the candle was new and had never been burnt so the wick was rather long.

When the oven reached 350 degrees, she opened the oven door. A blast of heat hit her in the face as she knelt down. She put an oven mitt on and grabbed the candle. She held the wick to the red hot heating element and after a few seconds...

The wick lit.

Shelby felt her heartbeat skip a beat. She sat the candle on the countertop and turned off the oven.

It was now or never.

She opened the apartment door and for a second panicked that she might see Fabio or Rock sitting outside the door on either side. But the chairs were empty; they were gone.

The hallway was deserted.

Shelby took the candle and walked down the hallway towards the BDSM room. She cupped one hand around the candle so it wouldn't accidentally go out. She felt like she was in a trance, the candle's light shooting weird shadows on the walls and floors as she walked down the hallway. The BDSM room was where she'd decided she would start the fire. The bedding on the bed in the room would be perfect kindling.

Luckily she met nobody in the hallway. Walking around with a lit candle would be more than a little suspicious.

The door to the BDSM room was unlocked as usual and Shelby slipped inside. The room was empty. She quickly made her way over to the bed and sat the candle on the floor next to the fluffy comforter. The flame effortlessly jumped from the candle to the bedding, igniting it.

Shelby's heart thudded in her ears. She left the room and power walked back to the apartment and slipped inside.

She sat on the couch and waited.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Nancy woke up to a terrible noise. It took her a while to realize it was the fire alarm. She was groggy and discombobulated and felt like shit. She sighed, wondering if she shouldn't just stay inside because it probably was a false alarm.

That was until her apartment door flew open and firemen burst into her apartment.

"Ma'am, you need to get out ASAP," one fireman told her. "There's a fire on the other side of the floor."

Nancy wrapped the granny square afghan around her shoulders. She was weak so the fireman helped escort her down the stairs. Once she was standing outside on the curb, she looked up. She could actually see flames and smoke coming from the BDSM room. The fireman tipped his helmet to her once she was safe and he ran back inside.

She spied Joelle and Cranston and walked over to them. "Everybody in your place get out okay?" Nancy asked.

Joelle nodded, looking relieved. Cranston was crying in her arms, no doubt from being unceremoniously woken up. She bounced the baby, trying to soothe him. "Oh, my God, this is terrifying! Do you think everybody else got out okay?"

Nancy shrugged. There weren't too many people who lived full time on the fourth floor. The apartments were mostly used like revolving hotel rooms. But Nancy did notice Jim Bagely and Clay standing on the curb. Clay was visibly upset and Jim reached out to hold him.

Nancy didn't see anybody else on the curb. "Joelle, have you seen Shelby?"

Joelle shook her head. "No. But I wasn't looking for her. I've been watching them trying to put out the fire."

Nancy asked Jim and Clay but they hadn't seen her either. Nancy's concern changed into worry then into panic. She hurried over to the fire truck and told a fireman that her assistant Shelby was missing. "I think she might still be inside," Nancy said, feeling both a panic and a lump quickly rising in her throat.

"Ma'am, we got everyone out, I'm sure of it. We went methodically room by room," he assured her.

Nancy did a quick walk around the entire building but didn't see Shelby anywhere.

She was like a ghost.

Shelby had just disappeared.

~To Be Continued~