Office Dynamics Ch. 05: Victory

Liam pulled himself back and took a few deep breaths, calming down. "No bother. We'll just have to reset her again. This is getting tiring though." He paused. "Well it's hardly my fault, is it? She's clearly got something wrong with her stupid head that is keeping it from sticking." Another pause, this time a little longer. Liam shook his head animatedly. "Nooooo, that was nothing to do with the program. We've run into these in the past." A pause.

It seemed to Tabitha that Liam was having a conversation with himself. She panicked a bit. Clearly this man was highly psychologically unstable. Obviously he had to be to do this to all these women. The conversation with himself continued. Tabitha felt warm sensation in the back of her mind. Her finger twitched. A movement that distracted her from the crazy ramblings going on. Her eyes moved finally and she could look around the room slightly. There was indeed nobody there besides her, Liam and the still frozen Samantha. Luckily, Liam was no longer facing her. He was turned to the side and arguing with his imaginary friend.

"Because I've been doing this for ten years! This office, this whole thing works because of my efforts. Not just with the program! These stupid sluts are improved because of me and what I mold them into."

The feeling of control over her body was subtle, like a warm fluid covering her body. She continued to not move, terrified of giving herself away. She needed to choose her moment. She flexed a few muscles carefully to be sure that indeed the control was with her again.

"I'm resetting her and that's the end of it."

Liam turned back to Tabitha. It was her moment. She kicked her leg out as hard as she could, directly between Liam's legs, and her shin connected solidly. Liam cried out and collapsed immediately to the ground, clutching his groin. Immediately, Tabitha ran. Dashing for the door while covering her ears, hoping that would stop any potential new commands from holding her in place again.

She got out of the office and sprinted down the hall. Right as she was about to turn the corner toward the elevators and stairs she looked to Rebecca's desk thinking to maybe try and grab the girl. She ran into...nothing.

A seeming pillar of solid air. Enough though to cause Tabitha to crash to the floor off to the side. She winced in pain and then looked back for what she had ran into, but there was absolutely nothing there. Too scared to process any new strange anomalies, she got up and forgot that she didn't see Rebecca at the desk. She made it to the elevators and pressed the button to go down. It immediately opened. She had been prepared to dash through the door for the stairwell nearby if the car hadn't been readily available.

She jammed the Door Close button and pressed for Lobby a dozen times, not letting her panic subside until the doors finally slid shut with a chime. She wasn't free yet and she put her hands back over her ears just in case Liam made it down the stairs. If he was even able to chase her. The doors opened to an empty lobby and she ran as fast as she was able out the doors and into the parking lot.

Only once she felt she was thoroughly able to see the full face of the building did she risk pulling out her phone and dialing 9-1-1. She felt lightheaded and when she pushed for the call to end, she couldn't even remember everything she'd spouted out. Just that she was assured someone was coming to help. She was a good girl and the smartest one. She'd rescued everyone and she should be so proud of herself. Tricked her own hypnosis to escape.

When a car pulled up to the front of the building and three men got out she knew they were there to help. She didn't know why. It wasn't a police car. The men weren't in uniform. Probably because they were detectives. Of course. She ran to them. Tears streaking her face and practically falling into one of the men.

He supported and held her up as the strength in her body finally gave out.

It took a little time to calm her down. They returned to the offices. The men confirmed they were detectives while on the elevator. When Tabitha and the three detectives walked off the elevator, all the women were looking around in confusion, snapped out of their daze. One man walked out into the bullpen and started to get their attention asking for calm for everyone to stay at their desks for a moment. Tabitha searched again and though she hadn't seen Rebecca while she was running out, the girl was among all the women looking confused as well.

The second elevator chimed and a few members of the board of directors walked out that Tabitha recognized. There was also a petit, red-headed woman with them that she did not recognize. In that moment though, she was focused on keeping her calm and her nerves about her as she spoke to the second detective and gave her full statement. She showed him the videos on her phone and recounted finding all the women staring at their screens. Even showed him the Identity program, making sure to look away as she clicked on it.

For the first time she got a sense of what happened with the program. The same boxes flashed up on the screen and disappeared. Then the whole screen started strobing quickly, flashing light out at whoever was watching before settling on the slow shifting hues that Tabitha had witnessed before.

The last detective went down the hallway of the executive offices toward Samantha's office. A few minutes later she heard him.

"You can't do this! This only works because of me, you bastards! I won't let you do this!"

She managed to move enough to see down the hallway. The small red-headed woman and other board members were standing there. Mr. Sekham and Samantha was there. For a brief moment, Tabitha wondered when Mr. Sekham had arrived. In front of the group though was the detective, holding a hand-cuffed Liam back as he shouted.

Then, quite suddenly, he wasn't shouting. Silence filled the office as Liam's voice was cut off to everyone's notice. The detective moved and pushed Liam ahead of him as they came down the hallway. Tabitha could just barely make out Liam's expression. His head was pointed down as he was guided from the hall. His face was completely blank. Similar to how all the women's were in the office not twenty minutes prior. He was no longer angry or shouting. He wasn't fighting against the officer's guidance. Just moving his feet where he was pointed.

Tabitha almost broke down in relief at that moment. She'd won. She beat him. He was going to pay for what she had done to all of them. Turning to the officer she had been giving her statement to, she asked if she could have a brief moment alone. He nodded to her and Tabitha retreated to her office.

For a moment she just stood, the shock of the evening's events playing out in her mind. Stumbling across the office floor, she reached the wall opposite the door and turned, pressing her back against it. She didn't know whether out of relief or fear, but she started laughing as tears ran uncontrolled down her cheeks.