Afterdeath

There was pain in my chest for less than a second and then I found myself sitting on a couch in a four walled gray room. A really nice room that I've never been in before. Aside from the couch the room was empty with recessed lighting giving the room a calming glow. I pushed my curls out of my face when. "Sienna? Great, you're awake. Join me!" a voice calls from in front of me. I whip my head around and the room is still empty. What the fuck, I mumble to myself. "Just stand up darling." the voice informs me. I stand up and what feels like a veil drags itself across my body, and I'm not in the gray room any more. "Sienna! Hello! My name is Rhys. I'm your spirit guide, and you are dead!" A tall smiling blond woman said to me. What. The. Fuck.

Sienna

I woke up late and knew that I was setting the tone for the day. No Sienna you can turn this around, but I can't because I just set the tone, today was going to suck.

My bedroom was as simple as my apartment, a bed, a tv, and a night stand. I walked into my closet and grabbed a t-shirt off the floor, a pair of leggings and headed out the door. No breakfast because breakfast is for people who can be on time.

Starting my car immediately led me to my next problem: no gas. I set myself up when I said I would get gas in the morning. Fingers crossed I started my car and prayed for it to turnover, and was immediately rewarded with the sound of the engine catching. "Yes." I whispered, throwing the car in reverse and speeding out of my neighborhood.

20 minutes later I was pulling up to my office. I work in the IT department in the government building in downtown Indianapolis. If I was lucky I wouldn't run into my supervisor, but I'm not and she was standing near my desk cubicle talking to my co-worker Natalie. I ducked into the bathroom before facing my supervisor. I grabbed a paper towel wetting it before running it over my face. I've been told I was pretty, not anything to write home about but enough for the drunk bros at the bar to send me shot. At 5 foot 8 inches I was average height, average beauty... just average. My skin was average with the occasional pimple on my almond colored skin. My life was average.

After staring at myself for a few more seconds I rolled my shoulders back and prepared to face my supervisor. "Sienna, I hope your stomach is ok!" She said clutching her chest dramatically, "bless your heart you look a bit pale. Let me know if you need to head out early today. You can finish up work from home." She said, I forced a smile, "Ugh thank you, I'm feeling better now, but I will let you know if that changes." I said sliding into my chair.

My supervisor smiled and tapped the wall of my cubicle before strutting back to her desk. Natalie waited until our supervisor's door shut before scooting her chair over to my desk, "You're welcome, and I would like a burrito for lunch." she said, smiling at me. I laughed, "You earned that...So what's wrong with me?" Natalie shrugged her shoulders, "Explosive diarrhea... You had dairy milk instead of oat milk in your coffee, and your poor insides just couldn't hold it together." "Natalie Vasquez! You did not..." She quirked her eyebrow, "I did. And miss up-tight ended the line of questioning immediately, and good thinking running into the bathroom when you got here. She was watching that door like a hawk!"

I leaned forward to make sure her door was still closed, "She has it out for me. I needed to wipe the sleep out of my eyes and think of a lie." I sighed. "Yea, I think you may be on to something there. At 8:01 on the dot she was over here asking where you were and why you hadn't logged in yet. Like she was monitoring teams or something. What did you do to her?" Natalie asked.

I shrugged my shoulders and logged on to my computer, just in case she was monitoring teams. I didn't want to give her another reason to stop by my desk today. "Wait, do you think that this is about the security thing you found with the email system?" Natalie whispered. I glanced over at her, "I've only been working on that for a few months. She has hated me since I was hired. Remember what she said to me on our first day? 'Usually I vet my team, so if you don’t fit in that’s probably why.’” I said with my voice pitched up.

“Oh yea…nope she just hates you.” Natalie said, scooting back to her desk. I rolled my eyes at her, and started scrolling through my emails when I saw a meeting request come through from the department director.

Concerned, I opened it, “Nat did you get an email from the director?” “Nope…shit did you?” She asked. I knew today was going to be bad. “Am I getting fired? Shouldn’t HR be in this meeting?” I asked aloud. Natalie looked over the top of the cubicle, “Nah the director wouldn’t be firing you. Maybe it's a promotion. When is it?” I glanced down at the time, “Of course it's right now. Lemme borrow your jacket. I can’t face this man in a t-shirt.” Natalie tossed me her jean jacket, “Good luck prima!”

I grabbed my laptop and headed to the elevator. I thought about sending my supervisor a message, but decided against it. Because she either knew the director wanted to see me and didn't say anything, or she didn't and she would definitely psych me out about it if I told her.

All 7 of the department heads had their offices on the 4th floor with their assistants, and other direct reports sitting in cubicles in front of their offices. I walked through the cubes until I found a desk labeled IT assistant. “Excuse me, I have a meeting with Devon at 9.” His assistant is a cute older black woman with unnaturally black hair pulled into a ponytail so tight my head started hurting. She smiled at me before clicking some keys on her key, “Sienna?” She asked looking over the top of her glasses. I smiled and nodded, tucking a non-existent strand of hair behind my ear. “He is expecting you. His office is the third door to the right from the elevator.” she replied pointing the direction I just walked from. “Thanks, um, do you know what this meeting is for by chance.” I ask. She shrugs and shakes her head no

With that a flash her another smile before I head to Devon’s office. Luckily, or unluckily, for me his door is open and there and 2 other people in the office. I still knock on the door to announce myself. “Hi, I’m Sienne from IT. You wanted to meet with me?” I say from the door.

First thought, Devon is hot. His LinkedIn did not do him justice. He has gorgeous bone structure and beautiful dark brown skin. And his suit? Fitting him way better than any suit should fit a government official.

“Thanks for coming up here on such short notice. Have a seat. This is Alicia Humphery and Clark Trent, they work for the state's cyber security team.” Hey says gesturing to an empty chair in front of his desk. Alicia and Trent offer faint smiles as I sit down.

“I received a notice from the security team about one of my coordinators, You, regularly accessing a highly encrypted and off limits server.” Devon said, leaving the rest of his sentence hanging in the air.

I shake my head, “No I haven’t. The only thing I’ve been working on are IT inquiries and trying…to…” And it hit me. The strange emails. “I’ve been trying to figure out where some phishing emails are coming from. I’ve had quite a few reports of these emails, and I've been trying to figure out where they came from, and what information they may be accessing or have already accessed. I let my supervisor know what was going on and there are a few other coordinators who have been helping me in their spare time. But we haven’t been on any servers.”

Devon glanced up at Trent and Alicia with pursed his lips, “Show me what you’ve been doing with these emails.” he said, nodding his head at my computer. I logged on and pulled up the software I was using to track the emails. Devon glanced at the screen briefly before sliding my computer over to Alicia.

She inserted a USB into it immediately, turning it away from before she started working on something. “I’ve not gotten very far just getting through fire walls, I haven't been able to trace the emails. But like I’ve sent the data that was collected to my supervisor. So far it's just been access to people's calendars. There hasn't been any sensitive data leaked that I can tell.” I offered.

“Alicia?” Devon asked. She looked up at me and gave the fakest smile I've ever seen, “There isn’t anything here so far, but I’m going to need more time to search.” I shook my head “You aren’t going to find anything. I’m not accessing anything.” I said. Devon holds his hands up while leaning back, “That is what Alicia and Trent are here for, and they are going to be heading an investigation. If you truly did nothing wrong then there will be nothing to find. But until this investigation is over, you will be suspended, with pay, effective immediately. Alicia will keep your laptop and if you have any other state property please leave it at your desk. During this suspension you will no longer have access to any state systems and no communication should take place unless it is with myself or HR.”

Ok did I say he is hot, because I want to take it back immediately. He asked me if I had any questions but I didn’t trust myself not to cry so I just shook my head no. I stood up so fast I nearly knocked the chair over, “I don’t have anything other than my computer and badge. If it is ok with you I would rather not have to go back to my desk. I’ll just leave this here.” I said placing my badge on the desk. Devon nodded.

I tried not to run, but bursting into tears in the public building definitely had me power walking to get out to my car. When I slid into the driver's seat the tears began flowing, and to make matters worse I still had Natalie’s jacket on. “Shit.” I cried leaning my head onto my steering wheel. I couldn’t go back into the building, literally. I would need my badge to access the building.

This isn’t fair. I knew today was going to suck, but not like this. I started my car and nothing. Because I don’t have gas, and apparently the fumes I was riding on finally gave up. I gave my best attempt at strangling my steering wheel while screaming at the top of my lungs. This continued for about 1 minute before my throat began to ache.

Using the sleeve of Natalie’s jacket I wiped my face, and grabbed my phone to call my friend Charlotte, but she sent me to voice mail followed by a “in a meeting text”. I looked at the time 9:15. My life just imploded and it only took 15 minutes. I couldn’t be here when lunch came around so my only option was to uber. And finally the universe is giving me a break because a car could be to my location in 7 minutes.

My uber dropped me off at home 30 minutes later. And if I thought my bad day was over I was wrong. The door to my apartment was open. “Why is this happening to me today?” I mumbled while pulling out my phone. I walked into my apartment quietly and didn’t see anything peculiar in the living room or kitchen. My stomach was turning flips though, something just did not feel right. Aside from the door I’m pretty sure was closed when I left.

The hairs on the back of my neck were rising as I made my way to my bedroom. Again nothing looked out of the ordinary. I walked further into my room, peaking into my closet. Nothing. I sighed and turned around coming face to face with a person, and a gun.

Sienna

I stood there staring at the tall blond woman with what I'm sure was a dumb expression. “What?” I said, blinking slowly at her. “Yep… You died, Game over pal. But not really!! you ‘ve been selected my dear, you are gonna be a reaper.” Blondie said, clasping her hands together like a freaking cheerleader.

“No shut up.. What is going on ?” I asked feeling myself to starting to hyperventilate, but I wasn’t. My heart wasn’t beating fast, no sweating, and even my breathing wasn’t fast. “Yeah… that's the whole dead part sugar. No Heart, no more physiological response. You can just breathe normally whenever you want.” Blondie said as if she was talking to a child.

“What is going on?” I repeated. Blondie’s eyebrows lifted as she slightly bent forward, “You are dead. Do you not remember dying?” she asked, confused. “Obviously not!” I screamed. “Oh…that’s weird. I'm sorry I haven’t had a traumatic death before. Uh.. let me go grab my boss.” Blondie said disappearing.

“What the fuck.”