Y - A Tale Of Revenge
By tiggy
- 916 reads
A Tale Of Revenge
The covers were tangled around her feet and her pajamas stuck to her,
wet with her sweat. Chris rolled over for the umpteenth time, and her
flat hand hit the glass of water on her bedside table and knocked it to
the ground. With a start, Chris sat up.
It had been another bad dream, and Chris hated waking up with the
helpless feeling that he was following her even in her dreams. Not
enough that he was tormenting her during the day, he was also invading
her home, her private life and even the only time that was reserved for
herself and no one else: her sleep.
She sighed and surveyed the damage caused by the fallen glass. It had
neatly broken in two and the water had left a sizeable puddle on the
carpet. For a moment she considered leaving the clearing up to the
morning, but she was thirsty, and now that she was awake she also
fancied a snack. She felt for her slippers and put them on, carefully
avoiding the wet patch on the floor.
When she took a carton of orange juice out of the refrigerator she
spotted the leftover chocolate gateaux. Without thinking twice, she
spooned a large portion into a bowl and sat down at the kitchen table
to eat it.
"Eating again, fatty?" she heard Steve's voice in her mind. He often
called her that, not only when he ordered her into his office to take a
memo or give her papers to file, but also in her dreams. How she ever
allowed him to get away with it she didn't know. As her boss, he should
know how to behave professionally, but Steve had crossed the boundaries
of professionalism many times.
Chris pushed the cake away. She hated Steve with a passion, but in the
current economic climate, a job was a job, and as he told her many
times, no one else would be kind enough to employ her. According to
him, she was slow and lazy, and fat of course, a fact that he never let
her forget. He made it sound like she had to be grateful that he gave
her the time of day, and sometimes he wore away her confidence so much
that she believed him.
Her nightmares had become worse and she hadn't had a good night's
sleep for a long time. Sitting in the cold kitchen, Chris realized that
she had to do something about it. The easiest option was to resign of
course. Nothing bound her to Steve's company but a contract on which
she was required to give one month's notice. She could hand it in any
time she wanted and walk away.
The idea, while it had obvious merits, didn't seem right to Chris. She
had given five years of her life to this company, only to be ridiculed
and hurt. More then once she had to lie to creditors, banks and the
IRS, and while she thought about the company's financial difficulties
she had been hiding successfully from the auditors for a while now, a
plan of revenge began to form. Deep in thought, she finished her cake
and juice, and when she went back to bed an hour later she knew that
she would sleep the rest of the night without bad dreams.
* * * * * * * * * *
"You look worse than ever," Steve said as he dropped a pile of papers
onto her desk. "Maybe you should skip lunch today. Just an idea."
Chris choked back a reply, and when Steve closed his door she shoved
her work into the top drawer of her desk, and concentrated on the
letter she had been writing instead. A little smile began to form as
she was typing. The irony of getting Steve to sign the confessions she
had written for him, together with the rest of his correspondence later
that day, while he was making remarks about her timekeeping and
untidiness, was not lost on her. However much he criticized her, he
still trusted her to do her work well. It was a pity that he could
never show his appreciation.
* * * * * * * * * *
The office was dark when Chris arrived at work only a few weeks later,
which was unusual since Steve was always there before her. A note was
stuck to the door, and when Chris took it off to read it a smile spread
over her face. It was a foreclosure notice.
"A pyrrhic victory," she heard a voice behind her. Steve's hand
reached over her shoulder to take the note off her, and when she turned
to him she shrunk back. He looked like he was going to hit her.
"What are you grinning at?" he asked. "You just lost your job. See if
you can find another one as good as this one, and don't think I'll give
you a reference."
Chris brushed past him to get out of the corner he had backed her
into. She had got halfway down the corridor when she realized that the
smile was still there. When she turned around to Steve and stuck her
middle finger up in a deliberate gesture, she felt truly happy for the
first time in ages.
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