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It took advantage of her one weakness.
It sat with her every day and engaged her in conversations centered around herself, her life, likes, and dislikes. It complimented her when she needed to open up and reveal more of who she was. Each time a layer was peeled away, it had food ready. Delectable, exciting to the taste buds, food that awakened senses in her that she never knew was possible. Then came the right wine, scotch, or whiskey. It lay pleasure on top of happiness before her, and she soaked it up and opened up even more. Before she knew it, feelings and emotions began to stir inside her, and she was in love. It didn't take advantage of that. It was smart enough to ride it out and build it up so that when it pretended to love her back, the pleasure would be like rockets on a hot July evening where the heat could not have possibly gotten any more seductive. But it did, and it made her let out a guttural cry that was nearly animalistic. It waited until she too spent to resist, and then it possessed her and took her soul. She was not at the peak of her youth but well past her best days, and no matter what she did, she could not make herself look younger, prettier, or attractive. That was the weakness that it took advantage of, age, ego, and regret. It seemed strange that after it possessed her and was already living inside her body, that people would ask her, " 'What happened that woman you were seeing? It's as if she disappeared suddenly?""Oh," she replied, half-engaged. "She's somewhere."
Persons at her job, church, and exercise group noticed the sudden, odd shift in her character. Where she was once generous and giving, she was now petty and overall shitty. Letting the elevator door close when an employee is running for the cart with an armful of copy papers and ledgers. She'd look that person directly in the eye and smirk. She ran over the housekeeping lady's trash cart in the parking structure while the old woman struggled to open to garbage dumpster to throw away all the trash she'd collected from the office. She was angry all the time and very confrontational over small matters. Most of all were her sudden unwelcome comments to her fellow workers. "You should lose weight and diet. That's probably why your scrotum stinks. The boss makes fun of you after you turn in a report because of how you lay ass-kissing on top of it."
They'd hear her mumbling to herself in a strange language, and even her immediate supervisor would say that they had seen strange people in her office. But when they would head there to remind her that no visitors were allowed, they would find the office empty. No one, not even her boss, knows what to do, and he's been manhandled by her twice. "At first, I thought it was because we had a thing a short time ago. It didn't end well, but she always kept it to herself and didn't say anything. Now, she's just crazy, and she told me that if I didn't leave the job, that my parents would die before the end of the month, and guess what? They did; they died precisely at the end of the month! No cause was found! It was like they just dropped dead for no reason!"
There is no conclusion to this story because everyone in the office is too afraid to do anything. The building in question is an old building catty-corner to a school of medicine in Kaka'ako. Hopefully, I'll have news for you. Hopefully.
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