Justin Neumann

The Bonus

The Bonus By Justin Neumann Keira Jensen sat motionless at her kitchen table; a once-hot cup of coffee sat forgotten about her fingers lightly clutching the cup’s handle. Outside it had been raining, lost somewhere between a light mist and a steady drizzle, with an occasional faint rumble of far-off thunder. Her long strawberry blonde hair hung over her face, obscuring the dazed-blank look in her eyes. Her entire body felt numb and incredibly dense, as if she were sitting in a vat of sludge. It was as if her arms had been replaced with thick slabs of concrete, her fingers frozen, and a hundred-pound weight attached to her chest. Every breath was taxing as if she could not quite take a full inhalation. The knowledge pressed against her as a physical weight relentlessly constricting around her, immobilizing her and numbing her brain. She stared at the little black book with both disgust and foreboding disbelief. It couldn’t be right; because to believe had terrible and irrevocable implications. Her mind drifted back to the beginning, the beginning of that nightmare because it seemed to be the only thing she could do.