Ramona's Secret

Ramona briskly stepped into the office on an early Tuesday morning. She is not certain what her day would bring, but feeling a little uneasy in the back of her mind. She is wearing a long black coat with her curly black hair at her shoulders. Strutting in her red bottomed shoes and carrying her three hundred dollar handbag, Ramona gave her assistant Lilly a nod and a pleasant "Good Morning" as she smiled. She walked into her office and closed the tall wooden door behind her.

Ramona has been working here for five years awaiting her six year anniversary in three days. She puts her things down on her large glass desk, then began to sip the coffee that was waiting on her when she got there.

It's been three years since she murdered her ex that's still missing. She still remembers the look on his face when it happened and how his eyes glazed over at the last breath. It haunted her silence still. Ramona was interrupted by her thoughts when she got an anonymous text message that said, "Today is the anniversary, Ramona." Startled, she stood up looked around the room and closed her all white blinds.

"NO!" she thought. How could someone know Ramona did what she did? Should she text back? She stared at her phone for five whole minutes then decided to reply. "Who is this?" she texted.

"Your worse nightmare!" they replied. She gasped for air and bit her bottom lip. "I'm sending the police to your job" they replied right after.

Her mind is racing at this point. "How would they know where I work? Is it someone I personally know?" she thought. She sat back down in horror with her heart pumping fast, not knowing what to do next.

Ramona's boss Aldan walked in and said, "Good morning, walk with me." She looked up at him startled and confused. She was anxious at this point.

He lead her to his office and congratulated her on her six years with a bouquet of flowers. She thanked him with a simple but honest smile, then walked down the hallway back into her office. Her phone was there on the desk waiting for her like the coffee she'd had that morning.

Ramona took a deep breath and opened her phone. It was a picture of her killing her ex! She is devastated. She thought her secret was safe. Not only would she lose her career, she might end up in jail for the rest of her life.

"What do you want? Why are you doing this?" she texted.

Ramona's assistant's voice came up on the loudspeaker of her office phone. "Hey, Boss? Don't forget you have a meeting at noon."

She pressed the button to speak back. "Okay, thank you, Lilly," she replied.

Ramona's phone vibrated. She grabbed it angrily off of the desk and pouted. It read, "I know your secret. Now you do something for me." Her mind went wild! She felt like she no longer had any control. Plus, it couldn't be that bad. "What is it? I'll do it, just leave me alone!" she replied.

"You have to kill your boss, Ramona." the text said. She knew her secret was about to be revealed because she felt she didn't have the heart to kill again. "Do what you want, you lying cunt!" she replied off of her rage.

"Okay," they texted back with a smiley face.

She sat at her desk feeling horrible, guilty, and afraid. She texted back, "I'll do it."

"We'll be waiting," they responded.

At this point, Ramona was at her last straw. Not only was it someone threatening her freedom, now she didn't know how many people knew her secret. She took a deep breath and thought of her ex. She thought about the stabbing and how horridly bloody it was. Then she thought about how to kill her boss, easily and clean. She knew she had seen many crime shows so she thought long and hard. Ramona decided to poison him.

She snuck down the hall to the janitor's closet and grabbed the pest control poison. She put it in her bra and walked suspiciously back to her office. She took a huge sigh and put the box on her side table. She looked at the box and noticed she hadn't done any work today, but she was on the move to protect her past and future. She remembered she had a chocolate bar in her purse. She laced it with the poison.

Ramona called her assistant in and told Lilly to put the chocolate bar on Aldan's desk. At noon, Ramona met with her client and effortlessly closed the deal. She walked out of the conference room she and her client had been in for an hour. She was surprised with a cake by the whole office.

They all sang the "Happy Anniversary" song on the way to the lunch room. Everyone including Aldan and Lilly smiled and clapped and cheered for Ramona. They cut the cake and all ate it. Music played in the background.

Then, about seven minutes later, Max the intern fell to his knees and hit the floor face first. The employees screamed with panic. No one knew what was happening. Right after Max was Francis, then Tammy. It was a pattern. They tried to scream in horror but were too weak to respond. Ramona was the last to hit the floor, eyes glazed like her ex when she'd murdered him three years prior. It was a massacre. Her boss Aldan had told Lilly to put the chocolate on the cake that she'd gifted him because he knew it was her favorite. Ramona's secret had been revealed in the paper the next morning and the mysterious one behind the texts was Aldan's wife.