Shadows

Chapter 2: The Shadows In The Night

As we both got ready for our respective jobs that next morning, I informed her of my night. She suggested that I stay home and not go to work, but I refused as I didn’t have many paid sick days left, and I certainly wasn’t going to waste them because I was simply over-tired.

I was fine.

However, I did take some more time to get ready than I would have normally. I was operating on basically no sleep, and, even though I knew I had to go, I still wasn’t very happy about going to work. This late in the year, I had plenty of work to do, so I was already resigned to the fact that I probably wasn’t going to be able to sneak a quick nap in like I wanted to.

I had to take a quick shower after neglecting to do so the entire weekend, and by the time I was done, it was pretty much time to leave. Normally, me and my wife sat and talked together for a few minutes before we had to leave for our jobs, but that wasn’t happening today.

I would’ve had a cup of coffee in hopes that the caffeine would help me stay awake, but, unfortunately, neither me nor my wife actually drank the stuff, so there was none in the house. I didn’t particularly care for it regardless, so it wasn’t that big of a deal on my part. The energy boost would’ve been nice now though.

As I grabbed my saddlebags and an apple to force down later, my wife rushed by me, stopping for a brief kiss, before heading out the door and to her own job. With another yawn, I tailed after her.

We went separate ways once we got outside. I held a position at a small construction company, handling all of the finances and accounts. It wasn’t the best job in the world, but I was happy with it. My wife worked at a local branch of a national real estate corporation selling houses. She liked her job too.

My workplace wasn’t too far from the house so I managed to make it there in a timely manner, even despite the fact I was dragging my hooves the whole time.

I said hello to the receptionist as I walked in, and turned down the hall that led to my office. I shut the door immediately upon entering, practically slamming it, and threw my saddlebags down on the floor as I collapsed into my chair and put my head down on my desk.

There was plenty of work to be done, I knew. We were currently in the process of bidding for a small motel on the outskirts of town, and we were already building an apartment complex and a few houses elsewhere. There were papers to be signed, and even more to be copied, filed, and sent out, and so much more.

But right then, I didn’t care about any of that. I was so tired, and the desk was so incredibly comfortable. I really felt as if I could take a nap right then and there. I really wanted to.

I yawned again and closed my eyes.

Everything went dark.

And there was a knock on my door.

I jerked awake just as the door opened and one of my coworkers stuck his head in. He worked in the office next to me. Apparently, there was a small meeting going on and everypony was wondering why I hadn’t shown up. I had forgotten.

I glanced at the clock. Almost three hours had passed since I had put my head down. Apparently I had gotten a nap in. Good. At least I wasn’t going to be totally run-down. And the best part was that nopony had even noticed.

I nodded at my colleague and reassured him that I had just lost track of time and would be there in a minute. He backed out of the room, and, after collecting myself, I went to the meeting, apologizing to my boss for being late.

The rest of the day passed by with little incident. I dozed off a few times during the meeting, but somehow managed to feign attention through most of it. Nopony seemed to notice, or if they did, they didn’t say anything. Afterwards, I promptly went back to my office.