The Gate At The Gym [Completed]

Chapter Two - The Second Disappearance

She overslept! It was 8:00am! Luckily she always sets 100 alarms for all different times to make sure she will make it out of bed. Flying out from under the covers she races to the kitchen to grab a cereal bar, ran back to her room to do her make up and get dressed, used the bathroom and ran out of the door with a bit of toothpaste in the corner of her lip. She made it to work 5 minutes early and even she didn't know how! She sat down at her desk with a big sigh, reached into her bag to pull out her lunch and... it wasn't there! It was still in her fridge at home, Katherine sighed again, luckily she remembered her purse today so she could buy lunch from the van that came round, thank god. She was just getting into the flow of work and the office was bustling with people walking around and talking on the phone.

'Well good morning Kathy!' David, the office receptionist sat on the corner of her desk, luckily avoiding the large stack of paper next to his bum.

'Morning David, what do I owe this please?' Katherine asked smiling up at him, her and David were firm friends after their first lunch together where David gave Katherine a full rundown of office life.

'Well, I was sat at my desk and thinking, who came in looking flustered this morning with no lunch box sticking out of her bag and who would need to go out for some lunch today; and my mind came to you!' David said, his eyes crinkling as the sentence went on and he smile got bigger.

'Lunch would be perfect, I was in such a rush this morning, slept through 5 alarms before the 6th one woke me up, and I went to bed early last night, cannot believe it!' Katherine said smiling at the thought of a tasty lunch and not a soggy sandwich from the sandwich van.

'Lunch at 1 today?' David asked as she stood up

'Sounds perfect to me! I'll meet you in the staff room!'

The rest of the morning flew by and soon it was 1pm. Katherine went to the staff room and found David chatting to her manager who was picking at a strange looking egg and sweetcorn sandwich. The egg was a strange green colour and the sweetcorn was a bit brown, the granary bread on either side looking like it has been dipped into his glass of water as it fell to pieces as he touched it.

'Oh god, that is the most depressing sandwich I have ever seen, it looks like you are risking your life even touching it' Katherine said as she walked over, both men looked up at her, David laughed and Daniel looked even more upset.

'Good job we are going out of lunch really isn't it Kathy' David said as he stood up and started to do his coat up.

Daniel picked at his sandwich more and muttered 'I wish I had more time to go out and get a good lunch' while he poked the soggy bread once more making it collapse onto the table and then roll onto his trouser leg leaving a greasy smear as it fell to the floor.

David and Katherine couldn't help but laugh as Daniel turned his nose up and started to rub the mark with a tissue. 'Enjoy!' Katherine sang as she and David walked out of the room to get a nice lunch from the 'Frankie and Bennys' that was just round the corner.

While they were both eating their lunch David said 'Hey, have you heard about those people who have gone missing from near you recently?'

Katherine looked up confused, 'People? I saw a girl was missing yesterday, has someone else gone missing?'

'Oh yeah, it was in the news this morning, a man has gone missing, Steve, Steven, something like that; he has children, just disappeared!' David said and then took another bite of his hot dog.

Katherine pulled out her phone and went onto the news app and there it was at the top:

November 2nd 2018. 8:37am

Another person has gone missing from our small town, Stephen Andrews, aged 32, has disappeared from Middleton Pool and Gym. Much like 27 year old Sandra, Stephen is caught on camera leaving the gym and again in the car park moments later but no car leaves and he is not seen on CCTV again. His car was found in the car park of the gym like Sandra's had too. Stephen has a 4 year old daughter and he teaches secondary school pupils Maths. We have spoken to some of the pupils who have said kind words about this gentleman; "Mr Andrews is the best teacher, he doesn't make us feel stupid if we get the question wrong", "Mr Andrews helped me to get an A when I was struggling on my practise exams", "Mr Andrews is always there when we need him". The reason for his disappearance is unexplained and the police are linking his disappearance to Sandra O'Neill's who disappeared a few days before. If you have any information please call the hotline 01908 469578.

Katherine looked up at David, 'What is going on, why are people going missing from the gym? Seems so strange'

David chuckled, 'Another reason why I need to stay away from the gym!'