Boiler Room

First shift started at eight in the morning.

It was my first day and I decided to reach at six, well before any worker would have come. I just wanted to walk around and feel the environment.

As I neared the boiler room I shuddered as I felt a light tap on my left shoulder. I turned around and confronted an old, sickly man. There was a deep scar on his left cheek. But his lifeless eyes were unnerving.

‘Are you the new Works Manager? There has been a killing here. Someone was brutally murdered.’

I got a bit confused; but even before I could say anything he shoved me into the boiler room, ‘There’s a dead body in the boiler room.’

A dead man was lying on the blood splattered floor. His face had been horribly mauled.

‘Who is he?’ I blurted rather weakly.

I heard only a deafening silence for I was all alone in the boiler room. I hurriedly came out of the boiler room and looked around for the old man but he was nowhere to be seen. I rushed to my office and summoned the security guard.

‘Sir, you are mistaken. There was no one in the factory. You were the first to arrive.’

I asked him to immediately go to the boiler room.

He came back within minutes, ‘Sir, I knew you were mistaken. Nothing untoward has happened.’

‘How’s that possible? I saw the body.’

I ran to the boiler room. To my horror there was no dead body in the room and no blood on the floor. I felt weak and uncertain; my legs were trembling. But I tried to mask my fear and almost barked at the security guard, ‘Go and look for the old man who told me about the dead body.’

He gave me a curious look. I tried to stare him down. But then something in him unnerved me; there was a deep scar on his left cheek.

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Post for A to Z Challenge 2016

You may like to read A for Agreement here

and here is the next story C for Convoluted