Page 10 of Lucky 14

The sound of clacking stops, and I look up to see the manager staring blankly at the computer, sitting oddly still.

Is he…okay? When he still doesn’t move, I make a soft sound in my throat.

The man blinks. “Right. Sorry.” There’s more clacking.

I shift. He frowns, looking at the screen. “Yeah, says right here.” When he turns the screen to face me, I see my information, along with late notices for this month and the two months prior.

Two?

“No, I’ve paid.” I feel hot. “I swear I’ve paid; there must be something wrong.”

The man is giving that same blank stare. Then, suddenly, he grabs the trashcan and pukes into it.

I take a step back in shock.

The man wipes his mouth, then clears his throat. “Sorry, where were we?” He gets back to the screen as if nothing happened.

“Are you okay?”

He looks over at me, frowning, looking me up and down. “Yes. Do you have another form of payment?”

“I uh…yes.” Maybe he has a medical condition that I don’t know about and is none of my business. If he says he’s okay, I’ll take his word for it.

I open my app again, this time with a different password. My thumbs move slowly, stress making my hands shake. If I can show him my statements, he’ll see that I’ve paid. This time, I’m able to log in. Relief hits my bloodstream, but it doesn’t last long. Everything in the app looks different. Did they do an update?

Finally, I locate my account, but there’s only twenty-seven dollars in it. I stare at the numbers, not registering. I just got paid. There’s no way there’s only twenty-seven dollars.

Suddenly, the man is hurling again, hand white-knuckling the edge of the desk.

I put my phone down. “Let me call someone⁠—”

This time when he comes up, the trash is full of dark vomit, and when he wipes his mouth, there’s bright red blood on the back of his hand. I gape, stomach twisting.

“I’m fine.” The man gives me an annoyed look. “I just need your other account.”

“I think you need a doctor.” I glance behind me to see if anyone else is in the office. But when I look back, the blood is gone, and the man is just glaring at me, hands on his keyboard.

Where… What is going on? Something odd tickles at the back of my neck. Something is wrong.

“You’re puking blood. Let me at least call an ambulance.”

“What?” The man looks at me like I’m crazy.

“The blood!” I motion at the trash he puked into. Only…there’s nothing in it. Just white scraps of paper.

I step back, heart racing. What’s going on?

The man stands up. “I’m not sure what’s going on, but all I need is your second form of payment.”

Blinking, I stare at the lack of…anything. No vomit on his hand, no blood in the trash.

“Ma’am.” He looks at me, anger flashing in his eyes, and for a second, they look dark. No, not dark. Pitch black. Like a snake.

My chest squeezes, and hot adrenaline pumps through my legs. I stumble back a step, and the man takes one step toward me. His eyes roll back in his head, and he collapses, falling back against the desk, then hitting the ground and not moving.

I gasp, and at that moment, I hear someone behind me.

“Oh my god.” A man, the guy who’s been trimming the bushes outside of the complex, darts into the room. He runs straight for the manager. “Bill!”