The Keurig machine's ding signaled Rosemary to abandon the project she started, and she was grateful for the distraction. She felt that she was starting to slip back into a depressive episode, and she needed to keep herself focused if she intended to actually help the pregnant men.

So, Rosemary got up and made her way back over to the Keurig machine. Upon reaching it, she first snatched up one of the recyclable lids and immediately covered the coffee to trap the heat. She picked up the cup and set it to the side next and grabbed a new empty one to put in its place. 

As Rosemary replaced the used Keurig cup with an espresso one, she heard a faint buzzing sound coming from somewhere behind her. The noise was strange, but Rosemary prioritized setting up her coffee too much to really care. Plus, she wouldn’t be surprised if it was just her computer speakers playing tricks on her—it wouldn’t be the first time, after all.

Rosemary grabbed Mike’s coffee and shrugged it off as she walked toward her office door. But the buzzing increased its intensity the closer she got, to the point that Rosemary almost dropped Mike’s coffee just so she could cover both ears.

“What in Sam Hain is that?!” she hissed.

“Greetings, human,” an all-too-familiar distorted voice said, and Rosemary instantly regretted saying anything.

Rosemary slowly turned around as the mosquito noise started to die down to a minute crackling. The hand which held Mike’s coffee shook at a violent pace, so Rosemary gripped her own wrist with her other hand to quell the shaking before the coffee got all over her. A small spray of the piping hot liquid had managed to escape through the lid’s steam hole, and Rosemary gritted her teeth from the sting.

When she dared to look up, Rosemary found that nobody was there. But to her abject horror, the little retro radio she kept on the desk to remind her of her childhood was actually working. Her ears weren’t bad enough to not know the crackling feedback was coming from that radio, which she thought had stopped running years ago.

Rosemary had heard stories of Waves taking over radio stations, which explained the distorted voice he liked to use, but she had never thought about it until now—until it was actively happening to her, that is.

“What”—she swallowed her spit—“do you want?”

The gentle crackling picked up to sound distinctly like a deep chuckle, and Rosemary felt her cheeks warm. This son-of-a-biscuit was just toying with her, wasn’t he? Rosemary shook her head and turned back around—toward the table to set down the coffee—when Waves finally responded.

“I’ve decided I’m not that patient, and I think you know who the mother is.”

Rosemary slammed Mike’s coffee on the table’s surface, her other hand still gripping her wrist to quell the growing shakes. Hot liquid sprayed up from the air hole and onto some of the Keurig cups on the carousel, but Rosemary could care less. She gripped the edge of the table and practiced one of those therapeutic breathing regimens she’d seen on TV.

“I-I’m not certain of anything, Sir,” Rosemary said, almost spitting out the “sir” part. She hadn’t slept a wink since the run-in, and this wicked man thought she already knew the victim? Not even twelve hours had passed! 

If anything, his knowing where she worked confirmed one thing: Waves was definitely keeping tabs on her now.

“You showed enough competence last night, human.” The crackling feedback picked up, and Rosemary had to cover her ears lest they start to bleed. “Don’t try to play dumb with me. You will meet me at the same time tonight, or else I might test the foundation of your sad living quarters.”

“Living quarters?” Can’t he just say apartment? Rosemary thought with a huff. 

Rosemary flipped herself around to face the small radio and glared at it. “I don’t know who your baby mama is, Waves!” She spat and ground her teeth. “How am I supposed to search the whole danged catalog in under twenty-four hours? I’m not a spring chicken no mo!”

“…do as I say, or suffer the consequences.” The radio feedback simmered down, so Waves’ voice wasn’t quite as loud as before. “Don’t make me repea—”

The intruding supervillain didn’t get to finish his sentence, for Rosemary had snatched up the little radio from her desk and thrown it across the office. Her once beloved retro baby smashed into the vents lining the curved edges of the floor-to-ceiling window-walls overlooking the city below. 

The hit shook the supervillain enough to be cut off, but the sound persisted despite the radio’s damage. The feedback grew in intensity and warped into a scratchy laughter as Rosemary stormed over to the device. She lifted her good leg and brought it down on the radio, sending bits and bobs flying with each stomp. Waves’ laughter rose up into her ears and echoed off the chambers of her mind, and she hadn’t realized she was screaming until someone opened the office door.

“Rose!” She heard what sounded like Fredrick’s voice by the doorway. “What are you doing, screaming like that?”

Rosemary twirled her hands around as she straightened her back, taking a deep breath. She needed to come down from the rising panic within her before it choked her out. And Frederick’s pitchy voice was the perfect irritation to reel her back into the present situation at hand.

She had stomped the hell out of an electronic device for no obvious reason, and had been caught in the act by one of the other supervisors—specifically her office neighbor. The young pup probably thought she was losing her mind, from his perspective. And he wouldn’t be entirely wrong for it, either, considering her lack of sleep and haunting thoughts that she just might have hallucinated the entire thing.

“Freddy.” Rosemary turned around and said this, nodding at her office neighbor. She smoothed out her Superior blazer and then smacked her gelled hair a few times to chase the itch away. “M’sorry about that. The darned thing jus’ wasn’t workin’ proper. No need to worry!”

“Mmmhm,” Frederick hummed. He snapped his storage clipboard closed and looked Rosemary over. “Weren’t you supposed to work later today? I thought I saw you coming last night when I was leaving.”

“I did,” Rosemary said. “But I woke before the chickens, so I decided to come early today.”

Frederick pursed his lips and clicked his tongue. “Well, I think you should just go back home. You don’t seem your cherry self today, and I don’t like it.”

Rosemary wrung her hands and shifted her stare from Frederick’s shamrock earrings to his green-sprayed, combed-back hair and wondered if the two pregnant men would dress similarly for Saint Patrick’s Day. She was so distraught over Waves’ threat and afraid of what the wicked man would do to those boys if one of them was the unfortunate mother that she’d forgotten it was a holiday, and she always wore the Celts scarf her husband got her years ago for St Patty’s. And some green make-up, of which she wore none at all! Perhaps she did need to go back home, but first—

She had a CEO to call.

“You’re right there, Freddy,” Rosemary said and laid on her Southern charm, “I think I will go home. But I got some unfinished business here first, so could you kindly take that coffee o’er there to Mike? He sounded like he could really use one. Thank you always, dearie!”

Rosemary had patted Frederick on the shoulder and gestured over toward the Keurig. “Might’ve gone a little cold now, though. Hope he don’t mind!”

Frederick tightened his hold on his clipboard, squishing it against his green button-down with his right arm. Rosemary could feel his eyes bore into her as she picked up Mike’s abandoned coffee. The cup was still warm, so she imagined the liquid itself remained piping hot for the most part.

“Here ya go, Freddy,” she said, forcing the cup into Frederick’s free hand. “Have a blessed day, dearie!”

Before Frederick could protest, Rosemary guided him by the shoulder out of her office, smiling big. She then locked the door behind him and waved him off when he looked back at her, a deep frown on his face. But he shook it off and continued on down the hall, likely heading to where Rosemary last saw Mike working.

Once Frederick was out of sight, Rosemary returned to the coffee table. She gripped the edge of the table and exhaled, eyes closed. The world around her felt like it was rocking from side-to-side, as if she’d been wearing contacts for far too long and required an immediate break. While she did wear dailies, she already had a break when she’d cleaned up for bed after the incident, so her dizziness could only be equated to her lack of sleep. Pulling all-nighters was not something she liked nor needed to ever do before, so she wasn’t surprised in the slightest by the toll it was taking on her.

But she needed to focus. Those boys were counting on her to get them insurance, and even though they had no idea she was also going to throw them to one nasty wolf later, the least she could do was get them immediate help. And warn them of what was to come.

Rosemary opened her eyes and reached for her own forgotten coffee, ready to dress it with some cream and sugar so she could wake the hell up. Even if her stomach was in knots from the horrible thing she was about to do, coffee was her own version of “liquid courage” and was very much necessary right then.

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While you wait for the next episode, check out one of these other entries (links in author desc below)!

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