Page 6 of Ash

The words were on the tip of her tongue.

"Yes, Mister Mattingly. I like my job. I'm sorry I was distracted. It won't happen again."

Just say it,she told herself.Just say the words.

She heard his voice hiss into her ear.

"We're all wait-ing, Suzy." He almost sang the words. "What's your answer?"

She swallowed, struggling to work down the knot that had formed in her throat, but it felt like it was firmly stuck in there.

Until he spoke again. "You really are worthless, aren't you?"

Something changed.

Something inside of her, because the world around her wasn't going to change.

Not if she stayed there.

Nothing was ever going to change.

Suzannah pushed her chair back, the wheels protesting loudly.

And then she was standing on her feet, feeling a good foot taller than her normal height.

When she turned toward Mister Mattingly, she saw the look of naked shock in his eyes even though his face held that cold mask of fury that it was always fixed in.

"I don't like my job, Mister Mattingly."

Her eyes widened a little, shocked that she'd said what she was really thinking.

Well, hell, what they were all thinking.

Squaring her shoulders, she lifted her chin and tamped down the urge to laugh in his face.

"I can't do this anymore." She shook her head. "I can't... this is killing me."

"Thisss?" He hissed at her and leaned in. "Then leave."

She felt a moment of abject panic before a strange kind of calm stole over her.

Maybe, she mused,this was what an out of body experience felt like.

"Leave!"

His voice echoed off the rafters above her head and she felt the force of the sound battered the cap she wore over her hair.

Leave.

There was that voice inside her head, pushing her to move.

Pushing her in a way it had never done so before.

Pushing.

She fixed her gaze on Mister Mattingly and lifted her chin, just a hint so she could look him right in the eye. "I’ve been a good employee, sir. I’ve never been late. I’ve never called out sick. You’ve never been nice or even kind. And I finally have somewhere to go.”

“You?” Mister Mattingly laughed out loud, his belly shaking like sugar-free jello. “Where are you going to go?”

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