He was scared and he didn't know why. Something was waiting for him at the office, lurking invisibly until he made himself vulnerable. It hadn't always been there. He had noticed a sense of foreboding, a growing sense of dread, but this past Friday it had changed. The feeling had mounted all week, until as he packed to go at the end of the week, he sensed a promise: When he returned, it would happen.

He had no idea what it was. Would he lose his job? Was there a humiliation waiting for him Or, as he felt deep in his gut, was something waiting there to kill him?

His sick days had only lasted so long, and he couldn't get away with any further excuses. He had to return to face this mystery or face a doom of his own making and lose his job.

That made him think. Lose his job at a place where he felt this phantom dread, or return and surely experience whatever fate awaited him at the office?

When they received his resignation, they didn't ask any questions. But he sensed they were just as relieved, and he wondered if they'd felt it too.