Vengeful Shadow

While Jonathan Gates was starting his day, one of the company’s disgruntled employees stormed over to him and glared at him with furious eyes. When the man was close enough, he grabbed the oblivious worker and pulled him right into his face, a roughness seeping into his voice. “Why’d you rat me out?”

Jonathan tried to get the man off him as he replied, “Curtis, what happened to you was your own fault.”

“No, you ratted me out, Jonathan!”

“You stole from the company!” Jonathan said as he dislodged from his co-worker’s grasp. “This is all your fault.”

“You got me fired,” Curtis said as he peered through slitted eyes, “and I won’t forget it.”

Because of the commotion, a guard approached the two men, positioning himself behind Curtis, and said, “Do we have a problem, Mr. Reyes?”

“There’s no problem here. I was on my way out.” Curtis turned around with a sneer, shaking his head as if the man he’d been arguing with disgusted him. As he stomped away, Curtis turned his head and muttered loud enough for Jonathan alone to hear the threat. “You’ll pay for this, I promise you that.”

Jonathan ignored the implication of Curtis’s words, pretending they hadn’t unsettled him, and returned to his shift. The night work wasn’t glamorous, but he needed the money...