Rot of Bad Apple

 

Death trap of Cultural Corruption

The workplace.

 

A partition puzzle piece of corporate salary cogs typing away at their cubicles.

 

Every worker radiates a shade of green. A sickly swampy green that vibrates around their bodies as a natural hue.

 

A woman enters the floor guided by a green-hued manager.

 

The woman has a bright smile and an even brighter glow of Sunny yellow. The Manager gestures Sunny to an empty seat. A new employee. A sunny hue among green-hued people.

 

Sunny looks about her.

 

All the others are busy at work and fixated on their computer screens or  desk phones.  Their hues are different shades of green. From light to dark to very dark to off-shades like blue-green.

 

She turns to a co-worker and waves with a big smile.

 

He glares. And got back to typing.

 

Sunny sits in stunned abjection.

 

She recuperates and decides to be friendly to somebody else.

 

She turns to a lighter green-hued employee on the other side.

 

Waves with a huge grin on her face.

 

Grunt.

 

She recoils.

 

Her shoulders slump as she sits lower in her seat and gets to work.

 

Then she double takes… something caught her eye. She slowly looks about her at the green-hued workers typing away at their desks.

 

It happens again: whisps of green like vapor passing from one body to the next. Floating amongst everybody in the same room, randomly.

  

She stares wide-eyed as the realization hits her: this is the norm.  

 

On her break, she’s at the water cooler and overhearing gossiping about another coworker. Her shoulders slump.

 

Back at her desk, she calls a worker on the phone -- and gets a pleasant greeting!

 

She smiles.

 

Only to be transferred to somebody else, and a grumpy greeting. She sighs, dejected.

 

***

She sits at home contemplating the day. It doesn’t leave a bright expression on her face.

 

The next day, Sunny goes back into work. She runs through the routine, her bright spark dimming as the day goes by, then she gets home and sits in contemplative silence.

 

An entire week passes by.

The weekend arrives.

 

She sits at home in silence eating dinner.

 

Her former sunny hue is now a pale, dull beige.

 

Her phone rings.

 

It’s her friend.

 

Some indistinct chatter between them, finally her friend says:

 

“You’ll be ok. You’re just tired. You should rest. It’ll all be good in the morning.”

 

They hang up.

 

She lays awake in bed.

 

And shuts off the lights.

 

***

 

She jolts up.

 

“Hello?” she peers out into the darkness of her room.

 

The side-table clock says 1:12 a.m.

 

She gets up from the bed.

 

She stares down the enveloping darkness of the corridor, just outside her open bedroom door.

 

Nothing.

 

She clutches her temples, then heads to the bathroom. She pops a pill from a bottle and as soon as she closes the cabinet door--

 

She swings her head around, as if she heard something behind her.

 

She looks through the doorway into the darkness of corridor: nothing.

 

She walks into her living room. Dim stillness.

 

A gust of wind blows through an open window. The curtains stay flapping until she rushes over and pulls the window shut.

 

She looks about her living room, her head shifting suddenly to different spots as if she senses something moving... Shift left. Shift right… the wind seems to be moving about.

 

It stops.

 

“Hello?” she calls out again, perplexed.

 

She squeezes her eyes shut. “What’s the matter with me?” she bows her head and grasps her temples.

 

As she raises her head again, her eyes widen in shock: A shadow grows on the walls of her lit bathroom… shaped like claws that grow bigger, moving toward her as if aiming to devour her.

 

She stiffens in shock.

 

The shadow shrinks and a cat jumps out and runs out a kitchen window.

 

She sighs. Stands in silence then heads back to bed.

 

Looking glum.

***

 

Next day at the office.

 

Three green-hued workers are standing by the water cooler. They’re making snide remarks about somebody else.

 

Then they look up.

 

It’s another green-hued worker. Formerly Sunny. She grabs a cup.

 

And joins them.