Rogan stopped as he was making his way around the office building. He had stopped right next to the admin section, where small walls sectioned off each desk. He grabbed a small rag, folded it multiple times and sprayed disinfectant on it, before putting the bottle back on the cart and wiping down the nearest surface. He felt tired. He loved his job but he didn't sleep well the night before. He had nightmares all night about monsters killing people in the most horrific ways. Maybe it was his medication. The doctor said a larger dose could cause him to have weird dreams at the start, but there was something about it that felt... real. No matter, Rogan was at work now and had a job to do.

"You ok darling?"

An older lady from the admin section asked.

"Oh im fine. Just a rough sleep last night"

The lady opened her mouth and formed a shape like she had quietly said 'oh' then smiled.

"Well if you ever need a rest, the break room has a lounge. Just let me know and I'll put up signs to let people know"

She was always so kind. Her name was Glenda and she was the head of admin. In the whole building, she was the one Rogan reported to. He smiled and shook his head.

"There's no need for that, but thanks for the offer"

Rogan turned and continued to wipe down surfaces. One of the women toward the back of admin had a radio that was playing on low volume. It crackled as Rogan walked past and got his attention as well as the lady who sat at the desk with it. This was Janet, she was younger than Glenda and had a brunette hair colour.

"Oh for real? This stupid thing has been playing up ALL day"

She smacked it a couple times on the side and the radio continued to buzz unresponsive. Rogan moved closer.

"If you'd like, I could give it a look over?"

Janet handed the radio to Rogan with a frustrated look crossing her face. Rogan reached into a pocket on his pants which he usually kept a small screwdriver in. Fixing this thing was a common occurrence so he always carried it. Gently lifting the screws out, he inspected the internals. He looked for a solid two minutes, checking every part over multiple times but nothing seemed to be out of working order. Confused, Rogan furrowed his brow, screwed it back together, and put new batteries in but still the static persisted. He handed the radio back.

"Maybe its the weather?"

Rogan said, unsure of a prognosis. The woman looked at the radio and let out a little frustrated groan before putting it back, switched off.

"Thanks anyway"

Rogan continued his route around the office building. The sound of phone calls and clattering on keyboards filled the office. In safely locked rooms he heard muffled voices talking, their conversations cryptic to the rest of the world. His route started in the main entry where a reinforced glass door led into a small hallway. In this room people often came and went with business to attend in the building, meetings and many package dropoffs.

Through the small hallway and round a bend you were in admin. Admin was divided into four sectioned cubicles where the admin ladies sat, answering calls and toiling with paperwork almost endlessly. Fairly often they would have to transfer a call through to one of the other office workers with a press of a few buttons.

To the left of admin was meeting rooms. They were the places that guests would go into to have their undiscussed conversations. All workers in the building were under strict non disclosure agreements so rogan rarely heard any form of information or even gossip.

A short distance after that was the printer room, where various forms and papers were born and met their ends at the hands of the shredder. No- not that shredder, a paper shredder. Other cupboards and draws housed various papers, ink cartridges, staplers, hole punches, pens, stationary and glues. It connected the meeting room hallway and the back half of the building.

To the left of the printer room entrance, along the meeting room side, was a short hallway with a glass door leading to the outside smokers area. Branching off this hall, was the lunchroom hallway where a small kitchen sat in the hallway itself on the left side. At the end resided the toilets and cleaners room.

At the right of the admin cubicles, are the offices. They are made up of cubicles and enclosed offices where the higher ranking workers were. This section made up the large portion of the building, stretching around in an L shape. The layout was confusing at first until rogan realised everything is connected through right angles and after a couple laps around the office, knew it by heart.

Rogan didnt know the majority of the people who had worked here as he only started recently, but the women in admin were kind to him and his prestige in fixing radios was beyond useful at getting to know them. Only 2 of the four admin ladies were in today, due to a virus some people worked from home.

Rogan pulled into the cleaners room and ripped his gloves off. Sweat made them cling to his skin. He put the chemicals in a spot where he could easily see them and sat down. The last thing he wanted was for some child wandering off and thinking the cleaning liquid was a juice. The room was small, maybe half the size of a normal loungeroom. It had one single chair and one two seater in it, as well as a fan, small table and a sink. He had short breaks here in between laps of the office so that the spray could settle and then he would go again. He browsed his phone, sometimes reading, sometimes checking the news before looking at the time and getting back up for another lap.

Rogan felt tired. He wanted to rest his eyes for just a moment but knew if they shut, he most definitely would fall asleep. His body jolted as he snapped himself back up.

Cant fall asleep, im at work. Can't fall asleep

He thought over and over to himself. He looked at the time on his phone and concluded that in order to stay awake he needed to keep moving. He made his way back up the hall past the lunch room and noticed, on the hallway kitchen, a pot of coffee was sitting.

Wouldn't mind some of that.

Rogan thought. Making his way back toward the front section he heard the radio once more. It crackled and started making a lot of noise. People called out for Janet to turn it down but she retorted that its not even on. Something like voices started coming through the radio, deep and distorted. Unable to make out the words, Janet removed the batteries entirely. It stopped.

"What the hell was that?"

One man in the office section asked. The ground began to shake. The whole office building rumbling and lights flickering. Office equipment and papers were thrown everywhere. Some incandescent lights came loose and smashed on the ground. People screamed earthquake and got down. Rogan didnt know what to do. This is Australia, we never get earthquakes this bad, yet the whole building was shaking like it was being thrown around by a toddler.

Pot plants fell from tables and scattered dirt everywhere while people hid under their desks. A light above Rogan fell and as he guarded his face, shattered on his arms, lodging bits of glass in them and all around him. The quake began to get more violent and rogan fell, landing in the scattered glass around him. The radio started again and the voices came back, despite not having any discernible power source. Women screamed and a loud ripping sound outside caused a large flash and then it stopped. Everything was still. Rogan groaned as he lifted his blood soaked arms off the carpet and whimpered when pulling a large piece out. A small amount of blood spurted and stained the glass that wasn't currently in him. He stood up with sharp pains striking through his body. Other people began to slowly get up from underneath their desks and check up on one another.

Outside the only sound heard was car alarms going off. A red glow came through the blinds that usually kept out sunlight. Janet came and checked up on Rogan, helping him pull larger bits of glass put of him and retrieving a bandage to wrap his arms. They shook a little. Rogan had never experienced anything like this and the whole experience was unnerving. A short, breathless, scream came from a woman in the cubicles who had looked outside.

"What is that!?"

She cried. Suddenly everyone was rushing to the windows to look at the sky. Rogan was helped up by Janet and the two made their way over slowly. Janet looked first, a small gasp escaping her mouth as she froze in terror. Rogan couldn't see. One man that was sweating ran away from the window and straight to a phone, and in a rush dialed a number. Nothing. He began to frantically dial another number. Still nothing. He let out a pained groan and slammed the phone down, almost snapping everyone out of their frozen state.

"The phones are out" 

Everyone began rushing to their desks to do the same but it was pointless no matter who dialed. Rogan moved toward the window and looked outside then froze. No words could describe how uncomprehendingly big it was. A tear, blood red, ripped the sky open and blocked out the sun. It resembled ripped flesh, like the universe was an animal and something had just hurt it. Streams of red poured from it like blood and made their way towards earth.

"I... I dont know... what to say"

Janet said, without breaking eye contact with the tear.

"I just know... I have never been this scared"

Rogan looked at her. The woman, who was in her early thirties had wet herself out of sheer terror. Rogan felt his heart pumping hard and sweat forming but didn't feel as scared as he supposed Janet was. The reason being, this wasn't the first time he had seen this rip.