The staff and renters of the Persona Tower felt oppressed and watched. Everything seemed the same. There was no reason for the feelings draping over them as they entered the building and went to their offices.

Various degrees of work was still being carried out by the people moving around. Occasionally one would see a shadow passing over their window. They put it down to clouds blocking the sun.

Sonya Cade worked on the thirtieth floor for a law firm that specialized in forfeitures. She sent out the notices, called the various clerks in the various jurisdictions the firm covered, made sure the firms that worked with them had their paperwork in line.

That day started like any other. Sonya arrived before anybody else and passed through security. She headed up to the office to open it for everybody else and make her first pot of coffee to get through the morning. Then she would start on her checklist to open up.

Sonya paused when she stepped out of the elevator. She looked out of the windows that lined the hall down to the office. There was something about seeing the city all around Persona Tower that lifted her up. It was almost like flying.

She pulled out her keys and headed down to the office. She had a lot of paperwork to get into order before the bosses got there. It was up to her to keep the office running while they were dealing with the court over their filings.

She liked to think they wouldn't be able to do anything without her, but she doubted that. A new office manager could do the same things she did with enough time and practice.

She slid the office key into the slot and opened the glass door. She liked that she could see the skyline from her desk. She stepped inside and locked the door back. She had an hour before the rest showed up. She didn't want to deal with impatient clients showing up before she had everything in order.

Sonya cut the office alarm off before putting her bag down on her desk. She went into the small breakroom to put on the coffee. She wasn't any good before she had her first cup of the working day.

She put on the pot, using coffee grounds from one of their clients. It tasted like bitter chocolate to her. A spoonful of sugar usually fixed that.

“What?,” said a thin voice in her ear.

Sonya looked around. She didn't see anybody in the room with her. She stepped out in the outer office. No one was there. She put it down to imagination.

She was used to hearing phantom voices. Usually they called her name. When she examined her surroundings, there was nothing around to make the sound. She just dismissed the sound as her ears making a sound into a word instead of being a car braking, or the train rattling.

As she grew older, the name calling had faded away to nothing. This one time was the return of an old habit. She sighed. She still had to get ready for the day.

Sonya walked back into the breakroom. Once she had her coffee, she would be ready for the first thing on her checklist. She needed to check her e-mail for any priority demands. Then she had to check the calender and make sure her bosses showed up for their hearings with the right paperwork and notices.

After she got that done, she had to make sure the billing work had been sent out, and that payments had been received. She might have to make some calls to follow up on payments to the firm.

After that, she had to make sure the clients were dealt with when they arrived to talk business.

In the middle of that, she had to decide to call down for lunch to be sent up, or go down to the one of the many restaurants around to eat. When she got back, she would be able to send the receptionists out if they wanted to go.

Then they had the afternoon to sort out the rest of everything, figure out what motions had to be filed, try to deal with any problem before the office shut down and push back any problem they couldn't deal with to the next day.

A trip on the train back to Queens would be the end of her work day. When she got home, she would set up her tomorrow checklist, pull out her suit and hang it by the door. Either she would cook for herself, or order out. Then she would settle in to read, or watch movies, until she was tired. Then a bath and bed would take care of the rest of her night.

Sonya pulled her cup from the cupboard over the counter that held the coffee pot and ingredients. She waited for the coffee to fill the pot. She enjoyed the wait. This might be the last slow time of her day before work really started.

She wished the breakroom had windows. She felt closed in. It was a feeling she associated with being stuck in a crawlspace when she was little. She didn't like the feeling.

She poured her coffee and dumped two spoons of sugar from a tin can in the cup. She stirred the mixture up with a spoon. She closed the sugar can and washed the spoon off in a sink in the counter.

It was time for her to check her mail, then go to the next step of her checklist.

She picked up her cup and walked back to her desk. She turned on her computer after putting the coffee down on a coaster. She turned on the other computers before she sat down at her desk.

Once she got through the daily mail, she could start on the requests that needed to be farmed out to the staff.

“What?,” said the thin voice again.

Sonya looked up from her computer. The voice sounded closer than before. She didn't see anyone else in the office with her.

Was it her imagination? It sounded like real voice saying what. She hadn't seen anybody in the office when she cut all the work stations on.

She glanced at the outside window through the office door and windows. She froze when she saw a face on the glass. She stood up. What was causing that?

She noted that the face grinned with extremely pointed teeth, a flat nose, and eyes like a cat. The ears stuck up like fox ears.

Sonya stifled a scream. There had to be an explanation for what she was seeing. She wasn't losing her mind. She refused to believe she had snapped under the pressures of her job.

The face faded away. She felt like the owner had seen her standing in the office. She didn't know why, when it couldn't be real. Someone must have made a projection and used that on the glass from somewhere else. That had to be the explanation for what she had seen.

She wondered how the trick had been done. How had they made the voice and put it in the office? Was there a microphone in the office somewhere?

She walked out in the outer hall to look at the windows. Maybe something had been placed on the windows from the inside to explain what she had seen.

She placed her hand on the window. She didn't feel anything with her fingers. Something must have been applied. Maybe what she had seen was from a projector set up somewhere.

She pressed on the window once. She had no way of determining where the face had been shown from so it covered the windows in the hall.

The glass gave way under her hand. A high wind pulled on her. She tried to grab the edges of the window so she wouldn't be pulled through the empty frame. She didn't secure a grip fast enough before she fell through.

Sonya hit the roof of a Volkswagen. The impact turned her into a pile of broken bones and torn meat. The roof of the car collapsed and slammed the driver against the wheel. She wound up with some broken ribs and a few hours stuck in her wrecked car until the NYFD could cut her loose.

The police arrived and started looking for where Sonya had fallen. It took them some time before they narrowed it down to the Persona Tower. Then a search of the floors revealed the missing window.

Sonya's fall was written off as a strange accident. The window frame didn't look like it had been tampered with. The office was ready for work. The implication was that she had pressed against the window and it fell out of the frame and caused her to fall to the street.

It wasn't the first time something strange had happened and killed someone in the big city. It probably wouldn't be the last. The police and fire department filled out their reports. A building inspector would have to look at the damage before they replaced the window. Then a construction crew would place another window in the frame.

Life would go on without Sonya.

The staff would arrange for a funeral and service since Sonya didn't have anyone. All of her family had died years before she started at the firm. She was the last of her line.

Talking of suing the Persona would die down after it was pointed out that accidental harm was not covered by the building and had to be handled by the renters. You stayed in the place at your own risk.

The firm buttoned up and issued a warning that the windows might fall out at anytime.

No one heard a voice saying what as they went about their business. They were too busy trying to figure out what they should be doing next.

Orville Rietman saw the notice that night. He wondered how many more people would be killed before he could get into the building and fix things.

However the police explained things, he knew that something from his line of work had killed the office manager. He was looking at a giant bird and something else. He doubted they were connected, but stopping one, meant stopping the other.

And the longer it took for them to get inside the Persona, the more people were going to be killed.