He jolted out of deep sleep and almost fell out of his chair. It was a chilly evening, unusually so as he had 4 layers of warm clothing on. Shivering and rubbing his palms with sleepy eyes, he looked at his mini desk clock which read 8:03pm. Stretching his arms and letting out a big yawn, he looked around in hopes of finding someone else who was working late. Not a single soul. The office felt darker and colder after realising he was the only one present. “Obviously, I’m sure everyone else has plans tonight” he thought out loud, looking at the the Christmas tree and its jingling baubles which were swaying from the air coming out of the vent underneath. The heater was on, yet he was freezing. He reluctantly got up to leave the office. “No one to go home to but a guy’s gotta eat….alone” he said out loud with a deep sigh as his stomach made a loud grumble. As he was sorting out his desk, his eyes landed on the wooden Santa decoration he had received from his secret Santa. He hadn’t figured out who this colleague was but appreciated the gesture nonetheless. He turned around and left it on the desk thinking “I don’t have a Christmas tree set up, what’s the point”. “If you take me home, you won’t be alone” whispered the bauble. Not believing his ears, he turned around to look at the object. It was just a wooden bauble, nothing out of the ordinary. Blaming the cold getting to his head combined with his terrible sleep schedule, he didn’t think much and turned around to pick up his bag. He heard the whisper again “Seriously, take me home and you won't be alone”. At this point, he had lost it. Out of fear, he swiftly turned around, picked the bauble up and threw it far away into the bin. It made a big noise in the eerily quiet office.
He jolted out of deep sleep and almost fell out of his chair. Baffled by what just happened, apparently in his dream, he looked at the wooden bauble sitting on his desk. There was a smile drawn on its face and two dots for eyes that looked dead but alive at the same time. He continued staring at the bauble, almost as if waiting for it to do something. And it did, the bauble winked
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