{"id":7742,"date":"2024-10-16T19:21:12","date_gmt":"2024-10-16T19:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sum.malmostudenter.se\/?p=7742"},"modified":"2024-10-17T09:05:12","modified_gmt":"2024-10-17T09:05:12","slug":"the-marcson-merger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sum.malmostudenter.se\/index.php\/2024\/10\/16\/the-marcson-merger\/","title":{"rendered":"The Marcson Merger"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Illustration: Merle Emrich<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The Marcson Merger<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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By: Elliot Lakefield<\/strong><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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16\/10\/2024 <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\u201cThe Marcson Merger\u201d by Elliot Lakefield is the 1st place winner of the Monsters Short Story Competition, organized by SUM and C\u00e1lice Magazine<\/a>. This story was also published in the issue #113 of SUM.\u00a0Read the 2nd and 3rd place stories here<\/a>.<\/b><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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In the office bathroom mirror, I saw it for the first time\u2014a shadow rippling the surface. When I blinked, it was gone.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

I shook my hands under the dryer, its hum drowning a faint crash. My eyes darted to the door, but the sound vanished beneath the dryer.<\/p>

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The fluorescent lights flickered as I left the bathroom, stepping back into the narrow hallway that led to the cubicles. The cold tiles echoed beneath my shoes.<\/p>

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I met James on the way back. His thinning hairline, thick mustache, and bumpy nose stood out, with blackheads resembling freckles. A scar ran across his eyebrow from a failed trust fall at an after-work party. I was the supposed catcher.<\/p>

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\u201cHey man, doing good? Bathroom break, huh?\u201d he asked, a tired smile pulling at his lips. He shifted his weight, clearly in need of his own trip.<\/p>

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\u201cYeah, had one cup too many,\u201d I replied, \u201cYou prepared for an all-nighter?\u201d I chuckled.<\/p>

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\u201cAre you ever?\u201d He laughed. \u201cI also had one too many… But more coffee, more productivity, right?\u201d He gave a small laugh before continuing, \u201cRight, by the way, can you get those papers for the Marcson deal on my desk?\u201d<\/p>

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\u201cSure, I\u2019ll get them to you in thirty.\u201d I paused, my mind wandering back to the mirror. \u201cBy the way, James\u2014did anything seem off to you in the bathroom, at any time today?\u201d<\/p>

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\u201cOff? What do you mean?\u201d<\/p>

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I opened my mouth, then closed it again. \u201cNo, never mind. It\u2019s nothing.<\/p>

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He raised an eyebrow but didn\u2019t press. \u201cNothing off from what I can recall, but hey man, bathroom calls. It\u2019s a bad one.\u201d He brushed past me, heading toward the door.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

Half an hour later, I knocked on the metal edge of his cubicle.<\/p>

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\u201cJames\u2014uh, hmm.\u201d I paused. Was that his name? Who was he? His face\u2014it was too smooth, too pale. No blackheads, no hairs, just a scar on his eyebrow. Why couldn\u2019t I remember?<\/p>

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\u201cI\u2019m here with the Marcson deal,\u201d I said.<\/p>

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The man didn\u2019t respond, just stared at his screen, eyes unmoving, fixed on a single point. Then he jolted to life. \u201cHow long have you been standing there? Just leave it on the desk and go.\u201d<\/p>

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As I turned to leave, I heard a giggle behind me. I spun on my heel, but the man was already back to staring at his screen, face blurry. I rubbed my temples. Was I that stressed?<\/p>

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Back at my desk, Clara from accounting was talking about some meeting. She sat on my desk, playing with one of my Rubik\u2019s cubes. She was as cute as ever, although I no longer felt that odd feeling in my heart whenever she looked at me. Her yellow sun dress caressed her body and my gaze subconsciously danced its way along her curves. I nodded, my gaze wandering to the window, where the skyline distorted in the afternoon sun.<\/p>

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I blinked. There was a face in the window\u2014mine, or at least it should have been. But it wasn\u2019t. The reflection was hollow, blurry, my features smooth and flat.<\/p>

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I froze, my breath catching in my throat. Clara kept talking. I glanced at her, my heart pounding. She didn\u2019t notice anything wrong. Her eyes were on me, but the reflection\u2014my reflection\u2014was blurry, smudged.<\/p>

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\u201cYou okay?\u201d Clara\u2019s worried voice cut through the fog in my mind, and I forced a nod. But her face wasn\u2019t right. Something shifted beneath her skin, a subtle ripple. A wave moving beneath the surface.<\/p>

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I tried to speak, but my voice was a strained whisper. \u201cYour face\u2026\u201d<\/p>

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She frowned. \u201cWhat about it?\u201d<\/p>

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The reflection twitched, and with a sickening lurch, that feeling from the bathroom crashed back over me again.<\/p>

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The woman angrily left towards the\u2014towards the cafeteria? I think so.<\/p>

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Someone hurried past. Who was it? I looked into the hallway, but it was empty.<\/p>

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A tingling spread across my scalp and down my face. I massaged my temples, feeling the skin tighten. My temples felt smooth. I scratched my nose. Was it smaller?<\/p>

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I left for the coffee machine. It was getting late, and we were nowhere close to done with\u2014 hmm. I needed another cup.<\/p>

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I bumped into someone at the machine, a woman in a tight yellow sundress. \u201cWhat department do you work in?\u201d I asked.<\/p>

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They turned, but their face was blank\u2014no eyes, no nose, just smooth skin.<\/p>

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I turned back to the coffee machine which had stopped whirring. The figure grabbed their cup and sat at a table, staring into the distance.<\/p>

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A giggle echoed in the hallway, growing closer. Another person stepped into the cafeteria. Their face was blank, like the other\u2019s. Just a thinning hairline and a scar on its eyebrow. They giggled wildly before sitting down opposite the other figure.<\/p>

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The room was too quiet. I tried to speak, but no words came. I couldn\u2019t. I moved my hand up to feel my lips, but there was nothing. Just smooth skin where they should have been. I ran my hand across my face\u2014nothing. I needed to see.<\/p>

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I stumbled toward the glass doors, heart pounding. My reflection waited. I hesitated, but couldn\u2019t stop myself. Slowly, I leaned in, breath shallow.<\/p>

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There I was. Or\u2026 some version of me.<\/p>

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The face in the glass was blank, just like the others. A pale, empty canvas. No eyes, no mouth, no expression. A faceless figure staring back, hollow and lifeless.<\/p>

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I swallowed, or tried to\u2014my throat tightened. The reflection grinned.<\/p>

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It shouldn\u2019t have been able to grin.<\/p>

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But it did. Slowly, impossibly, the featureless face grinned.<\/p>

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A scream welled up, but I had no mouth to release it. The blank reflection tilted its head, watching me struggle, mocking me with that empty, impossible grin.<\/p>

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And then, in the silence, I heard it. My own voice, inside my head, whispering in a tone I didn\u2019t recognize.<\/p>

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\u201cYou were never real to begin with.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe Marcson Merger\u201d by Elliot Lakefield is the 1st place winner of the Monsters Short Story Competition, organised by SUM and C\u00e1lice Magazine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7743,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[328],"tags":[329,294,330,291,23],"class_list":["post-7742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-short-story-competition","tag-calice-magazine","tag-creative-writing","tag-monster","tag-short-story","tag-sum","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sum.malmostudenter.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sum.malmostudenter.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sum.malmostudenter.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sum.malmostudenter.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sum.malmostudenter.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7742"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/sum.malmostudenter.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7833,"href":"https:\/\/sum.malmostudenter.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7742\/revisions\/7833"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sum.malmostudenter.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sum.malmostudenter.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sum.malmostudenter.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sum.malmostudenter.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}