[Ruff Wanderer]

Alexis yawned, stretching tiredly as she lazily rolled out of bed. Another Monday and another week at her hellish job. It wasn’t that her job was particularly difficult, it was just so numbing and robotic in its repetition that it had her debating whether or not to quit seemingly every hour. She wouldn’t quit though, it was the only job she managed to get out of college and unemployment was hardly an option she wanted to deal with again.
With trepidation, Alexis slowly made her way to the shower. Glancing at the mirror through weary eyes, she looked at herself as she stripped off her clothes. Pouty lips, ice-blue crystal eyes and a light olive complexion still looked beautiful in such a sleepy state. Her body, fit and at the same time curvy only made her more desirable. Turning around to get a nice look at her behind, Alexis smiled. Her ass was still as round and perfectly sculpted as ever. She never tried of admiring her beauty. At least her job hadn’t robbed her of that.
Sighing, Alexis stepped into the warm water and relaxed for a moment. She tried not to think of the dreary drudgery that awaited her. Monotonous office life was the bane of her existence. She didn’t even know what she was doing half the time with meaningless spreadsheets and phone calls that were soon forgotten once completed; and there were always more spreadsheets to be filled and phone calls to be done.
A sudden bright flash and bang of rushed footsteps snapped her out of her thoughts. Alexis screamed as she tried to cover her naked body from the intruder who had pulled open her curtain and snapped pictures rapidly of her naked state.
“Get out you creep!” she cried. She was shaking with fear, who was this man that had snuck into her apartment. Looking through soapy eyes, she could only make out a silhouette, but it didn’t matter. The pervert was wearing a black mask. How had he known she would be in the shower! Finally, without responding to her protest the mystery man ran out of the room and apartment, leaving Alexis shocked and crying on the floor of her shower.

It had been a week since the pictures. Alexis hadn’t heard anything about it, and she hadn’t told anyone either. She’d heard of blackmail stories and was too afraid to do anything. Besides, the whole ordeal was just too embarrassing to bring up. She had informed the police about an intruder, leaving out the pictures part so at least they were aware. This whole situation was a nightmare.
“Excuse me… Alexis,” Tom said loudly, looming over her desk at her cubicle. “These spreadsheets aren’t going to fill themselves out now, are they?” Alexis forced a smile as she tried to look more productive, but how was she supposed to focus when there were naked pictures of her in the hands of some unknown pervert. For all she knew, pictures of her could already be on the internet.
“Sorry boss. I just have a lot on my mind,” she said. She didn’t know why she added that last part, opening up to Tom the terrible wasn’t exactly commonplace in the office.
“Just do your work,” he scoffed, storming off to berate whoever else managed to cross his path. Alexis sighed and tried to focus on another meaningless spreadsheet.
“Are you ok?” Sally her cubicle mate said. Cubicle mate, what a stupid term but unfortunately every cubicle in the office had two people working in them. HR said each worker would have a “cubicle mate.” Fortunately for Alexis, she had lucked out in getting Sally. Sally was one of the only good things about her job, she really enjoyed the woman’s company. Sally was the opposite of Alexis, where Alexis was short Sally was tall. While Alexis was fit and curvy, Sally was thin as a rail. Alexis had dark black hair but Sally had bright, almost white blonde hair. Their personalities though, were nearly identical and they both loathed their jobs. “The burglar?” she said over Alexis’s silence.
Alexis nodded. “He… Sally he took pictures of me, in the shower,” she whispered.
“Why didn’t you say something earlier? I had no idea,” Sally said concernedly.
“It’s just so degrading. So humiliating.” She hung her head as Sally placed an arm around her shoulder.
“I’m here if you need me. Just try to get through the rest of the day and maybe you could sleep at my place tonight.”
Alexis smiled and nodded. Maybe some time away would be helpful. Feeling her phone vibrate, Alexis glanced down to see who texted her. She gulped. It was from a blocked number. It simply read: If you don’t want your naked body emailed to everyone you know, step out of the office and wait for a call. I’ll be watching.
She nearly fainted, and slowly got to her feet. “I need some air,” Alexis said and Sally nodded. What was she going to do? Who was this man and what did he want?