Ctrl; Alt, Delete
by Debbi Voisey
Wordcount: 3970
Genre: Suspense
Synopsis:
It is said that there are three steps to heaven. But beware…often those steps lead right down into Hell. Ctrl, Alt, Delete is about what happens when life breaks down and all your options run out.
First 500 words:
What if your life was so messed up that you could see no way out? What if you spent every night in a cold sweat and every day looking over your shoulder? What if you’d done something you were so ashamed of that your whole body shook with terror every time you allowed yourself to think about it? A sordid secret that no one knew.
And then what if, one day, you found a way to take back the reins, change your destiny, and wipe it all out?
In just three easy steps.
Would you do it?
****
The waiting room was like none he had ever been in. No tables strewn with magazines. No water cooler. No plants in the corner or pictures on the walls. Just stark white décor and black plastic bucket chairs filled with people who looked familiar.
All of them were men, wearing clothes like his (suit, tie, overcoat) and expressions like the one he saw every day in his shaving mirror. Some wrung hats in their thin white hands, or tapped bony fingers on their crossed knees. Some ran shaking hands through their thinning hair. All of them looked sickly, pale and lost.
Worried. Like him.
“Watson,” he said to the thin lipped woman sitting behind the reception desk. She wore a crisp overall and a haughty expression.
“Take a seat please, sir. Your name will be called.” Business-like, professional.
David Watson sat.
****
He’d seen the ad over breakfast a week ago. Carol, his wife of 18 years had been tucking heartily into her bacon and eggs, prattling on about something that he had long since tuned out from. Probably something about a manicure or a new handbag, or the expensive spa retreat she was planning with her girlfriends.
He had only picked at his breakfast, because there was something living in his stomach that refused to let food stay too long. Stress? Ulcer? Cancer? Maybe all three, but whatever it was, it terrified him.
He turned the page of his newspaper; scanning the job section, the “for sale” ads, moving on to the sport pages. Anything to distract him and to stop the ticking of the time bomb that his life had become.
A bold black font caught his eye:
Ctrl, Alt, Delete – Three steps to freedom. Discover the best kept secret they don’t want you to know. Wipe out your mistakes – however large – and start to live again.
Satisfaction guaranteed. Immediate results. Contact:
A London number. Local and convenient. As he made his appointment – after Carol had left for Zumba – he hoped with all his heart that the last two years really could be wiped out.
****
When the receptionist called his name, his heart shifted in his chest like a seismic plate below the earth’s surface. With a dozen pairs of beady, curious eyes on him he walked the short distance to the office door that bore the legend Ctrl, Alt, Delete – CEO Andrew Mountford. His legs felt like jelly.
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