Immediate Danger

(Chapter One: Shadows)

Olivia felt a cold seeping into her body as she stood next to her desk looking down at the open files and little yellow sticky notes scattered across it with messages written on them in her handwriting. She had a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach like something was very wrong and usually her feelings were pretty accurate. She looked around the large empty room with concern in her big brown eyes. Where was everyone? The door to Captain Cragen's office stood open, but there was no one inside. The entire building was empty. She stood listening to the screaming of the quietness as it echoed through her mind trying to remember if there was some meeting or cause for this. Something was terribly wrong. Olivia could feel the stillness closing in around her and for a brief moment of panic as if it would swallow her up like it seemed to have done her co-workers. She reached in her pocket and pulled out her cell phone. No missed calls. With a confused look of concern she dialed Elliot's number. Just as she as she was about to push the send button Olivia heard a familiar sound. She closed the phone and walked slowly toward the office door and into the hallway then she heard it again.

"Olivia?" A voice called to her. It was Elliot, he must have been looking for her. With a sigh of relief she proceeded down the hallway toward the staircase.

"El? What's going on?" She called out, but when she got to the top of the stairs no one was there.

"Elliot?" He must have been downstairs and unable to hear her calling to him. Olivia made her way quickly down the staircase to the lobby area on the ground level of the building, but it appeared to be empty as well. She walked over to the large glass doors and peered into the street outside, but it was empty. Just then she saw a reflection in the glass, someone was standing behind her. Olivia felt a lump rise into her throat and her heart pounding so hard she thought it might explode. The figure in the glass appeared to be staring straight at her, but she couldn't make out a face. Judging by the reflection, this person was much taller than Elliot. She lowered her hand and moved it ever so slowly to unlock the revolver she carried with her. Liv felt breath on the back of her neck as she gripped the handle of the gun with her trembling hand.

"Freeze!" She yelled as she spun around ready to fire on anything or anyone who may cause a threat. But no one was there. Olivia noticed what appeared to be drops of blood on the floor in front of her and with gun in hand knelt down to take a closer look. She reached out and touched her finger tip to the dark substance. Not only was it blood, it was fresh blood. The droplets were still warm to the touch. She heard a gentle tap on the floor as more drops appeared. Soon the droplets had formed a small puddle. Olivia looked up above her head to try to see where they could be falling from. Then she realized she had gotten the blood on her hand. She opened her hand and the blood ran between her fingers and fell to the floor pooling beside the small puddle she had found before.

"What?" She mumbled quietly to herself. She took off her jacket and dropped it to the floor examining herself for wounds. She didn't appear to have any, but blood had soaked a large portion of her white blouse. Olivia felt a tear roll from her cheek. What the hell was going on here? She could feel herself about to lose control. Was she going crazy? Where was everyone? What had happened to them? Whose blood was this? What had she done?

Olivia brushed her hand across her face to push her hair away from her eyes. She turned back around to look into the reflection of the glass door once more, but she only saw her own blood smeared face. Beginning to feel weak and dizzy, Olivia backed up into a corner of the room. She could see from here if anyone approached her. She leaned back against the wall and slowly slid down to sit in the floor. Liv felt her eyes getting heavy as she tried to keep herself alert, but it was no use. She leaned her head against the wall and closed her eyes.

What seemed like only moments later Olivia heard footsteps in the room with her. Still groggy, she opened her eyes to survey the room. Everything was blurry and the room appeared dark. To her right she could see a soft white light. She could make out figures of people but she could not see them clearly and they didn't appear to even notice her. Where was she?

"Elliot?" She heard her own voice call softly. Then she closed her eyes and drifted off again.