Return date: never

Wichita, Kansas. 1996.Nora Vance locks up the Midtown Office Plaza at 8:17 p.m. and disappears before reaching her car.The security camera catches her final wave.Then the screen turns to static.Her Buick remains in the lot. Her purse is left open on the passenger seat. Every ID inside has been sliced clean in half.Police call it voluntary flight.The building disagrees.After Nora vanishes, the phones begin ringing after hours. Voicemails play with no incoming call. Elevators drop to a floor that does not exist. Badges print by themselves, each stamped with the same impossible status:Effective: NeverNora's sister June refuses to let the case disappear into office gossip and police paperwork. But the more she searches, the more the plaza notices her. The clocks freeze at 8:17. The vents whisper her name. The elevator asks a question no one should answer.Return Date: Never is a slow-burning dread novella about work, identity, bureaucracy, and the terror of being entered into a system that does not allow resignation.Once you are on file, you do not leave.