??? am?pm?

As the metal door rose, the girl quickly dropped to the floor, frantically scanning for any sign of the creature that she was hearing.

Images of various different animals and objects catapulted through her head as she felt dread rise through her chest, wondering what the thing could be.

She stared into her father’s office and shivered. She questioned her judgement, not knowing if she could reverse the door opening if the thing was still in the room.

Luckily it was not.

She breathed a sigh of relief as she stood up on wonky knees. She took a few deep breaths and treaded in the room very cautiously.

A large yellow clock still hung high on the wall. It was the only thing that was undamaged in the room. The clock read:

2:23 am

The clock’s second hand was calmly and loudly ticking away, creating echoes in the stillness of the room.

2? At night? … well in the morning? That’s long. That’s too long. Where’s dad gone? That’s… one, two…um… twelve o’clock… one, two, three… seven o’clock… that’s about five hours.

She said looking down at her fingers. Math had never been her strongest suit.

The rest of father’s office was a wreck. Books were torn to shreds. Papers were scattered everywhere. All the paintings that were on the walls were in tatters and on the floor. Two of the three bookshelves were overthrown and all of their folders and books were ripped up. Her father’s large mahogany desk was split in half. His shiny black computer was smashed beyond any form of repair.

It was quite dark in the office. She looked to the ceiling. The light was still intact. There was a tiny backup light in the room right next to it, giving the room the same dim ember glow as the filing closet that she was just in. She turned to face the window.

The pink curtains were torn to shreds, framing a giant crack in the large reinforced frosted glass window. She walked towards it and traced the crack with her finger. Her father told her that you could ram into this thing two hundred times and not make a single dent.

What kind of thing could do this?

Her stomach felt queasy. She glanced towards the door. It was still flung wide open.

Silencing a scream in her head, she crept towards the door as quietly as she could.

I have to close it. What if it comes back? It’s going to come back, I know it’s going to, argh, I can reach it, it’s not far. Come on.

Then she heard a growl. It was quiet as if from another room. But how far away? At first fear immobilized her. Then panic turned to action and she crept faster towards the door, and hastily closed it, as softly as she could. She did not dare peek her head outside the door.

Anything could be in the hallway.

Maybe the door would not hold anything trying to break in. Maybe whatever was outside wondering through the building would just crash through. But it would buy her time at least. A little bit of time, to get back to the filing closet.

Would it be enough time though?

She heard another roar from outside the room.

It sounded closer. A lot closer.

Is that the same thing? Is it coming here? What is it? Do I want to know? I don’t want to know. Daddy where are you? Please, please be okay. I don’t know what to do… come back, please… I have to call him.

She quickly looked around for her bag. Luckily it was still intact, buried underneath part of her father’s table. She brushed off large chunks of splinters away from her bag and slowly opened the bag trying not to make any noise, carefully pulling on the keychain that held her name in silver and gold “Summer”.

Summer fished around in the bag to check if all of her contents were there. Nothing seemed out of place. Then she felt around for the wires of her phone charger and pulled it out. Her heart still beating fast. Slowly, trying not to tread on anything on the floor, she plugged it the wall, and charged her phone. Every minuscule movement seemed to take too long and every breath seemed to attract unwanted attention.

She could hear the creature roaring again.

She breathed a small sigh of relief when she saw the phone light up.

At least the power supply seems to be working. Backup generators don’t fail me now. Please don’t fail me now.

1%

2%

Come on, come on. Charge faster. Please, please, come on…

She looked to the door. All was silent. Deceptively so.

10%

Okay. That has to enough to turn on and make a call. I have to see if I can call dad or mum. Hope he’s okay. I bet mum’s so worried.

She turned on the phone, and instantly regretted it.

The phone vibrated loudly and sang its bright loud little opening ditty. Summer gasped and clammed her fingers down on the speakers asking it to shut up, but it was too late. There was already something at the door.