11:00 am

Summer woke up to her phone alarm. She woke up knowing it was 11 o’clock, that it was Saturday, and there was football practice in 2 hours. She couldn’t be late for practice. She was never late for anything. Her parents raised her to never be late. Also the coach made you run twenty extra laps around the field if you were the slightest bit tardy, and no one wanted to do that.

She attempted to sit up straight and bumped her head on the top of the broom closet’s shelf.

Ouch! What the? Owwww!

She groaned and rubbed her aching head, lying back down on the floor.

Owie…that’s going to bruise maybe… I hope it doesn’t leave a bump at least, why is the ceiling so low… wait a minute. That’s not the ceiling. There’s no way the ceiling is low and wooden. This is not my room. What the… what’s that doing there… wait… where am I?... oh…

The events of the past night tumbled through her head in bits and pieces. She lay on the floor looking up at the bottom of the shelf trying to stich it all together. She wanted to think it was a dream, but waking up in a broom closet told her otherwise. She glanced around her. She had been sleeping curled up on top of a few cleaning cloths like some sort of makeshift bed. She picked one up from underneath her and sniffed reprehensively. Luckily they were all clean.

Summer rolled out from under the shelf and grabbed her phone off the floor.

The screen read

11:06 am 
Ultra battery saving mode : 3% 
Please charge your phone.

Summer kissed her phone twice, semi enthusiastically.

Thank you for phone for magically switching to saving mode battery. I love you technology. But one call and it could turn off. Should I try calling? Wait, wait. There should be an outlet here… maybe? Possibly… To charge stuff? Like the fancy vacuum cleaner?

She searched around the room, upturning dust brushes, cloths. She picked up and put down many branded very specific cleaning liquids, reading the labels as she went along. “Cleaning liquid for frosted glass windows on the eleventh floor,” “Washing up powder for lab coats that have stains on them,” “Soap for acrylic blue carpet in the break room,” “For cleaning hard to remove coffee stains out of mugs. Do not use on plates.”

She rummaged through everything until she finally found an outlet at the bottom of a shelf, hidden behind a small orange broom and dustpan.

Thank you God, oh thank you so much God. Please let this work.

She plugged the thing in and watched the battery percentage rise.

3%

4%

She waited until the phone was at 20% then tried calling her father’s phone.

It beeped and beeped, but no one answered.

She tried again and again. There was no answer through it all.

Daddy? Daddy where are you? Why are you not picking up. Please pick up. Why isn’t it going through at all? Is it turned off? Out of battery? Daddy where are you?

A tear rolled down her cheek, but she wiped it away. This was no time to be crying. Not yet.

Then with shaking fingers she tried calling her mother.

“The person on the other end of the line is unavailable, please try again later. If you would like to record a message please leave one after the beep… beep”

“Mum? Mummy? Is your phone turned off? Please turn it back on. Please call me back if you get this… I mean when, when you get this. I don’t know what happened, I’m at dad’s office and there’s this… I think it is a monster… I don’t know what it is mummy, I just don’t know… and daddy ran off and I don’t know where he is gone or where to find him, and I’m … mummy where are you? Please call me. I don’t know what I should be doing… Dad said to stay in the room, but I didn’t and then there was a monster and… it tried to… to get me. I don’t know what happened to everybody… and I’m so scared.”

“Beep… thank you for leaving a message. Have yourself a nice day.”

Throughout the call, with every single word, Summer could feel herself slowly crumbling down. She felt the tears she was desperately trying to hold back roll down her eyes. She was frightened, she was sad, she was alone. She put the phone down carefully on the floor. Careful not to accidentally unplug it from charging.

The girl rolled herself up into a ball, and carried on crying.

After she was done, she got her leftover lunch from her bag. An uneaten cheese and ham sandwich. It was a little bit soggy, but still edible. She put it to her mouth and chewed, wondering what her next move should be. She felt dehydrated from crying so much. Her eyes hurt, her face hurt and she was developing a headache. She gulped a sip of water from her water bottle. The water wouldn’t last her more than a day or two if she rationed it out.

I can’t stay here, I’ll starve. Or die of thirst. I need to find water at least. Will dad come back? Will he find me if I’m not in his office? Should I just try to leave this place? Can I? What if the monster comes back?

Then her phone rang.