12:45 am

Summer panicked. The ringing was loud. She should have put the phone on silent. She stared at the door, her heart pumping madly. There were no noises from outside. Tentatively she reached down for the phone and answered the call without checking who it was.

Frantically she called out “hello?” into the phone, so fast she nearly bit her tongue.

The voice on the other end was very chipper.

“Hey, hey hey Sunny Sun Sunshine! Where are you? Practice is in like fifteen minutes and the coach is looking super mad at the turn out right now. Like seriously, you should see the look on her face. Which you will if you are like on the way, so please tell me you are on the way in a traffic jam or something.”

“Lou?” Summer said slightly confused. Really quickly Summer took the phone from her ear and looked at the it. The phone read

‘Captain - Louisa’

Time at call: 0:36 seconds.

She returned it to her ear catching the tail end of Louisa’s sentence.

“… could it be? Geeze.”

“Sorry, sorry. I’m… I…”

“Summer… what’s wrong?” Louisa cut in. “Don’t tell me nothing please, you definitely don’t sound like you are okay.”

“I… I don’t know, I Lou… I don’t know! Everything’s so wrong… I can’t get a hold of my… I don’t know… I… Lou… you wouldn’t believe…” she began babbling. Summer didn’t know where to start, or how to start. What should she say? Would anyone even believe her?

“Summer! Hush. Calm down. Hey, hey. Um… what’s the thing that Coach says? Oh yeah. Stop thinking. First visualise. You are on the pitch. It’s crunch time, ten minutes left. Score is currently equal. Need to score to win. But it’s okay. We got this. Breathe. You got this.”

Summer closed her eyes, imaged the grass under her feet and sun on her face. She imaged her team beside her and the opposition in front of her. Her heart pumping, but her mind calm. She opened her eyes.

“Sorry.”

“Good girl. Now tell me, where are you and tell me what’s wrong?”

“I’m at my dad’s office. There’s… ugh… something going on.”

“What are you doing there on a Saturday morning? Also telling me something is going on is so not telling me what’s going on.”

“Sorry, sorry. You know how I walked over here yesterday to wait for my dad?”

“Yeah. You do that like everyday.”

“I never left.”

“Uh? Oh. Huh, actually now that I think about it, when my mum was dropping me and Miranda off, she pointed out that there was a roadblock.”

“Your mum saw a roadblock, to where?”

“No, my sister, not my mum, sorry wasn’t clear, but that’s not the point though. I think the road block lead to the road to your dad’s office…. what… wait sorry, coach yelling, I’ll be a sec. Lemme tell her what’s up.”

There was silence on the line for five minutes. Summer could vaguely hear a conversation being played out. She wasn’t paying any attention to it though. She had other thoughts to think.

A road block to the office? Did they seal us off in here? Wait… who sealed us off? Does somebody know something about this thing going around the office? Is everything on the outside of the office okay? Does nobody else know what’s going on inside?

“Hello? Yeah, back again. So you’re saying that you are stuck in your dad’s office? Was there like some sort of quarantine going on or something?”

Summer looked at the metal door in front of her.

“Something like that.”

“Is it a virus thing? In the movies it’s always a virus thing. Are you okay? You don’t sound like your sick though. Don’t turn into a zombie or anything. Oh hold on, Coach wants a word. She’s trying to eavesdrop.”

Summer thought about the thing that was chasing her in the hallway.

No, definitely not a virus. Right?

“Summer Grun you there?” Coach Riley’s voice was calm. She always had a calming effect on the girls when they were being too hyperactive or being too anxious. Coach Mel called out her name just like she was reading off the register, ticking off their names for attendance. It was comforting.

“Yeah,” Summer responded, feeling a slight relief.

“What’s going on, what’s this about a quarantine? Are you hurt? Is it some virus thing like Lou is saying?”

“No… I’m fine… I think… but there’s… Coach you won’t believe me but there’s some sort of a monster loose in the building. I don’t know what it is, it chased me around and now I’m trapped in a closet.”

There was a short pause before the coach replied. “Summer, I believe you. There’s no way any of my girls would lie to me. Take a breath and tell me about it.”

Summer held back tears of relief as she tried to describe what she saw.

“I don’t know what it is. I don’t. But it’s really big, and it’s like all black, with teeth and… it… had… these eyes.”

“It didn’t hurt you did it?”

“No. Thank God, no. It got close though,” she shivered thinking about the thing.

“Good. Is it safe right now where you are at?”

“I think I’m safe. At least I’m okay right now and I haven’t heard the thing in a while. I’m hiding in a broom closet. There are these large metal doors that came down. I can’t leave it, and the things can’t come in.”

“I see… Where’s your daddy at?”

“I don’t know,” she sobbed. The tears that were threatening to get out made its way down her cheek. “I can’t get a hold of my mum either.” Now she was crying again.

“Okay. Okay… listen we will see if she’s okay. Don’t worry. Then we’ll try to get you out okay? I don’t know what’s going on but we’ll find out from our end.”

“…Okay,” she sniffed.

“Did you call the police any emergency services yet?”

“I… no. I only just got my phone and tried calling my mum and dad. I honestly would have thought that someone else would have called them when all of this just started.”

“Girl, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t have tried to call. Maybe no one has yet. Don’t make assumptions.”

“Oh… I … yeah I should have, sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll see what I can do from my end. If you remember me saying once, my brother’s a police office, so I’ll give him a call after this. Stay safe as you can okay?”

“…Kay.”

“But Summer?”

“Yeah Coach?”

“You’re still late for practice. Twenty laps for you.”