You're Not Alone

You are in your last class of the day, doing your homework, so you have more time to play video games when you get home. You are so preoccupied with your work that you don't notice the dismissal bell ring, let alone the sounds of your classmates leaving the room. the teacher leaves the classroom, and you don't notice. For a second, you look up to see that the classroom is empty and you are alone. Or at least you think you are. You escape the classroom and start looking around the top floor of your age-old school, but you can't find anyone.

Tonight is unusual. The sports fields are empty, and there are no after school activities. You rush towards the stairs and head towards the front door. Even though you are inside, you can't open the door. Although you can just unlock the door and walk out, you have no way of getting home. Even if you do escape, you can't go anywhere. Despite the fact that you are a walker, there is a raging thunderstorm outside. You check the other doors, and find that they are also locked. You have no way out.

You are hungry, so you go to the place that you know that you can find food - the cafeteira. The dining area is empty and dark, save the few lights that are always on and your phone flashlight. This room, which is normally full, let alone the entire school, is empty. Except for you, and you alone. While the emptiness of the normally packed cafeteira made the place feel liminal, and flat out off, the yellow poster that read "YOU'RE NOT ALONE" in all capital letters really added to the eerie atmosphere of the entire building. Despite your uneasiness, you step into the room and slowly and carefully walk towards the doors leading to the lunch lines. The door, as expected, is locked. You resort to the last option of unlocking the vending machine and snatching snacks.

You walk back upstairs and get to the catwalk that overlooks the schoolyard. You can hear the rain pouring down, and you are worried. The empty hallways make you feel uneasy. Stuck with the knowledge that you are stuck here overnight, you try to find a place to rest for the night. You've unlocked one of the restrooms and the vending machine, which you've taken what you wanted and locked it back up again. You decide to stay in the library, but the liminality of the place is unnerving. For one, it's a library, and they tend to be eerie when empty. Secondly, it's a *school* library, *and* it's night. The school at night is the very environment of a totally liminal space. With empty hallways, cafeterias, libraries, and other rooms that you are used to seeing packed, this is a completely unnerving location. Seeing the YOU'RE NOT ALONE sign added to the feeling, despite the fact that it seemed like an inspirational or motivational poster during the day, but that is when you know that you truly aren't alone. Now, you are unsure.

The time is now 9:30 PM, and you are beginning to hear noises in the hallway near the main office, and you decide to go check it out. When you get to the hallway, you see a silhouette; a figure which merely resembled a human. The shadow slips by your eyes, and in an instant, it seemed to have slipped behind the corner. The image of the sign pops into your head. *You're Not Alone* it reads. You figure you were just hearing things that weren't even there, so you go back to the library. As soon as you get somewhat comfortable, you hear the noises again.

This time, you hear the intercom buzz, and hear a muffled voice. You can't make out what it is saying, but soon after the message ends, you hear footsteps in the hallway and what sounds like a chattering crowd. You don't know what to make out of this, but with each passing minute, you become more and more sure that you are not alone. Images begin popping in your head, and you start hearing the crowd grow louder, yet whenever you look outside into the hall, the noises cease, and you don't see anyone or anything that could possibly be the source of the noises.

As soon as you go back to rest, you decide that you are not going to get up to look for the source of the noises anymore. They are a hallucination. You feel that everything that you thought that you heard and saw up until that point was just a manifestation of thoughts and memories. Just as you are getting comfortable again, you notice all the devices in the library power on. They begin flashing in an oddly specific way, and then you hear a flat and artificial sounding female voice.

"Copy," she says.

"-.-- --- ..- .----. .-. . / -. --- - / .- .-.. --- -. ."

The beeps of dots and dashes repeat over and over again, fading in and out in the same pattern.

"... --- ...", it beeps.

It beeps the between the two patterns, coding to "You're not alone" and "SOS" respectfully.

You look up to see that you are in fact not alone.