The Message-Chp Finale

The E.R. light turned off, signaling that the operation was over. The parents of the four girls—parent, in Jackie’s and Shah’s case—stood up, waiting anxiously for their daughters to come out. Finally the E.R. door opened and out pushed four medical beds, each laid Becka, Jackie, Ameera and Shah, unconscious and in bandages. The doctor-in-charge came out the last.

“How are our daughters? Are they OK?” They all asked at the same time, looking worriedly as their daughters’ beds were pushed and ushered towards the ICU ward.

“They are fine. Their conditions are now stable,” the doctor replied as he addresses each parent one by one, “Mr. And Mrs. Vagabond, your daughter has suffered a blunt-forced trauma—probably because of the stairs she fell from—and a mild concussion to the head, a fractured left elbow and a dislocated shoulder and a possible slipped disc due to her fall. Mrs. Graham, your daughter has sustained self-induced cut wounds through the kitchen knife, and it wasn’t easy for us to pry it as she held it in a death grip even though we had administered sedatives into her bloodstream.

“Mr. Thomas, your daughter has suffered a severe break on most of her ribs, and it’ll be rather a while for her to fully heal, and she may have sprained her ankle and twisted her arm from her fall from the bus. I guess the worst injuries sustained would be your daughter, Mr. and Mrs. Olson, for she had a hairline-cracked skull, a minor broken back—possible rehab is needed for her to walk—both her arms broken and her femur and ankle bone shattered. Her face also sustained multiple stab injuries due to the broken windshield and there is a very high chance that she needs to undergo facial reconstructive surgery in the future.

“We gave them an induced coma to make them sleep, so I’ll expect that they’ll soon come round in a week or two. They need all the slumber they can get,” he ended with a weary smile, then sighed and asked, “What happened to them? I mean, how did they turn out this way?”

“I wasn’t so sure,” Mrs. Olson replied. She was lucky to suffer only a few minor bruises and a deep cut on her forehead. “She suddenly went berserkers. I told her to keep her mind off school for a while because she looked so stressed out. When she asked me if we were eating out, I said yes, but she didn’t seem to hear me. She kept repeating her question and said I was scaring her. Then she just stood up and turned the steering wheel. When I told her to stop, she looked at me as if she saw a ghost.”

“So was our daughter,” Mr. Vagabond exclaimed, joining in the conversation, “We heard her suddenly screaming in her room when we got back home from work. When we were about to investigate, she suddenly shot out of her room and looked around like she had never seen the house before. Then she saw us and widened her eyes, like we were monsters or some sort.”

“She suddenly just blasted out of the house and screamed at every neighbor she saw. When we caught up with her, she was at the balcony looking really bewildered, like she had saw something that scared the daylights out of her when in truth, there were only curious passers-by looking up to see what the hubbub was about. She screamed and struggled when we tried to come near her and reach out for her, then she slipped and fell down the stairs. We were so worried when her head started bleeding…She kept saying the words ‘Let your dooms begin’…” Mrs. Vagabond burst into tears. Her husband comforted her.

“My daughter said the same thing too!” Mr. Thomas’s sudden voice made everyone jump. “It was raining this evening and I knew that it would be dangerous for her to go home alone. So I decided to fetch her, because it was supposed to be my wife’s turn to look after her, but she is still in Colorado performing a delicate surgery. When I got stuck in a traffic jam, a bus conductor suddenly approached my car and asked me if I knew my dear lil’ Jackie, and told me she was screaming wild in the middle of the road and that he knew me by my license plate number written in her address book. She continued screaming when I held her and said the same words your daughter said over and over again.”

“You’re not the only ones with daughters to worry,” Mrs. Graham lamented, near to tears but held them back, “my daughter was even worse. I rushed home briefly to drop her her KFC meal I bought for her, because I forgot to fix dinner and leave her usual dinner money. When I got home, I saw her sprawled on the floor waving a table knife in the air, as if she was trying to slash at something. Her whole body was smeared red and she was lying in her own pool of blood. The kitchen table was a mess too; a smashed plate of chicken with the chicken head on the floor and the pot began to smell of burnt metal and noodles because the water she was boiling were all evaporated. Even when I rang for the ambulance, she didn’t stop slashing. I don’t know why…”

“Neither do we,” replied the other three girls’ parents.

“Have you ever heard of the ‘Doom’ virus?” said the doctor after being silent for so long.

“Yes, I think so,” Mr. Thomas replied, “There has been a string of forwarded mail warning us about it. They often targeted school computers and always appear during black-outs on the computer screen and send a weird message reading ‘Let your dooms begin’…”

He suddenly stopped, looking at the doctor. The doctor nodded and said, “Yes, I believe that virus is the cause of it.”

“But how? How did they…?” Mr. Vagabond was so fumed, he couldn’t continue.

“When I checked your daughters, I found out that their brainwaves were abnormal and when I scanned their brains, I noticed some particles of radioactive rays circulating within them. I believe that besides destroying a computer, the ‘Doom’ virus also gives out radioactive beams through the screen which messes up the neurological patterns of the brain and triggered their brains to hallucinate. There is a high chance that your daughters were somehow exposed to it.”

“Then… then will my Becka be OK?” Mr. Olson voiced out anxiously.

“When they come round from their induced coma, they will still have the tendency to hallucinate, because although in small quantities, this radioactive virus seemed to be rather potent and wouldn’t just go away at such short notice. I’m afraid that we have no choice but to keep them isolated and committed into an institution temporarily and put them under solitary confinement so as not to hurt themselves and others,” the doctor replied gravely at first, then with an assured tone, he continued, “But don’t worry. I’ll get the paramedics specializing in radioactive engineering from Ukraine by then. I’m sure they will be most interested and willing to come after learning my story about your girls. Don’t fret. Your girls will be in good hands. We’ll fix them up in no time.”

The girls’ parents were restful then, after knowing their daughters are in good hands. Silently, they pray for their girls’ safety and wished that the culprits who caused their misery to be put to justice.

--:--

One rainy day, in another school, a few students were trapped in the Computer Room during a blackout. Suddenly, the familiar ‘Beep’ came from one of the computer…

The Message-Chp4

Jackie was taking the bus home as usual. She took out the novel she borrowed from the library and was planning to read it on the way home to kill time. Days getting caught up with homework, exams and meeting other people’s expectations of maintaining the valedictorian title forced her to renew her due date constantly and never got to sit down properly to read it. Coupled with the fact that having a traveling businessman for a father and a plastic surgeon for a mother who have high expectations on her honouring the family name with her prodigy skills in her studies and having to keep up with the image of being the Golden Child despite the fact that they were already divorced and couldn’t agree with each other on anything except this, she had her work cut out for her. Well, not this time, she thought. I am determined to finish all the leftover chapters if it takes me all night!

She paid the conductor her fare and opened the page she left her bookmark on. When she found the page, she was shocked to see the book all covered with blood. The source came from the spine of the book that filled itself up with blood out of nowhere and overflowed out onto and out of the pages. It began to drip on her palms and onto her pinafore, staining them crimson. The metallic smell of it shot up to her nose and made her want to puke. On all the pages, instead of the words of the story she was supposed to read, were only written with the words ‘Let your dooms begin!’ She couldn’t find a single decent page, and as she flipped through it, more blood trickled out and painted her hands red, and the eeriest part was that as she continued to try and make sense of all this, the books slowly but steadily began to moan in agony, forcing her to fling it at the driver’s direction.

The driver looked up at her and Jackie gasped when she saw that he, along with all the passengers and the conductor, was bloodstained from head to toe and was gazing at her with bloodshot eyes. Their skins were as grey as the zombies portrayed in zombie movies and their clothes began to rot along with it. They began to circle around her, baring their fangs that were almost as sharp as a lion’s, eager to bury them into her robust pink flesh.

Jackie stumbled for her bag and rang the bell to get off, but the driver paid no heed. She had no choice but to jump out of the bus. She landed with a thump on the solid ground, resulting to a loud crack heard somewhere near her chest. She realized that she had broken her ribs but she struggled to get up and called for help anyway.

Suddenly the ground below her feet began to rumble and shake, like the world’s most seismic earthquake ever, and crack without a moment’s notice, making craters here and there. Steam came out of the craters like geysers and hot molten lava spluttered out. More and more zombie-like people appeared out of nowhere and moved slowly towards her, unaware of the sudden happenings around them.

Jackie could do nothing but scream.

--:--

Shah was gradually forgetting the scary library incident. She took her hot shower peacefully and was ready to lay her hands and mouth on her dinner. Then she remembered that her mother was out on a theatre practice and won’t be back until well after midnight. Shah expected that her dinner will be laid on the kitchen table and her mother will leave a note saying ‘I’m gone’, ‘Do your homework’, so on and so on.

Surprisingly, there was no note and no dinner as she expected on the table. It was rather unexpected because her mother seldom did these things, unless she was very, very busy with Committee Meetings and such, and even so, she would make a call home to tell her that her dinner money would be somewhere stashed under the table so that she can order take-out. Since her father was out on a business trip and there was no money stashed in the usual spot, there was not much she can do about it. Shah shrugged and went to rummage the refrigerator for something, just anything leftover, to eat. Fortunately, she found some leftover chicken which she got from one of her relatives’ wedding dinner a few days ago. She took it out and popped it into the microwave oven.

“Only the upper part of the chicken left, but that’ll just do,” Shah said to herself, satisfied with her find. She decided to boil an egg or two and cook curry-flavored instant noodles to go with the chicken.

While she was cooking the lot, she heard a muffled sound coming from the microwave oven. At first she thought it was the humming of the machine but when she listened carefully, it actually came from the inside; the place where she reheated the cold chicken.

Shah couldn’t help feeling curious and stopped the microwave oven. She opened the microwave oven door and a foul smell of burnt flesh emitted out, making her eyes water. When she was finally done flapping away the smell, she took a look at her chicken. The chicken was perfectly fine. Nothing was spoilt. The head of the chicken, which she had no intention of eating, was also in one piece. Shah scratched her head, puzzled and confused.

All of a sudden, the chicken head looked up and opened its dead eyes, staring at her eerily. Shah let go of the plate of chicken in shock and it shattered into pieces. Still the chicken head stared at her. Slowly it said out the words, one by one, “Let your dooms begin!”

Shah kicked out at the chicken and backed away to the kitchen cupboard to get a knife to eliminate it. But the chicken head had a head-start. It rose from the floor and started pecking at Shah. Shah grabbed a table knife nearby and swished at the chicken head for all its worth. The water she was boiling for her eggs and instant noodles rose out of the pot like luminous, boiling arms reaching out to get her. Though she knew that the knife couldn’t penetrate water, she slashed at it all the same. The scalding heat burned her immensely and the chicken head’s pecking was painful yet irritating. But she didn’t stop slashing, not even when she began to lose strength due to fatigue and hunger.

She knew that if she ever stopped, it would be the end of her.

The Message-Chp3

Becka was still on the way home in her car. She was the only one to fetch today because her brother Bobby was ill and didn’t go to kindergarten. She sat at the back seat, reading her Chemistry book and trying to re-memorize the chemicals’ names to keep her mind off the recent incident. Usually she find it easier to study on the way home at the back seat rather than the front (she gets car sick if she read her books there), but somehow this time, she couldn’t focus. She couldn’t stop thinking about the message on the computer and the library door opening so easily by the head librarian Mrs. Marge whereas she failed to do so. All the thinking made her quite hungry.

“Becka, you’re unusually quiet today,” her mother broke the silence, bringing her back to reality.

“Sorry, Mom. I was just preoccupied with things in my head. They’re making me kinda hungry though.”

“You should keep your mind off school for a while. I like a smart daughter but I don’t like her turning into Einstein the 2nd.”

“Thank, Mom. Are we going out to eat tonight?” Becka asked eagerly. It had been a while since she ate out. “I’m sure Bobby is better now; his fever had gone down this morning. Can he come with us?”

“I think you’re stressed out. Let me help you release your tension,” Becka’s mother replied, not exactly answering Becka’s question.

“Mom, I asked if we’re going out for dinner,” Becka laughed, “don’t worry about me!”

“You wanna have some fun? I’ll teach you a good trick to relax.”

“Mom, aren’t you listening to me?”

“Let’s have some fun, Becka, let’s have some fun!” Her mother’s voice began to sound eerie.

“Mom, you’re scaring me!”

“Here we go!”

“Mom!!!”

Without warning, her mother shut her eyes, pressed down the accelerator and let go of the steering wheel. The car was moving 80miles per hour and was going faster. They grazed a few cars and banged a few car trunks but the car was showing no signs of stopping. Suddenly she found their car running through a long highway where the cars were moving at the opposite direction and were in danger of hitting headlong at any of them.

Becka was horrified. She shot up and tried to turn the steering wheel to put the car back in control. Her mother laughed and cackled and pressed the accelerator even harder. She even pushed Becka’s hands away and held them so that she can’t reach the steering wheel. There were a huge number of near misses, but still, the car carried on in its murderous speed. The speed increased to 120miles per hour and going faster still.

Becka yelled for help and begged her to stop but her mother pulled her close to her face and spoke coldly, “Let your dooms begin!”

Becka widen her eyes in horror, the message of the computer ringing in her ears. Then suddenly a deafening bang exploded in her eardrums and slowly, darkness enclosed her…

--:--

Ameera walked up the stairs towards her home on the 2nd floor. She was afraid that the incident at the overhead bridge might happen again, but fortunately for her, it didn’t. She reached her home and was greeted by her black tomcat Salem. Ameera was tired out with all the goings-on and decided to take a nap before getting ready for her tuition class. Salem followed suite. She fell plop on the bed with her school clothes on and started snoring within minutes.

No sooner she fell asleep than she felt something on her. It weighed a ton and she couldn’t move. She forced herself to wake up and saw Salem sleeping peacefully beside her. She thought maybe it was her imagination and went back to sleep. Before she dozed off, she felt the pressuring weight again. She woke up and saw Salem looking at her unblinkingly with its blue eyes. She felt weird and decided to feign sleep, seeing if it would happen again. When it did for the 3rd time, she opened her eyes immediately and saw Salem sitting on her chest, staring at her spookily with his eyes blue but cold. Cold as ice.

“Salem, get off me!” Ameera ordered.

Salem didn’t budge.

“Salem, stop staring at me!” Ameera ordered again.

Salem suddenly grinned from ear to ear, literally.

“Salem ……?”

“Let your dooms begin!”

Ameera screamed and forced herself to get up. Salem jumped down and started laughing (yes, laughing) long and hard at its mistress, echoing throughout the whole house. Ameera then realized that everywhere was empty and bare save a few dirty newspapers and rubbish, rubble and huge amount of dust on the floor, as if she was living in a deserted house. She went outside to her supposed-to-be living room and saw it was equally empty. Two tall dark figures were looming about in the empty space. They had no facial features or limbs, just two tall dark transparent blobs floating around aimlessly, as if in search of something.

She couldn’t contain her yelp as she saw them moving towards her direction. They had noticed her and were coming nearer to her. She shrieked and ran out of the front door into the corridor, yelling for help. Instead of people, she was met by more tall dark spooky figures yanking the doors of empty houses open, all of them looming out to get her. She ran all the way up to the flat balcony to call for help but was shocked to see she was looking over a vast space with rundown buildings—some reduced to rubble, even—and even more dark figures below the flat looking up at her.

It was as if she was the only human being alive in the flat.

The two dark figures from her house emerged from the balcony door and gave chase. She screamed in fright and started running for her life, starting by pushing the dark figures away and made her way back downstairs. The dark figures within the flat also gave chase, extending handless arms at her. Tears began to run down her cheeks as she kept yelling Shah’s name and praying to God that she would be here to rescue her. But by then, the more she ran, the more slowly she went, as if a force was stopping her from moving. The dark figures were gaining on her every minute.

When they finally grabbed her with their icy, cold hands, she knew she was done for.

The Message-Chp2

It was raining cats and dogs outside and not the bright sunshine Jackie expected as soon as they done taking their things out of the locker and made their way out of the school entrance. Becka, who had her mother chaperon her to and from school everyday, saw her in the family car down the parking lot waiting for her. She waved to her mother and bid goodbye to the others before making a dash under the rain towards her ride, never daring to look back.

As they watched Becka disappear into the rainy road, they gave each other a decided look not to touch the library topic as they don’t want to think they are going insane. Jackie remembered that she often kept a spare umbrella in her locker just in case it was a rainy day, so she doubled back to her locker to get it. When she took out her umbrella from her locker and opened it to test if it’s still OK, she got the shock of her life as all of a sudden, dozens and dozens of wriggly worms, fresh and red, poured down all over her from inside the umbrella when she opened it. The worms fell onto the floor nineteen to the dozen with a squelch and started to multiply. Within seconds, the whole classroom was filled with squidgy worms that began to team up to devour Jackie, starting from her feet. Jackie yelled and made a dash to the nearest classroom she could find and jumped up onto the lecturer’s table, yelling even more as she watched the icky worms followed after her and began to gnaw on the table legs.

Ameera and Shah heard her screams and rushed to the classroom she was in. They were also totally shocked at the number of creepy crawlies dominating the classroom and were surrounding the table Jackie was standing on, trying to gnaw their way to her legs that looked like prime ribs to them. Weirdly enough, the worms’ train of thought were all focused on Jackie and were not paying attention to either one of the couple who were standing right at the door like easy prey. Jackie yelled her head off, not in fear, but of disgust.

“Come on! Jump from table to table towards the door and we’ll catch you!” yelled Shah, holding out her hand and kept her feet well away from passing through the classroom door. As much as she wanted to use the worms’ obliviousness towards their existence, there was no way she would ever want to set foot on any one of those creepy crawlies. Jackie did as she was told. One by one, she jumped, getting nearer to the door. The worms were also following her like a fox chasing its prey. Ameera and Shah got hold of her hands and supported her down.

“Run! And don’t look back!” Ameera yelled, heading for the school entrance. Shah and Jackie followed suite. They did not stop until they were outside the school gates. In a panicked state, Jackie had almost forgotten to use the umbrella to cover them from the rain. As she shielded her and her friends from getting any wetter than they already have, they willed themselves to look back and felt the school looked a whole lot sinister and spooky than they had ever known.

“I always knew this school is ‘unclean’,” Jackie panted, gulping down her bottle of water.

“It always had been unclean throughout the years,” snorted Shah, panting like a runner who just finished running a marathon.

“Let’s go home. I don’t think I want to come to school tomorrow,” Ameera lamented, cowering away from the eerie building behind her lover.

So the girls walked until they reached a junction. Since Shah drove to school and Ameera’s flat was about 10 minutes walk from school and Jackie took the bus that situated outside Ameera’s housing area, Shah kissed her sweetheart goodbye and took the right to the parking lot while Ameera and Jackie took the left. They waved goodbye and went on their way under the increasing rain and loud bangs of thunder and flashes of lightning. Jackie couldn’t help feeling disgusted over the recent incident. Ameera tried to calm her down.

“Cool, man! It’s not so bad. You’ve finally got out of danger, haven’t you?”

“Well, I can’t help it! How would you feel if dozens of squiggly worms showered on you so suddenly? Now I know how my cousin Evita feels the last time she took worm-killing pills and crapped out her tapeworm.”

“It’ll be fine. Let’s just go back home, take a nice hot shower and everything will be fine. It’ll turn out alright in the end, you’ll see.”

“Hope you’re right.”

Just when they thought everything was back to normal, they were struck with another phenomenon. They had to take the overhead bridge to cross the road, and while nothing occurred when they went up and walked along the bridge, but when they went down the bridge at the opposite road, they found out that it dragged longer and longer. No matter how fast they went down, they were always a few meters away from solid ground.

“What’s this?” Ameera exclaimed astonishingly, “When are we going to get down? It’s not ending anywhere!”

“Here we go again!” Jackie groaned, walking even faster down the stairs but in vain. They were still nowhere nearer the ground.

“It’s scaring me, Jackie,” Ameera whined as she shook Jackie’s arm, “how are we gonna get down?”

“I think we better jump.”

“Jump?!”

“Do you want to keep walking down for the rest of your life?”

Ameera didn’t need to be asked twice. They both shut their eyes tight, counted till three together and jumped. Surprisingly it wasn’t a long drop and they were thankful after their feet finally touched the ground at the bottom of the stairs. Funny how it felt like eternity when they walked down the stairs but took seconds to jump down.

Ameera and Jackie stared at each other in silence. They shrugged and went again in their separate ways; Jackie to the bus stop and Ameera back to her flat. None of them said goodbye for fearing that it would be the last time they’ll ever meet.

The Message-Chp1

Started: 11-07-07 Completed: 11-27-07

THE MESSAGE

Four girls sat in the middle of the campus library of Fearstreet College, books of all sizes, colorings and coverings scattered all over the table. It was exam seasons, and while many had gone home to take a break for dinner before cramming their heads back into the books to study, these four girls had no choice but to stay back to soak in as much information as they possibly can through the library because they have an image to keep: as the school valedictorians and pride of all lecturers.

Ameera Vagabond, the blondest of all blondes, and Olga “Shah” Graham, the most brunette of all brunettes, (she was called Shah due to her obsession with Middle East and Egyptian culture) were the campus’ most gifted Physics students and the famous lesbian couple. Both would not go anywhere without the other and no one ever saw them apart. They took classes together, ate lunch together, attended extra curricular activities together and even went to the bathroom together, even though sometimes it was only one of them who needed to relief herself of her full bladder or bowel. The only time they ever separated was when they went home, because Ameera and Shah, although approved by their parents of their relationship, lived in different parts of the city too far away to be able to meet each other without driving for about an hour and a half, and since both families were not exactly well off enough to afford the expenses for them to move out, they’ll have to settle being apart until after they finished college, thus often the result of seeing them hugging and clinging onto each other everyday in front of the school gate when they’ve only separated for a night’s hour.

Rebecca Olson a.k.a. Becka (not to be confused with the Olson twins), on the other hand, was a flaming redhead with very high self-confidence that made her tall and proud despite her minute figure. She and her counterpart Jacqueline Thomas a.k.a. Jackie, the resident tomboy with the longest hair (due to her unruly raven hair that would go wild like a bushfire whenever it’s cut short) and stood twice her height, were the pride and joy of Biochemistry lecturers and the famous Macro-Micro Duo of the campus. Though both were straight and already having lovers of their own (who fortunately studied in another campus lest they get mauled by jealous admirers both men and women alive), these two childhood friends have been together since forever. No one knows exactly who started the friendship first, but they have been through thick and thin and have been going to the same school since first grade. Them and the lesbian couple, after meeting up during orientation week during their first year and discovered their love for science, became like peas and carrots and were often seen together in many academic and extra curricular tournaments—acing them in the process—and became well known as the Valedictorian Princesses of Fearstreet College, with their favourable physique to boot.

As I was saying, the four girls were no doubt the last people in the campus library, judging by the towering number of books surrounding them like they were in Info-topia and the quiet eerie-ness of the empty library. Ameera and Shah were reading a thick book of Physics each while Becka was screwing her mind out trying to memorize the names of all the chemicals in her Chemistry book. Jackie, on the other hand, was scribbling furiously on her notebook, copying down all the notes she needed to study for Biology. It is hard to believe that from first glance, you would think these bimbo-like girls who should be starring in The Bratz Movie or rooting out for the Homecoming Queen competition or be hanging out with a bunch of sweaty, glistening jocks would be science geeks.

“I hate studying! It makes me go insane!” yelled Ameera silently, despite the emptiness of the library.

“Then don’t! You’ll be even sicker,” Shah replied, unable to concentrate herself. “I’d hate to have my girlfriend to suffer a mid-life crisis before her time.”

“Yeah. That would be a sure-fire way to booking a ‘presidential suite’ at Fearstreet Asylum,” Jackie replied solemnly, not looking up from her notebook. Ameera got annoyed and threw her eraser at Jackie, brushing slightly against her ear as she dodged, in which Shah chuckled at the sight.

“I can’t see why we have to put up with this act when we can be just like everyone else, partying and not have the burden to excel hanging over us like dead weights,” Becka sighed as she massaged her temples.

“That’s the price you have to pay for being the campus geniuses, I guess,” Jackie sighed. “Somebody’s gotta uphold the campus and their family names if no one else is willing to.”

The girls became silent again, preoccupied with their own tasks, quietly agreeing to Jackie’s statement. If no one was willing to be the genius and suffer the consequences, who will? Becka was finally getting to remember all the chemicals’ names when suddenly, the lights went out. Jackie screamed at the top of her voice and zoomed underneath the table, for she was fret of the dark, a clear result of a prank gone wrong done by her cousins when they bullied her and locked her in the dark basement overnight when she was a kid and had not yet become the tomboy she was today.

“AAGH! Help! Help! Call the fire department! Call the police! Help!!!”

“Shut up, Jackie! It’s only a blackout. It’ll come round,” Shah said, feeling her way around the darkness.

Becka, who was the campus volunteer librarian and used to the route of the library, went straight to the library door to let in some light for the phobic-of-the-dark Jackie to get out to the bright sunshine. But when she turned the knob, the door wouldn’t budge. No matter how much she pushed and pulled, it wouldn’t move an inch. It was locked.

“Come on, Becka! Open the door and let the light in!” Jackie yelled from underneath the table, still shivering with fright, “I’m getting a nervous breakdown here!”

“It won’t move! I think Mrs. Marge has locked us in when she left for the toilet,” Becka replied, giving up on the non-moving door. She tried the windows instead, but no matter how much she tugged at the drape cords, none of them budged. It got to the point where Becka pulled so hard at one of the window drape cords that it snapped and broke, but the drapes still remained as it is: unopened. Everyone was astonished, especially Jackie, who finally came out the table and held Ameera’s arm tightly; so tight Ameera squealed, “Ouch!”

“Looks like we’ll have to wait for Mrs. Marge to come back from the loo then,” Shah sighed as she started packing her books after she jealously and protectively yanked Jackie’s hands away from her lover, “let’s get out of here as soon as she opens the door. There’s nothing to do during a blackout, not to mention study.”

“Yes! Do let’s!” Jackie agreed at once, for once not sounding like her tomboy self. “I can’t stay a minute longer here! I’m sure something bad will happen. I can feel it!”

So the girls started packing their books as soon their eyes adjusted to the darkness and sat at the table nearest to the door. While waiting, they chit-chatted about their latest gossips of who-and-who, where-and-where and when-and-when. There were so many goings-on between them when they are together. Slowly Jackie felt less afraid, but still kept a watchful eye over the surroundings just in case.

Suddenly a familiar ‘BEEP’ was heard, coming from the library computer. The 4 became silent and turned towards the direction of the computer, including Jackie who, had calmed down before, got terrified again.

“Did you hear that?” Jackie asked, panicking.

“Yeah, I think I did,” Ameera was quite nervous herself. She moved nearer to Shah, clinging to her lover’s arm like her life depended on it. Obviously, Shah had always been the more masculine and dominant of them two.

“I think it came from the computer at the check in and out counter,” Becka said, not taking her eyes away from the direction they were looking.

“Isn’t it supposed to be a blackout? What’s with the computer?” Ameera asked.

“Look! There are words printed on the screen!” Shah exclaimed, pointing at it.

The girls rushed towards the computer to see what the message was, despite the fact that no one besides librarians or volunteer librarians are allowed beyond the counter (Golden Rule of Fearstreet College Library to prevent information tampering). The message filled the screen in bold letters, writing only one sentence: ‘LET YOUR DOOMS BEGINS!’ Slowly the words began to separate into small specks of particles, forming a pair of sinister-looking eyes and an evil grin. The eyes glowed continuously from red to green and back again. The whole library was filled with the most bloodcurdling, eerie laughter that rang through the speakers of the computer.

The girls were dumbfounded. None of them moved. They were too scared and shocked even to react. They just stood there like statues looking at the spooky face on the screen amidst the mocking laughter that grew louder by the minute. A few minutes later, which seemed like an hour just passed, the lights went on and everything was bright. The blackout was over. The laughter stopped and the only thing left on the screen was the sentence ‘It is now safe to turn off your computer’, blinking mockingly at them.

The door of the library internal office upstairs opened and the girls screamed out loud, finding their voices again. There stood the Mrs. Marge who was taken aback by their sudden exclaims.

“Oi, are you OK? You gave me a fright!” Mrs. Marge asked, patting her chest in shock.

“Mrs…Mrs. Marge? Weren’t you at the loo?” Becka started the conversation, quite astonished.

“No, I was in the office room finishing up the filing and paperwork. I couldn’t find my way around during the blackout and had to ride it out until it came back on before I saved all my recovered files in the computer and finished printing and stacking the files and ledgers into the shelves. When I came out, I just saw you girls all here in front of the computer,” Mrs. Marge explained detail by detail (a rather OCD habit of hers), “by the way, why are you all here? You’re not playing with the Internet, are you? And Becka, non-librarians are not supposed to stand behind the check in and out counter. You know better than to let them past that territory.”

“Didn’t you hear that laugh? That spooky, banshee-like laugh?” Jackie exclaimed, her face gaining color.

“Laugh? The only thing I heard is you girls laughing, that’s all,” Mrs. Marge replied, looking surprised, “Are you girls leaving? ‘Coz I have to leave now. And please move away from the counter. It’s a restricted area.”

So saying, she went to the library door and the knob. Like magic, the door opened, as if it was never locked at all. Becka felt like a sucker because she was the first to try out the door. The other three were equally surprised. They couldn’t find the words to explain it all. Without even a peep, they gathered their things and went out of the library as silent as never before.

As they collected their bags from their locker, there was one question that rang through their mind simultaneously: What the hell is going on?