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?I can still smell her scent,? John said to his coworker, Nina, who sat patiently by his side, gently rubbing and patting his back. Red firing sunbeams entered the room and illuminated its greyness but didn't manage to reflect any color, only swallowed in its shades.
John sulked in his chair, with his palm covering half of his aloof expression.
Sunk in his chair, shoulders crouch inwards, head weighing down to his chest and eyes drop down to his chin, completely unaware of the office phone ringing beside him, rather, he wasn't going to pick it up.
It was the time of day workers finish their shift and go on to their lives, and the state of John's fragility didn't bother any of them. Some asked Nina, the coworker, what's been going on, but solely for the purpose of cheap gossip.
And as if it only dawned on him the occasions of the night before, the words fled from his mouth: ?I can't believe it's over.?
An hour had passed and all workers, along with Nina who cared enough to stay a bit longer but had to get back to her life as well, had left. John found himself all alone at the restroom splashing cool water to eliminate the dark shaped circles that were painted under his eyes. I've lived a quiet peaceful life, he thought to himself, why must this happen to me?
When he came back to the office, it was time to head back to his life as well, but something inside him repelled leaving the office's boundaries, so he stayed all by himself, observing carefully studying each and every section of the room.
The desks of his coworkers seemed the same. All carbon copies of the same person, all are grey and lifeless. Notes organized in a similar fashion, squared pictures are hung in unoriginal locations, nothing unique that would distinguish anyone from each other.
His eyes shifted and his gaze locked on his desk, and when he took a good look at it, it seemed the same. His stomach twirled as if collapsing inwards, and his head began to weigh down to his chest. The four grey walls that surrounded him appeared as if shrinking to the size of his figure.
In those few moments, a small lightbulb at the end of the room began flickering nonstop, and a few moments later, the windows that entered firing sunlight beams, clustered with opaque clouds.
John finally lifted his head up to the striking sight of an ongoing blizzard outside the office building. He rushed to the window, with his face stuck to the glass began switching aimlessly left to right to check if it is actually a blizzard. Snow falling from the sky in a velocity of metal chunks began covering in haste everything that laid on the ground. The cars, the streetlamps, and the road were all covered to the brim with snow.
And then, the lights turned off. Heck. Now everything is in the dark, and but a flickering light bulb at the back of the room and the bits of the sun still left in the sky, nothing could help John see through this darkness.
He took a deep breath and sat in his chair for a while before deciding to check for the alarm lights downstairs. The entrance room was completely vacant with no evidence there ever were people. John wandered around the room, hoping to find in the utter darkness that surrounded him where the electric cabinet was hiding. When he found it, all switches were in place, a circuit must have gone wrong he thought, but it wasn't in his knowledge to fix it.
He arrived at the hallway leading to his office and began walking. Passing one door, two doors, three, but hasn't reached yet his office. All glass doors and behind them are just regular offices with a similar grey decor, but none were John's. He walked forward glancing left and right to locate his own workplace, and the feeling he'd been walking for ages clung in his mind.
But one room seemed different. It wasn't his office, but a replica and the only difference was that all items in the room were stored in cardboard boxes on the floor.
He observed through the glass door, but the occurrence wasn't much of a surprise. Maybe they've sold the office space to a new company he thought, maybe they're rebuilding the room. He turned to lead forward, but a scent of lilac coming from the room had him standing in his place without a move. He opened the door, and as it flung gently a strong scent of lilac stench the hallway. Through the fog of lilac, he marched in. Indeed, it was his office. The windows were observing the same street, a blizzard still appearing outside the building, and snow still covers the world outside. But the office is completely vacant. John couldn't distinguish his cubicle at first, and when he did, a small cardboard box gently put on the floor had his stuff. Notebook, ball pen, some papers, and a happy couple framed in a picture. They seemed happy he thought as he lifts the picture up to take a closer look. What is this place? He thought deeply for a moment searching in his mind for a reasonable answer. There was a blizzard, the building was evacuated completely, yet somehow, after I disappear for no longer than twenty minutes, the office is completely vacant. Somebody has been here, must be. But no matter how deeply and for how long he had thought about it, it just didn't make any sense to him. And the scent of lilac appearing from nowhere bubbled in his mind. I might be dreaming, or I might have died in the blizzard, he thought. But yet again, the thought of external events didn't make sense. This is reality, it feels real, he finally came to a conclusion.
At the end of the long-vacant office, the lightbulb flickered all the same, red flashy light on and off, and underneath it was a door John hadn't seen before. A grey door without a clear sign to where it's leading. Without thinking much, he approached the door. After studying the door's details and assessing that in fact, he has never seen this door, he tried turning the knob but it wouldn't open. Not much to worry, he thought, it must be the storage room and because the grey aesthetic blends so well with the rest of the scenery it makes sense he never noticed it.
John passed the next hour and a half spinning on the office chair left and right with his expression aloof, glancing at the window every once in a while to confirm a blizzard is still occurring. He tried checking his phone every now and then, but it ceased to have a signal. An unknown amount of time had passed since he last checked his phone and John sank in his chair, slowly shutting the eyes then re-opening them vaguely, and when he opened them again...
"Come with me," Stands above him, her figure real as can be, reaching her hand towards him before running through the grey door and disappearing.
He opened his eyes once again to a trail of lilac candle scent lingering in the space between him and the door. The knob turned without a need for force.
The door opened and a long dark void appeared to John's pair of dark eyes. The blackness of the hallway was deep and thick and appeared dense as a swamp. As if the moment he'd step into it, he'd be swallowed whole. He entered the hallway hoping at some end it will be illuminated. The only thing leading him through the clogged darkness was the lilac candle scent coming from the other side.
Time passed differently in this hallway. It was a mixture of feeling as if time didn't pass at all or it passed so much, but no matter how much time actually passed, the hallway didn't seem to come to an end. Yet again, for some reason, John obeyed the reality in front of him, forgetting the office and the blizzard that remained behind. The feeling that there are two walls on his sides began to deteriorate into a collective idea that he might be walking on the disappearing road in wonderland. He was only waiting for the dog with the broomstick end to wipe away what's left behind him. He heard her laughter from a distance, giggling adding more echo to space, and fading. John began running towards her laughter, and when he had, the echo became louder and louder but never reached a certain summit. He kept running straight, or in any direction, lights appeared on both sides of the hallway, red flickering bulbs like the one hung above the grey door, they were all in a long endless row revealing just a tinge of the space. It was a hallway, a long and endless hallway. The lights flickered, flashy neon reds and the laughter lingered in the echo. The scent of lilac shows again. He ran faster, and in a cluster of all senses coming together, he reached a grey door at the end of the hallway.
The door flung open as if there weren't a door and a small room appeared behind it. A living room, and two people standing in front of each other. The room illuminated lightly, just a few lilac candles omitting soft light and warmth, the rest of the room stayed in the gloomy dark. The living room seemed like it would've been a happy place, but now, the colors and the pictures that gave it life are in cardboard boxes on the floor. John watched the two walk around the room back and forth, completely not noticing his presence. Their lips moved as if words were supposed to leave their mouths, but he didn't hear a single thing in the air. A strong persistent pitch, similar to when a phone is hung up, lingered He watched them as the conversation became heated, he watched as the guy turning aggressive, slapping her in the face. He watched her crying, packing her stuff, and leaving the front door. Then, he saw the guy sitting in despair on the couch and grabbing drink after drink until forgetfulness. John stepped closer to the happening to get a better look at his face.
?What're you doing?? The guy saw him.
?Go after her.? The guy said and switched his look to the door. It was a grey door, with a small sticker that says, ?Happy family?. A shiver fled through his entire body as he ran through the door to reach her. He took one good glance at the room he left behind.
?Don't wait for me.? The guy on the couch said before a long and thoughtless bender.
He passed through the same door, and the hallway was dark again, this time he was sure she'll appear on the other side. No matter how far he walked, the horizon seems farther away from him, as if the hallway was continuously stretching and two points are just getting more and more distant. His mind blanked but only one picture appeared, holding him hostage and unable to see or think about anything else. It was the framed picture, the happy couple, that now crashed in the room back there. He wondered when they took the picture, and what had happened to them since.
?Do you want to watch movies with me?? She says.
Suddenly, without realizing exactly how, John was back in his office, standing in front of the grey door. The red flickering light hung above it stopped flickering, and when he turned his head around, the blizzard had stopped. It was sunny outside, snow still covered the streets, but the strong beams of sunlight melted everything away. The beams illuminated the office, which stood grey as before. The cardboard boxes were still there, he wasn't dreaming, but all packed at the end of the office, empty when all the items they filled were back in place. Whisperings began coming from downstairs spiraling up until reaching the office floor, and with them came a group of suited men and women, among them were Nina and the rescue group. Nina rushed to John's aid, telling him all about the strange blizzard that occupied the streets, but it didn't seem to bother him any much. Apparently, he's been at the office for a few days, but it only seemed like a few hours have passed. A group of medics approached him but John was fine. A bit lightheaded, he said. He didn't really care about that but only one thing still lingered in his mind. For the lilac scent had left his senses, something else remained. The poor guy buried under the covers on the couch, sulking in an endless bender of pity, and like a broken record playing the same track in a loop, John played this scene in his mind. ?What're you doing?? The guy says, ?Go after her.?
He rose, left the group of medics and Nina by themselves, and went to his desk. On his desk, a happy couple framed in a picture, behind them is a couch, a kitchen area, and a grey door showing. There's not much to do with it now, he thought. They're no longer there.
Wynn was nocturnal. There was no explaining it, there was no changing it, it's just the way he was. His internal clock was rewound so that he stayed awake during the night, and slept all day. Which meant there were so many things kids his age experienced that he'd only ever heard of in the past tense.
As his alarm woke him up bright and early at 7:00pm, he pulled back the black velvet curtains to see a familiar sight. It was as if the thick white oceans had engulfed the entire monochrome neighborhood. Ice crystals hung from power lines, branches, and window panes like the teeth of terrible monsters. All that powder, shimmering in the moonlight sucked all the sound out of the air, and he only heard the ominous heavy winds brushing the glass of his window. It was once again a snow day.
Of course the concept of snow falling was nothing new to Wynn. He knew the winters were particularly harsh in Nova Scotia. But the idea of what the ?snow Day? represented to all of his other peers was almost mythic to him. That of scary stories and legends passed down from his mother to him. A day of debauchery. Of skipping school. To take advantage of the earth's harsh elements for a few fleeting moments, and create art and memories out of it. The only thing Wynn could ever see were the remnants of those activities in the white wasteland outside his window.
From there he could see 2 white statues glaring at him. One, 3 houses down, had its stick-arm fall off, and He could just barely make out its mitten embedded in the snow. Possibly to be lost forever. 4 Houses in the other direction, someone had made a small round building in their front yard. ?How could walls of ice contain any warmth?? He could see a few footprints and imprints of kid's whole bodies on the floor all over, which were slowly fading under the steadily falling flakes. Most of the snow on the road turned black from the cars that passed by, and someone had left their sleigh outside by mistake. He wondered if it was used on the hill down the street, like he had seen on TV. ?What was so fun about something so dangerous?? He wondered. And did he ever want to find out?
Soon his mother entered is room to help him get ready for the evening. She took him to the bathroom and gave him a bath that was hotter than normal. He wondered if he was getting too old for his mother to bathe him. But to her, she could only stay awake for so long to spend time with her son. So she tried to make all of those moments count.
He heard her yawn through a smile as she scrubbed him. ?Yawn?. Wynn hated those. And he hated that word. ?Yawn?. That's what he was called by all the hateful students at school before he was pulled from there to study at home. He didn't remember much from that time, but he remembered that name. Most students did not even know his real name. Only ?Yawn?. He could not help it. He couldn't even stay awake long enough to finish a class. But he was marked with it. Every yawn he uttered in the day, or his mother at night, was merely another reminder that he was different.
As if he needed more. It showed all over his face. He hated what he saw in the mirror. His pale skin, his black hair, his large eyes which reflected light like a dogs. They would only allow him to see in black & white. He'd never see the world the way his mother saw it, and inspired her wondrous portraits. As she brushed his teeth, he thought the only thing missing were fangs. He was a freak. An animal. No one wanted him outside. So why should he ever step out there again?
His mother took him downstairs, his breakfast already on the table, and she prepared his lessons at the computer desk. The only way Wynn envied the other children was that they supposedly took the day off from school on days of such heavy weather as this. But his education was at home, so he could not escape. She left only lamps and candles on to protect his sensitive eyes. Once she was sure he had everything he needed, she kissed him on the head, and left to go to bed. And once again, Wynn was left alone.
Hours went by as Wynn slowly progressed in his studies. The recorded training modules were somewhat helpful, but he still struggled with math. All the numbers and patterns he had to memorize overwhelmed him, and he was never allowed to click back to the previous page to rewrite what he might have missed. Reading and writing were what he found the most redundant. He could already do those better than most, so what more did he have to learn? He only ever found joy in these modules when they would play a ?bill Nye the Science Guy? video, but even that seemed to have been off of the table that evening. The rapid pace, the difficulty, and the annoying voice on the computer were truly vexing Wynn, so he decided to take a break from them, and take what notes he could from the textbook
The book was so boring and tedious, he could barely stand to finish a full page let alone the chapter. He was liable to fall asleep before the sun even flickered. But then a sound pulled him away from the book. He looked around the empty dark house. The quiet was eerie, but normal for him. Then the sound came again. Louder. Some distant thump, from somewhere outside. He dropped his book and tentatively moved towards his window. He peeled back the curtains and scanned his neighborhood For a moment he saw nothing. Then in the distance, he discovered some figure. Tall and bulky, underneath the shade of a great pine tree. It had two white glowing eyes piercing through the shadows. He could swear he could see it breathing. He could hear his heart pounding. His breath quickened. He just knew it could see him. He feared if he looked away, it would come and snatch him out of his home and devour him whole.
He was snapped out of it when he heard a ringing from his computer. He shut the curtains and heaved until he was calm. He tried to tell himself it was nothing. ?A trick of the light? as his father would say. Although his mother would say it was? at least he was safe indoors.
He went to his computer to see what the beeping was about. It was a request for a video chat, from Lily. The girl who showed him his first sunrise. The only one who would call him a friend Even at the risk of her parent's disapproval.
He answered the call, to see her face and frizzled silver hair alit in a dark room. ?Hi Wynn.? She said softly.
?Lily. Why are you up? won't you be in trouble if your parents caught you talking to me??
?Yeah, that's why I waited so long to call you. They're real heavy sleepers. So whatchu doing??
?(sigh) School.?
?What? You don't get a day? a night off on a snow night??
?No. mom says this stuff is important. Besides I don't care about all the snow day stuff.?
?What!? Snow days are so much fun. There's snow angles, snowmen, snowball fights, sledding, igloos, ooh! And writing your name with pee in the snow.?
?Ew! That's gross! Wait. you do that??
?Yep.?
?Um, but? I- I thought girls? you know?
Lily leaned into the camera and whispered. ?I use an old toilet paper roll, with some tin foil.?
The children tried to muffle their laughter as to not wake their parents.
Lily yawned, and Wynn cringed. ?Come on, Wynn. come outside with me. I'll show you how to do everything. I think I accidentally left my sled outside.?
?No lily. It's too late for you, and really cold. And I need to do my homework.?
?Ooh, sounds like someone's scared.?
?I'm not scared.?
?You are too.?
?I am not.?
?Are too. Wynn's a big chicken. (Cluck cluck cluck)?
?Hey you'd be scared if you heard the stories my mom tells me.?
?Oh yeah? Like what??
?Oh I don't know if you're ready to hear them.?
I am too. Come on, Tell? (Yawn) Tell me the worst one.?
Wynn always felt guilty when she stayed awake for so long for his sake. But he thought if she felt a little scared too, then maybe he would feel a little better about how he felt that night.
?Well, my mom says there's this really scary monster in the woods, that stays asleep until it snows. She called it the Chenoo. It's a 10 foot tall hairy snow monster that eats people. It was a person who died and was brought back through evil magic. It got bigger if it got angry. It was so hungry it chewed it's lips off. It's scream was so scary, you'd die if you heard it. And she says it has a lump of ice in it's stomach. So if you wanna beat it, you have to make it throw up the ice. But there is nothing it won't eat.?
Her head began to fall, so she fluttered her eyes and shook her head to stay awake. ?Is that it??
Wynn was severely let down by that reaction. ?Well yeah.?
?You don't actually believe that, do you??
?Well? I don't know. But mom says it doesn't matter too much if it's real. It's more about what the monster means If people are really good or something.?
She began to nod off and yawned again.
?(sigh) Lily please go to bed If you fall asleep here, and your dad finds you here in the morning, you'll really be in trouble.?
?Ok. Look, it's going to be snowing a lot this week. Will you please promise you'll come outside with me if I go to bed now? I haven't seen you in person in so long.?
He knew she was right about that. He didn't like the snow, but he wanted to see her just as much as she did. He also knew this was a rare experience, and that she would never let him forget it if he let her down. ?Ok. I Promise.?
?Thank you. Good night, and good day Wynn.? And Lily signed off.
Wynn thought about continuing his studies, but just sat there lost in thought. The silence creeped in around him. He felt the presence of the specter looming in the snow. Was he really such a coward? Was he rally so afraid of a monster that may not have existed? Or perhaps was he just afraid of himself? He wished he had an ounce of Lily's bravery. She would do anything for her friends. So why shouldn't he? He knew what he had to do. He bundled up in his thickest coat, boots, hat, gloves, and scarf, and approached his front door. He took one last deep breath, before turning the knob, opening the door, and taking his first tentative step into the great white unknown.
The first bitter gust of the cold air hit him in his face, and sent a shiver down his whole body. He saw his own breath leave him like steam with each exhale. The quiet and the emptiness Made it seem like time stopped and he was the last person in the world. Each, step in the snow, every sway of a branch, everything touched by the wind, each sound was amplified in ways he'd never experienced. The ground was soft, and it molded to his feet, like it invited him out there.
He turned his head and saw it again. That large figure of the Chenoo, still looming in the shadows with those piercing white eyes. He almost turned and ran back inside, but he went out there for a reason. He continued towards it slowly. It made no sound, making him more aware of his rapid breathing. Those eyes followed him with each step. He got as close as he dared. Staying in the light of a streetlamp. The monster stood strong, barely making any movement as it breathed. Wynn shook and he shuddered, unable to stand as sternly. But he would not let fear control him anymore. He figured if he scared it hard enough, it would run away, or vomit the ice inside of it's stomach. So Wynn straightened his legs, clenched his fist, shut his eyes, inhaled as deeply as he could, and he released the loudest and hardest scream he possibly could.
The End
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