At 9000

“Finally done with all this crap!”, Mr. Miller thought to himself. After so many years spent teaching kids how to turn in a proper papers, he felt disappointed at the incompetence of their own mother tongue. He stood up from his comfy office chair, papers into the shelves, his working bag over his shoulder, wondered why he had been wasting so much time looking at all those chicken scratches every Sunday night.

He glanced over at the wall­hanged clock. It was already 9 o’ clock. Seems like he had overdone himself with the papers. He felt his shoulders stiff as he walked to the door. He grabbed the door knob, turned and swung the door open. A stream of neon light from his office room brightened up a corner of school’s corridor.

He looked to the left. Nothing but deep dark, endless line of hallway. His eyes could not make out much after about 3 steps in length. Faint lights eerily lit up bits of the hallway from windows on the side. Mr. Miller turned around to see just the same on his right side. “Tonight’s cold”, he thought. He reached into the light switch from outside the room and down went the only light source left in the corridor. He closed the door, locked it. Now he was in the hold of complete darkness. Mr. Miller felt a little chill down his spine as he turned back towards the exit, which was only a few steps away from his office room. He had spent too much time to know exactly where the exit was without the need to see it. Five steps away. . .Three. Four. Five.

“Hmm?”, he thought, noticing the knob was not where it should be. He took another step, found the exit and walked out, not forgetting to lock it. His car was parked just a couple of feet away. He turned to his car as a gust of wind swept past the building making the huge oak tree next to him swung wildly, its leaves brushed off one another, creating a frightening sound. Mr. Wilson looked back behind his shoulder just to see the school building shrouded by darkness. He found a sudden urge to walk quickly to his car as if it was calling for him while somebody tickling his spine. His car. A brown old Chevy with rust at the rear along with mud, has been his welcoming partner for a whole 18 years. Mr. Miller got in his car sensing the feeling of dread just a moment ago suddenly left him with ease. As a habit, he turned on the engine as well as the old radio. He changed to channel 15 and pulled the car out of the parking lot. Abruptly, his car came to a sudden stop. He thought he had hit something and came out to check. But he saw nothing. Must have been the old car’s problem. He got in the car and started the engine again.

Sitting in his car, Mr. Miller sorted his memories back to the days of his childhood. His mother. His father. His brother. They all one by one left him alone on this Earth. His brother died in a car accident 2 years ago. The radio kept rambling on and on about some goddamned basketball game that he did not know ­ or rather ­ did not care about. He changed the channel random until he stopped at a report of a murder case.

“Three days ago, a murder has been conducted by a 43­year­old high school teacher. This man, BUZZZZ, brutally killed his wife by stabbing her multiple times to the chest and left the victim in the bathtub”­ said the radio. This car should have been out of commision long ago. Why have I not sold it yet? “Prior to the murder of his wife, BUZZZ also came to his school where he works to kill a janitor. The police are speculating the motive behind the murders adultery.”

When Mr. Miller arrived at his home. as usual, he parked the car right outside his house. There were no lights seen from outside the house. It seems nobody was at home. Or his wife was already asleep. He started his well established ritual of home arrival by dropping off his jacket, put himself on the couch and turned on the TV.

“The suspect has is now custody....”. Mr. Miller immediately turned off the TV, feeling dread raising in his gut. He felt too tired to get dinner and decided to go to bed. He dragged his feet to the door of the bedroom. His wife wasn’t there. She must be at her sister’s house. Not that he cares. He took off his tie and just fell down to the bed with a thump. He felt his mind drifted away as he closed his eyes shut. Before he knew it, he was already fast asleep…

When he opened his eyes, Mr. Miller was at his office at school. He warily looked around the room as he had no recollection of his coming to school. He realized that he was already wearing the suit just a few moments before he got home. He looked up the wall and see that it was 9. His office was brightly lit but there were no sunlight outside the windows.

“What the hell happened?”, mumbled Mr. Miller as he frowned, trying to rigorously digging up his memories of how he got there. WHAM! A sudden sound startled him out of his constant stream of thoughts. Sounds of rusted metal dragging along the ground outside his office door came closer and closer. Mr. Miller breathed faster, his heart started going out of control. In an instant, all his consciousness was focused beyond that closed door. Whatever is happening must be a goddamned prank from whoever out the door. He allowed himself to be taken by a fit of rage stormed to the door, sorting his minds of all the probable faces of mischief. That irritating sound kept dragging on like a tedious wail. He grabbed the door knob and the door slammed open. “Who’s there!?”, shouted Mr. Miller. A gust of wind swept through his whole body. There was no one beside his shadow and the abyssal corridor. Mr. Miller noticed something different. A faint object at the far side to his left. He squinted and realized the object is the janitor’s water bucket and the mob next to it.

“Those should be in the cleaning closet”, he thought to himself. He heard voices over his shoulder and turn to see. Nothing… The unpleasant feeling he felt before is now rising up again in his stomach. He quickly turned off the light and left the room. Now when he reached his hands out to the exit, it was one step further than last time. He walked hurriedly to the parking lot and started driving home as quickly as he can.

“... BUZZ brutally killed his wife by stabbing her multiple times to the chest…”, the radio kept on blabbing about the same news over and over. Mr. Miller arrived home to find the house unlit. He checked around the house for his wife this time but there were no signs of her there. Now he is worried. He picked up the phone and dialed her. The speaker beeped a few times and answered with a voice message reminder. This is not the first time she had gone out without telling him. He comforted himself by trying not to think about it but something he still felt tight in his chest. He took a quick meal and head to the bathroom. He opened the door to the washroom and felt a sharp, invisible force pulling him inside. He stumbled over and fell down forward.

When he came to his senses, he noticed he was, once again, in his school office. However, the lights were flickering at frequent interval. It was 9. He stood up while hearing footsteps out the door. The steps stopped and who ­ or whatever­ was out there was trying to turn the knob. The knob continuously made terrifying, clanking noises as it struggled nonstop. Mr. Miller stood still, eyes wide opened, his mouth gaping, taking short breaths. He was utterly paralyzed.

It took him a while to calm down again. He decided to grab his keys on the desk and make a run to the parking lot. He took a few deep breaths and opened the door, sprinted vigorously to the exit. He could feel the darkness quickly lurking after him. He exited the building, ran to his car, lock it and looked carefully into the building from his car. He was shocked to see a dark figure standing just behind a window frame. He did not know who… no what it was. He felt every inch of his body aching. It was staring at him. It shrugged up and down. It was laughing.

Something shifted his focus to another way. Mr. Miller felt something behind his neck. Something was pulling his hair from behind. He sense his gut boiling up with anxiety. He slowly turned his head around. His jaws dropped. His eyes fixed. He was staring at a creature with long hair covering most of its face. Its face, horrifyingly distorted. Its eyes, one missing, the other with no pupils visible but a dim red glow.

This is it.

** ****** ***** **** “Doctor, he’s seizing again.”, said the nurse. “Yeah, after killing his wife and co­worker, he’s completely lost it.”, said the doctor, “put him out again”. “Looks like our jobs here are done”, said the detective handling the murder case.