“Ok, class. Let’s power up our computers and begin today’s class.” The teacher said as she sat at her desk in front of the class.
Before the fifteen students who made up the whole class was a computer each. While the other students powered up their computers and awaited the teacher to give further instructions, Anabelle, beautifully blonde and petite, browsed through the computer before her. She was seated at the back of the class and so, was ‘safe’ from being spotted by the teacher.
On the desktop background was a folder named ‘do not open’. If there was one thing that always got Anabelle into trouble at home or school, it was her insatiable curiosity. Her mother had warned her about it getting her into trouble one day. No matter how many times she promised her momma to contain her curiosity, she almost always found herself breaking the promise. No matter how many times the saying ‘curiosity kills the cat’ rang in her ears, Anabelle found herself dragging the cursor towards the ‘do not open’ folder. No matter how, erratically, her heart beat in anticipation of what she might find in the folder, she found herself clicking the folder open. She had, by now, forgotten she was in a graphics class and was supposed to be listening to the teacher’s instructions.
The folder opened to reveal another set of folders. There were three folders here but one in particular caught her attention. It was titled ‘demon’. Anabelle’s interest was piqued. What was in the folder named ‘demon’? A movie? A story about a demon, perhaps? Or had the person who saved it on this computer used that folder name to discourage people from opening it? Perhaps it was an X-rated film. Anabelle’s heart beat faster as she dragged the cursor once again to the ‘demon’ folder.
As soon as she clicked the folder open, the whole room was, suddenly, plunged into darkness. She could see nothing beyond her eyes. What was going on? Why was the power out during school hours? That was very weird. But then, why was the class silent? Anabelle feared being in the dark the most. Remembering she had her mobile phone in her school bag, she reached her hand to the side she had placed her backpack but found to her utmost surprise that the bag was not there. Then, she realized she was not on her seat anymore but was standing. How had that happened? When had she got up from her seat? She groped around in the darkness to hold onto something, even if it was her computer but she could only hold onto emptiness.
Mary?
“Mary?” she called but rather than a response to her call, her voice echoed back at her.
“Miss Graham?” she called out to her teacher as well but like before, heard nothing except her echoing voice.
Fear began to bloom in her as she walked around the room hoping to bump into something or someone that could clue her in to where she was. She walked and walked but bumped into nothing. Tears began to gather in her eyes as the thought that she was probably dead and was walking around in the afterlife began to form in her mind. Just then, she heard a noise that sounded like laughter from a short distance behind her. She whirled around to face the direction but found no one behind her but a faint glow of light on a door about ten feet from her.
Finally! She thought. She could finally get out of his room and back to her class. The mystery of how she got here still eluded her, though. But she could not care much about that in as much as she could get out of this dark room. She started walking towards the door but soon realized the more steps she took towards the door, the farther the door became. She was very scared now and sweats were beginning to break out all over her body. Where was she? By now, she was certain she was not in the classroom and neither did it look like she was in the school. Had she, perhaps, been drugged and kidnapped?
Hahaha! She heard the laughing voice again. This time very close to her left ear as if the owner of the voice had placed his/ her voice directly behind her ear. Cold fear numbed her mind and body as fat hot tears ran down her cheeks. She was too afraid to turn around and see what was behind her. The voice sounded ghostly like those you hear in horror movies.
Please God, save me.
“Please God, save me.” She prayed under her breath.
When was the last time she had prayed to God? She couldn’t remember but she would do anything at this very moment just to get out of this situation.
As if the voice heard her muttered prayer, it replied: “There is no saving you here because there is no God here”.
Immediately the voice stopped talking, Anabelle felt a change of sense in the room and soon found herself in a well-lit cave like room. Where was she? She thought to herself yet again. Hanging on the cave wall were scary looking items that looked so strikingly similar to human skulls she had seen in her biology classes. Littering the floor around her feet were objects that also looked like bones, human limbs. A snarling voice to her right dragged her gaze in that direction. On the floor about seven feet from her was a dangerous-looking dog. What made Anabelle gasp in shock was not just the dog but its shadow which was cast on the wall behind it. The dog’s shadow was in the shape of a human skeleton. As the dog began to advance on her, Anabelle could think of doing nothing else but close her eyes and scream as loud as she could, knowing her end was here.
“Anabelle!” a female voice that sounded so much like her teachers’ called sharply.
Forcing her eyes open, she found herself seated behind her computer in the class with all members of the class looking at her with funny expressions.
“Did you sleep off in my class?” Miss Graham questioned but she couldn’t reply.
The teacher shook her head, irritatingly, and went back to her seat after asking Anabelle to report to her office at the end of school hours. Anabelle turned to shut down her computer but noticed the ‘do not open’ folder was no longer on the desktop background.
