Chapter 1: Alone in the Office
It was a rainy Thursday evening when the Luzerne Inc. prevention team was working a late event. It was a little past 8 pm and darker than usual outside because the street lights were not working, just like everything inside the Luzerne Inc. Prevention office. The event was finally over and all there was left to do was clean. Ashley went straight to her office to grab her bag and head out.
There were only 8 employees working the event that night and one by one they all left, leaving Ashley and Cynthia to close the office up. Cynthia was furiously typing at her desk when Ashley came by Cynthia’s office and asked “Hey are you ready to leave?” “No, I have to get a little more work done since I’m taking tomorrow off. You can go if you want, I’ll lock up.” Cynthia replied. “You sure?” Ashley yelled as she was halfway up the steps. “Yeah I’m su-“”Okay Bye, see you Monday!” Ashley chimed in as Cynthia was finishing what she was saying. With Ashley long gone, Cynthia stayed working silently as her desk for 20 minutes.
While Cynthia worked she heard a constant tapping sound inside Ashley’s office, which happened to be right across Cynthia’s office. “The ceiling must be leaking again” she thought to herself. But then she heard the trashcan fall over. Cynthia walked over to her office door and tried to peek into Ashley’s office. It was dark in the there, but from what she can see there was nothing on the floor. Cynthia began feeling a little uneasy so she went back into her office and closed the door. After 10 minutes she finally finished her work.
Cynthia grabbed her stuff and opened her office door only to find that all the hallway lights were off. She remembered leaving them on before closing her office door. “ASHLEY!!! I KNOW ITS YOU!” she yelled, thinking Ashley was just playing one of her usual pranks. No one answered. “Whatever” Cynthia said, “She’s just trying to scare me again.” She walked to the nearest light switch and tried to turn on the hallway light, but it didn’t work. She tried the other switches and they didn’t work either. Everything around her was pitch black except for the light coming from her office and the small amount of light coming from the flashlight app she turned on on her phone.
Cynthia figured that the power must have gone out. But then paused after making a terrifying realization. If the power went out, how are the lights working in her office? Cynthia turned around to look at her office and then she heard a creaking sound as her office door slowly began to close. Cynthia ran and began rushing up the stairs quickly but as she reached the top she tripped, spun around, and landed inside a red wagon the employees use to carry stuff that was at the top of the steps.
Still in the dark, she sat in the wagon facing towards the bottom of the steps. Her phone had fell when she tripped and landed face up covering the flashlight, leaving no light for Cynthia to see anything. She couldn’t hear anything, there was nothing but darkness and pure silence. Cynthia sat in the wagon in shock, debating if she should get her phone or not. “No” she thought, “I’m not going back down there.”
Cynthia got up and ran past the front doors only to find the gates were down. The front office door, which automatically locks, had already closed behind her. Cynthia searched in her bag and realized she had left the office keys on her desk. The only way out was to go back in and leave through the side door, but with no keys she was stuck in between the closed gate and the front office doors. Suddenly, Cynthia heard the sound of steps coming up towards the second front office door. The door swung open hitting the wall with a loud bang and stayed open. There wasn’t anyone there.
Cynthia stared at the open door, thinking “Should I go in?”
