Blizzard

“Seth, you better leave soon, or you’re going to get stuck!”

“I’m nearly finished here!” Seth called back, though they cared little about what he did and his words echoed off of the closing door. It was only midday, yet everyone had been told to evacuate home as there was a blizzard set to roll through; which had already descended on the city. Seth felt no rush to leave though, truth was, it was easier to work in the empty office, and he found his anxious mind was easy to settle on the task at hand rather than worry about the bodies that warmed the office space with him. He felt his mind settle as soon as the door click, with one last look over his shoulder to make sure the space was truly his and his alone; he adjusted the glasses propped on the bridge of his nose and began his descent into his own mind, tapping away at the keyboard fluidly. He was so stuck in his work and in his own mind, he hadn’t noticed the passing of time, and the warning from his co-workers had gone unheeded. Satisfied with his work; he finally snapped himself into the present. He pulled himself away from the luminescence of the screen, stretching his arms over his head and listened to the wind and snow beat the windows of his office building. Listening to the rage of the snowstorm outside set an uneasy feeling in his gut, he nervously checked his watch and swore under his breath, knowing it would be a miracle if he could leave. Without even packing his belongings, he tentatively made his way over to the curtained window, peeking through the fabric, and unable to see any light or any of the usual sights as the windows were half covered by the snow that had fallen throughout the day. He felt a slight twang of annoyance that he hadn’t left when he had the opportunity to, and had instead fallen into the rhythm of work. He shut the curtains again, wondering what his next course of action was. He pulled out his phone and thumbed in ‘911,’

“911, what’s your emergency?” A female voice called through the line, boredom almost obvious in her tone.

“I’ve been snowed in in my office building,” Seth replied.

“Okay, where is it?”

“65 Gallagher St,”

“Alright. Are you injured at all?”

“No, I’m fine,”

“Do you still have power?”

“Yes I do,”

“Food? Water?”

“Yes, in the cafeteria,”

“Okay, well we have a few other emergency call outs to get to first, you’ll be bumped down the list while we deal with those, okay? If the situation changes, call us back. Does your phone had plenty of battery and service?”

“Yes it does, I’ve had it on charge all day,”

“Alright. What’s your name, sir?”

“Seth,”

“Alright Seth, sit tight. We’ll get to you as soon as we can,” without waiting for a goodbye, she clicked the phone off. Seth felt little comfort with her assurance they would get to him, feeling like he would probably be stuck in the building for a while. He omitted a sigh of content, allowing his bespectacled brown eyes to scan around the barren office space. It wasn’t a very comfortable space, with desks dotted about. Some had tried to add comfort to their own space with pictures and plants, one person even had a betta bubbling on their desk, flaring its fins and challenging its own reflection in the glass. He rubbed his hand through his disheveled, dark brown hair as he glanced at his own, sentimentally empty workplace, debating whether to return back into the realm of the rhythm of work or not. His slightly rotund tummy reminded him with an unsettling grumble that he had skipped lunch in favour of more work, hoping it's input was valued.

Seth shrugged his shoulders, thinking he'd done enough when it came to work for now, at least, and he'd succumb to his stomach's wishes. He ambled across the room, leaving the empty desks behind him as he wandered down the hall towards the cafeteria, his mind idling about when the emergency workers would get to him, silently berating their delay in freeing him from the icy tomb. He jumped suddenly as he heard a loud crash emanating from the direction he was heading. Startled, he stopped mid stride, trying to make sense of the sudden sound.

"Hello?" The company was small, and he had watched his only co-workers exit the building earlier that day, so didn't expect anyone else to still be there. He seemed to be the only one mad enough to remain within the walls of the building. Getting in response, he tentatively walked forward,

"Is anybody there?" His mind scrambled to hold onto a logical explanation to reassure himself - someone just hadn't put something away properly and it had just succumbed to gravity.

He rounded into the small cafeteria to find the source of the noise was a shattered mug on the middle of the floor. He noted that the room was devoid of any other person, but convinced himself that the reason for it was someone lazy coupled with gravity, and nothing more. He made to the cleaning closet to clean up the shards of ceramic before he would raid the pantry to satiate his appetite, that was appropriately diminishing and being replaced by a sense of unease.

As he moved to pull open the door, he heard a knock echo down the hall outside the cafetaria.

"That was quick..." he thought skeptically, thinking that it was potentially the emergency services freeing him. Stepping around the broken mug again, he left the room, but as he turned toward the office, the knocking rattled the door again, more urgently this time, but it came from behind him; the basement door. Seth felt his blood turn cold. The door was always locked and out of bounds to workers. It was not somewhere where people ventured and had always made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up like hackles on a dog when he would walk past it.

"Who's there?" Seth called out as he slowly turned around. His breath caught in his mouth as he noticed the perpetually locked door was open.

"You're not supposed to be down there!" He tried to inject confidence in his voice, and himself, as he slowly made his way down the hall to the suspicious door. He tentatively reached out and pushed the door open, seeing nothing but darkness on the empty stairway. Seth pulled his phone out of his pocket, flicking on the torch as he heard footsteps clicking their way along the concrete floor at the bottom of the stairwell. The stairs descended into the dark abyss and even the torch couldn't offer enough light to penetrate into the bowels of the basement. He took a deep breath, mustering the courage to venture forth into the void, before he stepped a shaky foot forward on the step. He only made it three steps down, when he heard the door slam shut behind him and the lock click shut. The sudden sound of the door shutting made him jump, slipping on the step and sending him head first down the wooden steps onto the concrete below. He phone went scattering across the ground, smashing it against the hard ground and the torch flickered to its death, leaving Seth alone in the darkness. Terror gripped him, and his heart thudded threateningly against his chest. He felt there was nothing left, but to try and venture forth and find another way out, since the way he came in locked itself behind him. He groped around in the dark, finding a wall and following it along. Every noise in the dark making him jump and sweat a little bit more. He felt like he was being hunted; a prey not just to the darkness but whatever had lured him down here. He found some empty, old rooms that small tufts of light had managed to leak into, but no escape route. He was about to give up hope, and try and find his way back when a shiver crawled down his spine as a cold wind embraced him and breathed down his neck. A disembodied voice whispered into his ear, freezing him to the spot in fear,

“This way,” he felt something take him by the hand and lead him into the pits of the basement. He felt the concrete give way to earth. Something ended up under his feet, causing him to trip and fall into the dirt, the thing that had taken him by the hand disappearing and making the outside seem almost warm. He looked back, to find two empty eye sockets of a skull staring back at him.