Happy Birthday! Or not..

"Happy birthday Sydney!" 

Sydney was finally turning 24. She was the youngest out of our whole class, but she was the funniest. With her, everything was fun. We congratulated her on getting her first full-time job after graduation, and the party started. 

"Thanks guys, you all are way too nice. I love it! And haha, I am finally 24." She said, smiling. "Let's get the party started! We know you love bowling," We said, pointing to the bowling balls. We had decided to throw Sydney a birthday at her favorite bowling alley, since she seemed stressed. 

"I've been so stressed this past month, thanks guys!" She said, running over to grab a ball. We all smiled at each other as she rolled the ball down the alley and knocked down all the pins. Of course, the Queen of Bowling had to be Sydney. 

We all quickly got our own balls and had a competition to see who could knock down the most pins. Sydney won, and some others tied in second and third place. It was a lot of fun, almost as if we were back in high school, with nothing to worry about. We felt free for the first time in quite a while. 

"That was tiring, but I'm surprised! You guys definitely went bowling without me right? You're all so much better than before! I mean, Evelyn couldn't even hit one pin last time." Sydney joked. We all laughed as Evelyn laughed along. "Haha you're still as good as ever," I said, smiling at Sydney. "Not as good! I haven't gone bowling in so, so, long." Sydney sighed. 

We broke the awkward silence by suggesting to get some food at a nearby restaurant. "Domino's? Or we could go to a fast food place.. Or some random Italian or Chinese restaurant?" I suggested. "I like Domino's! But we have nearly 20 people here, should we just order in small groups?" Sydney asked, looking around. I nodded, and we broke ourselves up into 5 different groups. 

We then proceeded to chat about our pizza selections and things we should order, before walking out of the bowling alley and over to the Domino's across the street. We quickly ordered our pizzas, and then sat on some of the outdoor benches so we could quickly start eating. 

After everyone had finished eating, we all went back to the bowling alley and played for another few hours. By the time it was 9p.m at night, we were all tired, and ready to head back home. "Wow guys, we should definitely meet up again! Make a group chat, John!" Sydney elbowed John, who laughed and nodded before taking out his phone. 

When we started getting close to the door, we noticed that nobody was at the front counter, waiting. We were worried, but didn't think too much of it before noticing the door was locked. "The door is locked," Sydney said, pulling on the door handle. 

"Locked? I bet you're just weak Sydney," Grant; the strongest guy out of all of us, said. "Geez," Sydney said, moving out of the way so Grant could try. They never had a good relationship, but we were sure they both liked each other. Grant pulled at the door, but surprisingly, it didn't budge. 

"Grant? You sure you haven't become weak?" Sydney teased, patting him on the back. "Shut up, I'm at the gym at least 4 times a week, there's no way I could've gotten weaker. This door is locked." Grant said, sighing. We all started panicking, looking around for workers. "We're the only ones here." Ella; the more popular one out of the whole group, said. 

We had searched nearly the whole bowling alley, and we had knocked on all of the bathroom doors and rooms that were only for employees, and there was nobody. "Help! Help!" We started smashing the doors, but they weren't exactly see-through. It was also pretty dark, and not many people were even outside. 

"What're we going to do now? Let's just call 911 or something!" Some people said. We quickly took out our phones, but there wasn't anymore connection. "Why isn't my phone working? It's so slow," I complained, shaking my phone and waving it around. "Same for me! This is so weird," Sydney said, surprised. 

Everyone nodded, and we started looking around. With nobody here, we felt that we were allowed to look around and explore more, in a way. We started looking around for large windows, or doors to get outside. "Hey guys! Look what I found!" Sydney said, pointing to a door that seemed to be leading to some underground garage. 

"What's this?" We questioned with wonder. It seemed to be leading to an underground garage, with many boxes. "What're these for? Maybe they store their bowling balls in here?" Sydney touched one of the boxes. "Maybe," I answered, looking around as more people filed into the underground garage. 

After looking around for a while, we noticed a large door near some boxes. We quickly walked over and started lifting the boxes. "These boxes stink, what's in here?" Sydney asked curiously, while wrinkling her nose. "No idea, I don't think bowling balls smell bad, though. Not that I've ever smelled one." Grant answered, flexing his strong muscles by picking up 3 boxes at once. 

Sydney laughed, but then got back to work. Sydney was right, the boxes did smell really bad, but we were so focused on getting out that we just ignored the smell. Once we were done moving all the boxes, we were finally able to open the door. Sydney ran through the crowd and started to lift the door, since there was no handle nor a pin pad. "It's heavy. Grant, you try." Sydney said, making way for Grant.

Grant nodded, and started lifting the garage door. Unexpectedly, it didn't budge. Grant shrugged as we all sighed. Sydney and some others started discussing what to do next, and that quickly escalated into an argument. Some people who got bored decided to head upstairs, but I stayed downstairs with Sydney and the rest.

After 20 minutes passed, we finally stopped arguing and headed upstairs. "Guys! We're going to try contacting the police again! And we're going to look for more doors and windows, where are you guys?" Sydney and some others called out. After waiting a whole minute, we noticed that only the group that was downstairs was present. The group that had headed upstairs disappeared.

"Guys?" Sydney shouted. We started searching for the missing people: Ella, Caroline, Michael, Rose, and Otto. We were worried, but if they had left without us, that also made sense. Sighing, we decided to look around. Each of us went a different direction, and we decided to head back to the center at 11:40, which was in 10 minutes.

Except, nobody showed up. Now here I am, alone, in an empty bowling alley that has locked me in. And I have a very bad feeling I won't be able to get out. There's someone who wants me to stay and never leave.