I work on an island connected to the mainland by a bridge. I usually start early in the morning at 6am. My thinking is the earlier you start the earlier you get to go home. This means on most days when I drive to work it is still dark outside, especially in the wintertime.
Last Friday, I was heading to work it was a day like any other, except I noticed that there were a lot fewer cars on the road than I was used to, but I thought “well, it’s around the holidays and it’s early in the morning so maybe there are just a lot of people taking today off or whatever.” I didn’t think about how few people I saw again, until I reached work.
There is a security guard that checks your ID as you enter the parking lot, just to make sure you really work there and have business parking in that lot. When I showed up the guard had an eerie look on his face, he was smiling and leering at me in a very unusual way, but he checked my ID and let me pass. As he handed back my ID he touched my hand and I felt a spark, like static electricity.
As I made my way to my usual parking spot, I noticed there wasn’t anybody else in the lot, not one other car. That’s when I thought things were getting weird because fewer drivers on the road didn’t mean anything, but I was never the first person to arrive so, the fact that I was the only one there meant something had happened that I was not aware of.
I arrived at my spot and headed into the building, planning to call my girlfriend from my desk. That’s when I noticed that my hand still hurt from the static shock from the gate guard, but I tried to ignore it. When I went inside all the lights were off, which was not surprising because they are motion activated and I had not seen any other cars. I noticed my computer had no power, then I realized the entire building had no power. I checked my phone, and it had no reception. I checked the desk phone, and the line was dead.
It was at this time that I became scared and started to lose my cool, what the heck was happening? What could affect the power, the phone lines, and the cell service? I knew I had to get some answers, so I got back into my car and headed back to the gate where the only other person I had seen this entire time was, the gate guard.
When arriving at the gate, the guard was gone. I thought about how strange this was, I knew there had been a guard here. At that time the pain in my hand was getting worse, and it started moving up my arm. Becoming more afraid and in full on panic mode, I started making the 40-minute drive home proceeding the same route home that I had taken to get to work that day. I was more awake then, so I realized that all the other cars on the road had no people in them. Abandoned cars all over the highway right in place like people just stopped and got out and left them there.
Arriving at home, my entire body hurt from head to toe. I made it inside and called out for my girlfriend, but she wasn’t there, my brother wasn’t there, my parents weren’t there, I couldn’t find anybody anywhere. The phones didn’t work, my cell phone still had no reception, the power there was also out, I had no idea what was happening. I was terrified, in so much pain and in such a panic that I passed out in the living room, luckily I landed on the couch. While passed out I had a horrible dream about the gate guard standing over me smiling and leering, just like I had seen him do earlier that day.
The next thing I can remember was waking up on the couch, covered in sweat. At that point I had no pain and it seemed like the power was back, so I got up and went to the bathroom to wash my face. While washing my face I saw myself in the mirror and I was smiling and leering at myself, just like the gate guard, I got scared and thought “oh no!” and that’s when my girlfriend walked up behind me and asked, “why didn’t you come to bed last night?”