Fred worked as a support technician for a mid-sized company. One of his responsibilities was updating every employee’s computer to the latest operating system, which he did one by one. He was working late one cold night in October, and the building was silent and still. The motion sensor lights kept turning off around Fred, so he had to keep waving his arms to turn them back on. Eventually he gave up and let all of the lights turn off. Fred sat in the dark office, illuminated only by the blue computer screen as it was making its final updates.
A light turned on down the hallway, and Fred looked out to see who triggered it. But nothing was there. He turned back to the computer, and then another light flickered on, closer to where Fred was sitting. Again he looked out but didn’t see anyone there. Rubbing his eyes and shaking his head, Fred turned back towards the screen and stared at the progress bar which hovered at 66%. “Wait” Fred thought as he blinked and rubbed his eyes, looking closer at the screen. “Did the progress bar just say 666%?”
Suddenly Fred heard a door slam shut. He jumped, pushing the desk chair into the cabinet behind him and knocking down some papers. Something was outside, and whatever it was, it now knew Fred was there. He heard footsteps approaching, quickening as they grew closer and closer until they reached just outside the office door. Then there was silence. With all of the courage he had, Fred swung open the door, prepared to face whatever was on the other side.
But there was nothing.
Fred stood motionless in the doorway of the office, staring at the small patch of light on the ground illuminated by the overhead light. He looked left and right trying to identify what had triggered the motion sensor. If not a person, then … what?
Fred wasn’t much of a believer in the mystical or paranormal, and he felt his mind whirling with logical explanations for the footsteps and triggered light. He considered a rat or a squirrel, but a rat is too small and the windows don’t open, so it’s unlikely a squirrel could get inside. Maybe someone ran into the office to grab something and left before Fred opened the door? But he didn’t hear any footsteps retreating, and every small sound echoed across the open floor plan of the office. There’s no way someone could have entered without him seeing.
As he pondered these possibilities, the light above him flickered off, and he was thrust back into darkness with only the computer monitor glowing faintly behind him.
Confused and defeated, Fred returned to the computer right as the update finished and the progress bar changed to the user login. He searched the desk for the note the employee had left for him with her login credentials. He opened the top drawer, and that’s when he saw it.
The horror of it was unimaginable, shocking even. Fred couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He thought his eyes were playing tricks on him, but deep down he knew this was real. That whatever he felt outside the door was not his imagination, because what else could have summoned the horror staring Fred in the eyes.
Her password was Password123!