Alright, this is probably going to be a short one but we’ll see how much of this I can put down in words…
About a month ago I went to a conference with a group of people from my college, a large chunk of the year in my major but the major wasn’t large so while it wasn’t a lot of people it was a large percentage of my academic peers. Honestly I didn’t expect to get anything out of it outside of a chance to pass out business cards.
The conference itself was large, I’m from a small town in a small state, but from the people who’ve been to earlier years it was pretty slow, this was the first in person one in a few years.
Anyway, this is just to set you up. Me, raised in a small town, went to college not far away, with a small group of people in a large event that should be larger.
About halfway through the conference, they opened up the expo floor, for the most part it was actually neat, I work two jobs on campus so I had the money to pay my way into the conference without relying on joining the student con staff, this meant that I had the time to check everything out without needed to work shifts. My friends however did not, so I was on the floor on my own.
Stopping between the two main areas of the floor, I sat down by an empty section of wall off to a side are that hadn’t been filled. Again, the expo center wasn’t fully filled, the event was big but not as big as it had been in previous and there was extra space.
So, I’d been walking the floor and wanted to rest for a bit in a large section of expo floor with no-one else around expect for the occasional person walking between the larger segments.
I’ve been on something of an 80s kick recently with music so I popped in my earbuds and put on some song, I don’t even remember which, and I got out my water bottle and a granola bar to have while I sat. The song didn’t start to play right away so I took out my phone and checked it out, nothing wrong, just must’ve missed the play button or bumped the power button before I’d hit play.
Before I could hit play again I heard a song playing softly in the distance, vaguely 80s maybe late 90s, I must admit I don’t know the specifics, but I heard something playing, mutedly. I figured it must’ve been from a booth or the main event stage and left it at that.
When I finished my granola bar and stood up the floor was silent save for the off hum of a vacuum. I walked around and saw that most of the booths had been cleaned up for the day, I went to the entrance of the expo hall and outside I saw the darkening sky. A janitor was moving along the entrance to the building cleaning. They looked up, asked how I got in after close and I stammered out an excuse and left, returning to my hotel. When I got there the classmates I was sharing a room with asked where I’d been and I said at the expo, they thought I’d went to get dinner with someone, maybe a recruiter or a different group of people. Being extremely perplexed I didn’t give them details and went to get dinner on my own.
While I was eating, nothing fancy, a slice of pizza from a place near the hotel, I thought about what must’ve happened at the hall. Then I caught on something… The next day at the convention I walked by where I’d sat and checked where the stages and speakers were… The event stages were in a different building. Any booths with large speakers were on the opposite end of the expo floor, far enough away that any sound would have been drowned out by the other booths. What was that music I’d heard?
I remembered something then from the day before, the music had come from behind me. I circled the area and could find no rooms or hallways that led behind where I had sat. But I did see one thing, A conference goer, like me, maybe from another college, leaning against the wall on another section of the empty hall, charging their phone at a wall socket. I approached them, thinking I could ask if they’d heard anything.
When I got close enough to see I saw a single earbud in their ear, the other one popped out on the floor. Their eyes were, distant, glazed, their breathing slow and audibly labored. And just barely from the tiny speaker of the bare earbud. I heard notes of old music. I didn’t stay long enough to hear more.