File 1.

The sunlight shone brightly through my thin curtains. I woke up with Thunder on my lap, purring softly. I sit up in my bed and stroke its fur.

“You must’ve ran away last night, huh?” I asked it. I gave it a good stroke behind its ears and it woke up, opening its pale blue eyes that shone in the sunlight. It meowed as it hopped off my legs and walked out of my room. From where I was, it looked like a walking grey ball. I smiled at my own thoughts.

I looked around my room, still sitting in bed, as if my room were new to me. That’s when I saw it. The white acer laptop.

‘And I thought it was all a dream,’ I thought to myself, the sight of the laptop irritating me for some reason.

The note was still attached to it. Reading it was as if the laptop was challenging me.

‘Am I ready?’ I asked myself. I shook my head. I got out of bed and headed straight for the bathroom that was across the corridor of the second floor.

I peered over the banister as I made my way to the toilet. I groaned when I saw that the living room was still a mess, as if I expected it to be clean magically by morning.

“Thunder? What do you say you help me out later in cleaning the living room, huh?” I called out to Thunder who was sitting on the couch that seemed to have an orange stain (which was most probably orange juice). Thunder meowed.

“You can lick the food scraps on the floor,” I said with a grin. Thunder hopped off the couch and walked away.

“So this is how being lonely feels like,” I said to myself under my breath. I made my way to the bathroom.

…

I got a roll of black plastic bag, a rag, a bottle of soap and a vacuum all from the kitchen and went back into the living room. Thunder was now on the carpet, cleaning itself.

I started cleaning from the couch, cleaning the stains with the rag and soap and vacuuming crumbs off the couch seats. Thunder watched me quietly, blinking its eyes every now and then. All was quiet and peaceful.

…until a brick came flying through the window.

Of course the window smashed and Thunder ran behind me, hiding behind my legs, its ears perked up and breathing a little ragged. My breathing was a little ragged too and I felt my blood run cold.

“You okay, baby?” I asked Thunder as I picked it up with shivering hands. I carried him and walked over to the smashed window to see if anyone was out there. But of course, nothing but children on their bicycles were outside. I turned back to look into my house and the shards of glass, the result of the smashed window. I looked down at Thunder who was still in my arms and saw that he was already looking at me.

‘This is quite a mess,’ it seemed to say. I sighed.

The brick landed not so far from the window. I put Thunder down gently and picked up the brittle brown brick, turned it over and saw that there was a note attached to it.

“Open File 1.” The note said.

My blood ran cold and I knew that whoever was doing all this, had something to tell me. I put down all my cleaning material and ascended the stairs and into my bedroom. The acer laptop was still there, untouched and my room was just as I’d left it (no smashed windows there, phew).

I sat in front of the laptop and took a deep breath. I touched the space bar lightly and the monitor came on, showing the desktop. In the desktop was a Recycle Bin and a file named ‘File 1’. I clicked on it.

Inside it was a Microsoft Word document entitle with only a dot. I clicked on it and it opened.

“When the lights go off at midnight, stay in one place and take your most beloved item with you.”

I folded my arms and sat back in my chair, exhaling a breath that I didn’t realize I was holding. I reread the line and scrolled down to see if there was anything else. There was nothing.

As I drifted deep into thought…

“Meow.”

I jumped in my chair and felt my heart beating like a drum. I turned back violently to see Thunder sitting (sitting?) innocently at my slightly ajar door, its head tilted to one side and eyes looking at me, as if full of thought.

“Keep an eye out, Thunder,” I told it. “Something’s coming tonight. And we better get ready.”

To be continued in: When the Clock Strikes 12.