I never thought I'd miss the sound of my alarm clock. Usually, it's very loud, annoying, and the alarm clock means that I have to wake up again for another day of school. But today, I didn't hear the alarm clock. Dad wasn't shouting at the door that I would be late. You couldn't even hear the neighbor's dog barking at the postman every morning.
The first thing I noticed when I opened my eyes was that it was too bright for six o'clock in the morning. I looked at my cell phone, but it didn't turn on. I thought it was dead. I tried to charge it, but nothing happened. There was no charging icon, there was no light, there was nothing. "Great,", I said, "there's no electricity again!".
When I got out of my bed, I shouted, "Mom, Dad!", but no one answered. I went to the kitchen, but no one was there. There was only one bowl of cereal on the table. The milk was there, and the spoon was in the bowl. I touched the bowl, and it was warm, as if someone had already been here a few minutes ago.
I looked out the window, and my hearth started beating. I was amazed. You know the feeling when you're on a roller coaster, and your stomach drops. That was me at the moment. My street is usually busy, and cars can barely pass each other, people are waiting for buses at the stops, and children are shouting, but today... There was nothing. A red car was parked in the middle of the road with the door open. The bicycle was by the road, but there were no people, no one.
"Hello!?" I shouted as loudly as I could. I went out in front of the house. My voice echoed through the street. Hello... Hello... Hello... It was creepy, just like in the movie. I walked down the street. I felt like I was in a game that didn't fully load. I approached the red car with the door open. The engine was still warm.
"This is a joke,", I shouted, "this is a TikTok joke." I looked around for a couple of minutes. I even checked behind every tree in the street. Nothing. Just the wind passing through my head that has not been combed yet. That was the moment when I realized this was not a joke. And somehow, I was still there.
I decided to walk to a nearby store. I went on my bike. When I got to the store, the parking lot was, of course, empty. The store's door was miraculously open. There was no guard who was always standing at the entrance, there were no saleswomen, and no people. I walked over the freezer that wasn't working. The boxes of ice cream have already started to melt, but were still good enough to consume. I took the most expensive one, the one with chocolate chunks. I took a couple of gummy bears that my mom never wants to buy me because she says they're not good for me. I took everything I could see on the shelves, but that silence in the store became a little "heavy" for me - the quietness of refrigerators that no longer worked, my footsteps, and the rustling of bags of gummies. I took a few packets of energy drinks and stacked them on top of each other to make one huge chair. I sat on it as I was eating my melted ice cream and looked at the shelves of cereal.
I took my bike and went looking for people. I hoped to find someone. I rode that bike as fast as I could, I walked through the streets staring into that emptiness. I headed to school. It was empty. It has never been empty. But now it is.
I entered through the school's fence and remembered the day before. It was full of children hanging out and talking. I opened the big school door, which creaked. I walked through the empty corridors and for the first time I felt the silence of the school. This is what school looks like on weekends. I walked into my classroom. The equation from yesterday was still written on the board. I sat down on my bench. "Yesterday I was arguing with a friend of mine." I said, "I really miss people".
I got out of school, and I was confused. In the sky, the clouds were in strange positions. They were calm, as if they had been painted. I grabbed my sweaty head and leaned against the wall of the school. Suddenly, I felt as if my hand had fallen through the wall. The wall turned into cubes, at least, that's what I saw. I took two steps and took a deep breath. I did this a couple of times until I calmed down. I leaned my shoulder on the trunk of an old, tall oak. Again, I felt my hand fall through the trunk. I quickly got on my bike.
I was spinning my legs as fast as I could. I came to the park where I have been almost every day. I sat down on my favorite bench overlooking the fountain where the birds drank water and sang. At the moment, I was more confused than ever. "Were Mom and Dad even real?" I wondered to myself, "Was the ice cream I ate real, or was it just false information in my head?" "Did I really forget to do my homework yesterday, and did it even happen yesterday?" There were so many questions spinning in my head that I didn't even know how much two plus two was.
I sat on my bike for the 10th time today and went back to the store because I felt some emptiness in my stomach. I came in front of the store and dropped my bike in a parking space. I walked through the half-open door and stopped. I looked at the mess I made an hour ago. It looked like a battlefield. My "throne" made of energy drinks fell apart, and silver aluminum cans rolled in puddles of chocolate ice cream. I walked over a puddle of chocolate and went to get bread and ham. The silence grew louder and louder. I stared at the knives behind the counter and the rows of hanging sausages. Usually, this place is full of the smells of bakery products and people chatting. Now this place smells of sour milk and rotting meat because the refrigerators have not worked for hours.
I took a loaf of bread and started cutting. But I understood something. I made all this mess because I though this was a game. But looking at the floor full of brown puddles and ruined food, I fell guilty.
I left the sandwich on the counter, half-eaten. I was no longer hungry. I realized that having everything for free means nothing if you don't have someone to share it with.
I slowly rode my bike home to cool my head a bit and rest. When I was returning home, I saw a metal door that was not there in the morning. It was huge. It had some buttons that light up. They were a bit scary. The door began to buzz. And a letter came out of that door. I picked up that letter. The letter said:
"To return to the normal world, go through the door. In case you want to stay, press the "RESTART" button.
I was scared, but also happy that this door might actually bring me back to the normal world. I didn't thing too much, but I said goodbye to this world. I greeted my free world and stepped through that door.
The moment I walked through the door, I was in bed. I heard some noise. I heard footsteps and doors opened, and someone said, "Wake up, you're going to be late for school!"
THE END!