I Am Awake | From the Collection "Short Stories From My College Dorm"

I Am Awake

When Dylan awoke, it was quiet.

Not nighttime quiet, like a deathly quiet. There were no sounds of life in the house at all: No sound of breakfast being made, her sister running around trying to get ready for school, her mother walking out the door to head off to work. Nothing, save for Dylan's own breaths.

She sat up in bed, confused and worried. Had someone kidnapped her family? If so, why did they leave her behind? What if they had been murdered? Surely she would have heard a scream or gunshot, right? What if they were still here?

Dylan slowly and quietly got out of her bed, scared the person that was possibly still in her house my hear her. Quickly, yet as quietly as she could be, she left her bedroom. Her bare feet padded softly on the wooden floors of the hall. She could not hear anything else other than that.

She first entered her sister's bedroom. There she was, the little blonde girl. She looked so peaceful, so still...

"Violette," Dylan whispered, eyes wide.

She brushed the hair from the child's face before leaving the room. She looked down the hall and headed for her parents' room. Perhaps they were awake? From the silence resonating around the house, she doubted it. She was right. They were asleep, too.

She made her way downstairs, toward the living room. She was going to check the news and see if it was just her family or if the entire world was asleep as well.

Picking up the remote, she turned on the television set and changed the channel. Every station was playing as normal until she reached the news. It was just static. She frowned and ran back up the stairs. She made a beeline for her room and headed right for her laptop.

She opened it and brought up one of the Websites on which she had an account.

"Please don't let me be the only one," she whispered to herself, over and over.

She quickly scrolled through the feed but it was all posts from the night prior. Nothing new and nothing about the people being asleep. She scrolled back to the top and hesitated on typing. What if they were just sleeping in very heavily? She decided she should check outside.

Dylan stood up and made her way to the window and peeked out. No cars driving. No buses. No people. All of the birds in the trees and on the power lines were sleeping. The neighbour's dog that stays outside was sleeping.

She went back to the laptop and typed quickly:

Is anyone else awake?

She pressed "Post" and the message loaded up and shared.

She waited a second, then that second turned to a minute, then five minutes. Then ten minutes.

Then the little blue notification bubble appeared on her "Notifications" tab. She pressed it quickly, frantically and read the message.

Someone replied to your post.

Opening it, she read the reply.

I am awake.