When the World Stopped Breathing

Where was I when the world stopped breathing? Was I there to witness the second the pin dropped and everything changed? No. No I was napping.
I awoke sputtering, feeling like my dry lungs were receiving oxygen for the first time. Clambering up from the worn carpet floor, I found myself in the familiar scene of my college. 'How am I here? Is this a dream?' I thought to myself as I rose to my stumbling feet, struggling to choose between balancing myself or breathing. As I trod through those familiar corridors, the sound of each footstep danced along the walls and with each thud, a sense of foreboding embraced me as the typical noises of the bustling college failed to greet me.
Passing through the empty corridors and deserted classrooms, I began moving faster, if Tal and Corey were playing another prank on me, they had certainly stepped up their game.
Nothing, not a sound to be heard or a soul to be found. I gazed out onto the lush green track field and once again it was bereft of all life. Even when the college was closed people would hop the fence to get inside but the gate was wide open and the air hung with a deafening silence found in a coffin.
Finding no signs of life in person, I checked my phone and nothing seemed changed, my Wi-Fi remained, my apps still worked, and my crush Tess had still left me on read, guess we weren't going to see the 'Sadie and the shadows' concert after all. However, much like my surroundings, there was no sign of active use online, leaving me in solitude once again.
With no other choices, I bellowed out, praying for a reply. Silence was the only answer.
With each breath, the silence grew louder and seeing I was completely alone, I did what any sane person would do: I raided the college canteen for all the snacks I could eat.

To some, this predicament would be a blessing, the sun would still shine, and nobody could pollute your day with their existence. There's only peaceful quiet and solitude. But just like a new roommate, after the first five minutes, the cracks in the pastoral painting will appear.
You'll start to ask silly little questions like 'What happened to everybody? How long is this going to last? Are they going to come back?'. I was staying calm though, I was still sure that if I whispered the word 'vegan' someone would come sprinting down the road to tell me about their new diet plan.
There had to be someone around. There's nothing inherently special about me so surely I couldn't be alone, hell, for all I knew there could have been a person just down the road.

And then I heard it, a voice coming from down the road. It was a high-pitched thing, spoken so quickly that I couldn't tell if it was English, Italian or Klingon. But it was certainly something so like a white family in a horror film, I ran blindly towards the unknown.
As I ran, towards this screeching siren call, the noiseless orchestra that was the world had lifted, freeing me from that infuriating tranquillity.
With my legs on fire, I found the site where the voice came from, a pet shop of all places. But the location wasn't strangest part as the voice's utterings finally became intelligible. The problem came however when I realized what was being said.
' Hello... Good Girl... Good Girl Jesus Behind You... Hello!'
Okay, so I was obviously dealing with a crazy person, either that or Jesus Christ himself was about to hit me with the fattest Coup De Grace on the Northern hemisphere.
A broken man was a better companion then my thoughts however, so despite the screaming of my fight or flight response, I tip toed into that building.

Immediately, I cursed my own short sightedness because inside that room, I didn't find a man or woman or something even remotely human. No, my muscles turned to stone and my heart almost collapsed when I saw that thing in its cage.
It was covered in feathers and had two large wings protruding from its shoulders, it clicked its long ebony claws against the metal and all whilst staring into my soul from two soulless black eyes. It wasn't human.

It was a god damn parrot.
'Hello.'

Approaching the cage, the bird began bobbing its head back and forth whilst reciting words that seemed picked out of a hat.
You'd think that after seemingly everyone in the world vanished, things couldn't get any more confusing but there I was, in a pet shop with quite possibly the only other living animal on Earth and it was a parrot?
I admit, I may have lost my cool a bit as instead of responding to its phrases like a normal person, all I could muster was 'How? Who? I have so many questions!'
The little legend took it in stride however, pecking at the metal bars of its cage whilst chirping 'Excuse... me.'
Well of course I had to let it out and as soon as I did, I noticed how peculiar it looked: half of its feathers were the colour of Canadian snow whilst the others matched the static grey hair of the elderly. Its ebony beak was crooked and bent to the left and they looked as if they would struggle to fly at all. You'd be forgiven for calling this ugly yet effortlessly charismatic bird a failure to its species... must be my spirit animal.
'What do they call you then?' I asked half laughing as my new friend ran his head along my forearm.
'Dreamies... Good girl'
'Hate to say it but I'm not exactly a good girl. You are a good boy though, how does Mr Parrot sound to you? Mr P for short.'
it spread it's white wings wide and croaked 'Cockatoo... Cockatoo!'
'Well that's nice.'
Mr P gnawed on his claws in response.
'Nice to meet you P, my name's Jake.'