eMPty skiES

Smoke and Mirrors

The first thing she noticed was the smell. It hit like a brick being thrown at her nose and breaking it in the process. The pungent odour was bitter, foul, almost rotten. She tried to sit up and knocked her head against God knows what. Rubbing her eyes and sitting up safely, she examined the bland room she was in. The floors were off-white, cracked tiles, the walls were basic grey. There were stalls, bathroom stalls. That explains the rancid smell. It appeared as though the bathroom hadn't been cleaned in months due to the piles of dirt in the corners and spiderwebs almost everywhere. Despite this, the fresh, ripe smell of urine and smoke gave her the impression the bathroom was still in use.

Standing up and dusting herself off, slightly hazy, she strolled past the mirror and glanced at her reflection. A pale, hollow eyed girl with scraggly black hair looked back at her. She had no makeup, a white tee shirt with a slight discolouration 0n the chest, and her favourite pair of jeans on. Where the hell was she last night?

"Well Isla, you've really outdone yourself," she sighed at the mirror, "Let's get out of here."

A gas station. Of all the floors she could have been laying on, it had to be a gas station bathroom? There wasn't anyone in there, and the doors were locked from the outside. Light was pouring in from the window, but beyond that, there didn't seem to be any power on.She looked around the door handle and after deciding she needed a key to get out, she shuffled behind the counter to look for a spare.

After about ten minutes of searching, she found the key under a crossword puzzle. She stepped to the door, unlocked it and set the key on the floor where someone would see it.

It was, by what Isla could tell, sometime mid-morning. Squinting her eyes at the nearest street sign, she smiled as she realized she wasn't but a twenty minute walk from her house. Starting her journey down what was normally quite a crowded and traffic ridden street, Isla was delighted to see no cars, and she could actually hear the birds for once.

It was a refreshing walk, yet her mind was screaming at her. Why were you passed out in the gas station bathroom?! Where were you last night? You weren't drinking were you? Were you?! Oh my god what day is it? Am I supposed to be in class right now? Does anyone know where I am? Mom and dad are going to kill me!

After some deep breaths and unclenching her fists, Isla was able to make it to her house without having a panic attack.

Trying to decide between sneaking to her room, avoiding being seen or going with the honest approach, she sighed, opened the front door and called out: "Mom, Dad?" No reply. She walked into the kitchen and tried to turn on the TV, but the either she threw her tired body up the stairs and glanced into her parents room. Empty. Good, no one to yell at me. Sliding into her bed and letting out a deep breath, her eyes following the wooden fan above her, round, and round, and round, and-

She practically leapt out of bed and grabbed her backpack that was on floor. She ran out the door in a state of complete and utter panic as she realised that if her parents weren't home she was supposed to be in school.

Bolting down her street and through the woods that led to her school, Isla thought about her perfect attendance record that was on the line. Maybe they haven't taken attendance yet, she thought at herself.

Nearly slamming into the school's front door and attacking the handle, her arm was jolted by trying to rip open the locked door.

Her racing mind halted. Why was the door locked? Is there a lock down? No they close the blinds when there's a lockdown. She decided to peek into the window with the open blinds that led to the office. No one was there. It was empty. Squinting at the window unsurely and skeptically, she jogged to the next window and saw a classroom. Empty.

After checking at least twelve more windows, Isla concluded that the school was in fact ghostly empty.

"Think, Isla," she told herself, "You must have seen someone today, a car? Someone walking their dog maybe?" She smacked the side of her head repeatedly and pointlessly, as if hitting her head would make people appear in her memories. "Well," she laughed, "Why don't I go check in town? There's gotta be someone there."

Shortly after leaving the school, she arrived in the unofficial town square. The big fountain was still pumping water, but the lights were off in the stores. Isla decided to go and check out the small coffee shop where she likes to study first.

The lights were off, of course, but the doors open. She stuck her head inside, "Hello? Anyone in here?" No reply. Empty.

She tried the grocery store, open 24/7 and always full of people, even at the crack of dawn. The huge clock outside read 11:30, and her stomach growled. When was the last time she had eaten anything? She walked into the store and let out a breath she was unaware was being held. Empty. Even the bakery where the little chinese woman who was there constantly was gone. The entire place abandoned.

On the verge of tears, running frantically into every store, house and building she could find, all abandoned, she found herself back in town square, in front of the fountain.

"What's happening?! Where did everybody go?" Isla screamed at the top of her lungs at the fountain, but her strained voice didn't let out more than a strangled cry, before sitting on the ground and wrapping her arms around her legs. 

 She let out a shaky breath, and whispered to no one, "Am I alone?"