1 Silent Night

Tired eyes riddled with a pint of redness, sore back from the long sitting, and pale complexion showing the lack of sleep; common symptoms for an avid gamer, as well as a try-hard student afraid of failing the course.

The laptop on the table was buzzing its fan, while a veined hand was pinching a pen—nowhere near delicately. Underneath it was a slightly shriveled piece of paper, tainted by various black scribbles unreadable by no one other than the writer.

Now that end of semester had come close, many university students were spending their days studying at nearby libraries or in their room; like this man over here.

The man didn't know how long he had been in this position. Four hours perhaps, or even more? He knew that he had sat quite long before the sun set. Now, the moon was shining brightly outside, accompanied by occasional chilling wind blowing in from the slightly open window.

The man was about to put another rune on the paper, but then, a voice called out to him from behind,

"Goodnight Will."

William retracted his hand from the paper, then looked over his shoulder, onto the outside of his open bedroom door. It was his roommate, Marvin.

"Ah yes, goodnight man."

That being said, William turned his attention back to his laptop. A silent sigh couldn't help escaping his mouth when he saw the clock had hit 23:48.

He had a sort of love-hate relationship when it came into his major; working in laboratory, culturing microorganisms, using those expensive technologies to examine genetics—all of which he loves to do. But unlike Marvin who was in socioeconomic, William suffered from final exams at the end of every semester.

The ordeal of every science-related major, they said...

'Missing those eight hours of sleep...' William sighed.

Although his wary mind really desired to just go to bed, which was right next to him, he decided to push his limit for a bit and keep on studying. It was not until the clock hit 01:12 did William initiate his routine of closing the door, switching the light off, folding his glasses down to the table, and smashing his head on the pillow.

His eyelids were heavy, and studying more would be meaningless anyway as his brain was zoning out. Fortunately, this week was the exam-preparation holiday week, so he could wake up a bit later.

…

Several unknown hours later, William woke up after feeling out his dry throat. He tried to reach out for the water glass on the table beside the bed, only to realize that he had forgotten to take it in the previous night. Now, he had no choice other than getting off his bed begrudgingly and went to the kitchen.

He staggered his way amidst the darkness, slowly opened his bedroom door, then went to the right, where the kitchen was.

'Where did I put it again...?'

A few seconds, William recalled putting it on top of the kitchen table before. Thus, when his waist bumped onto a corner, he extended his hand to trace around the table top carefully.

'Got it!' he exclaimed inside as his fingers felt the familiar coldness of the porcelain glass.

Gripping the handle, he took a step toward the sink next to the table; turning the valve of the tap, letting the running water fill the glass generously before turning the valve the other way.

Five audible gulps broke the still silence as William chugged down all the contents of his glass. Feeling the moisture returning to his throat, he let out a sigh of relief, only to be bewildered by the change in his surroundings.

'Right, why is it so dark?'

Usually, even without turning on the lights, William was still able to see the surroundings through the city lights slipping through the balcony's window. But now, he could barely see the bottom half of his body.

'The heck?' William reached for the light switch of the kitchen behind him, but after trying it a few times, he found that the electricity seemed to shut down.

He frowned, then decided to check out the city view by staggering toward the balcony beside the living room. Fortunately, the living room in his unit was within the same compartment with the kitchen, just to its left. So, he did not bump into too many furniture in the process.

William reached for the curtain and peered through the glass door of the balcony and was dumbfounded by what he discovered.

"What the…"

It looked like someone had pasted a black screen outside the balcony. There was no city light, nor moon or stars in the sky; everything was pitch black. He opened the balcony door and reached out his hand. There was nothing but empty space outside.

"Well that was stupid," he mocked himself. After all, he lived on the 21st floor. No one in their right mind would be able to put something covering the whole balcony to begin with, and he knew that his roommate was not the type of person to do such silly prank.

He realized another weird thing, though. It seemed so quiet... too quiet in fact. There was no whistling wind, no sound from the nearby construction sites that he was familiar with, not even the faint sound of faraway vehicles' engine could be heard.

His frown deepened, but he decided not to think too much about it. Perhaps, it was just the climate change thing coincided with the electricity saving hours.

Once he locked the balcony door again, William staggered back to his bedroom. He fumbled around the table by his bedside, before finally finding what he was looking for.

'Got it!' He picked up his phone and turned on the screen. 'Good thing I remembered to charge it last night.'

He turned on the torch function and viola he could finally see!

Having done so, he returned to the kitchen and living room to check if he had bumped into something and dropped them previously.

Due to habit, he turned on the light switch next to his bedroom door when he passed it.

'Gah! Of course it won't-?!'

To his surprise, the light actually turned on like normal.

"Fuck!"

He immediately dashed off to his friend's room. Why? Well, it would not be fair if he got confused alone wouldn't it? By waking Marvin up, at least they could share the confusion.

"Marvin!" He bashed on the door several times. "Wake up man! I need you to see this!"

And yet, there was not a single reply from behind the door.

William twitched his eye and a corner of his lips. 'Weird… he isn't a heavy sleeper.'

Usually, this roommate of his would wake up even with the sound of the bathroom door opening, which was between their bedroom. Hence, William decided to pull down the door handle and open the door to check.

"Hey, I'm coming in."

The door creaked open as William entered the room with his phone torch. But then he saw that no one was inside!

"#@&!"

This had to be the strangest occurrence ever happening to him in his life. He knew full well that his roommate was not the type to go out past 10 in the night. He wondered if he could post it on a certain forum to earn some internet points, but refrained from doing so as there was not even a signal on his phone! Heck, no one would buy this bullshit!

Exasperated, he turned around to return to his room. Before he left, he looked onto the light switch in Marvin's bedroom and tried it a few times… yep, it did not work.

Back in his bedroom, William sat on his bed while trying to fiddle with his phone to try to at least get some signal. Though after trying a few times, he noticed that it was futile.

He put aside his phone, thinking, 'Shall I go back to sleep? However weird it is, I can see into it again tomorrow morning…'

Deciding to sleep, William turned off the light, pulled up his blanket and wrapped it up neatly around him. But just as he closed his eyes…

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