The eighth hour

I used to sell vacation timeshare packages. Aside from being a sales manager/rep, I also gave presentations, typically three times a day, for fifty minutes at a time. The year was 2007, and the economy was booming, so we usually had a full house, meaning a full room of 18 people or 9 couples. It seemed like a regular day. I got in at 3:30, and began my presentation at 4:10 pm.

Though it was a full room, nobody was speaking to each other. They were all just stoic, staring at the projector screen. I turned off the lights and began. "How are you all doing today?". Nothing. Usually I'd get a few people shout out "good". The way that the expressionless faces were leering at me kind of creeped me out, so I tried to watch the screen as much as I could. When I got to the point of the presentation where I would engage the potential clients and ask them questions, such as, "ma'am, how would you like to spend a week in (insert name of condo and destination) for $96?", or, "sir, where do you usually vacation?", I wasn't receiving any replies. They just stared at me, directly into my eyes, and said absolutely nothing.

After the presentation ended, I was used to getting applause, but, after this, it was eerily silent. Not even a throat clear or sneeze. Also, for some odd reason, I was perspiring heavily, and needed copious amounts of water. Like my soul just exercised for three hours. Once I signal to the audience that the presentation has been concluded, they'd immediately normally begin to stand up and follow me out the door, and, typically, as I'd open the door, there would be a line of reps waiting for their prospective couples, but, as I opened the door, nobody was there. As a matter of fact, it was...night time. The lights were all out on the floor I was on, and nobody - not reps, office workers, or my boss, were anywhere to be found.

I turned around to find the presentation room full. All bodies still seated, just lifelessly leering at me, all in unison, heads all turned in my direction. I noticed dark shadows around all of their eyes, obscuring their whites or irises. Different faces, but all with the same eyes, sitting posture, and despondent facial expressions. I looked back behind me. I was in the pitch dark. "Excuse me a moment", I told them, none of whom even flinched or physically acknowledged me. They had the same inanimate disposition as mannequins.

I pushed opened the glass doors to the office entrance and looked out the giant windows to see an empty parking lot. I called Bruce. No answer. But then, I paid attention to the time - 11:46 pm. I took one last jaunt back into the office, towards the opened door to the presentation room, projector light still beaming from inside, and began to poke my head around the corner, just enough to see a front row full of legs, before I heard 18 voices, male and female, collectively say one thing that was so fucking terrifying, it not only haunts my nightmares, but has me questioning, even to this day, if I'm real or living in a simulation - in unison, before I even saw their faces, they shouted the words "Body of Christ.". I ran down the steps and outside into the parking lot to my car - the only one there. I was so lost, and so absolutely terrified, that I just got in the car and peeled out in reverse, and left.

I got ahold of Bruce finally once I hit the highway, and he told me, after asking me several times if I was high or just crazy - "dude, we didn't have any couples for the last presentation, so we left at 8:30, except for you. You said you were too tired to drive and put your head down in the back room. You said you'd lock up when you left". I went home and went to sleep. The next day, when I came into work, Bruce approached me, and asked, "dude, what the Hell is wrong with you??". "What??", I inquired, eager to hear what he had to say.

"Why would you leave the projector on all night?".

I have read about strange events that cause people to inexplicably lose memory of large periods of time. Some say it's the result of dementia or drug use. Others contend that other dimensions bleed into ours "accidentally" from time to time.

Considering that I was only 23 and not a drug user, I can only entertain the possibility of the latter.

The End