Elevator

That night....

I was in deep slumber when my teammate woke me up with a vigorous shake.

"Oi, log out."

He was grinning at me. I had apparently drooled on my desk. It was a slow night. American's don't usually call during holidays and it was right in the middle of Halloween now. I thanked him, logged myself out of the phone and started packing up my stuff.

"Any plans for the end of Halloween?" he asked, "I heard Red Box is open through the end of the night. Some of us are already there."

"No thanks, I'm going straight home tonight. Catch up on some sleep."

I said goodbye to the rest of my coworkers, most of whom were just counting the minutes till they could finally be free of the phones they were tied to, and headed for the elevator.

I looked at the wall with the different clocks for the different US time zones. I found the one for the Eastern time and noted that it was 11:59 AM. That made it 11:59 PM, Oct. 31 for me, Manila time, almost midnight of Halloween night.

I thought to myself; "Happy Halloween" and then I stepped into the empty elevator on the 26th Floor of Robinson Summit Tower. I was halfway down when I realized I had forgotten to log myself out on the biometric timekeeper. Cursing to myself, I hit the stop button and pressed for the 26th floor again.

The elevator shuddered a little and then gave that soft whine as it started back up. I stared at the burnished metal walls, musing at how it made ghostly reflections. I waved at my silhouette. In the dim light I could just make out the color of my clothes.

I broke out of my reverie when I realized that it was taking longer than usual to get back to the 26th floor. I was beginning to get restless, wondering if the elevator had broken down again. Just as I was about to wave at the camera to get the guard's attention, I heard the soft ding that accompanied the elevator doors sliding open.

It was dark.

What? There were lights and a guard here earlier, but I couldn't see either as I looked around nervously.

Did the elevator somehow drop me off the wrong floor? I could have sworn I had hit the proper number. Through the light from the computer terminal of the HRIS web I could make out the number 26 on the wall in front of me.

I stepped off and the doors slid closed behind me. It was not only dark but it was also unusually quiet. No hum of the AC, no idle chatter of voices.

Where was everyone?

Anyone?

I looked at my watch to check the time, but the digital display was blank. Now, of all times, the battery had decided to die on me.

I felt the hair on the back of my neck rise and goosebumps on my skin. If this was the management's idea of celebrating the end of Halloween, it was very effective. Too effective.

I went to the biometrics terminal to log myself off so I could get out of the creepy place. This was not feeling like a Happy Halloween.

I froze when I got to the terminal. I now realized what it was that had been bugging me so much when I first stepped off the elevator. The terminal glowed smugly in the dark – but the soft familiar whirr of a computer fan that should have been apparent in the stillness wasn't there. I look at the time reflected on its screen: 12:00 AM.

Midnight.

That couldn't be right.

"Hellooo?"

There should still be people here even at midnight. Our schedules were designed to fit to the time zones in America. Despite my bravado I was starting to get scared. My voice sounded flat. I snapped my fingers, but even the sound of that was hollow.