24h30min

“Run. As far as possible. And never stop.”

This is the story of Ewann, a normal teenager. After falling asleep, time stops and he wakes up alone, everyone is gone.

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“Run. As far as possible. And never stop.”

• 24h and 30min –

My name is Ewann. I always have been a loner, a boy who doesn’t want any problems with anyone but himself. I was a normal teenager, with a normal life, normal parents and not many friends. My life had never been really exciting, and I never wanted it to change.

I lived in a small village called Pinecrest, at the time. People were walking down the streets, hanging around, shopping and just enjoying life. Merchants were selling their products, coming from the near farmsteads. Sun was starting to set, giving a beautiful orange lighting on the streets. I was running, earphones on, listening to some motivating rap music. I never liked walking, it’s a waste of time. I arrived to the bottom of my street, my house was all the way up. I fought my laziness, and began running up. My heavy bag was pulling me down, but I was used to it. I finally got there, out of breath.

I looked for my keys and opened the door, almost swimming in my own sweat. My mum was waiting for me in the kitchen, and I could smell the delicious apple pie she had made, like every Friday. She asked me to take a shower, after she saw me. My mother was a fantastic woman. She cared a lot about me, without being overprotective. She treated me as an adult, and accepted me as I was. She was always there for me.

I took a cold shower and headed towards my room. It was not a very big room, like the ones of the rich kids in my school. The walls were painted blue, and a big window gave a lot of light to the room. A red punching bag was hanging off the roof. I walked through the room and let myself fall on my bed. I could hear my father yelling at my mother downstairs, nothing unusual. I hated it, but there was nothing I could do. Tired of the noise, I took my pillow and set my head underneath it. After less than two minutes, I fell asleep. And that is when it all started.

• 9h and 17min –

I woke up in the darkness. I was freezing. I waited on my bed for some time to let my eyes get used to the darkness. I opened my window to let the moonlight in, but the moon wasn’t there. It was a dark sky, without stars. I didn’t know what time it was, so I looked for my alarm. For some reason, I found it underneath my bed. The blue screen was showing 03:00. I stood there looking at the time, and after some long minutes, I realized that the clock was still showing 03:00. This seemed strange, as it was working the day before. I went down the stairs to get some water. The stairs were cold. They were so cold that I started having chills down my spine. I went to the kitchen and saw the apple pie that my mother had made, it was rotten. It looked like it had been there for years.

I started freaking out. I went to my parents’ room and knocked on the door. No response. That was expected, as it was 3am, but I still wanted to make sure so I opened the door. They were not here. Their bed was made, the TV was on but was crackling. I let myself fall on the floor. What was happening? I called out for my parents as loud as I could. No answer. I went back to my room and sat on my bed. The deep darkness was starting to make me feel anxious. I got under my covers and tried to go back to sleep, maybe it was just a bad dream. Maybe I would just wake up the next day and my mother would be downstairs making breakfast. I closed my eyes and tried to think of something else.

• 3h and 26min –

I woke up after an empty sleep. My eyes felt sticky. I opened them, as if everything was normal, but nothing. The darkness was still there. No light was coming from the sky. I tried to turn my room lights on, but the power was down. After thirty minutes of standing in the dark, not understanding what was happening, I decided to put on my sweatshirt, my shoes and sweatpants and headed downstairs towards the front door. I opened it. The temperature outside was even colder than inside. There was no wind. The street was empty, as if there had never been anyone here. I walked down the street and started to run to my school, hoping I could find someone there. While running, I had the strange impression that someone was looking at me. I turned around, but saw nothing.

When I arrived, the school was open. As I walked through the hall, I noticed that none of the lockers were decorated, and that none of the paintings that were originally hanging on the wall were there. I walked around the whole school, trying to find someone. I screamed, but it felt like the deep silence took over my voice. I headed towards the principal’s office. I passed through a long corridor, with the sensation of not being alone.

• 30min 55sec –

Three hours later, I was still alone. The sky was still as dark as an everlasting hole. I had walked for all this time, trying to find a warm place. I had no idea of what was happening to me, but I knew that no one could help me. The feeling I had at the school had disappeared. I felt more alone than never.

I decided to go to the supermarket to find something to eat, something that wouldn’t be rotten. As I was walking down the avenue that led to the supermarket, I felt it again. This feeling. Like someone was watching me. I turned around, looked everywhere. I was scared. I ran to the supermarket, as fast as I could, trying to make the feeling go away.

• 10min 28sec –

I looked around the shelves, trying to find edible food. I had to concentrate but the feeling I had earlier was still there. I had chills everywhere.

• 5min 10sec –

I almost could see the eyes looking at me. I knew that the thing was in the store. It was trying to find me. I took a shovel from one of the shelves and got myself ready to fight. The cold was tickling my feet. My breath was getting heavier and heavier. I was trembling.

• 1min 2sec –

“Run. As far as possible. And never stop.” That is what my mind was telling me to do. I knew it was the right thing to do, but my legs wouldn’t move. They were anchored to the ground. The presence was getting closer, as the world around me was getting darker. It was so close, I could hear his breath behind me. A long, deep breath. I dropped my shovel. It walked next to me, and stopped right in front of me. It was a creature that looked like a man, but I could feel that it wasn’t one. His eyes were red. He had a mask on his mouth, but I could feel that he was smiling. He looked at me intensively, and screamed: “GET OUT OF HERE!”. The world around me started spinning, and suddenly, everything went dark.

I woke up in a hospital room. I was lying on a white bed, with something attached to my arm. My mother opened the door, and I saw she was crying. To this day, I still don’t know what happened that night. The only thing I know is that I had been in the coma for more than 2 weeks, and that what seemed to be 24 hours in this terrifying world had actually been much longer in the real world. I never told this story to anyone, too traumatized to talk about it. I now live in New York, and I am 22 years old. Everything came back to normal, but I still think about this night all the time. Every night, I am scared to go to sleep. I can still feel his breath behind me when I go to work. This night has changed my life, forever.