While forming the story a challenging thought occurred to me. Develop a story without revealing the gender of the main character. The easiest way to do this would be to simply repeat the character's name and not use any pronouns. To me, that would be a cheat. It takes more skill and thought to craft a tale without any he/she or his/hers.
Julian was one of those employees that
bosses loved. Quiet, efficient, first one in last one out, getting
work done enough before a deadline to pick up the slack left by other
workers. Julian's body sat so stiff and erect at the desk, the
office motion detectors would shut the lights off under the
assumption that everyone had left for the night. It was a common
occurrence for the night cleaning staff to happen across Julian
writing code in a dark office, the only light coming from the
computer screen and reflecting off Julian's face. Tonight was
exceptional only in that the cleaning crews had finished all the
offices scheduled for that day gone home.
Julian was nearing the end of this
particular subroutine at an hour closer to dawn than dusk. A few
more keystrokes, a couple clicks of a mouse, and a press of the ENTER
key made with a sense of completion signaled the last of the
necessary code being completed. Julian sat back and stretched, the
lights blinking on as there was finally enough movement to trigger
the sensors.
Julian initialized the compiler and set
it on the new code to check for errors. Julian knew there wouldn't
be any, but the executives upstairs insisted a compiler report
accompany every piece of programming. It was a necessary task with
some of the programmers that worked for this company, but Julian had
yet to make a single error. Too much time and attention to detail
was spent for that to happen.
Julian gave the room a look around as
the code was crunched and checked. Every piece of equipment was the
latest technology on the market. Top of the line monitors connected
to network terminals accessing enough processing power to make the
guys at NASA drool. The only exception was a single piece of
equipment that sat on a pedestal in the middle of the office. It was
a throwback computer that belonged in a museum, not the main work
floor of a modern technology company. Its presence was a reminder of
where the company had started. Julian found it a lot less creepy
than some oil painting on the wall of some creepy dude leering at
everyone while they worked.
Julian stood as the computer beeped
that the compiler was finished. As expected, there were no errors
with the entered code. A few clicks of the mouse emailed the
necessary files to the executives upstairs. Then it was a simple
matter of powering down the terminal and heading home for a long
weekend of rest.
Turning towards the door to leave,
Julian heard an odd yet familiar sound. It was a high-pitched
electronic whine. The last time Julian heard that particular tone
was during early computer courses. It was the sound of an old
monitor that remained on after the attached computer was shut off.
Julian had always thought of that sound as “screen scream.”
Julian looked around the room once
again, searching for the source of the sound. All of the modern
monitors automatically went to sleep when the terminal was shut down.
That only left the classic computer that was on display in the
middle of the room. However, Julian could clearly see the back of
the display, and there was no power cord to the computer or monitor.
Still, the screaming sound continued.
Julian walked around the old system
without losing eye contact with the plastic case. Coming around to
the front, Julian saw the monitor giving off the green glow that
matched the sound of the screaming whine. The sight of a monitor
glowing with no source of power made Julian begin to seriously
consider taking an overdue vacation.
Julian noticed that the glowing screen
wasn't blank. Blocks of shifting and changing pixels dominated the
majority of the display. Underneath that three lines of programming
code flashed by so fast Julian couldn't see enough to make any sense
of it. After a minute Julian's eyes wandered up to the shifting
picture above the lines of code. The random shifting pixels seemed
to periodically form pictures for a second or two. Faces seemed to
resolve in the green glow of the monitor before changing into random
images again. The low resolution of the screen didn't allow Julian
to recognize too many of the details of each face, but none of them
looked particularly happy.
After a minute of hypnotic staring at
the monitor and its strange projections, Julian slowly reached out to
press the power button. A strange feeling came over Julian before
any pressure could be applied to the switch to stop the display being
shown. It was a feeling as though every hair on Julian's body was
being lifted. They weren't standing up like on a chilly evening or
during an emotional song. It was more a sensation like every hair
was being pulled up by some external force.
Julian could no longer look away from
the faces coming and going on the screen. As a matter of fact, the
faces seemed to be getting larger and closer. All sensation seemed
to be leaving Julian's body. Just an odd sense of floating remained
as the faces that flashed on the screen became clearer and the high
pitched scream from the monitor got louder.
Julian started to scream, the tone and
pitch starting to blend and match with the scream of the screen. In
a bright flash of green, both screams suddenly went silent. The
office lights automatically shut off fifteen minutes later since the
motion detectors hadn't sensed any movement during that time.
Julian couldn't see or feel anyone
around. There was only a sense of many people crowded into a small
space. There was an overwhelming darkness. All that was visible was
random pieces of code that flittered around the air. Julian felt the
desire to get someone's attention, to get some help leaving this
other place. Maybe a loud enough scream would work..
Leave a comment below letting me know what you think of my first attempt at a suspenseful/horror story.
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