The Monolith – Part 1

I was awoken by the sweet sound of cheerful birds tweeting in the morning sunlight. I rolled out of bed and went down the stairs to see that my parents were already awake. I gulped down the cereal like always and started to work on my homework for school.

The homework was from English and it was due tomorrow, 11:59 to be exact. Time passed by from morning to afternoon and when I was more than halfway done, I realised that my stomach was craving for food.

My parents were going to the grocery store to buy some things and they told me the same rules they told me every time they had to go somewhere: Do not leave the house without permission, leave the doors locked and do not open the door when someone you do not know rings the doorbell. So with that I was left alone in the house. While I put some cheese on bread to make a sandwich, I kept hearing strange sounds coming behind the backdoor, but they were very faint.

They were not some car noises that was for sure. A feeling took over me that it was an intruder. I pulled the slider to open the blinds on the backdoor window but saw nothing. I stepped outside and saw an orange light that was not so far away but not close either. For a second, I thought I saw something move in the distance. A voice in the back of my mind told me that I should go back inside where I would be safe and sound, but something stopped me. I felt right at that moment that I should go and check where the light was coming from. I knew I was disobeying my parents, but I had to know where the light was coming from. I was curious. The light was close to my friend Luna’s house, so I decided to call her to make sure that she saw the light too so that we could both investigate.

Inside everything was dark. All the lights were turned off. I entered the house and suddenly the door…

I video called her and talked about the unusual light that was coming from near her house. She was about to say something, but her camera suddenly cut out. The screen went utterly black. I thought she was playing a stupid joke on me again because she pulled pranks on me all the time. As time passed by, I got frustrated. Luna still had not told me that it was a joke when normally she would have. I left the call and tried to reach her again, but she would not pick up. I kept spamming her to say something in the chat, but she would not reply back. I was feeling mixed emotions and it did not feel good.

I put on my navy-blue jacket and slid into my pink joggers and as I did, I heard the sounds again but this time they did not seem so distant from me. It was like… it was coming right from outside of the door. Something told me I should run upstairs and lock myself in my room until the sounds were gone. A chill ran down my spine like the one time a spider was on my back and I had not realized until my dad had seen it. That was probably the most terrifying thing that had happened to me until now. Beads of sweat formed on my forehead as I reached for the doorknob. I turned it and… pulled determinedly as my heart skipped a few beats. It was raining outside. “It is the rain and not an intruder, silly,” I was disappointed in myself.  

I was finally ready to go although I did not want to leave the comfort of my house. I stepped outside but before I did anything, I put a note in a pocket attached to the door where all the mail was stored for my parents to see. I approached the garage and strode down the sidewalk. It felt very quiet and all the house lights were off. The silent murky area was hushed in the eerie dark. The rain hammered hard against the road as I trotted down a narrow alley leading to Luna’s house. I ran up the stairs and rang the doorbell. I was pleading in my mind for all this to be a joke of some sort but when no one answered, I lost hope. I rang the doorbell five more times and then decided to open the door even though I knew it was going to be locked.

I turned the knob, and the door sprang open. It was unlocked. Inside everything was dark. All the lights were turned off. I entered the house and suddenly the door shut behind me. I tried to reopen it, but it refused to budge. I desperately wanted this all to be a dream. It was now completely dark. Not a single peak of light was in sight. I let my hands lead the way by feeling the objects around me. I knew how every part of Luna’s house was like. I had been her friend for five years of course I knew! But this did not seem like her house. I kept walking blindly deeper into the dark and then I tripped over something and fell. I kept falling like it was an endless hole. I yelled for help but to no avail. I could hear someone, but it was not clear who the person was and what they were saying. Then it became clearer, it was my dad calling me.

I woke up with such dread and my heart racing like it had never before. I looked around to see I was in bed and it was morning. I could hear the birds chirping again. I got up and went downstairs and saw that my parents were acting like nothing had happened. “Was it all a dream?” I wondered aloud. “What was?” My mom asked me. I told her about my bizarre adventure, and she assured me that it was definitely a dream. 

My dad was watching the news, so I sat down as well. They were talking about metal monoliths that had appeared in Utah and then all around the world. I asked my dad what a monolith was, and he explained that it was a single metal pillar that had considerable size. Some people thought that aliens have something to do with this because of its sudden appearance but others thought that a group of artists were playing a trick on everyone. When I heard the word aliens, questions started forming in my head like how would it be like to meet an alien? Will they be friendly, or will they invade the whole world? Do they even exist or is this a joke? I did not know what to believe but my parents were acting surprisingly casual about the monoliths. 

My mom interrupted my thoughts and told me to get the mail from outside, so I did. I went out the door and took out the papers. Then I saw it… the note I had written for my parents last night! Now I knew it was definitely not a dream.

To be continued…

– This is part 1 of this riveting story. Stay tuned for part 2!

– Photo credit nypost.com

Editors

Zaara studies at G. S. Lakie Middle School in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. She is a grade 6 student with a passion for story writing.