Three Boys Wait

"Go on, push it."
"I don't know what it is. It might be a switch for the alarm, my mum'll kill me."
"He said it was harmless. He said you couldn't get it wrong. why would he say that if there was any danger?"

The boys stood in front of the main switch board of the office block and stared at the blinking lights.

"Why did your mum want you to meet her here anyway? She should of finished work hours ago."
"She had a late client. I'm not allowed to stay in the house on my own, she says I'm not old enough yet. But she said if I had you guys with me I could wait in here until she was finished."
"Who was that other bloke then? Was he with your mum too?"
"Nah. He was just the security guy. Doesn't like people touching his stuff. But I think he likes me. I mean, it doesn't take a genius to work this stuff out...here, this one changes the camera and this one sets off the alarm."
"Careful! Last thing I want is your mum to catch me here. Your mum might have asked you here, but mine didn't. She'd blow her top if she thought I wasn't at your house now. An alarm that calls the police direct? Can you imagine being taken down to the station in one of their cars with the bullet proof glass and the sniffer dogs?"
"They don't bring them on things like that. Only serious drug stuff gets the sniffer dogs."
"So what? You want your dad to have to bail you out for wasting police time? I'm out."

The boys stared at the screens some more. Nothing was moving. The cameras flicked from one image to the next, all just empty hallways and offices.

"How long's she gonna be anyway? I gotta be home before they notice. I'm not meant to be out at all."
"Stop moaning. I'll tell your mum you been at mine. She likes me."
"Mum'll be coming soon. She said about half an hour."
"What's the time then?"
"Dunno."
"Oi! What was that? I saw something! Wait! Bring that camera back on!"
"Just my mum I guess. Stop being a drama queen."
"Wasn't! Was big and weird looking. Hang on!"
"Shut up for god's sake, will you? If she's coming, we 'd better be as far away from this stuff as possible."
"I saw it! Wasn't your mum, I swear!"
"Give it a rest, jerk."
"LOOK! There it is again!"
"What? Nothing there, chicken!"
"No...wait. I saw it too. Like a big bulk in the office, moving around. Not a man really, but shaped like one. Let's get a better look. Put the screen back to where it was."
"Shut up! There's nothing there!"
"Then move it back so that we can check. If there's nothing there, we'll get back to waiting. Nothing to worry about."

He flicked a switch and the screen glowed a dismal green. Night vision.

The boys gasped.

"See! I told you. Nothing bloody there!"
"Wait.There was. I swear it. It was there."
"What was that? What's that noise?"
"The generator probably. Kicking in for the night. Stop being such a freak."

The noise got louder and higher. Like the sudder of an old car engine as it struggles to start. Louder and louder. Deafening.

"WHAT'S GOING ON??!"

Ther lights went out then and they could not distinguish between the humming sound that reverbarated from every wall and the movement of their own bodies in the blindness. The room shook steadily as the pitch of the sound grew into a scream of momumental proportions, bursting their ear drums and shattering the nerves in their brains.
Suddenly there was a blinding flash of light in which they saw each other as they really were: bleeding from the ears, eyes bursting out of their sockets like golf balls and bodies writhing in agony, backs arched and muscles tense to breaking point. The light left a halo on their eyes. The shadows of what they had seen, in an eerie green negative, reversed the images and imprinted them on their minds.
As their bodies froze, looks of horror were etched on their faces. A horror they could never describe, a fear that had taken even the imagination of a ten year old boy utterly by surprise. Hair stood on end on arms and legs and their joints were rigid as if set in concrete. Skin white and grey, as if to exaggerate the blood trickling down the neck.

Halos still etched on their eyelids, their frozen statues were buried with looks of horror on their faces and arm and leg hair stuck straight up in the air.