11:02pm
A rainy night. With the lights out, I was in front of the pc, working on the next piece I intended to submit at a forum by the end of the week. The screen was split in two halves, an image editor was in one side while the other one was filled with the website of a forum. It was a relatively new and small community yet the counter showed 665 members registered.
"Just one more!" "We have to celebrate with a devilish chore." "Ohhh, I might miss it..."
These messages filled the posts. Everyone was waiting for the counter.
11:58pm
It was still raining outside. It might keep raining till the morning. I was a little thirsty by the time so I went to get something to drink. When I got back, I looked at the clock. There was just seconds left for the next day. I took my time to finish my cup and tilt a bit my chair making it creak. My cellphone made a sound. It was signaling the midnight. Back to work. But maybe I should check the forum first, just in case something happened. I refreshed the page. The first thing that took my attention was the counter. It said 667 members.
"So I missed it too."
It wasn't a big deal. Nothing would have changed anyways. It was just a little mind game.
12:02pm
"Let's see who was the devilishly lucky member #666."
Just another little mind game. I clicked on the members list. There was a section with a list of recently registered members at the side. Since it was showing recent members first, the top left one on the list was member #667, so the next one should be the lucky one. I passed the mouse pointer through the name of the new member. The link description showed the username followed by the entry number, #665. I was kind of expecting it. Sometimes, some numbers are just omitted from the counters. Like elevators or hotels' rooms. But, just in case it is a bug, I shall comment it. After leaving a little remark at the status section, it was time to get back to work. I clicked the forum's logo to get to the main page, it was just a habit of mine. As the page loaded, I noticed that there were just a few members online. I mean, just a minute ago there was about 8 members online, and now there were only three. Did they logged out by a bug? Maybe they will comment it when they get back.
12:05pm
Just to check if they got back, I refreshed the page a couple of times. From the three members that remained online, one by one they seem to be logging out now. Only one member remained online now. As I hover the pointer through the last member online, my username and entry number were shown on the link description. I was alone on the forum. Maybe I was not exactly alone, there were also the guests and bots online, witnessing the events of the forum. I refreshed the page a couple of times again. The number of online members didn't change at all. It remained at one. Just in case that I was the one having the bug on the forum, I tried to log out and re-login to see if anything changed. It was the same. There was no member online except for me. I was about to close the window to refresh the navigator when I realized something was a little different indeed. I wasn't paying attention to that for a while since I was focused on the counter of members online. Now, I'm not sure what I was feeling in that moment. I'm at lost of words to describe it. But maybe the closest word I could use to describe it was... uncomfortable. I was uncomfortable because there were neither guests, nor bots on the forum now. Things were feeling weird. I was no longer escorted by any witness, I was now all alone on the forum.
12:09pm
The rain stopped. Everything was silent now without the rainfall. Everything felt heavy and a strange ambient filled my room. Even the screen's light shining me on the dark seemed weaker. It was time to close the window, that is what I felt my brain telling me. It would be better to leave the forum for tonight. Tomorrow they will get back and this discomfort would fade out. I was about to click the top right button to close the window, when suddenly the page refreshed itself.
"Was there a little blink on the page?"
I changed tabs to check if anything happened and then I returned to the forum tab. Everything seems to be okay, except that I was feeling a little bit tired on my eyes, maybe a little bit dizzy too. I should just call it a day after closing the forum, nothing good would come from forcing myself to continue. I pressed the button to close the window. Like a quick reflex, the list of members online jumped to my mind instantly. Just when it lagged to close the window I took a quick glance to the online members. There were two members online now. Before the window closed, I hovered the pointer as fast as I could over the names and looked at the link description. One was my username and my entry number. The other one was a blank username and the entry number #666.
A rainy night. With the lights out, I was in front of the pc, working on the next piece I intended to submit at a forum by the end of the week. The screen was split in two halves, an image editor was in one side while the other one was filled with the website of a forum. It was a relatively new and small community yet the counter showed 665 members registered.
"Just one more!" "We have to celebrate with a devilish chore." "Ohhh, I might miss it..."
These messages filled the posts. Everyone was waiting for the counter.
11:58pm
It was still raining outside. It might keep raining till the morning. I was a little thirsty by the time so I went to get something to drink. When I got back, I looked at the clock. There was just seconds left for the next day. I took my time to finish my cup and tilt a bit my chair making it creak. My cellphone made a sound. It was signaling the midnight. Back to work. But maybe I should check the forum first, just in case something happened. I refreshed the page. The first thing that took my attention was the counter. It said 667 members.
"So I missed it too."
It wasn't a big deal. Nothing would have changed anyways. It was just a little mind game.
12:02pm
"Let's see who was the devilishly lucky member #666."
Just another little mind game. I clicked on the members list. There was a section with a list of recently registered members at the side. Since it was showing recent members first, the top left one on the list was member #667, so the next one should be the lucky one. I passed the mouse pointer through the name of the new member. The link description showed the username followed by the entry number, #665. I was kind of expecting it. Sometimes, some numbers are just omitted from the counters. Like elevators or hotels' rooms. But, just in case it is a bug, I shall comment it. After leaving a little remark at the status section, it was time to get back to work. I clicked the forum's logo to get to the main page, it was just a habit of mine. As the page loaded, I noticed that there were just a few members online. I mean, just a minute ago there was about 8 members online, and now there were only three. Did they logged out by a bug? Maybe they will comment it when they get back.
12:05pm
Just to check if they got back, I refreshed the page a couple of times. From the three members that remained online, one by one they seem to be logging out now. Only one member remained online now. As I hover the pointer through the last member online, my username and entry number were shown on the link description. I was alone on the forum. Maybe I was not exactly alone, there were also the guests and bots online, witnessing the events of the forum. I refreshed the page a couple of times again. The number of online members didn't change at all. It remained at one. Just in case that I was the one having the bug on the forum, I tried to log out and re-login to see if anything changed. It was the same. There was no member online except for me. I was about to close the window to refresh the navigator when I realized something was a little different indeed. I wasn't paying attention to that for a while since I was focused on the counter of members online. Now, I'm not sure what I was feeling in that moment. I'm at lost of words to describe it. But maybe the closest word I could use to describe it was... uncomfortable. I was uncomfortable because there were neither guests, nor bots on the forum now. Things were feeling weird. I was no longer escorted by any witness, I was now all alone on the forum.
12:09pm
The rain stopped. Everything was silent now without the rainfall. Everything felt heavy and a strange ambient filled my room. Even the screen's light shining me on the dark seemed weaker. It was time to close the window, that is what I felt my brain telling me. It would be better to leave the forum for tonight. Tomorrow they will get back and this discomfort would fade out. I was about to click the top right button to close the window, when suddenly the page refreshed itself.
"Was there a little blink on the page?"
I changed tabs to check if anything happened and then I returned to the forum tab. Everything seems to be okay, except that I was feeling a little bit tired on my eyes, maybe a little bit dizzy too. I should just call it a day after closing the forum, nothing good would come from forcing myself to continue. I pressed the button to close the window. Like a quick reflex, the list of members online jumped to my mind instantly. Just when it lagged to close the window I took a quick glance to the online members. There were two members online now. Before the window closed, I hovered the pointer as fast as I could over the names and looked at the link description. One was my username and my entry number. The other one was a blank username and the entry number #666.
First, I'm not a writer, not even taking writing lessons.
Second, English is not my main language, but at least I hope you can understand the story.
Third, based on the events of 11/10 midnight.
