Total Blackout
The lights went out.
I swore loudly. "Eight levels! Did you save, bro?"
My brother chucked his controller at the TV, but half-heartedly, so it didn't smash the screen. "Shit. No. Not since five."
Our friends grunted their condolences, but Andy seemed more concerned with the swimsuit magazine he was browsing and Carter wasn't usually too keen on video games. I put my hands behind my head. "Mmkay, guys. Ideas. What are we going to do now?"
"No computer, no TV, no lights over at the tennis courts. Damn. Electricity sucks," my brother said.
"Let's go ghost hunting," Andy said suddenly. He was so serious, he even closed the magazine and set it reverently on the coffee table. "Betcha ghosts come out when it's piss-black like this."
I shrugged. "We could do worse."
So we wandered the blackened neighborhoods for a few hours, poking around in places we wouldn't have dared investigate during the day. Nothing turned up, not even at the library, where it was rumored a few people had been hit at the horribly designed intersection out front.
Finally, our stomachs grumbling, we decided to head back and order a pizza from somewhere outside the blackout. Suddenly, Carter grabbed my arm and swiveled me towards a house that was just as pitch black as the rest.
"Can you see it?" he asked, after a few seconds.
"See what?"
"The shadow. Second floor, third window from the left."
I focused my vision there. And then, it was visible -- or rather, invisible: a black figure so dark it was blacker than a house hidden in shadow from even the moonlight.
My brother and Andy were looking, too. We all yelped in unison when the figure suddenly sprouted claws and seemed to leap towards us.
I started running. I didn't care where I was going, it just had to be far away. I could hear Carter's shallow breathing nearby, but then it disappeared. I barely had time to consider the idea that the ghost had gotten him when I tripped and skinned up my hands and knees.
A panicked moment, and then I realized that nothing was in pursuit. It took me a while, but I got my bearings and headed back to my house.
Andy was already there, predictably browsing the internet on his iPhone. His face was unusually pale in its eerie glow.
"That house is haunted," he said.
"What happened?" I asked, limping into the kitchen to rinse my hands in searingly hot water.
"No one knows," he said, raising his voice enough for me to hear. "Though they think...ahh, never mind."
"No, what?" I shut off the water.
"They..." He was still hesitating; then he took a deep breath. "Supposedly, some little girl lived there, and got possessed. They think...her parents may have killed her. But that wouldn't have killed the demon."
Blacker than black. Like something straight out of a video game set in hell.
I prayed the others would make it back soon.
