With a hiss, the TV hosting an unsaved video game cut out along with the rest of the house as a boy who dozed off while playing slowly came to. “The lights went out again?”
9-year-old Andy Watkins had fallen asleep in the basement yet again only to wake up past one in the morning shrouded in darkness.
“Mom! Dad!” He cried out. Bitter that he hadn’t even gotten to save his game, he headed up as fast as he could. Eager to escape the dark.
The silence was deafening. Hurriedly, Andy brought out his phone for a flashlight only for his heart to sink upon seeing the zero-battery icon. “When did I run out?” he mumbled before flinching at the roars of thunder and flashes of lightning. As he approached the steps, the storm outside was the only source of light he could use for a second every now and then.
“Why does it always have to storm at night? It hasn’t rained during the day in forever.” He said walking up. Only to nearly fall back at the sight of something along the steps. Scaly, fanged creatures that slithered down towards him.
“Snakes!” He screamed and ran back down, wincing in the darkness as he had nowhere to run. Only for lightning to strike once again and reveal what the lengthy creatures really were.
“Ohh… dad’s ties.” He sighed and walked back up to grab the accessories. “He usually hangs them up in the closet. What are they doing here?”
He climbed up the steps with still shaking legs and into the kitchen. Yet again a void of darkness and silence except for the occasional lightning and the constant pitter-patter of heavy rain.
As he approached the next flight of stairs, he froze at the sight of several beings. All of freaky design smiling down at him with unnerving glee. Andy swallowed an internal scream and tried not to freak out like last time.
He pressed forward, only for the creatures to follow him with their eyes.
Andy’s breathing only grew more rapid and intense as he could sense the creatures practically loom over him. Finally, he whipped around to face whatever beasts were behind him allowing for lightning to reveal all were just large abstract paintings hoisted along the wall.
Andy just stood there out of breath for a moment. “But they were moving… I know they were!” Though he hated when his mother made those creepy works of art, they had never struck such fear in him before.
He kept staring the paintings down, confused until the the sounds of shuffling feet and commotion from up above snapped him out of it. Around where his parents’ room laid. He yelled for them again only to get drowned out by ear splitting thunder.
Urgently, he hurried upstairs. Faintly hearing echoes of his footsteps behind.
“Ahhh!” He screamed at the sound of banging along the window only to find a branch simply blowing against it in the howling wind.
Andy groaned and set his sights for refuge in his parents’ room. Though he would never let anyone from school know, he still liked to cover up with his parents whenever things got scary like the power going out.
Hastily, he knocked on the door. “Mom, dad? Are you here?” When nobody answered, he knocked harder, eventually pushing it open by accident.
The room was empty and devoid of life. Just more darkness without even the sight of parents to help. Along the disheveled bed was a note written in shaggy handwriting and spelling no adult should have.
“B back. Wen t too store.”
“In the middle of the night?” Andy said. He checked the note repeatedly, wondering about the sounds of commotion that were above him.
Then it spoke from behind. Laying its clawed fingers upon Andy’s shoulder before he could react.
“Ah how fun that was. I always love a good race.”
K.R. Moore is an author that likes to bring joy and look at the positives of life. Channeling them within his writing into the craziest, most bizarre ways possible with fun at every turn. When you pick up a book from Moore, you can expect to go on a journey with unforgettable casts of characters with comedy and oddity always close by.
Academy of the Heart And Mind 