So here I go with my first attempt. The idea is to write a story that takes place during a power outage. That's it. Let me know what you think.
Power Outage
“Nope, nothing,” Gill said, flicking the switch. “I guess the power’s out.”
“Shit. That’s just what I need,” said Melody, smoothing back her fly away hairs. She loosened the tight, standard-issue, tie from her neck and unbuttoned the top of her blouse. “I just wanted to come home and relax, maybe have a bath, but no.”
“Honey, go sit down. It’s probably just a fuse.”
“No, I’m sorry. You’ve probably had a bad day too,” she said, forcing a wide smile that was wasted on darkness.
“Alright, just wait here. I’ll go grab some flashlights.” Gill disappeared behind the white wall of the livingroom, leaving Melody alone.
She threw herself on the couch, reclining and savouring the moment off her feet. Closing her eyes, she inhaled deeply and forced positive thoughts through her mind, a tactic she’d heard often but never really mastered. Her mother told her again and again that she should meditate. It would help her, she said but it never felt like anything other than sitting in her bed, trying not to think. Not thinking seemed preferable in moments like these but never very useful. She sighed, “What’s the point?” she said to the empty room. Melody closed her eyes again and tried to focus on her breath.
In the middle of falling asleep, she jerked awake, feeling shaken. She sat up on the couch and looked around. Her eyes had adjusted enough to the darkness of the room to see general shapes but still not enough.
“Gill?” She continued to call out to him as she walked across the room. There wasn’t even the hint of an answer. She left the livingroom and stood at the top of the stairs, looking down into the black basement. “Gill-” she whispered.
Without the quiet hum of the heater, the house was too quiet. She rested a hand against the wall; it was like ice. Cold seemed to invade the house from the walls, slowly seeping in. How long had she been sleeping? Had she slept?
She knew she should go downstairs, Gill probably just couldn’t hear her. The basement always made her feel on edge though, even in the best of moments. She couldn’t see down into the depths of the basement more than a few metres but she knew she couldn't go. She felt as if she was being pulled down into it, drawn there by some unseen force. Melody tried to turn away, wanting to be anywhere else but there but she couldn't move. Invisible arms drew her to plunge down the stairs, unseen hands urged her to plummet into the darkness. Disembodied voices whispered warnings in her mind while high-pitched hisses circled her head.
“Gill,” she barely forced out.
From the darkness came a soft chuckle; a familiar but dark laugh.
It couldn’t be him, she told herself, I would know.
The voices swarming her ears grew more urgent. Out of the depths of the darkness emerged a hand; bloated and pale, reaching for her, wearing a wedding ring matching hers.
“Melody...”, a soft, sickingly-sweet voice sang. It was seductive and nauseating.
She fought to cover her ears, certain that if she heard that voice again, she would be lost. She managed little more than bending her arms at strange angles.
“We’ve been looking for you a long time, Melody,” called another voice as another hand pierced the black wall in front of her. This hand was smaller, with long, dark painted nailed. It beckoned to her. “We won’t let you go now.”
A pained gasp escaped her lips. She knew it was true. She knew her whole life had led her here. After they took Nicky from her and Gill, she knew it was only a matter of time before they came for her. No one in her family escaped them.
“If I come,” she struggled to speak, “will you leave Denise alone?”
Her question was met with silence. Maybe they didn’t lower themselves to converse with their prey.
“Denise wants to be found,” the voices hissed.
“Bullshit,” Melody spat.
“Just like you. We’ll find her in your blood.”
Her mouth dropped open. The poisonous fog in her mind began to clear. “That’s it then, isn’t it?” she said.
The hands paused suddenly and disappeared back into the darkness. She didn’t have enough hope left to think they would leave her now. Not when they were so close.
“It is...you can’t find her without me. You need me to get to her,” she cried, finding, if not hope, at least a reason to keep fighting. “Go fuck yourselves,” she screamed down the stairs.
A cold, wheezing wind blew past her face, pushing her backwards onto the floor. Something pulled her along the floor, picking up speed as she flew down the endless hall. She slammed against the far wall, cheap dry wall falling around her head. She coughed through the dust while her whole body shook with adrenaline.
The house was quiet again. The darkness blinked away as the lights came back on. Relief washed over her momentarily but receded when she remembered Gill.
“Honey?” she called, knowing she wouldn’t get an answer. She crawled towards the stairs, fighting back tears. “Baby...”
The bottom of the stairs came into view along with a twisted pair of legs. She choked back a gasp and continued, closing her eyes. Opening them only when she felt the edge of the first step, she saw the bruised and bloodied form of her husband, his head and extremities bent in wrong ways. She stopped fighting the sobs choking her.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry baby,” she whispered through her tears. “I should have...told you.”
Her crying tapered, leaving her hiccupping and clinging to the rail. When she had gathered her wits enough to move again, she lowered herself down the stairs, step by step. Melody crept past her husband’s corpse and around to the cubbyhole under the stairs where she dug out the shovel. She threw it to the top of the stairs and turned around to the body at her feet. His ankles were cold and hard as she picked them up and dragged him up the stairs, whispering how sorry she was.
