Just a Blackout

"Bang! Bang! Bang!" The sound of thunder crashing into the ground made Adelaide jump out of her skin each time she heard the dreadful noise.

Like a couple days before, there was once again another thunderstorm happening in Las Vegas, Nevada. No one in the city could believe such a dry place could have so many thunderstorms in a row, especially Adelaide.

Adelaide doesn't really mind thunderstorms, but it's what sometimes comes with thunderstorms that she can't handle. Blackouts. She always has been afraid of the dark, ever since she could remember. Now she doesn't know what originally sparked her phobia of pitch black darkness, but her mother has always been afraid of the dark too, so it must be a gene thing, she thought.

Because of her irrational fear of the dark, Adelaide has already prepared everything she needed in case of a potenial blackout. On her desk in front of her are exactly five flashlights, ten candles, and even a headgear flashlight.

Feeling hungry and needing something to do to get her mind relaxed for a while, Adelaide turned off her television in her room and walked down the stairs of her two bedroom house to the kitchen for a bite to eat. The rest of Adelaide's family were gone for the night, leaving her even more nervous and frightened. Her mother and father left to have dinner at a friend's house, and her brother, Darrell, was once again out with his friends. As Adelaide was making her trip to the kitchen, she heard the sound of more viscous thunder striking the ground at a fast rate. This sent chills running down Adelaide's spine, knowing the louder the thunder, the higher chance of a blackout.

Adelaide whipped open the refrigerator looking for something good to eat. As she was about to reach for the ham, the lights flickered in the house for a few seconds, then stopped. She immediately slammed the fridge door and looked up to the celing to the lights. She hoped in her mind there would not be what she was dreading all along.

Just as a precaution she raced up the stairs of her home to her room to grab her items that would help her if a blackout unfortunately did happen. As she raced up the staircase, she could hear over and over again the sound of the viscous thunder striking the ground. It grew louder and louder, and sounded like someone was setting a bomb off in the middle of the neighborhood. The lights once again continued to flicker on and off, which frightened Adelaide even more.

Once she reached her room Adelaide quickly checked the flashlights, lit all ten candles, and wrapped the headgear flashlight to her head. To another person, this may seem like too much but to Adelaide this was enough to help her during a potenial blackout. Adelaide sat on her bed and continously tapped her fingers against her leg. Frightened. Nervous. And was hoping and praying not to have a blackout.

To her surprise, this thunderstorm was quite longer than the others from the previous days. Adelaide was getting tired by the minute just waiting to be in the darkness and she soon started to doze off, drifting her head foward and back. Despite all the violent sound the thunderstorm outside was making, Adelaide soon found herself falling asleep and blacking out.

"Bam!" Adelaide quickly woke up to a startling noise coming from downstairs. Once awake, she had opened her eyes to what she knew was coming but didn't want to believe it. Yes, a neighborhood blackout. She started hyperventilating, looking all around to look for at least one ray of light. There was nothing. She was in complete darkness. She started crying at this point, not knowing what to do and not knowing what that horrifying sound was. What's even worse about this situation is for the past couple of weeks there have been break-ins going on in the neighborhood, with mostly electronics stolen, and even a dog murder from one of the homes. So of course that popped into Adelaide's mind when she heard the smashing sound, thinking somebody may have broken in.

Adelaide pulled herself together, knowing she's gonna have to find out what that sound was. Despite her phobia of the dark, she knew she just had to check. But she didn't know which made her more terrifed, the blackout itself, or the potenial possibility of an intruder in the house. Adelaide wiped the tears off her cheeks and turned on her flashlight headgear and flashlight. She took her first shaky steps in her room, still not sure enough if she's prepared for the emotional stress. As she walked into the hallway the bright light from the lightning shown through the windows and shadowed her movement, creeping her out more than she already was.

The hallway was pitch black. The only time you could slightly see was when the lightning would peek through the windows and highlight parts of the hallway. As Adelaide slowly walked through the hallway, she looked for signs of an intruder with her flashlights. Nothing yet, but she was sure she couldn't confirm good news yet. Sweat dripped from her face to the ground, and her heartbeat was as fast as a car motor. She'd never been so afraid before. To her, it felt like she was walking in the hallway to uncertain death. Loud striking sounds, and not knowing what her ultimate fate would be.

As she was about to aproach the bathroom, she heard something crash to the floor, like the sound a vase would make if it was pushed and broke into pieces on the ground. Adelaide was terrifed. She knew the only logical reason for that sound was if an intruder was rummiging through stuff. But for some reason, warm air that felt like it came from outside rushed past Adelaide's face, confusing her. Wanting to know what's going on, she decided to check the bathroom. She turned off her flashlight and her headgear flashlight just in case if it was an intruder, they wouldn't see her coming. Using the lighting as her source of light, Adelaide slowly and steadily walked towards the bathroom as sweat continued dripping from her face, and her heart beating so fast it felt like it would burst from her chest. Just then Adelaide heard something else fall onto the floor and break. Quickly she stood up against the wall, not wanting to be spotted by the potenial intruder. After about twenty seconds of slience, Adelaide decided to peek her head into the bathroom. Slowly as she did, thoughts crossed her mind of what she would see. How she would react. She finally peeks her head in, and to her relief she sees the small bathroom window open, and the decorative glass cups on the windowsill have just fallen due to the wind. She breathed a sigh of relief. However though, she knew she wasn't in the clear yet.

Adelaide walked back to the hallway to get her flashlights and turned them back on. Slowly and steady once again, Adelaide still looked for anything suspicious. Nothing yet. Once reaching the staircase and before taking a step, she heard quite a strange noise. Something like, flapping of some sort. After a couple of seconds, she passed it off as the wind from the window in the bathroom. After all with a thunderstorm comes strong powerful winds. So with that, Adelaide made her trip down the stairs. But then, the flapping mysterious noise got louder, and louder, Adelaide stopped and turned around, but nothing was there. The sound though, still started getting louder, which started to startle Adelaide. However, she still passed it of as just the wind. She turned around to finish walking down the stairs but when she did, a piegon crashed into her face, and she fell down the stairs to the floor as she screamed.

Adelaide landed stomach first to the floor and hurt her ankle. She sat up, and rubbed her aching foot.

"How did that bird get inside," Adelaide thought to herself.

In that moment Adelaide remembered that the bathroom window was open, and that was the way the bird flew in. As she continued to rub her aching ankle, Adelaide spotted in the kitchen what looked like to be broken glass on the floor. This frightened her once more, because it could likely be the broken glass equals an intruder. She knew shad to see what it was. Adelaide slowly got up and realized her ankle was just bruised, and not sprained or twisted. Like before, she turned off both her flashlights to avoid not being seen by the potenial intruder in her home.

This time around Adelaide walked more slowly, and tried not to make a sound due to the fact of the higher risk of a possible intruder. Despite everything that happened tonight, right now was when she was most terrifed. The possibility of a dangerous intruder in your home that could possibly murder you rattled Adelaide up. But, she needed to see what was going on. The pitch blackness and sound of thunder only made things worse.

Before reaching the kitchen, Adelaide stood up against the hallway wall and took a deep breath and closed her eyes, praying that she would be safe. Then, slowly, she peeked her head into the kitchen, and thankfully, all that happend was a small tree from the front yard crashed into the window and into the house. She was relieved and breathed a sigh of relief.

"I'm safe," Adelaide told herself with a smile. By this time, Adelaide wasn't fearing much of the dark, which was a first.

Nothing else in the kitchen seemed out of place, same with the livingroom, so Adelaide decided it was time to nurse her sore ankle. She remembered when her older brother Darrell bruised his ankle after tripping in the yard, their father bought him a cast-like protector for his ankle and still has it in his room. Adelaide figured Darrell wouldn't mind if she went into his room to get it. She was, however, not sure how he would react to her entering his room due to the fact he has a strict policy on no one entering. But, she decided to anyway.

With her flashlights, Adelaide limped up the stairs to Darrell's room. Before entering, she put her hand on the doorknob to pause and think if she should really enter. That's how strict his policy was. But due to her ankle throbbing really bad, Adelaide finally opened his door.

As she entered, she shined the flashlights to his dresser, and was completely dumbfounded on what she saw through her eyes. On it were tons of electronics scattered. She took a look at his bed, and saw even more electronic devices scattered. Which shocked her.

"How did Darrell get these," Adelaide wondered. "And where did he get these..."

It took a while, but just then everything fit like a puzzle piece but she didn't want to believe it. Adelaide remembered on the news there were break-ins across her neighborhood and only electronics were stolen. But a dog was also to be said murdered, and there was no way Darrell would kill a dog, Adelaide thought and hoped. However, something caught her eye so Adelaide shined the flashlight to the bottom of Darrell's bed, and sticking out was a medium sized knife with dried blood on it.

Shocked, Adelaide slowly bent down and grabbed the knife. She shined the flashlight on the knife, examining it more. She was utterly shocked and fearful. It was true, Darrell was the intruder. Her own brother.

Adelaide just stood there frozen in place, shocked. Her heart beating a mile a minute. Not knowing how to comprehend all of this. How could her own brother steal and kill? Suddenly, in the background, lightning peeked through the window of the room and a shadow could be seen of not something, but Darrell.