Ruined||Calum Hood

One

I sat on my bed with Calum, watching some dumb show about who knows what.

I reached into the bowl of popcorn lying in front of me and him, and shoved a handful into my mouth.

"I'm bored. We should do something." Calum said, rolling on his side so he could face me. I turned my head to look back at him.

"Like what? Don't you wanna watch this?" I said sarcastically, smiling.

"No, this show is crap, if you could even call it a show." A small laugh escaped his lips, making me giggle.

"Do you wanna go to the park?" I asked. It's not like there was much we could do there but swing, but it was better than sitting here and doing nothing.

"Why not." He said, standing up. He picked up the bowl of popcorn and dumped the rest in his mouth.

"Calum! I wanted some too!!" I said, laughing at him trying to keep the popcorn in his mouth. He put a hand to his lips to make sure none fell out onto my floor.

I just smacked his shoulder lightly and headed out of my room, walking to the front door. Calum wasn't far behind me, and he ran quickly to the kitchen to drop the bowl in the sink.

"Are we walking?" He asked, sliding on his black shoes.

"Well seeming as neither of us has a car, the answer is yes." I said, slipping on my shoes and sliding my phone in my pocket.

---

We got to the small park in about 10 minutes, as the sun was starting to set.

"Well this might not last long." I said to Calum, who was now sitting on a swing. I sat down on the one next to him and rocked back and fourth on my feet.

"And why is that?" He asked, turning to look at me.

"Because it's going to get dark soon, and you know how much I don't like the dark." He just shook his head at me.

"You're like a 4 year old!" He said, laughing at my childish fear.

"No way. There isn't a 4 year old who's half as cool as me." I said, smiling and looking at Calum.

"So do you want to start walking back?" He asked. Even if he joked about it, he always knew where I drew the line.

I've had panic attacks in front of him -more than I would like to admit- so he knows how serious it really is.

"Sure." I sighed, standing up from the swing. We walked to the road and walked down the long sidewalk.

"Are you staying the night again?" I asked Calum.

"Ya, my parents said it was ok." He said. My mom was out of town, (a trip for work or something) and my dad didn't live at the house anymore, so I had been alone for the past few days.

"Good. I hate being in that house alone." I shuddered at the thought, silently thanking Calum for practically living with me.

Calum stopped walking for a second, looking off in the distance. He turned around and looked behind us, looking for something I guess.

"What is it?" I asked, now looking behind us as well.

"Ssshhh... Do you hear that?" He said. I listened closely, but couldn't hear anything.

"No, what do you hear?" I asked, now getting worried that something was wrong.

Concern was etched across his face, and I listened harder. There had to be something.

That's when I heard it. I looked at Calum.

"Is that... Screaming?" I asked, even when I was sure that's what it was.

"I... I think so... What do you think is wrong?" I just looked at him and shrugged. I kept looking behind us, to see if there was anything there.

I thought I saw something. Maybe something turning off, or something falling? It was far away so it was hard to tell.

"Did you see that?" I asked Calum.

"See what?" He said. I honestly had no idea what it was, so I just shrugged.

"I don't know what it was, but something was there." I said. Then I saw it again. This time it was a little closer.

"Calum... Are the street lights turning off?" I asked. The sun was down almost completely now, so where the lights turned off it was considerably dark.

"I think so... And did you see that houses power get shut off?" He said. I now saw another houses lights get shut off.

"Why are all of the lights turning off Calum? What's happening?" I asked. I knew he had no idea, I just felt the need to ask.

"I have no idea" he said. Then more street lights shut off. More screaming. It sounded mostly like little kids, but it was hard to tell from this far away.

At first I thought it was just a power outage, but I don't think street lights turn off. Do they?

More house lights turned off, and a wall of darkness started to form. All of the power was being shut off.

"Calum, the lights are going out. It's going to get dark." I said. I was starting to panic. The darkness started to get closer as more lights turned out.

There was no way this was actually happening.

"Calum, I'm scared." I said, my voice shaking involuntary. I didn't know what to do.

More lights turned off, and suddenly I was having a panic attack. I started breathing hard as the black wall got closer to us.

I screamed, knowing what was coming. I grabbed Calum's hand, jerking him with me as I ran up the road.

There had to be some way to get away from it, or stop it, or something. I heard screaming from all around the neighborhood, from little kids to full grown adults.

That and the sound of my heart pounding were the only sounds I could hear. I felt Calum pull on my hand, and I turned to see him stop.

But it was coming. I had to get away.

I had to run.