Power Cut - #JustWriteIt Wattys2015

One

I shifted uncomfortably in my chair, the summer heat making me feel sticky and uncomfortable. I looked around at the other people sprawled sporadically around the room, each person trying as hard as they could to cool down and keep themselves occupied. In most situations it would feel awkward being crammed into a stuffy room with a bunch of people, but to us this was a common occurrence.

Brandon, Jayden, Amelia and Harrison were my four closest friends. Not that there were really any other that we could be friends with, the town we lived in was miniscule. The whole lot of us had met in kindergarten, in the tiny schoolroom that held all of the younger children in what we considered to be the school. There weren't very many children in our town, most of the people here were old retirees or adults whose children had grow up and moved away, so it was common to only have a small group of children who were the same age.

We were the only five kids in our year, and being the young children we were, we had become friends instantly. We all sat on the same desk in class, and recess and lunch was spent sitting together in the shade under the oak tree in the small garden behind the schoolhouse, an area designated specially for us. We may have had our differences, but we made the perfect group. Often Harrison would sit by the trunk of the tree reading books to us, as Jayden and Brandon would climb high up into the boughs of the great oak.

We became inseparable, everything we did, we did together. And that still stands to this day. We do everything as a group, including sit in silence as the heat takes the better of us.

The school year was over, and there was nothing to do. We were lying around lazily at Jayden's house house, watching reruns of old movies and blasting the air conditioner, trying to beat the heat and the overwhelming boredom. As the credits were rolling at the end of yet another film, we sat in an irritated, uncomfortable silence. Town life was oh so dull, and the heat wasn't helping. Even if there had been something to do, the hot, sticky weather outside would prevent you from doing it. The air conditioner was on the highest setting, trying and failing to cool the room down as we lay about, too hot and too tired to even bother to speak to each other. We were bored out of our brains.

I curled up in an armchair, the heat and the boredom combining into a feeling of fatigue that left me wanting to sleep for hours on end. It's not like there was really anything better to do. But I couldn't sleep, I was too hot and sticky for that. I looked around at my friends, each of them looking as hot and bothered as I was, and just as bored. Jayden was flopped on the couch with Amelia leaning against him, using his shoulder as a pillow as they watched the TV together. I could see them struggling to keep their eyes open, we had all seen these movies a million times and they were no longer even remotely entertaining. Watching the same movies over and over was more annoying than anything, a reminder of how nothing in this town ever seemed to change.

Harrison was reading a book in the corner by the electric fan, making no noise except for an occasional sound of a turning page. Typical Harrison, he was always reading something. But even he seemed bored. Rather than being an exciting, enjoyable time, our school holidays were turning out to be dull as always. We often would go on one of Jayden's "Adventures" to help with the boredom, but this year he was out of ideas. And so we had just stayed at his house. We were hot and sticky. We were tired and uncomfortable. And above all else, we were BORED. Brandon was lying shirtless, sprawled out across the floor, trying as hard as he could to cool himself down when he let out an almighty groan

"UGGGHHH!" he complained "Why is this town so boring? Honestly, there is nothing to do here!"

"Well why don't you go somewhere else?" Jayden glared angrily. Brandon had been complaining all week, and he was clearly sick of it.

Brandon turned and gave him a sarcastic looking glare.

"You are usually the one who comes up with the "Adventure Ideas", why don't you come up with something?"

Jayden went to reply, but paused, his face screwed up as he desperately searched for an idea. We were in dire need of something to do, and Jayden's adventures were usually pretty entertaining.

"I don't know. I mean we could go hiking again, but we do that almost every year. What else is there, honestly?"

We all shrugged our shoulders and tried to think of something, but to no avail. In a town as small as ours, entertainment wasn't first priority when it came to funding. When we were only young the council set up the hiking trail, but that was about it. Eventually we gave up and Amelia turned on the next movie. But as the movie started, Jayden suddenly sprung to his feet.

"I've got it! Why don't we check out all those houses around town. You know the creepy old abandoned ones?"

We knew exactly what he was talking about. Scattered sporadically around town were a multitude of abandoned houses. As far as anyone knew, the houses had always been there. Some of them looked old, others fairly modern, but all of them had fallen into a state of disrepair. The gardens were overgrown, filled with a whole ecosystem of lizards, snakes, birds and bugs. Looking through the windows, you could see that everything was coated with a layer of dust. It was as if the people who had lived there had just picked up and left, never to return.

But no one could remember who those people had been, clearly someone had lived in these houses, but no one remembered who. And it wasn't because they had all been left behind ages ago, some of the houses seemed to have been occupied only recently, having been abandoned within a mere few months. Yet still, no one knew who had abandoned them. Most people seemed to be convinced that no one had ever lived there in the first place, others said that someone must have just moved away without cleaning up properly.

But we had always still been curious, maybe it was just because we were desperate to have an adventure, but we were sure that something was up. Why had those people left their houses? And why could nobody remember them?

"Well? What do you guys think?" Jayden asked expectantly. Once he had an idea for an adventure, he was always very keen to get started.

"Well I can't think of anything better to do," replied Brandon. "What do you guys think?"

I just nodded, shrugging my shoulders. Anything was better than just sitting around like this. Harrison agreed too, he had shown an interest in the houses before. He wasn't the kind of person to leave a mystery unsolved, he liked to gather all the information he could and give a logical explanation for everything. Amelia just frowned at us.

"Are you saying that we should break in and just take a look around? Isn't that illegal?"

Brandon scoffed. "Surely it isn't illegal to break into a house with no one living in it. Besides, do you think any one will care? No one pays any attention to those houses anyway."

She frowned at him, then Jayden spoke up. "Come on! It will be fine, we will have fun okay? There is nothing to worry about."

She gave him a questioning look, still not convinced, and then he added, "Besides, on the slight chance that we do get in trouble for it, I will take full responsibility. You won't be blamed. Okay?" He looked at her expectantly, waiting for her answer. He really wanted her to say yes, you could tell.

"Okay." She replied sheepishly as she looked up at Jayden. They looked into each other's eyes for a few moments, until Brandon rolled his eyes and cleared his throat, signaling to them to get a move on. Jayden quickly snapped out of his daze, "Should we get going then? I can't stand watching these movies all over again."

"Sure!" we all replied in unison, happy that we finally had something to do.

We sprung to our feet, and after Jayden quickly rushed upstairs to grab a bag of things that could come in handy, we made our way out on to the town's quiet streets.