Power Cut - #JustWriteIt Wattys2015

Eight

The lights in the house flickered back to life, clearly the power had cut out again. I looked up as my best friend Jayden jumped down from the windowsill and grinned at me. The two of us had been inseparable since kindergarten, he was my only friend, and I was the same to him. We where always going off on "Adventures" so when Jayden had asked if I wanted to help him figure out the mystery of the abandoned houses around town, I had readily agreed. After breaking into a house and looking around for over two hours, not only had we found a whole lot of cool old things, but in the library he had found a clue. A map of the mountains, with a large X marked out in the middle of nowhere. Jayden and I knew those mountains well, we explored them all the time. But we had never headed out that far, what could be so special in that particular spot, especially considering the nature of those mountains. Surely nothing could survive out there, right?

We looked around for a while longer, and then we found a journal in the drawers of the desk. It had belonged to a man named Jonathan Wentworth, and in the last two entries he had mentioned the abandoned houses himself. Clearly we weren't the first to think that something was wrong. He mentioned how he too had broken into one of the houses, and found another journal containing coordinates. Coordinates that matched up to the X on the map. We didn't even have to discuss it, we just shared a look of excitement and began planning for the trip ahead.

After hiking for a day or two, we found a cave that had formed in the side of a cliff face. Inside was an old, rickety wooden house, perched precariously above a lake. For most people, this would be where they turned back, whether because of fear or the realization of how dangerous this rotting house could be. But not Jayden, he just danced his way across the rotting wooden boardwalk, me following shortly behind. Once inside the old house, we decided to look for a library, seems as that was where we had found clues last time. After searching the entire bottom floor it was the final room that we looked in. Once we located the library, we didn't find any clues inside. However when we began looking at the shelves Jayden realized one of them was on rails. As we tried to push it back it was clear that something was stuck in the rails, so Jayden took out his pocketknife and de-railed it. Once through the passage way, we ran up the flight of stairs hidden behind and looked around for more clues. Most of the rooms were empty, however we did find a room filled with boxes of junk. After sifting through for a while we concluded that there was nothing worthwhile inside. We contemplating taking a look through the hole in the ceiling, but then only one of us would be able to get through, and when we did things we always did them together.

Rather than just head back down the stairs and back through the bottom floor, Jayden decided we could just climb out the window, and head back through the one on the second floor balcony below. Clearly the secret passageway stairs had bypassed the second floor entirely. Jayden opened the window and motioned for me to go through first. I climbed through the window and jumped down, landing with a light thud on the balcony below. Jayden then climbed through and shut the window behind him, jumped off the windowsill and pulled the goofy grin he always pulled when he was excited or impressed with himself. We then looked through the window and realized that we were at the balcony of the second floor of the massive library. Once again, rather than just going in and climbing down the stairs and through the house to the rest of the second floor, Jayden gave me a mischievous look.

"Should we just jump from balcony to balcony?" he asked me.

"Why not?" I replied, after realizing that this balcony and the balcony just across only had a small gap between them.

Jayden climbed the railing and jumped across, landing safely on the floor of the opposing balcony. I followed after him, and couldn't help but share a grin. This was pretty fun. After climbing through the window and into the house, we found ourselves in a large bedroom. Jayden jumped straight on to the bed, sending a massive cloud of dust flying into the air. After a few moments of coughing and spluttering, we decided to start looking around. We searched the room from top to bottom and found nothing, so we headed out into the hallway.

We were greeted by a long corridor, with several doors running down each side.

"I'll search the left side and you search the right?" Jayden suggested.

"Sure, good idea." I replied. I headed into the first room, and began searching.

As we searched, the lights in the hallway began to flicker. I continued searching, not worried by the lights, it was an old house after all. It was surprising the lights even worked.

"Found anything yet?" I called out.

"No." His reply echoed down the hallway.

"Let me know if you do."

I continued the search, the lights continuing to flash. Flicker, Flicker, Flicker. After finding nothing I made my way into the next room, and as I did so I heard a strange growling noise. Then there was a loud crash, and Jayden began yelling.

"HELP! SOMETHINGS GOT ME!" I could hear as he struggled with whatever that something was, and sprinted across the hallway. The lights above my head flashed on and off at an alarming rate. Flicker, Flicker, Flicker, Flicker, Flicker. I ran to where the sound of the struggle was coming from and threw open the door. But nothing was there, the sounds now seemed to be coming from the other end of the hallway. I could hear as Jayden's screams became muffled and hurried towards their source. But once again when I got there the room was empty, and the sound coming from a different direction. I ran out into the corridor and began searching every room I passed. I heard the struggle intensify and a snarl from a being not of this world. Clearly Jayden had managed to break free, as he called out once again.

"HELP! HELP ME PLEA-" his screams once again became muffled and I could hear Jayden kicking and punching at his attacker.

I got to one of the last doors, the lights still flickering above me, making it hard to see. Why was there only me to help him, if only there had been more of us we could of split up in pairs. Then Jayden might be okay. I ran towards the last door, surely he must be in this room. The lights flickered on and off, so fast that it was now almost impossible to see anything. Flicker, Flicker, Flicker, Flicker, Flicker, Flicker. As I burst into the final room, I came to the realization that he wasn't there either. I raced back into the hallway looking around in frustration, where could he possibly be? And then I saw it, a shadowed figure, pulling Jayden up a set of stairs that led o the roof. Jayden was blocking my view of his attacker and yet as I looked at him our eyes met and he gave me a look, of both terror and sadness. In that look I saw as he accepted his fate, he seemed to think there was no escape. He stopped struggling and the shadowed silhouette pulled him up onto the roof. As I raced up the stairs the lights below me flashed on and off faster and faster. Midway up the stairs I could see as the shadowed silhouette dragged Jayden to the edge of the roof and threw him off.

"JAYDEN!!" I cried out as he fell from the rooftop. I heard a splash as he hit the lake below.

I turned to look at his shadowed attacker, but before I could, the lights below me flashed off a final time, and everything went black.