Things that Go Hiss in the Night

Disconnected

In a small New England town on a cold winter's night during a formidable blizzard, a horrific crisis was beginning to form. The tragedy was taking place in a regular normal looking neighborhood, in the kind of house that you might see on the front of a christmas card. It was covered in a fluffy layer of snow that dusted the trees and blanketed the yard. There was a wreath on the door and snowmen on the front lawn, and the windows of the house where painted in a coating of frost. But inside the house was dark and lonely looking, there was no light, no warmth in the windows. But there was someone home, it was a teenage boy, a boy named Dan Smith. Dan's parents were out of town at a dinner party and he was home alone. Everything was going great earlier, Dan was texting his girlfriend Ella when the unthinkable happened. The power flickered and then cut out. At first Dan assumed the power would just come back on soon it always had before, he waited five minutes, ten, fifteen, it didn't come back. Dan looked at his phone to see if Ella knew what had happened, but when his text messages didn't send he began to freak out, he didn't have internet, it was gone. How was he going to survive without internet? He couldn't text anyone, he couldn't go on Twitter or Instagram, Youtube wouldn't even load, he had nothing. His phone was about to die too, it was at 5%.

"What the heck am I supposed to do! I don't know how long the powers gonna be out or how long my parents will be gone! Dan shook his phone in frustration.

"How on Earth am I supposed to survive without internet?" He thought. "I need to be able to call for help if something happens!"

Suddenly Dan's phone started playing Taylor Swift's Blank Space.

"My parents are calling, maybe they know what's going on!"

"Hey mom, are you there? Mom?"

"Hello Dan is everything alright, are you safe?"

"Yes mom I'm fine, the power went out along with the internet and my phone's gonna die soon but i'm alright."

"That's good Daniel, there was a blizzard which knocked out the power lines and the roads are pretty nasty so we probably won't be home till around 7 am."

"Don't call me Daniel it's sounds wimpy."

"We were going to wait until morning to head back but the weather report earlier said it's only going to get worse so we will drive back once the roads have be cleared a little more."

"Ok just get home asap because my phone's gonna die soon and I don't want to be alone for very long!"

"We will get you a new charger when we leave, didn't you break yours this morning?"

"Thanks mom, love you bye!"

"Love you sweetie, bye-bye!"

Dan takes a peek at his battery life, 3%.

"What am I going to do?" Dan wonders aloud. He decided the best thing to do would be to turn down the brightness and hope that it lasted long enough. Suddenly a pop up appeared on the screen, it read; Due to loss of internet connectivity and low battery your phone will shut down to save data and battery life.

"No don't shut off! What if someone needs to talk to me?!" Dan pleaded with the phone, but it was too late the phone was off, dead, kaput, gone and there was no getting it back until he had a charger. Dan was alone, totally alone and cut off. At first Dan tries not to panic, after all it's only a power outage and he doesn't need his phone to survive does he? He tries reading a book, he tries to remember how to play solitaire but it's not working.

"How long have I been doing this?" Dan asks himself after the fourth game of cards.

He gets up the check the time on the TV but quickly remembers it's off. So he goes to look at the clock in the kitchen, the kind of clock with a second, minute and hour hand. After roughly 5 minutes of dedicated staring and silent praying that he remembers how to read the clock, Dan gives up.