Power Struggle

He thought of that scene in Firestarter, where the guy comes home and finds the house hot and silent, how it put the guy's hackles up. Well, this was the other end of the spectrum, and Jeffrey's hackles weren't just up--his whole body was on edge. Every electrical device in the house seemed to be on and revved up. The televisions were on in the living room, in the den, in the kitchen. The volume was turned all the way up on each one, and each was tuned to a different channel. The stereo in the living room was blaring at top volume, as well. He could feel rather than hear that the big stereo, the one downstairs in the game room, was dialed all the way up as well.

It was so loud, he couldn't even hear himself scream: "What the hell is this shit?!" Jeffrey wasn't even sure who he was screaming at. He had just left Felicia and Hayden at the high school, where Hayden had the supporting lead in yet another junior-theater production of Les Miserables. Jeffrey was the only soul in the house.

He turned his head this way and that, registering it all again, then tried to take some sort of positive action. He stalked through the brilliantly lit house--every overhead light, pot light, can light, table-side lamp, nightlight, and floor lamp was on--but his stalk was aimless. The logical part of his mind knew he should start shutting things off, but the front of his mind couldn't get past the absolute absurdity of the situation, couldn't even begin to think of where to start. EVERYthing was on! He could hear the dishwasher chugging away as he approached the kitchen; the high-pitched wheeee of the blender pureeing air, the microwave heating a bunch of nothing. He guessed even the--

Shit! The stove! his mind screamed over the electric cacophony. He crossed the big kitchen in long, loping steps to find that yes, the oven was set to broil and all six electric burners were glowing an evil red on the high setting. He spun the dials off, wincing at the heat pounding off the cooktop. He tried to think what to check next, but the screech of the electric blender consumed his focus. He screamed out loud (but not loud enough to be heard) and swept the small appliance off the counter with a hard swing. It hit the kitchen island and ricocheted to the floor, where it finally stopped whirring and started smoking.

With another primordial yell, Jeffrey slammed his hands to his ears, causing more discomfort than relief. He screamed until his breath ran out, then ran to the basement door. Yanking it open, he almost sprinted to his own death, barely avoiding a basket of laundry at the top of the stairs, not yet folded. He staggered down the basement steps in a state of decaying balance, and ran shoulder-first into the concrete-block wall, jarring himself hard enough to bite his tongue and draw blood. His curses went unheard again, drowned out by the stereo, the basement TV, the dryer, the washer silently spinning water out of nothing but a vacant drum.

Jeffrey was able to think a little bit through the pain: how in hell is that thing staying on indefinitely--it's a timed spin cycle? He pushed painfully away from the wall and lurched over to the washroom area like a wounded man. He held his hands against his ears to mitigate the sonic barrage. In a couple of seconds that seemed like hours, he reached the main circuit box and yanked it open.

He pulled the main breaker and the house went dark and silent with a fading sigh that was slowly drowned out by Jeffrey's own beating heart. Some have said a sudden silence is like a velvet glove into which the mind can slip; for Jeffrey, it was like a black shag carpet thrown over his head in a hot attic. His ears roared and rang in sympathetic reflex to the now-silenced assault.

As Jeffrey took two deep breaths, his heartbeat began to slow, and his ears screamed just a bit less. Then he heard the noise that all the appliances had been masking. He knew that sound. It had been seventeen years since he last heard it, but he still knew what it meant. In the dark, he began to cry and shake; he wet himself. And when he clicked the breaker on which his hand still rested back to the on position, he really wasn't surprised when nothing happened. Absolutely nothing at all.

Jeffrey's hand dropped to his side as his knees collapsed under him. That stealthy, familiar sound continued as he sobbed silently in the dark basement.

Then he felt the hand on his shoulder.