Awakened

The television flickered as the electricity once again came back on, brining the house alive. His eyes quickly adjusted to the change in brightness of the room. The old house's electrical was outdated. The majority of the outlets had frayed wires and was shorted out. This had been going on for a week or so and he was always waiting for the lights to go out completely.

His life had fallen apart and was now burning to ashes.

The wind whistled through the cracks of the house, howling among the base and the doors. The hair on the back of his neck stood up and his arms were red and goose bumps had spread down from his shoulders to his wrists. As he gazed mindlessly out of the foggy, glazed window, his eyes locked upon the luminous crescent above the city. The lights of his house deadened yet again and as he walked, blind in the darkness, down the musty smelling hall, he yawned, stretching his mouth toward the outside world. Just as he entered the living room, the lights flickered back to life. Again, with his eyes quickly adjusting to the change of light, he walked toward his old, broken couch, full of holes. He sat and thought of his horrid life. He thought of the way he lived, waiting for the moment the lights vanished, or waiting for the room to be bathed in light once again.

After a while, he stood up and walked through the barren room. Just as he got to the center of the rectangular room, the lights went out. He stopped, closing his eyes. Suddenly, his head began to reel at the start of a loud nails-on-a-chalkboard type sound that made itself known across the room, hitting his ears with violent thrashes. He fell to the hard floor instantly. His scream mixed with the unknown noise as his hands shot up to cover his ears. The creak of the steps down the hall was drowned out, and soon the noise lifted, leaving his head spinning. Still oblivious to the bodiless footsteps, he lay, curled in a ball, upon the floor, cringing. His heart beat seemingly refusing to cease its fast tempo, leaving him in constant need for deeper breaths.

The lights finally returned seconds later. He fought his shaky legs to stand. His gaze shifted around the room, looking for the perpetrator, the cause of the noise that had left him on the filthy floor. As he stared at where he just lay seconds ago, a shadow fell upon his back. His heart, finally settling down, leapt to life again, and choked him as it shot into his throat. His breath shortened as he shot down the hallway. He dared not try to steal a look back. He knew the shadow's owner would follow as he darted for the stairs, flying down them two at a time.

He turned the corner to the kitchen, his eyes settling on the back door; this was his savior. As his body cut across the corner, scraping his arm on a nail hanging from its original resting place, he stopped, dead in his tracks. A figure stood in the way from him and salvation. The creature's stature was taller and bulkier than that of his own body's build, and this monster was extremely fast. It grabbed for his neck, which he pulled away from the monster's reach just in time. He escaped the capture's clutches and ran for the front door. You should have gone there first, he thought. He grabbed for the icy, lockless doorknob. As his finger tips touched the knob, a shock spread through out his body, leaving him once again motionless on the floor. Darkness began to cloud his view…