Power Cut...

No sound… no noise… just the sudden deprivation of all your senses as if you are being smothered by a pillow in your sleep. Going blind and deaf in a heartbeat… and being trapped in a world exclusive to you… alone.

The power cut takes you by surprise and the inky blackness submerges your surroundings. The light, airy study where you were working a moment before… rapidly turns into a dull unexplored crypt whose gloom your eyes fail to penetrate.

You sit still… unmoving for a few breathless seconds. You are unsure, doubtful… and for some reason, childishly afraid of the sudden dark. You wait… trying to give your eyes time to adjust… to aid you in the all too familiar unknown of your own house.

It’s no use. Your vision has failed.

The sense that you most rely on is gone... leaving you crippled and vulnerable in this strange new world… the world of darkness. You hear a faint tap, echoing against the distant pane. So faint, that you aren’t sure if you have really heard it. Your hearing might have failed too for all you know… and you are loath to leave your seat and the protection it offers.

The unexpected sound is harsh and discordant in the overpowering dark. It makes you start… again. In spite of yourself, your raw nerves get the better of you as you head for the source of the sound.

A sudden breath on your neck makes you spin around… your hands clutching at empty air. There is nothing there… it must have been a draught from some crack in a window. You force yourself to turn again, and continue.

You feel a strange momentary paranoia… as if you are being observed. A pricking of the hairs on your neck, as if a presence looms behind you. You picture some dark shape bending over your form, and you freeze in the grip of an uncertain fear. You shake it off and turn again purposefully… reassuring yourself that it’s all in your mind.

The darkness behind you is empty... and fathomlessly deep. Who knows what horrors lay hidden in its unexplored depths. You chide yourself for being a child and head for the window.

Your steps seem more hurried… feverish.

You reach it and stand still for a moment… composing yourself. You scold yourself again for the sudden foolish thought… that you only made it to the window just in time.

The thought that said… another second would have been too late.

You push aside the thick, heavy curtains… expecting the lights of the street to bring some relief to your stricken room. But outside… is a world as bleak as the one in your house.

No streetlamps blaze their golden defiance in the reign on night… not a single window shoots forth some ray of hope… and high above in the moonless night… black clouds blot out the glimmer of stars.

The night isn’t young anymore… tonight she is immeasurably old in her veils of shadow.

You let the heavy curtain fall back against the backdrop of the primal dark and face the pitch black gloom within, wondering what to do.

There is a box of matches in the kitchen… and a flashlight in the store.

But… getting to either of them would involve you having to venture into the unknown dark… and that prospect… makes you wary. You stay rooted to the spot… your back against the window… as you decide whether or not to enter your own house.

Darkness owns it now… and has cast you out, its erstwhile master.

You are suddenly blinded again in an unexpected glare of light. The power has returned and you shield your sensitive eyes from its unforgiving glow. You look up again, slowly… at the familiar household. Laughing at how everything is just as it had always been.

The alien world of a moment before… is home once again.

You prepare to move to your desk again to resume your work… and the darkness comes rushing back… leaving you dazed, for the third time.

Light has been chased out by the return of the all consuming sinister blackness. You hold your breath again… trying to decide between the matches and the torch.

You reach a decision… the most reasonable one of them all.

You turn around and lift the curtain again… as you stare at the misty world beyond.

Barely visible in the darkness there lies a sea of bustling souls.

You tell yourself that you are not alone in this darkness… as you stare outside, waiting for the light to return.