Static

“We’ll see you soon Maya”, my mom said wrapping her arms around me tightly in the driveway of our home. After a short while I gave her a tap on the back to signal, I was ready to come up for air and she released.

“It’s only 5 days mom.” I told her trying to calm her nerves.

“I know but it’s just… we’ll be far away and…”

“It’s okay mom. I’m 16. I can drive a car now. If anything goes wrong, I’ll just drive over to Mandy’s house.”

“Okay. I love you.”, My Mom said with a worried smile.

My Dad then shut the door of the van and walked up to us. “Alright. Everything’s all packed up and ready to go.” He said with a smile. “You sure you’re gonna be okay?”

“I’m sure.” I said rolling my eyes.

“Okay, if you need anything just call us.”

“I will.”

“Love you.” He said as he gave me a hug. “Oh, and be on the lookout. Apparently tonight there’s going to be a comet.”

I looked around the neighborhood and then up at the sky. A light fog covered the streets while gray clouds covered what was supposed to be a blue summer sky.

“I don’t know that I’ll even be able to see it if I wanted to.”

“Well, you never know. Anything can happen.”

After several more hugs and kisses goodbye form my mother, my parents finally got into the car and drove down the road toward their destination. They were going on a vacation to Orlando for the week. I would have gone but this was a “Parents only” trip apparently.

As I watched their car disappear down the road, I once again looked around at the gray landscape. It was kind creepy in a way but also somewhat… peaceful? It was one of those weird situations where it felt like you were in another world.

Out of the corner of my eye I glanced at the neighbor’s house across the street. For a second, I thought I saw someone standing there watching me in the window. I decided to go back inside after that where I started making some lunch. I could eat whatever I wanted now that my parents were gone and for some reason, I still decided to go simple and eat a turkey sandwich with potato chips. Instead of sitting at the dining table like I was supposed to, I instead opted to sit upstairs in my room so I could watch TV while I ate. In our house we weren’t allowed to have a TV running while eating dinner. That way people would talk to each other at the dinner table. I figure it was okay since I was the only one here.

It took me a while to find something to watch but eventually I just decided to watch a guy play a scary video game. This usually happened. There just weren’t any good tv shows streaming anymore. I often found myself just defaulting to watching people play horror games.

I always like the feeling of being scared or a little spooked. Sometimes the games just had really good stories too and it was fun to try and figure out what was really going on in between screaming at the person playing the game to “turn around!” because the monster was behind them.

Eventually I felt my eyes grow super heavy and I shifted in my bed to get into a more comfortable position while setting my plate on my nightstand. I made sure though I could still see the video on the TV. Then after a while, I fully closed my eyes and just listened to the video. Pretty soon, I was asleep.

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I woke up to a dark room and my TV now playing a creepy video off the internet. Fortunately, this wasn’t an abnormal occurrence. My TV must have just kept auto playing the next video after the one I was watching was done. The video was titled, “Ghost and Monster sightings caught on tape! (#23)”. I paused the video and sat up in my bed. Looking out my window I realized it was night.

“Shoot. I slept through the day.” I said to myself.

I got up out of my bed and walked over to the window to close my drapes when I noticed a green light in the sky. It was just out of my line of sight from the window. Whatever it was, was above the house. After trying to rationalize what it could be I just decided to go outside and see for myself. The whole house was dark which was a little unsettling as I walked down the stairs. The green light must have been pretty bright whatever it was because the house had green shining in from all the windows. I put on my shoes and opened the door to the outside. Taking a step out I didn’t see anyone else in the neighborhood and that’s when I realized I had no idea what time it was. I went to grab my phone, but I must have left it on my bed upstairs.

Taking a couple more steps outside I eventually discovered the source of the green light.

It was a comet hanging in the sky.

Now that I knew it wasn’t some horribly disturbing alien trying to kidnap me, I felt calm. The comet was beautiful. It was definitely picture worthy. I decided to run back inside and grab my phone. Quickly running upstairs, I found my phone on my bed and then heard a crash from downstairs. My heart immediately sank.

I’d left the door open.

My mind raced with thoughts in a panic. Was that really enough time for someone to just come in? I’d only been a few seconds. If they were that fast coming in, they must have been watching me.

I eventually snapped myself out of the scary thoughts. Nobody was trying to kill or kidnap me. I must have just knocked something over when I rushed upstairs. Sure, enough when I felt brave enough to go back downstairs, I had the vase with flowers that was next to the stairs smashed on the ground. “I must have knocked it over”, I told myself trying to keep the thoughts at bay. Soon after I ventured back outside for my photo of the comet. The picture wasn’t all that great, but it was as good as I could get. I didn’t have one of those fancy cameras.

It was then that I made the mistake of letting my eyes wander around the neighborhood. It was dark and still a little foggy. The thoughts started to enter my mind again. I felt like I was in a scary movie. The green glow of the comet shined over the dark street of the neighborhood. My eyes and my mind weren’t used to such colors, and I kept thinking I was seeing things out of the corner of my eye. The fog was still present which didn’t help me at all.

I took cautious steps backwards toward the house. I watched the area with curiosity and was fearful that something would start running at me from anywhere any minute. But nothing did, and I managed to safely back into my house and close and lock the door. Because of that experience I turned the lights on in the house and closed all the drapes. I didn’t know if I was going to sleep tonight thanks to my imagination.

I decided to take a shower and locked the bathroom door from the inside even though nobody else was in the house. I didn’t feel safe for some reason. The water was nice and warm and calmed my nerves once I stopped checking behind the curtain every few minutes to see if there was a demon waiting to strike. I eventually felt comfortable enough to close my eyes and enjoy the warm water streaming down my back.

It was then that something felt off. Even with my eyes closed I could still usually see the bathroom light slightly through my eyelids but now it was gone. I opened my eyes to find it was pitch black. The shower was still running which only added to the uncomfortable atmosphere that something was not right.

“It’s okay Maya,” I thought to myself.

I turned off the shower and silence filled the bathroom. I dried off my hair with a towel the best I could and got dressed. “Once I get the power back on, I’m finishing my shower.”

Reaching for the doorknob I stopped myself. There was a sound. It was faint but it sounded like… static? I didn’t know what to make of it but whatever it wasn’t behind the door. It sounded like it was coming from downstairs. Opening the door, I continued to think about the sound. It couldn’t be static because there was no power.

I wasn’t stupid. I refused to head downstairs because in all the horror movies those who explore the creepy sounds end up dead, so I instead stayed at the top of the stairs and listened. The sound was now a little clearer and for a second my heart skipped a beat as I heard whispers. I was now thankful for the strange green light the comet provided because I could see the front entryway. It was the only light I had though because I had closed the rest of the blinds in the house.

The static and whispering grew slightly louder. There was definitely somebody in the house. More than one for that matter. I wondered if my parents had come back for some reason. I quickly sent my mom a text and then continued to monitor the downstairs area. I wasn’t about to rule out the fact that now it might actually be some crazy murderer. I thought I saw something out of the corner of my eyes, but I turned my head to see nothing there. It was then that my phone made a notification sound, and my blood ran cold. The sound filled the entire house and instantly I heard the static turn from whispers to muddled sounds like songs cut up into pieces and thrown together. There was shuffling and then I turned my attention to the bottom of the stares where somebody was on all fours running up the stairs. I panicked and jumped into my room quickly shutting the door behind me. I was too slow though and the door burst open with a great strength, and I was knocked backward into my curtains ripping them down. The room was filled with a mixture of a green and white light. The hallway outside my room remained dark though. Just out of reach of the moons safe light outside.

Nothing happened for the next couple minutes and I sat there trying to catch my breath and bring my heartbeat down. Then my eyes began to adjust again to the darkness, and I saw the outline of a shadowy figure on all fours. The static began to fade back into my ears again. A hand then began to reach down on the ground in front of the door where the moonlight cast my shadow upon the floor. It was shadowy and without shape. It was unlike anything I had seen before. The hand then touched my shadow, and I felt a strange feeling in my body. I managed to gather enough courage to open my phone and turn on my flashlight. The shadowy creature backed away and my shadow disappeared in the light. It ran back down the stairs with a terrible scream. I then looked at my phones notifications to see a text back from my mom.

“No, we are not home. Are you okay? Call me please.”

Then I watched as my phone powered off. It was dead.

The static once again began to play.