Black Out

The street was dark. The power went out about thirty minutes ago, cutting my bar shift short. This was good because we were dead, but it also meant that my brother wasn’t off of work yet. I would have to walk the ten blocks home by myself. Normally, that wouldn’t bother me, but in a blackout, it was eerie. There was nothing but shadows everywhere.

I pass a few others walking home from the bars, or home from the late shift. Altogether it was light traffic for a Friday night. As I walk, the shadows move, making trashcans and fire hydrants look like monsters from the deep. I move my flashlight back and forth to keep an eye on every corner I approach. Being a 5’2” 105 lbs female walking through downtown Chicago at midnight was a scary thing. Usually, I act like nothing scares me, but that’s because I usually have all of the backup I could ever need to go with my mouth and attitude. Either my brother, Travis, or the bar’s bouncers, Ted and Teddy (they aren’t related) kept an eye on me.

Out here in the dark, though, I was a bit jittery. It doesn’t help that I keep hearing a tapping noise coming from behind me. When I turn I hear a jingle, like a chain or keys, but I don’t see anything. I’m only two blocks from the bar. I think. If Ted or Teddy haven’t left with Vikki yet I could wait for my brother there. I’d get a little ration of shit from him, but at least I’d have a piece of mind that I wouldn’t be kidnapped or raped in the streets.

Men never think of these things. They go through life without worrying about being overpowered by every man. Well, good men didn’t anyway. The bad ones think about it by trying to figure out how to do it and get away with it. That’s why you have to watch the guys say things like, “Be safe out there. A lot of perverts would want to hurt you, you know,” Yeah, like you? Those were guys that would spike your drink. Real-world demons.

As I pass the next block I hear the tapping again, only closer. I wait to hear the tap and spin around quickly. Again, I hear the jingle but don’t see anything. My imagination must be getting the better of me. I want to put my airpods in and listen to the newest audiobook that I downloaded. Eyes of Blue was starting to get good. But I couldn’t risk shutting off one of my senses out here. The tapping behind me becomes as incessant as water dripping in a sink.

Tap. Tap...Tap. Tap Tap...

It was starting to be all I could hear. I panned left and right, jumping at shadows in the alleys. A few of the shadows were wayward cats or dogs looking for a meal. One of them was a wayward person, also looking for a meal. He waved and probably smiled, though I couldn’t see in the dark. I wasn’t scared of the homeless, they were mostly harmless. They try to get warm and get food, other than that they leave people alone.

The further I walked the more the tapping took over my thoughts. It started to change the way that I was seeing the world around me. I was walking in pace with the taps. Like marching to a drum. Right foot-tap. Left foot. Right foot-tap. It was taking over my thoughts without my knowledge. Shadows started to move without my flashlight panning across them.

Demons seem to be coming out in the blackness to find a victim. Above me, shadows became bats flying through the city in search of blood from virgins. It was like I was suddenly seeing part of the city that I hadn’t before. Even the buildings that I pass every night on my way home look different than they had before. Signs started to appear in different languages. Languages that I couldn’t read but somehow knew their meanings. Sigils were burned into doorways and alleys that told weary travelers where to find wares, eats, whores and drinks. None of this was ever visible to me before. 

Tap.

Tap...Jingle. Jingle.

The jingling should break the trance that I’ve fallen in but it seems to do the opposite. I forget who I am and where I’m walking for a second. I shake my head to clear it and remember that I’m walking home. I find the next corner and look for the street names. The signs are normal and tell me that I’m only three blocks from home. I start to cross but jump back quickly as something flies by me on the road. It must’ve been a bike, yet I could swear it was a person on a broom. Why would a witch fly down the street? I shake my head again. I’m starting to see things.

I turn around to find the tapping. No jingle this time, and still no one behind me. I check again and cross the street. As I hit the other side, I decided to turn right and go down a side street. Whoever is tapping behind me should take the straight path, unless they are following me. As I reach the end of the street, I hear the tapping again.

Tap. Jingle.

Tap.

It’s following me. Paranoia now maxes out in my skull. I’m being followed by someone who has a cane? And a chain? Sure they don’t mean any harm. I pick up my pace and run down the nearest alley. The tapping continues but doesn’t change its pace or volume. This guy’s like Michael Meyers, he keeps the same pace yet never falls behind.

I approach another homeless person in the alley, diving into a dumpster. I say hi as I walk by. They lift their head and smile. As they do I can see enlarged canines, like a vampire, and a rat in their hand. Blood is running down their chin as if they had been feeding on it. I suppress a scream as I pick up my pace again. At the end of the alley, I turn left to get back to the main street. I’ve proven that I’m being followed yet I still can’t see anyone or tell why. We’ve been walking far enough that they could’ve overtaken me blocks ago, even if they were walking with a cane.

Michael is playing with me. I think. 

Tap.

Jingle. Tap.

Jingle.

Tap.

I try to pull out my phone and call my brother. I’m only a block from where he works, he could come get me. I turn the screen on but I can’t seem to read the screen at all. I can tell that the phone is in English but I can’t remember how to read it. I don’t even remember my brother’s name. I stop and put my hand on the wall next to me. I could swear this used to be a small cafe but looking in the window it seems more like a Goth bar. Everyone inside is wearing black or dark red. They are all pale and holding glasses of a bright red liquid. I look for the bartender and they appear to be wearing a fur coat in the bar.

What? It’s not cold out here?

As they turn I can see a long snout. I scream as I see that they appear to be a werewolf. What is happening? I run across the street to a little Irish pub to see if anyone can help me. I must’ve had some type of stroke or brain aneurysm. I look above the bar and read the sigils. It now calls the pub the Pot of Gold. That’s new, it was McGillicutty’s yesterday. I wave it off and burst into the door. I start to ask for help when I look up at the patrons of the bar.

Everyone is shorter than three feet tall, clothed in green with bright orange hair covering their heads and chins. In the middle of the bar are fifteen small pots that seem to be spilling over with gold coins. Is it St. Patrick’s Day? I wonder. Everyone here is a leprechaun, but leprechauns don’t exist!

I scream and run back out of the door. I stumble into the street, where I barely miss getting hit by a horse-drawn carriage. I hit my knees in the street and tried to figure out what was happening to me. I’ve lost my mind! The carriage stops, and the driver gets down and opens the carriage door. The carriage tilts to the side as a very large human steps out and into the street. She has to be over 8’ tall.

As she bends down next to me and extends her hand, I can see that she has a beautiful crown on her head directly over two very pointed ears. She speaks to me in a very flowing and gorgeous language that I can suddenly understand. I flinch as she speaks and tells me that everything is going to be alright. I look at the driver standing behind me, the only word that comes to mind is dwarf. Where are all of these fantastical characters coming from? I don’t read these types of books.

Instead of taking her hand, I turn and run back to the other side of the street and towards home. No matter how fast I run, no matter how close I get to home nothing seems familiar. I finally reach my street and turn onto the steps of my apartment building. I reach for my keys to the door, but they drop from numb fingers as my eyes focus on the building. The front of my building is not only covered in the sigils that I’ve been seeing, but they are also glowing now. I step back off of the steps and the sigils go dark. Confused, I step back on the steps and watch the sigils glow again.

I jump back off of the steps and wait as the glow slowly diminishes again. I continue to back up until I slip off of the curb and stumble into the street. I turn around and around looking for anything familiar. One thing I do notice is that the power seems to be back on. Or at least the street lights are. I stop turning and look closer. The lights aren’t glowing they are flames of candles in the housings.

I sit in the road as tears stream down my face.”I have completely lost my mind!” I scream into the night.

Tap. Jingle 

Tap tap.

The tapping stops directly next to me. I slowly raise my head and see my brother standing over me. He reaches his cane down under my chin and lifts my head a bit more.

“Hello, sis,” he says. “I’ve been following you tonight.”

“That was you! You made me think I was insane!” I scream at him.

“No, just the opposite. I was causing your senses to awaken. It takes a blackout and other things to line up for it to happen. That’s all,” he tries to explain.

“Awaken what?”

“I was awakening your ability to see the world as it is. To awaken your ability to see the whole world for once,”

“By hypnotizing me? Your chain and your tapping,”

His face seems startled as I mention the chain. “You heard chains?”

I nod. “And your tapping. The incessant tapping.”

‘No. Not the chains,” he says mostly to himself. “You need to get inside now. It wasn’t just me following you. You can’t be one of them. You’re not evil.”

He grabs my arm and pulls me up and across the street. Before I can make it to the steps something hits my side, the world spins and I see nothing but black as I hear my brother scream.