Strange Encounters

Abbey’s brown eyes were growing heavy with sleep during her pre-bedtime reading: It was an admittedly trashy romance novel with supernatural themes, but she didn’t care - no one was around to judge her. 

The caramel-skinned girl was safe in her bed in the loft above her coffee shop. She had considered living in the place she worked a stroke of genius, she owned the building after all. Why pay rent or mortgage when she was still paying off her small business loans? 

Outside, the usually busy commerce street was quiet. The various businesses were long closed for the night. It was a school night in her city of Varunkirk, North Carolina: no college kids, teens, or tourists out late and it wasn’t Spring break yet. 

Abbey stifled a yawn as the warm thoughts from her romance novel took hold. Suddenly, though, there was a distant boom. The building shook and the lights all turned off.

Abbey was immediately on high alert, her heart racing. A bomb? Nuclear war?

Fumbling around on her nightstand, her nervous hands gripped the Maglight and soon the powerful beam cut through the darkness.

The beam wandered around the room and settled on an old photo from Abbey’s youth: the old Pirate’s Cove amusement park, before it got wiped out by a hurricane. Pulling her fluffy robe over her satin nightgown Abbey made her way to the window and lifted it open. 

The first thing that caught her attention was just how quiet things were. She could even hear the crash of the waves down towards the beachfront area. A few large stray cats zipped by in the street below. She hoped they were just housecats - things in Varunkirk were... strange. 

The silence was shattered by the wails of distant sirens. The entire area was blacked out and the stars shown above as if she were miles from civilization: the milky way lay before her eyes. 

The only other lights were the flashes of emergency lights from first responders in the distance, creating an odd purple glow in the distance. It was most definitely a citywide blackout. Abbey narrowed her eyes at the purple glow, she’d lived in the city long enough to know what lay there: Varunkirk University. 

What had happened over there? If the town was strange, the university was doubly so: she’d gone to an out-of-state college just to avoid it. Whispers were rampant, especially in her coffee shop: Rumors of odd going ons, shadows, things unseen, and secrets best left buried. 

Abbey sighed. There probably wasn’t much else she could do except wait for the power to be restored, hopefully before the morning work rush. After she had closed the window and retrieved her camping lantern, Abbey settled on her bed. 

Eventually a thought came to her. 

A blackout would be the perfect time for a burglar to strike. It was an intrusive thought that just wouldn’t go away. Abbey calmed herself, but then she heard a crash somewhere. Glass breaking. Was it outside at one of the other buildings? Or was it her own? So hard to say. 

Moving to the far side of the room under the desk Abbey grabbed her rifle. It was just a .22: hardly intimidating -  the faux wood stock was pink, even - but it was better than nothing. It was just something she would take to the range to blow off steam, and now she was possibly trusting her life to it.

Abbey fumbled loading the gun and swallowed hard: Surely she had just been hearing things? Best to check. Her livelihood was down there, and who’s to say they’d stop at her business? The door upstairs wasn’t very sturdy.

Awkwardly holding the maglite and carbine, Abbey stumbled her way downstairs, past the handful of baking supplies she kept upstairs, at the threshold that separated her work and personal life.The woman pushed the door at the bottom of the stairs open. 

The scent of coffee permeated the air, even when closed. The normally cheery interior of the shop was dominated by darkness, her light casting eerie shadows from her counter, to the tables with chairs stacked atop them. The flower wallpaper seemed less cheery as her slippered feet squeaked against the hardwood flooring. 

Taking some breaths to steady her beating heart, the shop owner continued her investigation. From what she could see, there were no windows broken into... Perhaps she had been hearing things. 

And now, low voices coming from the back of her shop.

Abbey’s blood ran cold.

For what felt like an eternity she stood rooted in the spot, indecisiveness taking hold as she couldn’t decide if it was best to move forward, or stay put. Her legs quivered and her heart kept chiseling away at her ribcage. 

Finally it seemed she made a decision, as if they were being puppeteered her feet started moving again, towards where she had heard the voices. When Abbey was closer she clicked off the heavy flashlight and stuffed it awkwardly in the robe’s pocket. Her eyes slowly adjusted to the starlight filtering within. 

She crept past the counter and the customer restroom, all the way to the back entrance. A small light shone through the hole in the glass that had just been made and Abbey could make out two dark masses conversing. Slowly, she was able to creep close enough to understand them.

“They will not be happy about this,” the first voice - feminine - said in a whisper. 

“We’ve gone too far to look back now,” a male voice replied. “Besides, things have advanced too much to slink back now.” 

“You assume much.”

“Apologies. I’ll take full responsibility. I certainly didn’t anticipate us being deposited here of all places.” 

Just what were these two talking about? Abbey wondered. 

She dared to get a bit closer, the dark masses features becoming more prominent, they seemed to have hoods on, and… was that a tail on one of them? The one with the tail shifted. 

“VA!” one of the figures shouted. 

“Ahhh!” Abbey screamed as a bright light blinded her, as quickly as it had struck it had faded and her night vision was ruined. 

“Someone is there!” the male voice called. 

“Someone has heard!” the female voice added. 

Now Abbey felt threatened and she really wished she had stayed upstairs. She fired blindly - a single shot. She saw the flash of the muzzle and heard the bullet strike something. Though it likely missed the intruders.

“Sera!” the female voice said. 

Abbey’s vision left her entirely, and she felt panic take a hold of her, her breath began coming in rapid gasps. She dropped her gun and flicked on her flashlight, nothing. It was all darkness - she was blind. 

She was blind! 

“She won’t be a problem - Let us be off,” the female voice sniffed.

Abbey stumbled around her coffee shop, having what felt like a panic attack. It only stopped when she found her way outside into the alley. Her vision returned to normal as the meager starlight and the distance glow illuminated her world. 

Huddled against the brick wall in her nightclothes, Abbey held herself. Something had happened, something very wrong. Back inside, her store and home was even darker than the outside world. The beam of her flashlight didn’t even penetrate the blackness.  

A mark had been placed on the wooden part of her now-shattered glass door. It looked like an upside down stick person with a balloon head. When Abbey wiped at it she could see it had been drawn in blood. She screamed into the night. 

It was only after her fresh onslaught of panic that Abbey noticed the light of her flashlight was reaching inside her store for the first time. She looked from the now-ruined mark to the inside of her store. 

Quickly she shut and barricaded the backdoor before running to the customer restroom and washing her hands and face thoroughly. When she was done cleaning up, she retrieved her rifle and retreated upstairs. She huddled on her bed with the comforting light of a camping lantern, and waited for the dawn to finally break.

Her mind was still trying to process everything in the morning, she opened later in the day than normal. It was then she heard the official story of a gas main exploding and how it coincided with transformers blowing. 

That didn’t sit well with her. A purple glow though? There was once again something strange afoot in the town, and she wanted no part of it.