Thresholds

Penelope Quinn. Twenty four. Her bedroom lights are out. A soft smooth jazz music plays in the background. The volume is set to low. Her face is slightly illuminated by the electric lamp outside her house. Curtain pulled slightly aside, she silently stares outside through the window. The alarm clock behind her has '12:00:01' blinking on it in neon.

It happened two times before. She was sure those weren't hallucinations.

She studies the neighbouring house; directly opposite hers. She waits for it to happen again. She stares, unblinking, at the garage.

12:00:56.

Just one more minute.

When Penelope moved in, she found a quiet, peaceful Bertmond with a neat coffee shop down the street. They served good tea too.

Penelope takes a sip from her coffee flask; The first movement her body has made in past one hour. Her eyes are sagging and darkening around. But the caffeine, adrenaline and vigour inside her keeps them wide open.

12:01:30

Thirty seconds. Penelope swallows the coffee.

Not many people showed up at the coffee shop. The grocery store harboured utmost two people on a busy day as Penelope had observed. 

"Excuse me, sir." Penelope had approached an old man waiting for a bus. "I have no clue of where the grocery store is. I'm kind of new around here..."

Silence.

Was the guy deaf? Penelope went on though. Maybe he wasn't.

"Um...could you please show..."

The old man pointed to a green and white building a block away.

"Thank you, kind sir." Penelope had said.

The other buildings looked abondoned but one or two people walked out of the front doors.

The Old Man didn't bother looking at her. "Don't mention it."

The coffee went cold thirty minutes ago. She places the flask next to the phone. She picks up the phone.

12: 01: 45

Fifteen seconds and counting.

The night sky is cloudless, bedding beautiful constellations. The moon was absent.

Penelope takes a deep breadth and opens her phone's camera. She hits record.

12:01:55

She zooms in and focuses on the garage across the street. Her heart begins the run. It's about to happen. Five seconds.

12:01:57

Her breathing is labored. Her grip weakens. The phone starts to shake from her hands.

12:01:59

The street lamp bursts. Sparks fly. The glass shards fall on the concrete paveway.

Total darkness.

07:03:21

"Good Morning Bertmond! Hope you had a good smooth jazz night with Harrold. Hellen here, stepping in for the Morning Run but first, Squids n' Rockets with 'OuterSpace'.

Penelope's eyes open. She's on the bed. Morning sun rays stream into the room. She sits up and finds that she still holds the phone. The screen is broken.

"...they own us, from the stars, better run, oh crap, you missed the last bus..."

The music plays on from the radio. Penelope jumps from her bed, rushes to the window and shoves the curtains aside.

Blinding light strikes her. She covers her face as she jerks backward and steps on the coffee flask which rolls and sends her body slamming on the floor. She groans.

The fulgent rays blazed harder.

She struggles up, facing away from the window through which intense bright light flooded the room. Eyes closed, she fumbles around in the bed for her phone. She finds it and goes for the door. She runs into a drawer, on which the alarm clock falls and breaks, stabs her toe on a chair leg,

"BLOODY HELLLLLLL!"

stretches her arms wide to feel for the wall, finds and follows it to the door; all the while dropping framed pictures and decorations.

Outside her bedroom, the corridor is briefly flooded with light as Penelope opens and closes the door. She leans on it and slides down to the floor. Her head screams with a massive headache. She regains her vision. She opens her phone's video player and finds nothing from last night's recording. 

But it's still happening.

She stands and quickly walks to the bathroom. Opening a drawer, she picks painkillers and takes one. She pockets the rest. She turns to the mirror. She's in her UFO pyjamas.

She flushes her face with water and dries. She then heads to the bright living room. The light or whatever it is, is still there.

She picks her sunglasses. She grabs her camera.

She walks towards the door.

There seems to be a massive spotlight pointing at her door from outside. She holds the knob and turns. The lock releases and Penelope pulls the door open.

The front yard is beautiful in the morning sun. Dew on the grass reflects the sun's rays, leaving a twinkling effect on the neatly cut lawn.

No light. Nothing.

"Do I have something to do with the brightness?"

Penelope, after a while of doubt, turns to a young shirtless man hosing his grass.

"You didn't see that?" Penelope asks.

"Nope." says the man. "I've actually never thought I could cause ladies to wear sung..."

"No. I mean the light...the bright light...did you see it?"

The man looks around, confused. "You can see light?"

Penelope turns to the lamp post. She rushes towards it and examines. No shards on the ground. The bulb is intact.

"But this blew up last night!" she complains. She points towards the garage across the street. "You saw the garage thing, didn't you?"

"You know, sometimes dreams can find their way into your present life." the man says. He approaches Penelope. "I'm Tom by the way."

"It wasn't a dream" Penelope tries not to shout. She looks at the lamp post and garage. "Something did happen this morning. Two minutes past twelve...it happened two times before"

Tom stares blankly at Penelope.

"Yeah..." Tom says. "I'll be over there, then. Have a good day ma'am."

Tom turns and walks to his lawn. He is beginning to think the lady is deranged.

Penelope pulls out her glasses. She is also beginning to think of the same. She walks back to her house. She stops at the door and turns to the garage. The door was opening. Light crawled out from underneath the opening door.

She puts on her glasses.

"Shaun...did you say?" She shouts. "Look! It's happening again!"

"I said Tom!" Tom shouts back. He turns to the opening garage door.

Penelope turns on her camera and starts recording.

"Not a good idea with the camera!" Tom shouts.

The garage door climbs further to reveal a car. Its bright headlights were on.

Penelope watches as the car drives out. It suddenly stops. A man pops out and points at her.

"You point that thing away from me! What do you think you're doing!" the man snaps.

Penelope suddenly stops recording and lowers her camera. "Sorry! I didn't mean to..."

"Of course you didn't!" the man gets back into his car and drives off.

Penelope watches the car disappear into a corner.

The garage door closes.

"I am so deranged." Penelope says to herself. She stares at the garage for a while.

She turns and walks back to her front door. She turns the knob, pushes open the door and enters. She then slams it shut.

She curses. Then abruptly stops.

Beneath her, light. 

She steps back from the door. The windows too have bright light shining in through them.

She has had just enough.

She puts on her sunglasses and stomps towards one of the windows. Bright light washes over her. She instantly pushes one of the windows open and a thud sounds as the woodwork makes contact with Tom's forehead.

The window opens to Penelope's normal backyard.

"Ow!" Tom cries. He stands up, holding his temple. "WHYYYY??"

"You tell me. What are you doing in my backyard?"

"I was...I saw you inside...I mean, I was outside..."

Something hits Penelope's mind.

She closes the window. The bright light flashes in. She couldn't see what was outside, though. She opens the window. The light is gone. Tom gives a quizzical stare from outside.

"What are you doing?" He asks.

Penelope closes the window. Bright light. She opens it. No light. 

"Are you high or something ?" Tom asks. "Something about you bugs me and..."

"Shut up and get in here." Penelope says.