Chapter Text
The wind howled, throwing itself against the house's rickety windows. A sudden flood of light outside told me that this rain had progressed into a thunderstorm. A godlike growl followed seconds after, shaking my gut. I took a step further into the kitchen.
I popped open the microwave just to get a new light and some perspective. The skyline outside had a dim band of lighter gray near the horizon. Maybe morning actually would come.
I inspected the inside of the microwave, not necessarily looking for anything in particular. It held a sort of comfort and promise that today was a new day. I would make breakfast in this contraption and then wait until the next day to use it.
I heard another crash in the sky and flinched. The light inside the microwave had gone out and so had the lights on all the kitchen appliances. The power had gone out. In the 21st century this certainly seemed like much more of a problem than it actually was. I decided to give it a few seconds; my thoughts were racing again. With the lack of light I couldn't tell what was a counter and what could potentially harm me.
I waited a minute or two but the power wasn't restored. The room just looked like a mass of different shades of gray. I figured there was no use of staying in the kitchen any longer; it had lost its purpose.
I scuffed my feet down the hall and slipped back into my bedroom. Typical bouts of unease and anxiety had woken me up and forbid me to go back asleep. I felt too many butterflies moshing in my chest and not a single drop of drowsiness I'd felt while sleeping.
The rain fell heavy on the roof and I could hear it faintly. Crawling into bed, he noticed me come in and pulled me into him. His heart was beating in his chest and I could feel it faintly.
"Why are you up?" His face was buried in the pillow. My feet were cold from lingering on the kitchen tile.
"I was worried."
"It's fine."
I sighed. This meager reassurance made me feel secure for some reason.
"What time is it?"
"I don't know. The power went out. Can't you hear the thunder?"
"Oh. Hm." He sounded more alert now.
I laid in bed, feeling the mattress give beneath my weight and hearing him breathe softly. A flash of lightning sent a bizarre visual shock through the room.
"Wow. I see." He said, hushed. I thought I heard sirens in the distance, but maybe it was the wind. Great.
"Can you get up and really prove to me that everything's okay? Please, Patrick?"
"Yeah, I'm wide awake now."
He sat up. The mattress squeaked and I bounced. My phone was sitting on the nightstand, interrupted from its nightly charge by the power outage. He picked up his and cooed to me.
"I'm gonna show you everything is alright. It was just a shutdown. That's happened before."
His fingers flicked on the screen. The backlight cast shadows on his face and on the wall behind us. He made a disapproving noise.
"I told you. It's not okay." I mumbled, sinking back into the bed.
"No, it's-It's still...fine." I wasn't convinced.
My phone started ringing - audibly - and I rushed over to silence it.
"Shit! Sorry! It's supposed to be on silent!"
The little tune that the speakers produced could be potentially dangerous. I glanced over at Patrick before I answered it. He'd dropped his phone on his lap and his eyes were fading from that terrifying shade of golden glow.
"Hello?" It was someone I barely knew, let alone cared for them to call me before eight in the morning.
"Did you hear? They-" She was yelling. I put the phone to my chest. The phones lit up again, charge sapping back into them. The power was back, at least. I heard her pathetic and panicked chatterings from the tiny speaker on my phone. I didn't want to hear what she had to say.
I hung up. I pulled Patrick out of bed so we could turn on the news.
"Go take the pills. You had another episode."
"What? Right now?"
"Yeah, from my ringtone!" I almost yelled, storming down the hall.
I flicked on the kitchen light to reveal a warm, comforting room. Patrick reached into a drawer and pulled out a couple tiny dark indigo pills, colored that way to remind us that they dulled away the moments of demonic golden aggression.
It had been like this for months: every time he heard music he lost all control. He didn't remember what he had done until the music had stopped. Only one doctor knew what to prescribe him. He took them every day to dull the episodes. They were now a dull buzz in comparison to the total blackouts he'd been experiencing before.
He downed them with a glass of water as I watched from the corner of my eye.
"That's the first one in, what? A week?" He left the room to go check out the news. I followed him; the living room was flickering with the changing images of American Television. I could see fron the tint of red light on Patrick's face that this didn't exactly seem like it was a small deal.
I sat on the couch next to him in a panicked kind of collapse. Sure enough, the TV was more red banners than actual footage. "GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN PROGRESSES: ALL LAW ENFORCEMENT DISCONTINUED."
"But," I whimpered, "I heard a siren earlier this morning."
"I don't know what to tell you." He paused. "I wouldn't trust anyone coming up to us in a police car, though."
I shivered. The TV was still bathed in red. It seemed like nothing else was showing. I took the remote and after a brief protest of shock from Patrick, confirmed this. All the channels were airing the exact same thing. Even the snobby, high-end music channels you had to pay extra for. Trust me, I checked.
I turned off the TV and opened the blinds. At least the storm was beginning to let up.
He came up behind me. "It's okay. This will run its course. In a few days this will be nothing."