Lights Out
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{{#ifeq: | | {{#ifeq: Bryan | |
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Author: Bryan
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Author: Bryan |
Author: Bryan
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{{#ifeq: Bryan | | Authors: ' |
Authors: Bryan
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Authors: Bryan |
Author: Bryan
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The monitor flicked to a black screen in mid-keystroke. I blinked, frustrated for a moment at whatever new failure alert the operating system was about to throw at me, and then realized it wasn't just the monitor that had gone dark. The ceiling light had gone out and the computer's fan had gone silent at the same moment. It was a strange relief that it wasn't really a computer problem but rather just what appeared to be a power failure. Still an annoyance but not one that it was up to me to fix.
It was past one AM and maybe I should have taken this as an opportunity to go to bed, but I'd always been quite the night owl and curiousity was far more important than fatigue right now. If nothing else I needed to check if it was just my own house's circuit breakers that had blown. So, navigating carefully by touch and memory down the pitch black hallway and stairs, I made my way to the living room and had a look outside.
Sure enough the lights seemed to be out throughout the whole neighborhood. Possibly farther - I didn't see anything much aside from the dim light of the night sky backlighting the row of houses across the street.
The weather had been great today so all I had to do was slip on my shoes for a quick trip outside to survey the horizon. My neighborhood happened to be draped over a modest hillside, with my house near the top, so walking down to the sidewalk provided me with a clear view both north and south along 108th street. It was eerie. There was a glow in the sky from distant city light, but I couldn't spot a single local source of illumination. There wasn't even light from the cars on the busy avenue a few blocks away.
No light, and no sound either. For the first time since the lights had gone out I was a little bit unsettled. There was always the sound of cars in the city, even just a faint background murmur. Losing the street lights shouldn't have affected that. I wondered if I should perhaps go back inside, maybe dig up a battry powered radio and see if there was something more significant than a blown transformer going on.
Then I took another look at the glow in the sky and wonder once again replaced worry. That wasn't citylight. With the light pollution gone, at least briefly, I was seeing the Aurora Borealis. The shifting orange and greenish-blue streamers were still very faint up there but it literally made my toes tingle to see that sight; it was a rare treat for a city dweller such as myself.
I twitched at the sound of a door opening, glancing over at my neighbor's house to see the dark shape of someone emerging onto the porch. The neighbors had moved in only just that spring, a couple of months ago, but I'd had opportunty to chat with them a few times and they were a nice couple; the woman was a nurse and the man worked in the national parks service in some capacity. As my eyes adjusted I saw that it was the man who'd come out. I couldn't remember his name but I gave him a friendly wave.
There were probably people poking their heads out of houses all over the place right now, though I was the only one I could see who was standing out by the road yet. Rather than call out to anyone to exchange pointless information I turned back up to observe the sky, wanting to take advantage of this opportunity for silent awe before the lights came back and ruined it. Maybe it was just my eyes continuing to adapt to the dark but the aurora had intensified. My breath caught in my chest and I just stared.
The tingle intensified too. After an indeterminably long moment I managed to gasp, my breath having been caught far longer than it should have, and wavered unsteadily. Wow. I can't believe this is affecting me so deeply! I wasn't normally such the sentimental sort and yet here I was, feeling so overwhelmed I had almost lost my balance. In fact...
I let out another gasp, more of a whimper, and tried to tear my attention away from the lightshow overhead. The tingle turned to sharp shooting sparks running up my legs and exploding through my chest. I stumbled to my hands and knees on the lawn. Thank goodness I managed to miss the pavement, the thought ran giddily through my mind. It wasn't the first thing I should have thought of, really - whatever was happening to me seemed like it might be a bit more serious than a banged knee. I looked up see if my neighbor was still out on his porch but just managed to glimpse his door slamming shut before I could utter a word.
A sensation surged through my body. I couldn't describe it; something akin to pressure, something akin to pleasure or pain - I'd never felt anything like it. I managed to emit only a faint keening whine through clenched teeth, trembling and doing my best just to hold my position. I'd left my cell phone inside and I probably couldn't have dialled 911 even if I hadn't. Was I having some sort of seisure? The burning, tingling, itching pressure spread through me like a wave. I felt like I was trapped underwater, having trouble breathing as the weight crushed in on all sides and filled my body.
I needed help, was desperate for help. But an equally powerful irrational paranoia also gripped me; I was out in the open and the thought of being caught like this terrified me. I had to get back inside. Gasping and spasming all the way, I managed to crawl the short distance back to my own front door.
I'd closed it behind me when I'd gone outside. Try as I might, I just couldn't seem to get a grip on the doorknob to get it back open. My hands felt swollen and clumsy, my vision blurred from the pounding pressure in my head, and my guts were clenching in such a way that I could barely reach high enough. With a pitiful whimper of defeat I let myself collapse on my doorstep, curling up and hoping to simply endure whatever it was that was happening to me.
The shifting greenish light in the sky was so bright now. I clenched my eyes in an attempt to block it out but I could still somehow feel it shining down on me. Something was tearing. That was good, the tearing eased some of the pressure. The pressure was fading now. Fading...
I must have finally passed out. I came to again with a startled snort, alarmed and yet infinitely relieved. The pressure was gone, the light was gone. The only discomfort I had was a bit of hunger. And yet there was still definitely something very wrong with me. Moving with as much care as my unsteady muscles could muster I tried getting to my feet.
All I managed was a clumsy flop. My arms and legs weren't responding correctly to my commands; they moved when I told them to but the angles were all wrong. I took a deep breath to calm myself for another try and even that action felt strange, my tongue flopping over teeth that weren't the correct shape. Don't panic don't panic don't panic... I repeated the thought desperately. Letting the breath go again I tried to at least roll over into a more comfortable position on my stomach. That was easy enough. I paused for a moment to let that modest triumph sink in and calm me, and then I tried to take better stock of what was wrong with me.
Both aurora and citylight were gone, but the remaining starlight was startlingly bright now that my eyes had had ample time to adapt. I saw my arms stretched out in front of me and just stared for a minute. They were the wrong shape, stretched and distorted, and they were covered in a thick coating of dark fur. I tried flexing my oddly stiff fingers and all I saw in response was a slight splaying of paws at their ends. Big hairy paws, tipped with what looked like a set of claws.
I twisted to look back at the rest of myself. My clothing was split open along most of its seams with more of that dark fur bursting out through the gaps. Werewolf, the word bubbled up through the stunned layers of my mind. As insane as the idea might be it certainly seemed to click; my whole body had been altered into the form of some sort of nonhuman beast. And strange as it might seem having a name to attach to the phenomenon actually managed to calm me somewhat.
Even if it wasn't quite right. I blinked as more details began to percolate through my mind. Werewolf? No... I cautiously flexed my leg, bringing it into better view. The proportions of my foot had lengthened considerably but what had burst out through the toe of my shoe looked more like a cloven hoof than it did a wolf's paw. And then there was my tail. My tail! The mere fact that I seemed to have one at all should have been enough to throw me for a loop, but this tail went all out. It was long and thick and snakey, with a relatively short coat of fur and a row of sharp curved spines sprouting along its top. What kind of tail is that!?
My respite from panic started crumbling again. In some small corner of my mind I actually found that amusing; I realized that I was losing it because I couldn't figure out exactly what type of werewolf I'd abruptly turned into. But right now any sort of rational thought was facing an uphill battle for my emotional state.
And then a sound came that shattered any remaining hope of that. From somewhere far away, echoing through the dark city streets, came a rising cry of fear and longing. It was an inhuman sound and yet somehow it grabbed hard at my heart. Without thinking I pushed myself clumsily up to all fours, ears perking to catch it. Another voice cried out to join it from somewhere closer by, and I couldn't help myself; I took a deep breath and called out an answer of my own.
It was sort of a howl, sort of a roar. And though I had never heard it before in my life I knew exactly what it meant; "me too! Oh thank god! I'm so frightened!"
There were others out there that this had happened to, whatever "this" might be. Lots of others. The chorus of cries was rising all around me. I had to find them!
I could feel that standing upright would be a challenge, maybe even an impossible one, but that didn't matter right now; I just needed to move. And it turned out that learning to walk on all fours was quite easy with these reshaped limbs. As I got the knack walking quickly became running; I was too scared for half measures right now. I left a trail of shed clothing down the street as I galloped along the pavement.
Others joined me. Big, menacing, predatory-looking beasts in the darkness; it should have been terrifying but was instead strangely reassuring. I was one of them. I caught a few good glimpses as we ran. I couldn't really say what we were exactly; there was something wolflike about us, but also maybe catlike, and of course there were those hooves on our hindlegs and that ridge of spines down our backs... the faces were the strangest part of all. Not at all human but with a definitely recognizable human expression. We were all frightened and confused and lost.
I wound up in a group of four. We hadn't really known where we were going but it seemed pretty clear when we'd arrived, a small park with a secluded copse of trees in one corner, a perfect place to pause and hide for a moment. I felt the grip of fear easing as we came to a stop in the shadows.
I've been taking crazy pills, I thought once my panting had subsided. There's no other explanation. I'm crazy. This is all crazy. I eyed the three other creatures around me trying to make some sense of it all.
We were all the same species, it seemed, whatever that species might be. There was a sleek-looking one who was still wearing a mostly-intact stretchy wite T-shirt, a smaller one with torn shorts still clinging valiantly to his waist, and a larger one who actually managed to look a little bit pudgy. The pudgy one was breathing hard and had braced all four legs to keep from collapsing, the small one was wandering back and forth with a somewhat vacant look in his eyes, and the sleek one had carefully folded her hindlegs to sit back on her haunches.
I blinked. It was a her, wasn't it? I suddenly became aware of my nudity and felt like blushing a little. But I also knew that propriety was pretty far down on my list of priorities right now, and for that matter who even cared considering what I looked like right now. More important things were on my mind.
The city was still echoing with the simple cries of whatever-the-hell-we-were-now as we ran around trying to find safety. Now that I seemed to have succeeded at that, at least temporarily, I tried something both quieter and more complex. "Hurr..." I grimaced, concentrating on controlling my foreign tongue and throat. "Hurr arr yurr?"
The gutteral sounds were pretty far from human speech. My coincidental companions seemed to recognize what I was attempting, though, and the sense of eager relief was palpable. They were no doubt all just as confused as I was, and just as eager for any sorts of answers they could get.