It happened when the storm hit and the house went dark.

I had started renting my first home recently, from my great aunt. She had reached a
point where she was having mobility issues and a walker wouldn’t easily fit down
the narrow hallway between the rest of the house and the bedrooms and bathroom
anymore. I had my first steady job and figured this way, I could get my own place,
but also help my auntie out with some of the exorbitant costs of her new assisted
living place. The nostalgia and happy memories certainly didn’t hurt, either

When I was a kid, I had loved it here. The big windows in the living room and
kitchen filled the place with light, and provided a beautiful view of the trees in
her backyard.

The only thing that is odd about it, is how the thin hallway is that leads from the
living room to the bedrooms and office, and it's so dark. There are no windows and
even during the brightest part of the day where the conjoining rooms have sunlight
streaming through the window, that hallway is dark. I’m not sure how they managed
to achieve that level of darkness when building the place, it was almost
impressive. At night, it’s almost pitch black. It used to scare me when I was
younger so my mom and my aunt threw a couple of nightlights in the outlet, and I’ve
just continued the tradition.

I was loving the new place, even planning to see if my girlfriend, Gwen, wanted to
move in with me. We’d been dating for about two years but I think I was delaying
asking her because I was terrified she’d say no, and then what? Now, I regret never
asking her. I wish she was here with me last night…

I’m not sure if the storm was the cause, or it was coincidental.

I’ve always loved thunderstorms, which works out well since I live in tornado
alley. Last night, the rain was coming down almost sideways outside, the thunder
was loud and the lightning striking in intense flashes. It wasn’t my first storm in
the house and at first, I was loving it. I had my cozy blanket, was watching true
crime on TV, I could hear the thunder, I could see the rain illuminated in the weak
moonlight from my sofa.

The power went out, which isn't unusual. I switched to watching on my phone. My
battery didn’t typically last particularly long, but I had my power bank nearby. I
wasn’t too worried since the power is usually back on pretty quickly. Eventually, I
got up to go to bed. I rounded the corner and froze at the entrance of the hallway.

I had never seen darkness like that in my life. It was almost claustrophobic in how
it sectioned off the house in two, the living room and kitchen, illuminated by some
moonlight, and then the hallway and rooms beyond, which were just… black. I
couldn’t see beyond the entrance to the hall, where moonlight still filtered in
through the living room windows. I was seriously debating if I should just sleep on
the sofa (I’m in my 20s but my overactive imagination means the dark still freaks
me out. My steady diet of true crime and horror podcasts right before bed probably
didn’t help) when I heard something that sounded like breathing in the hallway,
just past where the blackness began.

My first thought was to bolt out the front door, rain be damned, but decided it was
my imagination. As a compromise, the sofa sounded great.

I had been tossing and turning for about an hour and finally started to drift off,
when the sound began. It was like a distant wail, I shuddered, sat up quickly. As I
began to awaken fully I realized I was hearing the tornado sirens for the
neighboring county, because I’m right on the border. Theirs somehow sound even more
eerie than ours do, almost otherworldly. I’m not sure why, maybe they’ve found that
the creepier sounding sirens get people moving faster?

I grabbed my glasses, rubbed my eyes, smudging what was left of my mascara, and
looked at my phone, we were under tornado watch still here, but if the sirens were
going off 5 miles from me, I was sure we were about to have ours go off too.

My living room and kitchen with all the wonderful windows were now the most
dangerous places in the house. We don’t have basements here due to something about
too much clay in the soil, so my best bet was the bathtub in the master bath… on
the other side of the hallway.

I grabbed my phone and a flashlight and stood at the entrance. I had such a bad
feeling that I couldn’t describe. I froze, maybe I should just… wait?

My phone buzzed.

'Tornado Warning, Seek Shelter Immediately’, my weather app helpfully told me.
Almost on cue, our sirens started going off. The two sirens with their differing
timing, distance from me, and sounds were creating a creepy melody in the distance.
I told myself it was fine, that whatever sort of things I could imagine lurking in
the dark in the short ten foot hallway, were not real. Tornadoes were very real and
we'd had some bad once in the past few years. My phone buzzed again, Gwen had
texted me.

“Sirens here, u? Did you u lose power?”

“Yeah, heading to the bathroom for shelter” I texted quickly, “Do you have
somewhere safe in your apt?” she was on the fifth floor, lots of glass and windows,
I felt my stomach drop at the realization. I wished she was here with me.

“yeah, stairway is a designated shelter. stay safe Jane, love u”

I sighed in relief

“Love you too, please stay safe, keep me posted”

Something hit the window in the living room and I audibly yelped. More hit the
window, like hard pellets. I let out the breath I hadn’t realized I had been
holding. It was just hail.

I tried to switched on my flashlight, but the batteries were dead. Of course… but
then I remembered I had my phone with me. I shined the phone’s flashlight down the
hallway and I thought I saw something move. My heart was pounding, I felt frozen in
place. I tried to encourage myself to move forward, picturing a tornado hitting the
house, and how I had promised Gwen I’d be safe. I decided I might as well just
sprint the few feet to the bedroom where there are windows and would be some sort
of light, and I could get my bearings, lock the door behind me, and head to the tub
and throw my mattress over it. I ran, sliding on the smooth floor in my slippers,
but reached the bedroom without incident.

The thing is, though, when I got to the bedroom, there was no light whatsoever. I
pointed my phone’s flashlight around my room, and there was no window at all, the
wall where the window was supposed to be was just… a blank wall. It took me a
moment, but I then noticed the complete silence, the sirens had both ceased, along
with the rain, thunder, and hail. It all felt so wrong. The air had this stale,
stagnant feel to it, it tasted almost sour, on my tongue when I opened my mouth to
take a deep breath.

When I brought my phone screen back to my face, I noticed I had no reception, no

data either. My last text to Gwen hadn’t gone through. I pointed my phone
flashlight around the rest of the room, other than the missing window, it looked
mostly like my room, but a few things were different. It may have been the weird
lighting, but the colors seemed a bit off, like someone had turned the color
saturation down, everything seemed a bit further away, warped. My phone battery was
dying. I had left the power bank in the living room.

I heard what sounded like ragged breathing. It was coming from between me and the
door. I flashed the phone flashlight towards the door, something flitted just out
of my view.

My phone chose that moment to die. The floorboard in front of me creaked in the
blackness.

I dodged around where the sound appeared to be coming from, my right shoulder
slamming into something, I staggered back a foot, but I ran. The hallway is only a
few feet long in reality, but it felt like it kept stretching on forever. I skidded
on the floor in my slippers again, but this time tripped, landed on my stomach
which knocked the wind out of me. I crawled, so close to the part of the hallway
that was illuminated by the moonlight, I felt something sharp snag my ankle, but I
was able to make it to my feet and run the last few feet.

My slipper was gone, my ankle stinging and a bit cut up, but I made it.

As soon as I made it to the pale light, sound returned. The sirens were still
going, the storm as well. It was only a short run in reality, but fear coupled with
the brief exertion left me panting.

I was pressed against the wall at the slightly-lit end, too scared to move,
expecting whatever it was to come the rest of the way grab me and drag me into the
darkness forever, but it never did. I could hear it though. I could hear it, inches
from where the weak moonlight ended and the darkness began. I was still hesitant to
round the hallway, turn my back to the darkness. I inched away sideways and then
walked backwards, keeping the hallway in my line of sight. I grabbed my power bank,
plugged in my phone and begged it to charge quickly, as if my life depended on it.
I inched back to the hallway, I wasn’t going back down but the tornado was still a
real threat, so I needed to be away from the windows. Oddly enough, the end where
some light hit seemed safe.

The power came back on not too long after. The nightlights gently illuminated the
hallway but I flipped the lights on quickly for good measure.

There was nothing there. Not even my slipper.

The feeling of dread dissipated slightly with the darkness. I felt braver, inched
towards my bedroom. The window was back, everything looked normal again. As my
phone came back to life, I had reception and data again. I went to the tub for
safety, but immediately called Gwen.

The phone rang twice, the call dropped.

I called my mom, I couldn’t reach her either.

My aunt answered, but she was panicked, she said she heard what sounded like a
scream, and then weird, ‘squelching’ sounds from the room next door. We’d later
find out that no one could find her any hint of the neighbor, but also no sign of a
struggle. My aunt had been staring out her window watching the storm instead of
taking shelter, being the stubborn lady that she was.
I’m panicking. Whatever happened in my house, I think happened all over my town. I
don’t think whatever it was can leave the shadows, but I think there are more of
them. It’s like the total darkness led to a different place. I don't know what
caused it and I'm worried it could happen again, here, anywhere.

I can’t stop worrying about my mom, and about Gwen. My mom isn’t home, I can’t
reach her. A lot of my coworkers didn't show up for work. I’m beating myself up
thinking about Gwen, who had been standing in that pitch black, dark stairwell…