Chapter Text
The last light was snuffed out. A shadow of the blue light from the computer still branded onto my eyes. The plug still clutched tightly and firmly in my fist.
I was shaking, and not because everything tangentially electronic or digital in my house had turned off and plunged me into darkness. No, the childish fear of the dark was nothing compared to the terror that had quickly creeped into my bones and wrenched my guts into knots. I had innocently believed that this would all stay in the past, that he would stay in the past. But now my adolescent mistakes have come back to haunt me, and I don’t know how far he’ll go to get revenge.
I need to prepare, and I need to prepare fast. But I have no idea how long it will be before he attacks again, and I don’t know where to start. Where do I go? I’m almost certain that he’ll find me again, even if I fly all the way to the other side of the world. It would only be a matter of time until-
“Alan? What happened? Why are all the lights out?”
My wife had stumbled into my room with her phone flashlight to guide her, our daughter clinging tightly to her side. Her face was painted with the ghostly light and concerningly regarded mine. I must’ve looked pretty terrified, because she immediately went over to comfort me.
“Are you alright? You look horrible!”
“Y-Yeah…I’ll be fine Kaori…”
My daughter hugged my leg and smiled up at me with a brave face.
“It’s OK Daddy! I’m not that scared!”
It was at that moment - when I looked down at her sweet and innocent face, and felt the assuring composure I always felt when I was with Kaori - that I realized I needed to protect my family no matter what. I wouldn’t ever be able to live with myself if he found them. I shivered at the thought of all the horrible things that he could do to them, and if they found out about him, then they would never be able to look at me the same way. I tried my best to keep my voice steady,
“We need to go out of the house while the technician comes to fix the lights.”
Kaori frowned “Why do we need to leave? Can’t we just go to the breaker and fix them ourselves?”
“I tried that already,” I lied. “There’s some stuff wrong that’ll need pros to fix.” I tried to think of somewhere to go that would be safe for us to hide, if just for a little while. “We can go to my sister’s place. It’s not that far from here after all.”
My daughter bounced up and down, ”Yay! Sleepover at Auntie Harmony’s house!” I smiled at her sudden enthusiasm despite my worries.
“Go pack your things and we’ll leave as soon as possible, okay?”
“Okay!”, she hurried out of the room, her hands in front of her to keep her from tripping over things.
Kaori still wasn’t fully convinced. She looked at me suspiciously and I tried my best to keep a straight face.
“Does this have anything to do with your.. friends?”
She said ‘friends’ in a different tone, and knew that I had been caught.
“I-, well… I’m not completely sure, really…”
Her expression softened into a worried look. She knew all about the stick figures that lived on my computer, and how reckless they could be. But I hadn’t told her everything, and it seemed as though she was about to find out about those underlining details really soon if I didn’t do anything to stop it. Before I could think of something to tell her, a look of resignation formed on her face while she spoke again.
“It’s alright, I understand. I’ll pack our stuff, and we’ll let you sort out whatever it is that just happened.”
I looked at her gratefully. “Thank you.”
“Of course.”
She gave me a hug, and I was relieved. Words could not describe how thankful I was that she was being so understanding. It invigorated the energy in me to make sure that I did everything in my power to keep them safe.
If it weren’t for our daughter's infectious excitement, the packing would've almost felt tense and dire. Every minute that passed felt like another minute wasted before something terrible would happen, and it willed me to move faster. I still packed my own bag, even though I had a feeling that I wouldn’t be coming along with them. After a torturing amount of time, we had finally shoved the last of the luggage into the car, and our daughter hopped anxiously into her seat as I closed the door behind her. Kaori lowered the window so that I could talk to our daughter.
“Why aren't you in the car Daddy?”
“I'm not coming with you sweetie.”
She gave me her huge puppy eyes. “What!? Why not??”
“Well, Daddy has to make sure the technicians know where the problem is, otherwise they'll be wandering around the house scratching their heads trying to find the problem.”
“Oh!” her eyes brightened again, “Okay! I'll see you later Daddy!”
“You bet sweetie.” I mustered a smile to match her shining one, and then went over to Kaori to say goodbye.
“Be safe.” I said quietly.
“I would’ve said the same to you.” she replied with a look that said much more. And with that, they drove away and I watched keenly as they disappeared into the streets.
~~~
I have to say, walking around alone in the lightless house is way eerier now that it’s only me. It was a miracle that I hadn’t fallen over something and split my head open at first, but after a while I got better and better at traversing my way through pitch black. All I’ve been doing is locating anything that has electronics attached to it, and turning it off. Even if all it has is batteries, I made sure that the batteries were off in a random cupboard far away from any device. Everything else that I could find was either a way to barricade my bedroom, or a way to defend myself if ever necessary. I don’t know why I thought I needed defense mechanisms of any sort, but something in my gut told me I should collect as many weapons as possible.
I tried to get rid of my phone, but I just couldn’t do it. I knew that it was probably the biggest liability that I owned, but I needed to know when my family arrived. I needed to know that they got to Harmony’s house safely. I couldn’t handle the fact that I wouldn't be able to check up on them at any moment, so I stuck it in the corner of my junk drawer and hoped that it was enough to bury the biggest weak point.
My bedroom looked like the artillery room of a warzone. It was an absolute mess of haphazardly placed furniture shoved in front of the door and piles of objects ranging from mildly bludgeoning to extremely sharp. If I was in a more silly mood, I probably would’ve raided my daughter’s art supplies and painted camo streaks across my face.
The stress was probably the worst part of it all. I don’t know when he will strike next. I don’t even know how he will do it. I’ve tried my best to block out any kind of way he could attack, but I’ll never know if it was good enough until he finally decided to act. What if the next time he acts will be days from now? What if I starve before he even gets to me? I was starting to question everything I was doing. Was it really a good idea to isolate myself from my loved ones? Is it safer to have them by me, where I can protect them? I immediately answered my own question. No. I could tell from those few minutes when I was exposed to his raw strength that he was too powerful. If he ever got to them, I was sure that there would be nothing stopping him from doing whatever he wanted to my family. I needed to keep them far away from me.
But as soon as I started thinking about my family in the human world, my mind suddenly wandered to the sticks on my computer. The Color Gang, The Chosen one, The Second Coming… were they safe? And where were they? The last that I had seen of them, The Chosen One had dragged his younger counterpart into the portal, and the others had followed suit. It was only a few hours later that he… I shuddered. The events were still fresh in my mind. I saw what he did to The Chosen One. If he could do that to one of the most powerful beings I have ever seen, then whose to say that he could do worse to the others, or even, to the wider Internet as a whole? I mean, The Dark Lord was really close to letting his own creations wreak havoc on everything online, so why wouldn’t he be any different?
My eyes drifted towards the computer screen on my desk, its screen still lifeless as before, and I saw the power plug on the floor where I had dropped it to help my family pack. What if the sticks had found their way back to my computer, and were waiting for me to open it up again? I mean, they’ve told me that no one can get in when I turn it off. They could be running from their demise, from him, counting on the fact that I’ve always kept the computer on, and unexpectedly they would be caught in a dead end, because I was too scared to turn the computer back on…
Slowly, very slowly, I turned to the desk. With great uncertainty, I picked up the plug and headed to the outlet. Just as the two links would connect, I faltered for a second, then plugged it in…