Stories to Tell in the Dark

Emergency Broadcast

When I was about 12, I had an odd fear of Emergency Broadcast Systems. I never really understood why, but one night at age 14, things got really bad. Around 1 A.M, I saw an alert for a storm coming at around 2. I was home alone, nobody else was around, and all the lights were out except for the light of the TV. I felt very uncomfortable. I heard the announcer's voice say, "If you are outside, get to a shelter fast." After that, the silent alert just stayed on the TV for an awkward 30 seconds, but then it started glitching up. The screen started showing pixels scramble all over the television, I don't know what was disturbing about the pixels, but I was too shaken up to even lay down. I guess I was just a big pussy. The alert had interrupted a show that had just started, so I assumed it was just the signals mixing.

Then out of nowhere, I heard a bunch of scattered beeps, static, rings, all sorts of broadcast test sounds mixed together. I saw black and white pixels making all sorts of commotion on the screen, and for a few seconds it looked like it was making faces, and not like a two-dot curve face, they looked like real faces. As real as you can get for solid black and white, anyway. I could swear there was faint moaning drowned out by static coming from the TV, it sounded like a woman or maybe a younger kid. Suddenly, I heard noise that sounded like a computer would make if it was glitching up. It was soft at first, but then I could hear a bunch of loud, scrambled white noise. The lights in my house were flickering on and off, and the room was getting really hot. I even recall one of the lights blowing a fuse, while the wind outside was crazy. The whistle it made was curiously loud. I almost wondered if it was a tornado.

All that was in my head at that moment was nothing more than "What the fuck?" Then the screen went black and restarted the warning, but nothing wrong happened this time. It ended normally with 2 long beeps and 3 short beeps. Twenty minutes later, it issued another warning, but at the end it said something out of the blue. "If you are outside, get to a shelter fast, and get down to the lowest part of the building, but it's no use-" Then shortly after 3 beeps, the power went out. I sat there, numb with goosebumps. My mind jumped to all sorts of conclusions. I got up off of the couch, grabbed a flashlight and I ran to the basement. As I crossed the hallway, a whisper caught my ear. and I felt a small breeze blowing.

When I got to the stairs, I saw two gleaming eyes at the bottom glaring at me, almost like a cats eyes. My flashlight immediately dimmed down. I tried turning it back on but to no avail. I just sat there, shaking like a leaf. It seemed like there was no light left in the entire world at that moment, and I froze in fear as I felt something cold touch my shoulder.