A Different Point of View

10. Flicker

Time Skip - 9th November, 7:54 pm

SEVEN'S POV

BANG!

I woke up to the sound of a loud sound echoing through the house. I shot up in my sleep and hit my head on the blanket above my head, but it didn't hurt because, well... it's a blanket.

I sat up for a second, rubbing my eyes open. After a few more moments I heard another loud sound, but this time I recognized it. It was the sound of the front door closing, and a frantic person rushing inside.

"Hmph..." I mutter under my breath and try to lay back down. I really want to keep sleeping, but even though I'm very well hidden, there's still a part inside of me that knows I'm not safe.

After minutes of fighting my drowsiness, I finally fell back asleep, just to be woken by the sounds of nails going through a wall. I shot up and once again hit my head on the blanket. I groaned in annoyance as I laid back down, this time not bothering to go to sleep because of the loud sounds going on in the background.

About 50 minutes later the banging stopped, but I heard soft whispers coming from the living room. This concerned me and piqued my interest. Although I knew better than to come out of hiding, my curiosity got the better of me and I squirmed my way out of the room.

For the second time that day, I was left awestruck by the dangling lights that now reached the hallway.

I stood there for a moment, admiring the glowing bulbs that illuminated every inch of the hall. I slowly crept down the squeaky floorboards, pausing at the end and staying out of sight from the rooms ahead.

I watched as some lights flickered in the empty living room. An eerie silence was broken by the sound of an animal barking aggressively at the now flickering lights. My head flew in the direction of the barks, only to see that it was a small, shabby animal. It was kind of cute, but its growls were not.

I saw Joyce who was sitting leaning against her kitchen counter smoking a cigarette, direct her attention to the flickering lights. She put her cigarette down in a hurry, causing some smoke to fly into the air.

I watched her run over to the lounge room and hold some of the lower-hanging bulbs in her hand. "Will? Will is that you? Will, please talk to me" She pleaded, her voice cracking at the end of each sentence.

A sudden switch went off in my brain, and I started to connect the dots.

First of all, a monster escapes from the lab. Second of all, I lose El and find Will, who seems sick, cold, and lost. Third of all, I find a missing poster with a picture of Will on it and a quite new one at that. Lastly, Will's Mom still thinks he's alive... I mean she's literally talking to him through the lights. But, maybe she's not so crazy. Maybe... maybe he's stuck there; in the Dark Dimension and he's talking to his Mom through the lights.

All of these ideas ran through my head at a million miles per hour. I shook my head to clear my thoughts and looked back at Joyce, who was staring at a wall that was out of my sight.

I slightly repositioned myself so that I could see what she was looking at and gasped at what I saw.

There was an alphabet... Written across the wall with a lightbulb assigned to each letter. I mean, if this light thing works how I think it works, it's not a bad idea.

"Baby, please, please just talk to me. Where are you?" Joyce whispered, desperation written all through her voice. I glared at the wall, waiting for it to do something.

Not seconds later the following letters glowed: R, I, G, H, T, H, E, R, E

A gasp from Joyce could be heard and a small, shaky smile edged its way onto her face as she stared directly at the wall.

"Will, please, how do I get to you? What do I do? Please tell me what to do, are you safe? What do I do? What do I... what... what do I do?!" She cried, tears flowing down her already tear-stained cheeks.

I waited in anticipation and watched as the lights started to glow.

R...

U...

N...

I looked at the alphabet in confusion but almost lost my balance when I saw a monster start to break through the wall behind Joyce. The monster made a loud screeching sound which made Joyce flinch and turn to face the creature. She stumbled backwards, one hand covering her mouth. She tried to say something but just watched in terror as the monster took down her wall.

I stood there in shock, not knowing what to do. It was like a switch went off in Joyce's brain, and she finally took her son's advice to run. I was still balancing myself against a wall when I saw Joyce scurry through the front door, running along her porch and down the steps onto the ground. Before long, my instincts kicked in and I ran out the back door, my arms flailing behind me. My vision started to blur as tears formed in my eyes. I kept running full speed past Castle Byers and into the woods.

It was only when I was safe under the protection of the trees that I paused to catch my breath. I looked behind me at where I had come from and watched as the monster sped off after me, but didn't follow in my exact direction. It ended up about 100 meters to my right so I started trekking through the woods to my left.

I felt scared for Will, deeply concerned for El, and terrible for Joyce, who had no idea what was going on but was probably closest to figuring this out as anyone. I kept checking behind me every so often, but once I saw that the monster had left and didn't know where I was, I started to jog.