𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐖𝐈𝐍; steve harrington

SEVEN

She switched the lamp off on her way out of the room. Encapsulated in a sudden darkness, Aven cautiously held her hands out while stepping through the quiet bedroom. She almost tripped on Max's skateboard but quickly found the wall before she fell entirely, thankfully not waking the girl on the bed behind her. She shut the door on her way out.

Aven stood in the hallway, alone, for a minute. She looked at her bedroom door. She looked at Billy's bedroom door. His was wide open, nobody occupying its space. Her's was shut. His door had torn paint ripped down the centre, the wood fraying at the edge from being slammed much too often. Her door was almost pristine, the white paint barely even peeling. She watched them for a moment longer before moving towards the front room.

She picked the remote up from the couch. She blindly, harmlessly, flicked the television on as she moved around the room, carefully drawing the curtains shut. When she got to the final window, the window that looked out onto her dead street, she cautiously eyed the road and the surrounding houses. She swallowed, biting down her fears of the unknown, before quickly pulling the curtains shut.

She sunk into the sofa. She pulled one of the random throw blankets over her legs as she drew them closer to her chest, patiently watching the TV turn itself on. She pressed her head into the top of one of the pillows, sighing in comfort. She let herself relax for the first time that night, allowing all her worries and doubts to seep through her mind and land inside the pillow.

Mindlessly, the Hargrove girl flicked through channels. Black and white, colour, elderly fights, teenage love. Everything was playing, and yet nothing seemed to peak her interest. She furrowed her brows as she skipped past another random channel. She knew she'd fall asleep a few minutes into the show anyway, but she still forced herself to stay patient and find something she was unknowingly searching for.

She heard someone drive down the street. Instantly, she froze, eyes flicking to the roof. She waited, listening to the sound of a rumbling engine drone closer, and closer, and closer. Billy. She was just about to sit up, to open the door and greet him with an apology (for what, she wasn't sure), until the sound kept going. It flew by her ear, speeding past the window, only to continue driving down the street before turning away. She sighed, sinking back into the couch. She looked back at the TV and skipped another channel.

An advertisement demonstrating how to slice a stick of carrot using an up-and-coming, universe-altering device created by the people smiling fakely through the screen. Aven shuddered in her spot, quickly changing the channel once more. Immediately, she wished to turn back.

The sound that had previously been low spiked up. Aven watched with wide eyes, still not moving from her comfortable spot, as glitching squares littered the small screen. They were multi-coloured as they danced around the television, an eerie screech sounding through it as it tried to find a signal. She groaned, rolling her eyes to herself as she took a long breath. Reluctantly, she pulled the blanket away from her legs and stood up, quickly stepping across the now cold floorboards towards the TV.

She crept close to the screen, examining it for any cracks or accidental dents. There was nothing. She furrowed her brows, biting her lip in concentration as she leant over the top of the box. She moved her arms up, running her fingers along the skirting of the box. She got to the corner, her index finger sliding along it, before she let out a yelp and quickly retracted her hand as a zapping sound filled the air. Regaining her breath, she studied her blooming red finger with a confused frown. She looked back at the television. The colourful squares were gone.

It was black, that was it. Just black. Darkness. Silence. It drew her in, closer, as she tried to search for something hidden in the dark. Nothing. There seemed to be nothing. She didn't go back to the couch. She knelt down a few steps away from the screen, resting her elbow against the wooden coffee table. She tilted her head. Then it changed.

The screen glitched before altering entirely. Aven parted her lips, eyes narrowed with a mixture of confusion and worry as she slightly leaned back. There it was, her house. Not just her house, her living room. She could see a couch, but it wasn't her couch, and a table, but it wasn't her table, and where she was kneeling, but she wasn't there. It was her house, a view from the screen, but nothing was the same. Everything was different.

It was dark, too dark. She could barely see. The colours were dimmed, and there were flecks and speckles of something floating consistently through the air. Everything looked dull. Like someone had switched it to black and white without the white. The material of the sofa on the screen was withered and grey, the table being coated in a thick layer of dust. Through the window that was behind her, but not behind her at the same time, was the sky. Black. Ebony black, with shards of red lightning spiking every moment or two. It was a show, a scene, that didn't look much like a scene at all. Aven swallowed. It looked real, but that was impossible.

"What the fuck," Aven whispered beneath her breath in a mutter as she peered back forward, one of her knees pressing into the wooden floor beneath her. It kept her grounded and reminded her that it wasn't just a bad dream, or was it?

A thick substance was dripping from the lampshade standing in the corner of the room, puddling on the greyish floorboards beneath them. Aven turned to the side, her eyes moving, but in that same corner, there was nothing. No lampshade. No light.

On the screen, nothing moved but the lightning in the sky and the dust flying across the box. There was no wind at all, no sense of movement, before everything froze, and something moved. That something looked so dead it was alive.

It walked out from behind the couch, prowling over the random objects littered messily across the floor. It didn't have eyes, or hair, or a nose, or a mouth. Its skin was peeling and wrinkling at the edges, its deep age being conveyed through its ancient body. Aven let her mouth drop in disgust, horror, and a mixture of everything in-between. She reached for the remote, quickly slamming her finger on the button to change channels, but nothing happened. She pressed it over and over again, watching the screen helplessly as the channel refused to change. Her need grew more frantic as the monster in the centre of the box turned towards the front, towards her.

Its non-existent mouth peeled back like a flower blooming in the Spring, showcasing rows upon rows of sharp, tiny teeth. Aven held back a scream and gasp of shock, slapping a hand over her mouth in an attempt to not disturb any of the other inhabitants of the house. She scrunched up her face, still trying to change the channel as the creature let out an ear-piercing scream, suddenly launching itself forward.

In a movement of utter fright and soul-tearing worry, Aven jumped forward at the same time and pulled the television cord out of the wall. Just as the hideous creature was reaching the front of the screen, everything shut off. Aven fell back onto the floor as a shaky breath flew past her lips. She looked back up at the black box sitting against the wall. Her chest rose and fell heavily. She couldn't seem to comprehend a thing.