A split second

Chapter Eight

Maddison picked up some grapes, she was alone in the Firehouse a few days later, and she tossed them in her mouth, popping them with her teeth. The other women were out revisiting a previous Bust site and the IT tech had offered to make them all dinner. She walked over to the fridge perusing the shelves, deciding pasta was going to be the easiest for the group of them and she pulled a large pot out of the cupboard filling it with water and setting it on the stove to boil, grabbing a bag of dry pasta and tossing it onto the bench top, turning to the fridge and pulling out vegetables.

It was late evening and as the winter season approached it was already black outside and Maddison hummed to herself as she started chopping carrots. She looked over to her phone as it started ringing, and she brushed off her fingers on her trousers, answering it.

'Hey.'

'Hey babe,' came Holtzmann's voice.

'I'm just starting on the dinner, how long will you guys be?'

'Maybe another half an hour, just a few more things to follow up here.'

Morgan pulled the phone away from her ear to look at the time, just as the Firehouse went black, and all the power cut off.

'Shit,' Maddison said in the phone as she brought it back to her ear.

'What's up?'

'Power has just gone out.' Maddison clicked the stove off, looking around.

'Ah damn.'

There was the soft glow from Morgan's phone and she walked out of the kitchen, putting Holtzmann on speaker and using the light to head to the basement.

'Oh shit the containment unit?!'

'It's okay, it'll switch to battery,' Holtzmann replied.

'Oh okay,' Maddison walked towards the basement door, pushing it open and heading down the stairs, her footsteps echoing and she felt the muggy heat of the room, and she exhaled hard.

'You okay Maddy?'

'Yeah I'm just gonna flick the switch, gimme a sec.'

Maddison held the phone's light up to the power box which was next to the containment unit, checking that the trap was still running before opening the box.

'Containment unit is all good,' she said as she flicked the safety switch on the power box, expecting everything to illuminate again.

'Ughhh nothing is happening,' Maddison said, looking around and up the stairs, seeing no light.

'Oh I hope it's not something serious,' said Holtzmann, 'the place is old!'

'Yeah I know,' Maddison replied and sighed, ' hey look can you guys pick something up for dinner if you get the chance otherwise I'll head out.'

'No Maddykins, that's fine we'll grab something.'
Maddison walked back up the basement stairs, the door clicking shut behind her.

'It's so cold in here without the heating,' Maddison stated, as she walked towards Kevin's desk, pulling open one of the drawers, finding a flashlight, she could hear Holtzmann telling the others about the power outage,

Maddison turned the phone off speaker and held it to her ear, 'I might go check if anyone else's power is out.'

'Good idea, look  we'll probably head off in a second,  get some take out and see you soon.'

Maddison nodded into the phone, looking up and ahead towards the blackness of the front of the Firehouse, creasing her brow, there was a noise, almost like a faint scraping on the floor. Maddison shone the torch, dropping it quickly, gasping, and she stepped backwards, stumbling, her breath sounds my white clouds in front of her, and her mouth went dry.