v i s c e r a l s t o r i e s

L

"....Reports are stating that a group of violent teenagers and potential killers are on the loose. We advice you to lock any possible entrances on your homes and do not answer anyone that will call on your doors. It is also adviced to equip yourselves with weapons so that you can defend yourselves in case they try to break-in your houses. Remain calm. The police are on their way to seize and control the situatio—" said the announcer on a local radio station before he turned it off.

It's just 1 AM in the morning when a sound like a gunfire earlier awakened him from sleep. As he tried to get back in his troubled sleep, another deafening bang emerged and he's certain— it were gunfires that broke the silence and peacefulness of the night. Panic suddenly sets in. Not knowing what to do — his hands started shaking, fingers twitching, chest tightened and he's being short on breaths — he ran inside his bathroom.

"Fuck," he muttered to himself as he locked it. He forgot to take his medicines before he went to sleep. But it's not the time for that, there's a potential danger outside. A scream from a woman erupted, he supposed that it's from a distance 5 blocks from his house.

"What should I do? What should I do…." he keeps on asking himself. Disorganized and disoriented, he's still groggy from sleep. He couldn't think of anything rational properly. Feeling the cracking dryness in his throat, feeling thirst, he turned on the faucet to wet his mouth and wash his face so that he could shake his senses to function properly but the unexpected noises coming from his neighbours and the gunfires erupting in intervals keeps on startling him.

Are these people causing trouble just within the vicinity near their homes? More agonizing screams, he covered both his ears. Are they on his neighbour's lot? More gunfires, cupping his ears didn't help him at all from hearing that. Are they outside of his own house? Questions like those and negative thoughts started flooding his raptured thinking.

He sat in the cold tiles, biting his lips and nails, he then remembered something, from one of the books for survival and preparedness that he occasionally read during his free time. Breathe in and don't overanalyze the situation. Just act in your own accordance to maintain your safety. Don't let the thoughts get you. He turned the knob and unlocked the bathroom's door and went outside, slowly and quietly, prowling like a thief in a roof. He peeked on the window of his room to have a glimpse of the situation outside. Observing the houses of his neighbours and those from the distance, all of their lights are turned off, even the orange glow from the towering lamps were missing. There were no gunfires, there were no screams, everything just went to uncertain peacefulness. The dark street is void of any human sound, only the eerie rustling of the wind on the nearby trees are occupying the pregnant silence, playing a saccharine tune, and it makes him unbearably uncomfortable. It's a bad feeling in his mouth. The feeling wells up in his stomach, making him nauseous. He ran back to his bathroom, grasped the toilet seat, and vomited.

After wiping his mouth soused from stomach acid and liquefied leftovers, he hurriedly ran around his house to lock his windows, his backdoor and the front door before he cut the power supply. He jumped back after being enveloped in darkness but he slapped his face and continued. Discontented about state of his safety, he lit a candle (which took a while because of the shakiness and unsteadiness of his hands) and grabbed some planks and a nailgun from his basement and started on nailing the doors and windows shut. He'd fix everything tomorrow, he said to himself. Once this is all over, everything will be back to normal. Everything will be normal. This is just a bad night. You are safe. This will be fine, relax. Just take a pill after this and everything will be back to normal.

After double-checking and securing all possible entrances, he sighed in relief.

"Finally, they can't break-in my house now. There's no way they can enter."

"Nor anyway to get out."