Saturday, September 24th, 2016

With his three sisters and parents out of the house for the entire night, Sid decided on inviting Edward and Davy to play video games and binge watch some shows. He needed the distraction, because ever since he started talking to Cory about things, he felt restless and on edge. His ever-growing curiosity about the woods was getting out of hand and he needed it to stop.

They agreed it were forbidden subjects: Cory, and the woods.

Sid needed a breather. Being friends with someone like Cory was weighing on him. He didn't do it because he wanted to know more. If that had been the sole reason for them to hang out, Sid wouldn't care as much as he did.

No, he liked hanging out with Cory, at least when they didn't talk about the woods or whatever he was hiding.

With the house to themselves, they had made themselves comfortable on the couch with drinks, chips, popcorn and even a few blunts Davy managed to buy that day.

They were simply watching Orange is the new Black, though it was solely a favour to Edward, as Davy and himself rather wanted to watch creepier things. They had just finished a season of Supernatural, they watched Stranger Things, and had turned down a handful of other horror movies of which the intro made them laugh.

Edward then opted for something... lighter.

Which made Sid feel bored out of his mind, despite already having smoked a spliff and drank a few beers. It wasn't that he disliked the show; it just was a lot of the same shit, over and over again.

The same women, in the same prison, and a lot of female drama added in the mix. Why on earth did people like this show as much as they did?

It was entertaining. But after two episodes, he was pretty done with it.

"Can we play Fifa or whatever?" Davy groaned as Edward was about the start the next episode. "I'm done watching shows."

Sid slid down in his seat, while Davy sent him a pleading look after pausing the show.

"I vote Fifa," Sid agreed, raising his hand in the air. "I need some action before I fall asleep."

"You guys always do this to me," Edward whined, giving in anyway. He exited Netflix to start up the PlayStation. "But can we at least play Rocket League?"

"Sure, sure," Sid waved a hand in his direction. "Whatever you want. Just no more of those prison drama queens." He got up to retrieve the controllers from a drawer, handing them to his friends.

Whatever Edward wanted to play was fine, as long as he could stop listening to a whining main character who caused most of her issues herself. And since they were cutting Edward's choice of show short, very early—they usually watched more than two episodes in one go—Rocket League it was.

As long as Edward wouldn't feel as if Davy and himself were teaming up against him, again. So, they teamed up as a team of three for Rocket League, with Edward being their captain since he was by far better in this game than they were. But thankfully, Edward never minded when they fucked something up, ending up laughing along with them if they did something stupid, or made a mistake that seemed very dumb.

It was generally a great evening, until Sid was about to score a brilliant goal, when suddenly the TV shut off, and so did all the lights. In the background, he heard the dishwasher stop, while they were left in darkness and silence.

"The fuck?" Edward grumbled, looking around while Davy shuffled next to him. Sid's eyes need some time to adjust to the darkness, but when he was able to see enough, he got up, wondering what to do now.

"It's not even storming outside," Sid mumbled confused, thankful for Davy to turn on the flashlight on his phone. "The power only ever cuts when lightning strikes."

"Try turning it back on. We were on a roll!" Edward gestured towards the TV while Sid left the living room to walk to the hallway and towards the fuse box.

Sid was way too familiar with power outages in their house. During thunderstorms their power was cut every ten minutes. But without a thunderstorm, Sid was unable to figure out why.

With Davy offering him a light to see what he was doing, Sid removed the shoes and bags that were stashed in the makeshift closet in front of the fuse box, dumping it all on the ground in annoyance. But when he got to the switch, it was on, and they should have power.

"It's on," Sid grumbled, pulling open the curtains in front of the front door, noticing everything—including streetlights—went off.

"I have no signal on my phone," Davy waved the screen on front of his face. There was indeed no signal, no internet, available. No calls could be made, nor received.

Great, now what were they going to do for the rest of the night?

"Dude, everything is out. This is so weird."

"Whatever," Sid grumbled, annoyed his evening got ruined, while he walked back to the living room. At least Edward was making himself useful by grabbing candles and lighting some of them up, creating a spooky air all around them. The flickering flames creating dancing shadows behind each of them.

Sid rummaged through a cabinet next to the dining table until he found an old radio that required batteries to work. Which, of course, were empty.

"There's a massive outage and I want to know what's going on," Sid whined, looking at his friends. "What do we do?"

"Dude," Edward grabbed his wrist, staring at him with big eyes. "Major power outage."

Sid stared at him, puzzled.

"Oh shit!" Davy called out. "The fence!"

"It's the doom scenario we waited for!" Edward shook his arm, and with that, his body, until it sunk in what they were trying to say.

"What?" Sid pulled his wrist out of Edward's hold. "Idiot, I bet they have a back-up for that, like hospitals." But as he spoke, sirens could be heard in the background, and they were coming closer fast.

"We should leave before they have everything in lockdown," Edward said, pushing Sid towards the hallway. "Get us clothes to wear, like, black clothes."

Sid took in a deep breath, actually contemplating on telling them he wasn't all that excited anymore after Cory's warnings. He had been very clear about the aftermath of his visit to the woods. He clearly said they shouldn't want to get in. But then again, they had been waiting for an opportunity like this for years and he didn't want to be the pussy that ruined their chances.

So, he nodded and ran upstairs, retrieving clothes, grabbing his backpack, some flashlights and other necessities, before heading back downstairs. While they dressed up, they listened to the radio that Davy somehow managed to turn on. A short news bulletin from a local station told them the power outage wasn't just in their town, but in the entire region. Everyone was requested to stay inside, use candles and spare batteries to any important items like phones and whatnot, since they didn't know the cause of the problem yet.

But the sirens in the background were a major distraction, and the direction they were coming from told them there was an emergency in the direction of the woods.

Quickly, they filled the backpacks with bottles of water, bread, grain bars and things Sid took from his bedroom. That included rope and a large blanket that they placed in a second backpack. All in all, in took them nearly half an hour to get ready and go outside.

Since it was only a few blocks away from Sid's house, they decided to walk and not leave any traces once they were in the woods.

They were all nervous, Sid could tell. They were silent during their walk, and sneaked the last few steps to the corner of the street. There were cop cars parked in front of the only gated entrance into the woods, and a group of officers standing slightly to the left of them.

Bend over, they sneaked away from them and ran towards the gate. Sid looked up, thankful for the sky to be pitch black as well, like the entire town.

As more trucks approached, they made themselves as small as possible, while taking in the vehicles.

"The army?" Davy hissed, nudging Edward. "Now I'm definitely sure the power is gone." He turned towards the fence, and Sid followed his example. At first, he threw a twig, but when nothing happened, Davy moved forwards and hesitated, before touching the fence himself.

Nothing happened.

"This is it, now or never."

They hurried towards the only blind spot they knew, where a homeowner had decided to grow bushes in front of the fence, making it impossible to see without actually looking for it. As Davy cut a hole in the fence, Edward and Sid stood on guard in case the cops or the army decides to go out on patrol.

Tension was heavy, Sid biting his nail while the only sounds came from Davy cutting the fence. It was suspenseful and Sid wanted to snap at Davy to hurry. What they were doing was illegal and he really didn't want to get caught.

But then, Davy tapped his shoulder, and one by one, they crawled through the opening Davy created.

And suddenly, they made it into the Miller woods.

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