[Original: Drabble] "Into the Dark" [Zeke Jones, G]
Title: Into the Dark
Prompt: writerverse challenge #01 phase 10 table of doom, prompt #05 ‘night vision’ (500+ words)
Word Count: 502
Rating: G
Original/Fandom: original ( Zeke Jones ‘verse)
Summary: The power goes out in Zeke’s neighborhood.
Note(s): originally posted to the writerverse wv_library
Into the Dark
I had just woken up for the day, watching the last rays of a summer sunset slide across my bathroom floor as I brushed my teeth, when all the lights went out.
I sighed and went to get my tool kit.
Technically, there was a building super who was supposed to do things like fix the circuit breakers- again- but he was out someplace most of the time, and since he refused to give anybody a key to the maintenance room, my neighbors figured that the cop would probably get in the least trouble for a little well-intentioned breaking and entering.
Several of my neighbors were already out in the hallway, flashlights in hand, but I stopped short. Whenever the circuit breakers had tripped before, I hadn’t needed my flashlight until I’d gotten down to the basement, because the neon signs from the bodega on the corner and the parking lot street lamps around the hotel just down the block provided enough light to navigate by.
But tonight, the hallway was dark.
I set my tools back inside my apartment door, clipped my badge to the waistband of my jeans, and went to look out the long window at the end of the hall. The entire street was dark- the bodega, the hotel, even the street lamps and stoplights.
“Is the whole world dark?” asked little Carly Varona, from three apartments down, trying to hoist herself up on the window ledge.
“Probably just a few blocks,” I told her, letting her hang onto my belt loop to keep her balance, while I put in a quick call to police dispatch.
“There was an accident on the Schuylkill Expressway,” I reported to my neighbors. “Four-car pile-up, hit a junction box. PECO’s already got a crew on the way, so the police kindly suggest that you go back to sleep, and the power should be back on by morning.”
“And make sure all your lights and stuff are off,” added Carly’s dad, scooping her up. “Or you’ll know exactly when it’s back on.”
My neighbors began drifting back to their apartments, and I ducked into my own, to pull on the jacket of my police uniform.
Howell and I weren’t scheduled for duty that night, but a medium-to-large-scale outage like this tended to make people twitchy. And in a city like ours, that tended to make people dead, so maybe a uniformed cop on the streets might ease a few frayed nerves.
I headed down the stairs, through the lobby, and out onto the front steps, and I wasn’t the least bit surprised to see my partner leaning against the concrete railing, his uniform as neat and tidy as mine was rumpled.
“Thought I might have to wake you up, Jones,” he said, with a teasing scowl.
I smiled. “I live just to annoy you, sir.”
“There’s certainly enough evidence to support that claim,” said Howell, and without another word, we both started off down the sidewalk, toward the darkest part of the city.
THE END
Current Mood:
mellow
Prompt: writerverse challenge #01 phase 10 table of doom, prompt #05 ‘night vision’ (500+ words)
Word Count: 502
Rating: G
Original/Fandom: original ( Zeke Jones ‘verse)
Summary: The power goes out in Zeke’s neighborhood.
Note(s): originally posted to the writerverse wv_library
Into the Dark
I had just woken up for the day, watching the last rays of a summer sunset slide across my bathroom floor as I brushed my teeth, when all the lights went out.
I sighed and went to get my tool kit.
Technically, there was a building super who was supposed to do things like fix the circuit breakers- again- but he was out someplace most of the time, and since he refused to give anybody a key to the maintenance room, my neighbors figured that the cop would probably get in the least trouble for a little well-intentioned breaking and entering.
Several of my neighbors were already out in the hallway, flashlights in hand, but I stopped short. Whenever the circuit breakers had tripped before, I hadn’t needed my flashlight until I’d gotten down to the basement, because the neon signs from the bodega on the corner and the parking lot street lamps around the hotel just down the block provided enough light to navigate by.
But tonight, the hallway was dark.
I set my tools back inside my apartment door, clipped my badge to the waistband of my jeans, and went to look out the long window at the end of the hall. The entire street was dark- the bodega, the hotel, even the street lamps and stoplights.
“Is the whole world dark?” asked little Carly Varona, from three apartments down, trying to hoist herself up on the window ledge.
“Probably just a few blocks,” I told her, letting her hang onto my belt loop to keep her balance, while I put in a quick call to police dispatch.
“There was an accident on the Schuylkill Expressway,” I reported to my neighbors. “Four-car pile-up, hit a junction box. PECO’s already got a crew on the way, so the police kindly suggest that you go back to sleep, and the power should be back on by morning.”
“And make sure all your lights and stuff are off,” added Carly’s dad, scooping her up. “Or you’ll know exactly when it’s back on.”
My neighbors began drifting back to their apartments, and I ducked into my own, to pull on the jacket of my police uniform.
Howell and I weren’t scheduled for duty that night, but a medium-to-large-scale outage like this tended to make people twitchy. And in a city like ours, that tended to make people dead, so maybe a uniformed cop on the streets might ease a few frayed nerves.
I headed down the stairs, through the lobby, and out onto the front steps, and I wasn’t the least bit surprised to see my partner leaning against the concrete railing, his uniform as neat and tidy as mine was rumpled.
“Thought I might have to wake you up, Jones,” he said, with a teasing scowl.
I smiled. “I live just to annoy you, sir.”
“There’s certainly enough evidence to support that claim,” said Howell, and without another word, we both started off down the sidewalk, toward the darkest part of the city.
THE END
Current Mood:
mellow