_{A few blown light bulbs, one notable, over the kitchen sink.}

_{The circuit breaker tripping, a loud snapping over to the off position and there was the whining down of the heater and the refrigerator fans and the sound of the computer monitor blinking out.}

_{Darkness, a moment of blindness while the eyes adjusted,} 

_{and then} 

_{The Apparitions.}

August 08, 19xx

^{I am afraid.}

The basement downstairs - that's where they crawled up from, creaking their way up the 14 steps to the top, towards the bent linoleum of the floor, those same stairs you used to fall down when you were a toddler, and adventurous. Or rather, the ones that you hesitantly made your way down into, down towards the basement-crickets, brown and spiked, towards the unfinished walls of sheet rock and smelling like fresh cement and condensation. Remember? The rail was loose at the bottom, and it would come free from the mount because you held it for too long, and too often, before making the final steps onto the hard carpet of the floor.