Blackout

Everything started off just like a normal, average, everyday sort of day. The Sun was shining, birds chirping, and little cotton balls of clouds were dancing across the sky. The tall buildings that were always admired stood tall and proud, exposing themselves to everyone to gaze at.

Below the tops of the buildings, down on the streets, traffic was flowing regularly. Cars cutting each other off, pedestrians darting here and there. It was mass chaos, honestly, and those who lived there hated it. They would not, however, change it for anything. This was their city, and they secretly loved everything about it.

Slowly the bright morning turned to late afternoon. Offices were left, homes attended to, and restaurants over run. It was the perfectly average day.

It was getting rather late, but not late enough that the Sun’s rays were completely gone; they were hiding, lighting the sky an offset purple-and-blue color. People were – as usual – running around, busy doing this or that, too caught up in their selves to notice much of anything else.

It happened suddenly, and was over within five minutes. It was as if the world had stopped, and nothing was ever going to be the same again. All at once, it seemed, the lights shut off. The air conditioning stopped, the televisions no longer lit up. There was almost no noise, excluding the honks of cars and the shocked and scared screams of the residents. It seemed that the city that never sleeps, was, actually, asleep.

At some point, everything turned back on. It was a relief to everyone – the world was not in fact ending. Life went on.

But they were still out there, watching, observing the reactions. Just watching, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.