EMP

It was a nice, sunny day.

I was browsing the Internet for some games to play. I looked at the clock, and the time was 2:57 PM.

*"Hmm. The news is about to come on soon. Better turn on the radio,"* I thought, used to listen to the radio via news.

I went to the radio, and switched it on. Some music played, and soon enough the news came on.

"We have detected an EMP wave circling the Earth as we speak. It will hit [my town] very soon. TV and radio signals will be lost temporarily. This EMP wave's origin is unknown, but is presu-" The signal started fading into static. Soon it cut off.

Just static was the only thing you could hear. Nothing else.

I went to see if the Internet still ran. It still worked. Perfectly. I searched on Facebook for one of my buddies, and I decided to tell him about this.

"Hey, how you doing, buddy?" I asked, trying to keep the subject for later.

"All fine, just a little worried," he said. I thought it was that EMP wave.

"What about?"

"The news said about an EMP wave. It cut off in the middle," he said. I somehow knew it's the EMP.

"It happened the same way here. Strange."

"I don't know. But my TV's acting weird."

"Static's on the screen. Yeah, I have that each time the signal cuts. We both share the same TV service. And that happens when the signal cuts."

"No, it's not that. The screen is just black. No static, but no noise either."

"Could be your TV, but I'll take a look. What channel you looking at now?"

"Channel 7. Discovery Channel."

I went to switch the TV on. Then flipped to channel 7. The opposite of what my friend said was happening. No black screen or anything. Just static. I went to tell my friend.

"It's your TV, buddy. There's static over here."

"I don't know. I'll switch channels now."

After several moments.

"Black screen appears at every channel."

"It may be your TV. It's like, what, thirteen years old already?"

"Yep. But it ran so well. I just hope it won't break. I'll have to get a new one then. And TV's in my area are really expensive."

"Don't know what to tell you. I'll check my TV again."

Oddly, the TV no longer had static. Just a black screen. And the TV was on (there was a small light bulb that lit up each time the TV turned on, and it was lit) so I got confused. I decided to tell my friend about it.

"Buddy, don't know how to say this, but my TV has a black screen as well."

"Well, it's not the TV, then."

"What could it be?"

I stayed like a statue, millions of thoughts circling my mind.

"What if the EMP damaged the TV? Possible," I said.

"Could be, but the strength of the EMP was pretty bleak."

"Well, let's hope everything is gonna be alright soon. I'll talk to you later, buddy. If something else happens, I'll let you know."

"Ok. Bye."

I stood at the computer, thinking. But my attention was taken away.

As I was thinking, I heard something. A strange noise. It, apparently, came from the TV. The TV screen was filled with static. But there was some background noise. Soft, but loud enough to notice. It was very indistinct. I couldn't really make it out. But something like screaming was the only thing I could hear. I thought that it's my brain. I wasn't like, *"Oh shit, what the hell is that?!"* I just thought it's my head. But I felt the urge to tell my friend.

But when I got to the PC, a chat box already appeared. It was my buddy.

"Are you there? I need you here now, I'm getting uneasy here." The message on the chat box.

"Calm down, I'm here." I said, trying to calm him down.

"Good, I thought you were gone."

"No, I just had something weird happening with the TV."

"It's that noise from the TV? I get it too." He seemed to read my mind.

"Yes. It's strange. I thought I could hear screaming."

"Yes. There is screaming. It's not your head."

"Strange. I'll keep you posted. Out."

I turned off the TV, as the indistinct noise grew louder and more unnerving.

Out of nowhere, I heard something like a glass cup break in the bathroom.

*"Silly me, shouldn't have put the cup on the side of the shelf,"* I thought. I used to have a small shelf in the bathroom, and I always keep a cup there, which has my toothbrush in it. It must have slid off the shelf.

I entered the bathroom, and, to my surprise, there was nothing on the floor. Not even a glass piece. Even the cup itself was gone.

"Maybe my ears fooled me. But it sounded like it fell from here," I said to myself. I decided to check the kitchen, turning off the lights and closing the bathroom door in the process (the bathroom was extremely cold, and I didn't want to leave it open, or the apartment would chill very quickly. I also take care not to keep useless things on, wasting electricity.) I got to the kitchen, and, like before, nothing.

"This is odd. Could it have happened outside?" I said.

I looked out the window, and nothing at all. Not even a single glass piece.

"Must have been my head."

As I walked back to the kitchen, a small light caught my eye. It was the bathroom. The lights were on.

"I turned the lights off before. How could they still be running?" I was questioning my sanity now.

When I got to the light switch, something was out-of-order. (The light switch had two sides. The left side controls the light, while the other one controls a fan in the bathroom. Good when the bathroom's warm when you lit a fire in the boiler.) The left switch points up when the lights are on. It was pointing down, but the light was running.

*"This is strange,"* I thought.

I turned the switch up, as if I tried to turn the lights on. The bathroom light suddenly turned brighter. Then it blew up, sending shards everywhere in the bathroom. (Lucky me, the door was closed.) The small explosion caught me, as it happened out of nowhere.

Then I entered the bathroom. What I noticed was there were no glass shards anywhere. I thought it's because of the low light, but when I turned the hallway light on, then I managed to see into the bathroom with ease. No glass shards anywhere. I checked every corner, but no glass pieces anywhere.

The light bulb was still in its slot. But, apparently, a piece of it was gone. No way the light bulb would work again.

"If the light bulb blew up, how come there are no pieces around?" This was starting to catch up on me.

Then I heard door knocks. I thought it is a stranger or someone, so I opened the door carefully. It turned out to be my buddy.

"Hey. You didn't tell me you would be coming up," I said in a strange tone, trying to mask my fear.

"I didn't like being alone. After what happened at my place."

"You mean something unexplainable?"

"Sure."

"That's not good. Some things happened right here as well."

"Let's talk. Get our mind off of it."

He told me about a strange coyote with bloodshot eyes. The coyote appeared to be deranged, according to my buddy. As we were talking, he suddenly turned pale, staring like crazy, as if he looked through me.

"What is it? You're like a ghost," I said, wondering what's going on.

"B... b... behind you." He looked seriously scared.

I looked back, at the wall behind me, but there was nothing.

"There's nothing here."

I felt something slide down my spine. Out of the blue a loud barking burst out from nowhere. We jumped and scattered like cockroaches!

"What was that?!" I asked, horrified.

"Sounded like a dog. Could have broken in."

"Not possible. You would hear it easily."

We first thought it was a dog. Until we looked out in the hallway from our hiding spot, barely exposing ourselves.

It was a huge black dog, like a Saint Bernard, only black. Its eyes... they were bloodshot. Completely red. The sights gave me the creeps.

"Where did that come from?" my buddy asked.

I stood silent. I didn't have the slightest idea. Until it went into the living room.

I grabbed a knife, ready to hit it down. When I entered the room, it was gone.

"What the...?" I was half freaked, half amazed.

Nothing like this occurred.

Then the radio turned on. It was no longer static. It was all normal.

"After the EMP wave that circled town, we have detected a second EMP wave. This second one will be stronger. Even though the first EMP wave was bleak, lots of paranormal activity occurred all over the world, and more than 200,000 people around the world went missing. We also received reports of a big black dog with bloodshot eyes, which disappeared when it was followed. Priests believe it is Hell's hound."

"Seems like we were not the only ones seeing this hound. Buddy?" I said.

Soon I noticed my buddy was gone. I just knew hell's hound was out there. But I didn't know where my buddy was. And with the second EMP wave, things will get worse.

I know it's out there.

*Credited to Nemet Robert

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