Joanna leaned down and kissed her father on the forehead. “Make all the mess you want, Dad. I’ll be back in a little while to check on you. Okay?”

Robert nodded as he dove his fork into the cheesy rice. “You go along and feed Her Highness. I’ll be fine.”

“Thanks, Dad,” Joanna said, and flashing him a toothy smile, she left the room.

Making her way back to the kitchen, no sooner had the swinging door closed behind her when the lights flickered again, but then they went off...they stayed off.

“Shit!”

Joanna hesitated long enough to get her bearings before fumbling for the lighter in her pocket. Lighting the three candles she had left on the island, she carried one into the dining room and lit every candle erupting from the Gorgon head. Once the room was aglow in candlelight, she returned to the kitchen to check on dinner, totally forgetting there was someone else in the house possibly in need of a candle.

***

Addison sat in the darkness, drumming her fingers on the desk as she tried to will the lights back on. Due to the storm, she had lost her Internet connection earlier that morning, so she had spent her time reading and rereading reports she had already read a dozen times, and as each hour passed, her annoyance grew. Boredom was something entirely new and entirely aggravating. “Fine!” she blurted, tossing the papers on the desk. “I need more coffee anyway.”

Confidence is a state of mind. When it came to business, Addison had what it took to seal the deal, talk the talk, and walk the walk, but when trying to cross a room in total darkness, her confidence tanked. Addison’s first adversary was her desk, and her right hip met not one, but two of the corners as she walked around it. Her next nemesis was one of the wing-back chairs as it met her shin full force, and the last was the door leading out of her study. Believing it to be more than an arm’s length away, when she reached for the door knob, she promptly punched her hand into the wood.

“Son of a bitch!”

Addison stood in the dark, cradling her hand until the pain finally went away, and after flexing her fingers a few times, she reached out ever so slowly to open the door. Like her study, the foyer was pitch black, but spotting a sliver of light coming from under the kitchen door, Addison let out a sigh of relief and crept across the entrance hall.

Joanna looked up as Addison walked into the room. “Hiya. I was just going to go find you. Dinner’s ready.”