No, this was new.

It was a feel without a name…for now.

It was like waiting for something to happen, except she didn’t know whether that something was good or bad. She was simply…expectant.

Before heading for bed tonight, she and Andrew had watched a horror double feature from back in their dating days: The Faculty and Blade. They used to devour scary movies like buttered popcorn, but somewhere along the line, real life got scary enough. Kate moved on to the old black and whites, while Andrew became a documentary junkie. It was fun going back to the days of monsters and gore, at least for a night.

Now, Andrew was all curled up and snoring, and she was ready to jump out of her skin.

Turner Classics was playing a silent film. Not her number one choice. The absence of sound was making her ears ring. She opted for an infomercial about a magic frying pan. It was dumb, but it was also loud and over the top and busy.

“Who the hell orders these things?” she said to Buttons. The beagle gave a single thump of his tail on the bed as if to show her he heard and was equally perplexed.

She was about to get up and go to the bathroom, just to burn off some of this nervous energy, when the TV turned itself off. Their bedroom was cloaked in total darkness. Andrew had forgotten to turn on the little night-light in the bathroom down the hall. The room-darkening blinds refused to let in even the tiniest sliver of moonlight.

Kate fumbled for the remote and found it wedged under her thigh. She hit buttons at random, but nothing happened. The time display on the cable box was out too.

She reached out to the light by the bed and flicked the switch.

Nothing.

They’d either blown a fuse or the whole block was out.

Before she woke Andrew to check the fuse box, she thought it would be better to go to the front of the house and look outside, see if the streetlights were on or not.

Sliding her feet into her slippers, Kate patted Buttons on the head and whispered, “Come on, But-But. Keep Mommy company.”

The beagle reluctantly padded off the bed, sneezing onto her feet.

“Ewww. Thanks a lot, buddy.”

Buttons went ahead of her, presumably toward his dish in the kitchen. If he was going to be forced to be awake, he might as well have a post-midnight snack.

The house was eerily quiet. The dull hum of their central air system had gone silent. Out of habit and comfort, Kate always had the TV on. Without that background noise, it was like walking through a deserted graveyard.

Now you’re being dramatic.