Got my power back roughly a two and a half weeks ago and been reeling not really knowing what to post. I assume a lot of you may feel the same. At this point, I can't really just stay quiet about it anymore. I probably should have made this post immediately, but something is throttling my internet access, either that or something has completely fucked my router. Something happened on Halloween, and not just in my town it appears.

I have a confession to make. I've been shoving down a really uneasy feeling for the past few months. I don't think it's just because I'm not used to living in this house by myself, but rather that when my parents vanished, something in the way this town behaves drastically changed.

Every day, the world is alight with the normal sounds of everyday life. Cars drive down the street. Birds chirp outside. People come and go from work, talk to their colleagues and shop for their groceries. But I'm realizing now that it felt so wrong.

There was a soullessness to everything, and I know this can't just be related to my grief at being left alone. The coworker I spoke to in the beginning of February hadn't been the same person at the start of March. I don't think I've seen my calc professor blink for the entire fall semester. I watched the same red pickup truck drop off the same number of boxes at the local Goodwill three times a week since the spring.

I let it slide. Made excuses, blamed it on my stress level, tried to self soothe. Told myself that if I acted as if things were normal, then they would go back to being so. Control your thoughts control your outlook and all that. But then Halloween came around.

At 9PM that night, all the lights in the town powered on at maximum, and the local tornado siren started blaring at max despite there being no sign of adverse weather. I looked out my bedroom window to the field across the street from my place, and the line of trees that blocks off the dense forest beyond it. Hundreds of people, people from my town, were lined up standing in the grass, facing the forest. Unmoving. Each of them pulled out something I couldn't make out at the time, but what now I assume were likely matchboxes.

One by one, they lit themselves on fire. The siren couldn't drown out the screaming, but despite their obvious agony the crowd still relentlessly crawled towards the forest. I didn't even realize I was screaming myself raw until I felt my throat go sore. Creatures resembling the distorted likeness of massive insects greeted the victims where they met the trees, but I blacked out before I could watch the end of it.

I awoke the next day to complete silence, and when I looked out the window again, all I saw was the greenery.

I've been locked in the house ever since. I can't leave. I don't get hungry. I don't get sleepy, but the days come and go regardless. Nobody passes by my street, I haven't seen a single car. Some days I wonder if the scene I saw was something I imagined, if I'm slipping into some sort of deep psychosis from everything I've dealt with so far.

If you're still reading, someone out there, please help me.

-Izzy