His heels sunk into the sand before his toes flicked it behind him as he sprinted in a line parallel with the waves. The sun illuminated everything. The world felt so bright.The sky was completely open all around him, not a spot of a cloud was to be seen. The day was ideal: he was warm and happy just running, but then he tripped.

His leg twitched and his eyes popped open to darkness. Are you freaking kidding me?  He asked, wishing the dream hadn’t ended like that. They always did though. He sighed and rolled over to look at his alarm clock, but saw nothing. It wasn’t even flashing some random time at him. He didn’t hear the fan on his computer, either. There were no little lights on his speakers.

Crap. The power must be out. He had to work at six that morning and worried that he’d be late if he didn’t find another way to wake up. He’d been written up three times for his tardiness. The coffee place was supposed to fire him at that point, but his manager decided to give him a last chance. He kicked the covers off and crawled out of bed. He lived in the basement. He was pretty sure the space he occupied wasn’t supposed to be a bedroom: it had neither a closet nor windows, but he was grateful to have it to himself. His seven other siblings all shared rooms.

He took two steps away from his bed then stubbed his toe. Son of a… was all that he let loose. He didn’t want to wake anyone up. He favored his right foot for another few steps because it ached from whatever had attempted to impede his progress. When he thought he was close to the wall, he put his hands out to feel for it and search for the light switch. He flicked it upon discovering it, but nothing happened. He followed the wall over to his door from there. He twisted the knob, slowly opened the door and panicked at the feeling that came upon him. There was a large space in front of him and he couldn’t see anything.

He didn’t know if a sibling was asleep on the floor in the hall, or what toys or murderers or monsters waited for him in the darkness. He wanted to close the door. He hated making coffee for people anyway- especially so early in the morning, because people were jerks and never tipped. Yes, he’d blame what appeared to be a power outage on his tardiness and hunt for a new job if he had to.

Anxiousness had him stepping back into his room and slowly closing the door when he saw a small, bluish light. He couldn’t figure out what it came from. It had to be through the entryway from the living room into the hallway that he didn’t want to step out into. He figured he’d better check it out. Maybe the circuit breaker for his room had tripped and that was it.

He cautiously walked down the hall. He dragged one had along the wall and kept the other in front of him, just in case anything happened to be there. He felt moldings and light switches as he progressed in the direction of the light. He made it to the living room without incident. The light wasn’t in here though. It seemed to be reflecting from something up stairs. He continued walking through the powerless, silent room, in the direction of the light. This little illumination seemed to be the only thing he had and he felt the need to get to it, regardless of stubbed toes or whatever else he’d encounter along the way.