 I came home from work on a Friday night ready to start my normal NBA season ritual. Drink 12 beers, watch the game, and crawl in bed a fat happy drunk. All that came to a grinding halt when I came home to find our power had gone out. All of our neighbors still had power, so our roommate obviously hadn't paid our power bill. I called my roommate who left that morning to go on vacation with his family and told him he needed to get this fixed ASAP. I wasn't planning on spending my weekend in a dark apartment with no NBA. Might as well go camping at that point, and I hate camping. An hour after I called him, my roommate called me back saying the bill had been paid and we would get power back in probably a few hours. At that point I decided I'd go to a friend's place, watch the game, and by the time I got back home around midnight, the power would be back on. Fast forward and I'm leaving my friend's house. My phone had died an hour or so ago, so my friend called a taxi for me. I got dropped off and the taxi drove away. I looked up at the apartment building and saw all of the apartments were lit up with electric light. Some burned a bright yellow, some a moody blue from the TV. My apartment was the lone black window. There was still a chance I had power. Maybe I just didn't leave any lights on when I left for work that morning. I opened the apartment door and looked into the pitch blackness of the apartment before me. The closest light switch was about 10 feet from the front door, so I would need to feel along the walls for it in the blackness. The door thudded shut behind me as I felt my way along the walls, leaving me in near total darkness. It was much darker than I expected in the apartment. It didn't help. We usually kept the blinds closed to thwart nosy neighbors. I must have missed the light switch because the first thing I felt in my hands was a door frame. It was my bedroom door. I wandered in, still hugging the wall, and my door whined a loud creak as I leaned up against it. I hated that door. The slightest touch would cause the door to seemingly scream. I usually had to keep it latched, otherwise it would creak every time the air conditioner turned on or off and it scared the shit out of me every time. Eventually, I found the light switch. Nothing. Shit. No power. I kept the switch turned on, so if the power returned soon, I would know immediately. I remembered thinking camping. This is pretty much camping. I hate camping. I would crawl in bed, and hopefully we'd have power in the morning. I wanted to brush my teeth first, so I felt along the walls and found my way into the bathroom. It seemed even darker and more oppressive than the rest of the apartment. Around the corner from any windows and having no windows itself, the bathroom was essentially a black hole. No light could escape it. My hands grasped around my cluttered bathroom counter, finding toothpaste and after some time, my toothbrush. I stood brushing my teeth, wishing for light, and listening to the sounds that accompanied living in a crowded apartment complex. I heard footfalls in the apartment above me. I could hear the neighbor couple next door arguing. And then I heard the unmistakable creaking of my bedroom door. The first thought I had was that the power was back on. The air conditioner must have turned on, and the air pressure moved the door and made it wine. Then I realized the light in my bedroom hadn't turned on. Someone was in the apartment. I suddenly felt exposed in the blackness of the bathroom, like I was being watched. I thought about the stories I heard of pirates wearing eye patches to adjust their eyes to seeing in the dark, to have the advantage in night combat. I hadn't heard the front door open, so if something was in here, it had been in here longer than I had and probably would have adjusted to the lack of light by now. I swallowed my toothpaste, too afraid to make noise, and I sat crouched in the blackness of the bathroom, ears straining to pick up any sound coming from my bedroom. I remembered I had a power bank sitting in my nightstand. If I could find that, I could charge my phone and then I'd have a flashlight. After five or so minutes of working up my courage, I slowly crept out of the bathroom. It seemed to have gotten even darker in the apartment in the last ten minutes, and I walked slowly and silently with my hands outstretched, probing the darkness. My hands were at chest height, groping in the direction of my bed. I found my lamp and worked down to the nightstand on which it sat. I opened the top drawer and started feeling for the brick like power bank. Every sound I made, every accidental click of my fingernails hitting the wood of the nightstand felt like I was making myself known to a predator. I felt like I was being hunted. I felt like a sitting duck. I found the power bank and the necessary cords and stood up. I didn't want to wait in my bedroom while it charged. I felt too exposed, so I planned to bring the brick and my phone into the bathroom again to wait. I stuffed the electronics in my pockets and started the process again of groping around in the blackness for the bathroom door frame. When my hands brushed up against something unfamiliar, did I get lost in my own bedroom? I reached back out with both hands. My left hand felt the right side of the bathroom door frame. I reached my right hand out to the wall to confirm and I felt it come down on that unfamiliar thing. My fingers tangled in a mess of a fine stringy material. I grabbed it and realized I was grabbing a full head of hair. Someone was standing in front of me. I didn't even think to scream. I bodied my way past the intruder and into the bathroom. I slammed the door shut behind me, locked it and stood in the blackness. What the hell? The head I felt was at the height of the light switches, either a small person standing or a big person crouching. Either way, it had probably sat there watching me in silence as I was fumbling around in the nightstand. My heart was pounding out of my chest and I felt like I was going to vomit. I sat in silence, pressed up against the bathroom door, listening to the other side. I could hear the neighbors still, but I couldn't hear anything in my bedroom. Then there was a knock at the door. It was a polite knock, as if checking to see if the bathroom was occupied. Then it started getting louder. Heavier, more rapid. I thought whoever was on the other side would soon just punch straight through the cheap door. Then silence. I hated how long it took iPhones to recharge. I need light now. I remembered I kept a candle and matches on top of my toilet, so I felt my way over to the other side of the bathroom and found them. I sat for a while, listening and thinking. I kept thinking about the pirates and I didn't want to lose the progress my eyes had made adjusting to the darkness. Then I heard from the other side of the bathroom, water dripping. How had that just started dripping? It sounded like it was coming from my bathtub. Was something in here with me? How long had they been in here with me? Were they here when I was brushing my teeth? I felt like I was going to be sick. I had to use the candle. I lit the match and caught the wick of it. A dim yellow flame cast light in a few feet in all directions, but my bathroom was long and I still couldn't make out the far end near the bathtub. I slid the candle along the floor to the middle of the bathroom. In the dim golden light, I could see two dirty feet sticking out from behind the shower curtain. I raised my eyes up and I saw a face also poking out from behind the curtain. It was dark and I couldn't make out many features except the dark eyes reflecting the light of the candle and its huge smile. I don't think it was human. I was flooded with fear. Me and the thing stared at each other. I felt like a chipmunk staring down a lion, each daring the other to make the first move. I slowly stood up, never taking my eyes off the disgusting face that watched me from my shower. I heard a voice from the other side of the door whisper. I heard the dripping again and I noticed for the first time it wasn't the bathtub dripping, but saliva from the mouth of this horrid creature in front of me. Whatcha gonna do? The voice behind the door asked a little louder. I saw a hand appear from behind the shower curtain, its fingers each five inches long, seemingly sharp at the ends and black with decay. It started to slowly pull back the shower curtain. Whatcha gonna do? The voice outside the door was screaming now. The monster behind my shower curtain slowly moved one long decaying leg towards me. I felt the vibration in my pocket, letting me know my phone was charged. After breaking eye contact with this monster, I reached in my pocket, turned the flashlight on and pointed it at the thing. It opened its mouth wide, revealing rows of sharpened teeth and it screamed like what sounded like dozens of men's women's and children's voices. I broke for it. I ran out of the bathroom, my phone's light illuminating the room enough to see that there wasn't just the person whose hair I touched, but several people and they were all smiling. I ran out of the bedroom, feeling hands reaching out to me from the darkness and pulling at my shirt. I reached the door and flung myself out into the hallway and ran down the stairs and into the parking lot. I'm sitting in my car now. About ten minutes ago, I saw my bedroom light turn on. Our power's back. I think I'm still gonna wait until morning before I go back in there.