Lights Out

I give to you a story in eleventy-one words...

I gaze out the window. There’s an emptiness in the frigidity, a silence in the snow white sheet superimposed on the ebony desolation. Suddenly, I watch as the lights flicker and die. The scene is pitch. Only my lone clove candle battles the stygian void.

There immediately comes at my door a knock. Thinking it might be a needy neighbor, I grab the candle, unbolt the lock, open the door, and peek into the hallway just in time to see the far hallway door close. I look down and see the faint outline of a card. I retrieve it and read, ‘Come down within five minutes; your life depends on it.’