The lights flickered again.

  Once, then twice. A long, deliberate blink like the house was rolling its eyes at them.

  Melody stood in the hallway, frowning up at the ceiling. “Not this crap again.” she muttered under her breath. Violet’s voice rang out from the kitchen before she even stepped in. “Its not a wiring issue, I checked the feeds this morning.”

  “Well, it seems to me like something is pulling more power than we’ve got to give.” Melody responded, dunking under one of Catnip’s laundry lines that had taken up permanent residence between the pantry and the fridge on her way to where Violet sat.

  The kitchen was a mess of organized chaos. Catnip was parked on the floor with a half-eaten peach and three mismatched socks- none of which were on her feet. Derrick leaned in the doorway, surveying it all, looking as if he hadn’t slept in a week, which was probably almost true, and Dade sat cross-legged on the counter, eating dry cereal. They hadn’t been able to find any powdered milk in months. Yukki was scowling near the fridge like someone had put legos in her shoes.

  Violet didn’t look up from her solar rig setup on her laptop. “The battery draw pulled fast-thirty percent overnight.” “And no one ran anything extra overnight?” Derrick asked, eyeing Yukki quickly. “I know I didn’t,” Violet answered as she continued tapping at her laptop.

  “I was out playing music for the chickens. I’m trying to figure out what genre produces the most eggs. I’m thinking classic rock so far.” Catnip answered from the floor, “But I was using my own power for that.” She patted her lithium battery bank, the size of a car battery, which was one of her most prized possessions. “I was asleep,” Dade answered.

  All eyes turned towards Yukki. She scoffed, “I wasn’t running anything. I didn’t even use the stove. You guys act like I’ve got a whole espresso machine or something hidden in my walls.” Violet raised a brow. “Honestly? Wouldn’t surprise me.”

  Catnip, never one to miss a chance to hop into a conspiracy, leaned back on her hands and said, “What if it’s not us?” Melody squinted at her. “What do you mean?” she asked.

  “I dunno,” Catnip answered, taking a bite of her peach. “Ghost? Energy leaking from the walls? Maybe the house itself is just tired of us.” Violet groaned. “Our house wasn’t haunted before the collapse, as far as I know, nothing changed to turn it into a haunted Victorian mansion.”

  “But it could be haunted,” Catnip said with a wink.

  Dade piped up from the counter. “I did hear something last night. Thought it was a dream. Something said my name. Or someone’s name. It was fuzzy, like a bad recording.” Violet looked back at him. “Why didn’t you tell anyone?”

  Dade shrugged, “I don’t know. Didn’t think it was important.” Violet sighed, “Of course you didn’t.”

  Melody walked over and crouched next to Violet’s laptop. “You said it was local. Can we trace the wire?” Violet nodded and tapped a series of commands. A small diagnostic screen flickered to life on the monitor, showing a crude map of the house and the solar input lines.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  “I spent months wiring this setup,” she muttered, more to herself than anyone else. “When we first started fortifying this place, getting a stable power system was priority number one for me. Without it, we would be sitting ducks-no lights, no comms, no defense against whomever or whatever might decide to come sniffing around.”

  She leaned in closer to the screen, adjusting a few settings. “I built it to track every watt that moves through the house. If someone taps in, even just a little- it should light up like a beacon.”

  Melody remembered seeing her in those early days after the collapse. While everyone had been busy setting up perimeter defenses and fortifications, Violet had been crouched beside a tangled mess of salvaged wires and panels in the garage, too focused to answer anyone's questions about what she was doing. She’d worked for days without sleeping much, muttering to herself about load thresholds and surge protectors. She had instructed Dade when he went out with the group to raid the local library for books on power systems and sustainable power. At the time, Melody hadn’t really understood it or why Violet was so obsessed with it.

  It was just power, she’d thought.

  Now? She got it.

  “See this?” Violet asked, pointing to a thin red line pulsing on the screen. “This shouldn’t be lit. It’s a line I never placed, and it’s feeding off the inverter, bypassing the main battery bank. It wasn’t here when I last patched the system, I would have seen it when I ran diagnostics. Which means someone tied into it after that patch.”

  Melody squinted. “So where’s it going?”

  Violet pointed to the far wall, by the stove and sink. “It’s somewhere over there.” She got up and looked around the bundles of wires, stopping at the one in the corner. “That’s weird.” She said, pointing at a small black cable running up the wall. “I didn’t place this line. It heads up, into the ceiling.”

  Melody followed the wire up the wall, her stomach sinking as she saw it lead all the way to the ceiling and out of sight.

  “Where’s it lead?” Derrick asked, coming to stand behind Melody to get a better look.

  Melody exhaled slowly. “The attic, I think, that’s the only thing up there.”

  Everyone looked up at the ceiling like it might answer them. Titan, who had been napping on top of the fridge, sat up and stared directly at the blinking light on Violet’s display. His tail flicked slowly. Melody didn’t wait for anyone’s suggestion; she grabbed a flashlight from one of the drawers and made her way down the hall.

  “You want backup?” Derrick called.

  “If it’s something dumb, I’ll feel less dumb without witnesses,” Melody replied as she reached he rope dangling in the middle of the hall. The attic ladder creaked in protest as she pulled it down, dust floating down in a heavy sheet.

  Climbing the steps, she slowly panned her flashlight across the room. It was the same as always- boxes, junk, forgotten things. Looking around, she finally spotted the wire coming up through a crack in the floor and followed it slowly across the room with her light.

  It led to an old metal shelf covered in a dusty tarp. Melody walked over and pulled the tarp back. There it was, connected to the cable, an emergency radio. Melody stared at it for a long time before picking it up. It was heavier than she remembered them being. She realized as she examined it that she knew this radio. Same scuffed knobs. Same half-peeled sticker. Same missing antenna tip.

  She turned it in her hands like it might explain itself. Of course, it didn’t.

  She didn’t know what it meant. Didn’t know if it was a coincidence or something else. But she knew one thing:

  They needed to talk about it.