I was ying in my bed when the emergency alert arrived. I was watching a dumb guy on YouTube pying games and a rge panel took over my phone screen.

  Monsters Active: Take Caution

  Lock all windows, doors; Turn off all lights; Make no sound

  My training kicked in and I ran around my room. I had to ensure every window and door was locked, and that there was no light or sound visible from outside of the house. I only had to check in my room since I always left my windows locked. I worked my way into my parents’ room, locked their windows and turned their room light off. Then on and on, to my sisters’ room, bathroom, and finally I reached the living room.

  There I was greeted with my two parents happily watching TV with the front door open next to them.

  “Hey, Jane, how’s it going? Can’t sleep?”

  “Did you get the alerts?”

  “Yeah, but it’s just the government trying to scare the normies. We’ll be just fine.”

  “I’m going to lock the doors and turn out the lights. I’d really appreciate it if you could be quiet throughout the night. If for nothing else besides my sanity.”

  “We can try I suppose.”

  I turned to lock the front door and saw a monster slinking down the street a block away. It was bipedal and bat-like. Almost as if a vampire got stuck part way through transforming. It was hunched forwards and swaying its arms in a rather exaggerated way, possibly due to the wings coming off of its arms

  I closed the screen door and the main, heavy door. I locked them both just in case. Then I worked my way to the back door. Our rambler home was easily managed in a couple minutes, provided everyone was at least compliant. There I found the unholy grail of light switches my family had. There were a series of three switch ptes, each with at least three switches. And worst of all, some of the switches controlled the same lights. For my engineering friends, the switches used an XOR operation.

  The wind was picking up. A heavy, blustery wind that felt like it would knock me over. The kind that could punch and kick and unsuspecting victim. And trailing along this wind, were distant howls, and screams much less distant.

  I set to work on those switches. I would pce my finger on a switch, then look at the lights as I flicked it. If something turned off, I left it. And if something turned on, I reset it to before. I had quickly turned most of the lights off in the kitchen and my dad’s home office. The back door was a cream colour bordering a small stained gss pattern. It worked very hard to look ancient despite being bought and sold in recent decades.

  The screen door and the main door got closed. And I locked them up. Then I turned to the switch pte by the door. A pain like the others. My father thought himself a clever man. The switchpte was neatly managed. But there was another switch affixed to the window gss. This window couldn’t open but it did have a clear view of the garage openings for convenience and security. At least it did until he put some screws through it to attach the switch.

  I heard thumping and growling outside and to the left of the window. I looked back quickly to see my parents smiling, their faces lit by a TV on mute. They must have thought that would pcate me. But all it served was to draw attention to our house. I tried my best to sneakily turn the lights off. It took a few tries. The fear was setting in. My fingers kept fumbling with the switches. And slight creaking of gss told me I was pushing too hard.

  After a few tries I got the lights off. All that remained was the glow of the television. And my parent’s uninterested demeanour. Both of which could get us all killed. I heard them quietly chatting, ughing, and generally carrying on as if it was any other night.

  The sound of scratching came from the window. It slowly worked its way to the front door. I heard the creak of the handle turning, and a frustrated hiss when the door didn’t budge. There was another window to the right of the door. It was rge and uncovered. I froze as I saw the bug eyed bat face I saw earlier. It peered back and forth, the slim whites of its eyes visible at the extremes. It started to lightly hop when its eyes met the illuminated faces of my parents. A hellish screech came out of its unmoving mouth. It bared a series of sharp teeth, worn down from gnawing most likely. It stepped back a few feet, and raised its arms. In a swift downwards motion, it took flight, and disappeared from my view. I turned back to see my parents none the wiser. God dammit. I went to confront them.

  “Hey, did you see the alert? We need to turn the TV off and be as quiet as possible.”

  “Yeah, yeah, we heard you. It’s on mute so we’ll be just fine,” my dad turned to my mom and they shared in snickering.

  “Well a bat monster was just on our deck and saw you.”

  “Yeah, sure.”

  “It’s already te anyway. Y’all could go sleep and pretend nothing’s wrong. Just let me keep us safe, please.”

  “If it’ll calm you down, fine.” He turned again to my mom, “let’s go to bed honey.”

  My mom gave me a quick hug before they retired. Leaving me alone in the darkness and quiet.