It was fucking hot out. Noah, who had only just graduated from high school, was sitting in the backyard at home, smoking a cigarette. He had his eyes downcast and was swinging his legs as he sat on the railing of the deck his father and mother had built when he was seven or so. Truth be told, he wasn't supposed to smoke anywhere near the house. It was a rule. But, truth be told again, Noah didn't give a shit about rules. His parents weren't home, and he was planning on moving out in a few months' time, anyway, so. Fuck it.
Bobby was out at the mall, his parents were off golfing with friends or some such, which left Noah home alone. He stretched, reaching his hands high in the air, before tilting a little too far backwards and almost falling ass-first onto the deck. He grabbed the railing just in time, however, and attempted to re-situate himself. Unfortunately, he saw as he lifted the thing to his lips for a drag, he'd accidentally crushed his cigarette in the moment's chaos. Swearing, he threw it into the long grass his mother had asked him to cut a week ago.
Then, just as he swung down from the railing and began to make his way back inside the house, the lights inside flickered violently, grew very bright, then went black altogether. At the same time a shriek, loud and wavering, rang out from the house next door. Without thinking much, the boy ran around to the front of the house and up the front porch of the neighbor's (Noah didn't know their names. All he knew was that they had two extremely annoying children) house. He pushed the door open and gazed up into the dark.
Children were crying somewhere within. He didn't know what had happened here, but - well, sighing, he stepped inside. "Hello?"