Jeremy was a normal boy. At least, before the plague. He always played sports, and hung out with his friends, but he also enjoyed reading, playing video games, and watching movies. A normal boy. So, when the plague was first announced, and he was told to stay home, he was rather excited. No school, no crazed family members (His aunts could be pretty overbearing,) and more time to do things he enjoyed. But as it continued on, and he had been in his house for a couple of months, he started noticing things. At first it was just a noise. Like someone was talking. He labeled it as his sister talking to one of her friends, though he didn't recognize it. Maybe she met someone new online, he thought, because it's not like she could go to parties. Then it was the occasional light flicker, or something around the corner. Easy things to be explained, his dog's toy, or just the fact that his house was old. But as more and more of these little things went on, he just couldn't label them as coincidences anymore.

    When he told his parents, they just waved it off. But when they noticed some strange behavior from their son, they got a little worried. He always seemed on edge. When he kept insisting that something was wrong, they told him he had an overactive imagination and the amount of time he spent playing video games and reading books was feeding it. So the inevitable time limit was created. He spent more time talking to his friends, and so when an occurrence happened on facetime, he asked them if they noticed the light flickering. They said no. He decided not to tell them about the rest of the things then, because if they didn't see the flickering light, then he didn't want to convince them he was going crazy, which at this point he himself couldn't say.

So this continued on for the next few weeks, and as this plague killed almost everyone who had it, (with the exception of a whole 2 people out of 100,) he still had another month or so for being cooped up. Jeremy kept ignoring the flickering lights, strange noises, and rogue movement. And they kept coming. Soon these occurrences were more than that. The noises were louder, and longer, as if whatever (or whoever, but Jeremy didn't want to think about that) was coming closer. Now he could make out weird figures in the shadows, so he never entered a dark room, or at least one without a flashlight.

    A few days after he started carrying a flashlight everywhere, the lights flicked off for around 10 seconds during dinner with his family. He immediately turned the flashlight on, and waved it around, hoping to catch the culprit. When the lights came on again, his family was asking him why the flashlight was on. Jeremy blinked once, turned it off, and replied that the power went out. His parents shared a look, a look that said they thought their son had gone off the deep end.

    The very next day, when the power went out, and Jeremy turned his flashlight on, it landed on a gruesome creature. It was fleshy, tall, pale, and gooey. An odd scent came from it, like sewer stink and dead flowers. Jeremy was scared out of his mind, thinking that he must be crazy or stuck in a nightmare. When the thing reached out to him, he started screaming, but the lights came on, and when Jeremy blinked, it had disappeared.