Being neighborly

Liam

The street outside was completely dark by the time I was done. A transformer or something had blown while I was… tending to my sister, plunging the house and the rest of my neighbourhood into darkness just as I was taking one final extra picture of Penny in her underwear. It was what had stopped me in the first place.

I left Penny sitting on the couch, hair tousled and clothes slightly rumpled. After I clumsily re-dressed her, I went to the kitchen and filled a jug with water, draining almost the entire thing in a hurry as I thought more clearly.

It had been, I checked my phone, about four hours now since this had all started, and there seemed to be no end in sight. I noticed the lack of signal with barely a thought, no surprises there, I had tried the emergency services early on but the lines were already collapsing back then, by now all phone lines were just dead. Completely useless.

I pushed away the gnawing guilt at what I had done and focused on the here and now. The house next to mine, Blake's, was as silent as the rest. I thought about my best friend with some worry, he had been on the other side of town today, going to a con, or something like that. Hopefully he was alright, hadn't gotten into an accident or something.

I noticed the back door of his house was wide open and felt a chill go down my spine.

Taking a deep breath, I nodded as I made a decision and, with the utmost care, unbolted and unlocked the back door in the kitchen. Before I stepped outside I went back and grabbed one of the sharpest knives I could find, just in case.

Slowly, under the cover of darkness, I made my way over the fence separating Blake's house from mine and entered through the open back door, knife in hand in case I had to, what, ‘deal with’ an intruder or something? What the hell was I even doing, honestly?

The interior of Blake's house was dark as well, obviously. I considered lighting the interior with my phone's flashlight, but the possibility of alerting an intruder stopped me from doing so. Instead, I gently closed the door, and moved deeper inside. I could feel my heart beating like a drum as I walked the silent home, straining my ears to hear anything.

Instead of finding an intruder, I found Blake's sister Sarah standing right in the middle of the hallway, outside the bathroom, one hand on the doorknob as the moonlight from outside filtered through the curtains and faintly illuminated her frozen, mindless, body. She was caught mid step, think black hair covering half of her face, mouth completely open as she had apparently been in the middle of talking to someone else, I advanced further into the house and saw who she had been talking to, a slim redhead in a blue t-shirt and a pair of leggings, and a stacked brunette wearing a thin sundress, their unresponsive bodies lounging on the living room’s couch, as frozen as every other woman. Her friends, probably.

I exhaled in relief, apparently the open door had just been one of them forgetting to close it before they were frozen. That was good. That was great. I set down my steak knife on the kitchen counter and placed my hands atop the cold ceramic surface, breathing deeply as I felt my body relax.

What was I doing here anyway? I wasn't exactly a fighter, if there had been an intruder or something the best I could hope to do was probably bleed out on the floor. Ridiculous.

I chuckled in the silent kitchen and made to leave when I noticed a final figure in the kitchen, sitting right in front of me. I felt my fingers go cold and thought I was gonna have a heart attack right then and there until I realized it was another frozen woman.

The yelp I let out as I fell back was drowned out by the loud noise of a helicopter ing over the street, loudspeakers blaring out instructions to please shelter in place 'until the situation was resolved’ whatever the hell that even meant at this point. What the hell even was the situation, anyway?

Calming down, I took a good look at the final frozen friend of Sarah’s.

Just like the rest, her green eyes were wide open, trapped in-between thoughts as she leaned her elbows on the counter, her mouth open. I noticed with a gulp the choker adorning her lithe neck, my eyes moved unconsciously downwards, the tight corset dress she wore pushed up her full, heavy, breasts enticingly. A thin line of drool connected her open mouth to the cold ceramic counter under her frozen hands.

I gently moved my hand and began to clean the drool from her open mouth. I wiped my now wet palm on one of her breasts, taking the chance to grope and fondle as I looked into her vacant, thoughtless, eyes.

I felt my pulse beginning to race once again. My phone burned in my pocket as I realized I was surrounded by four extremely attractive women, all of them currently incapable of thinking or perceiving the world around them.

The temptation was strong, but mom and Penny needed me. Hell, as far as Penny knew she had been in the mall, what would she even do if (when, damnit!) she woke up and suddenly realized she was somewhere else? I should probably go back, I thought, as I continued to absently grope the unknown girl's tit.