The Adams family lives in a nice cul de sac in Cincinnati, Ohio. They are happy there, most everything in their lives is mediocre, and that is how they like it. Nothing too high or too low. They make a good living, what you could call middle class. They own a Toyota Camry and a minivan. They are married and have two children, a boy and a girl. When they were dating they both decided to go to college together, which they did, David is now an accountant and Angie is now a registered nurse. Their children are doing well in school. Neither is a straight A student, but they are both A, B students with the occasional C. David’s mother always said C is average, so they don’t complain too much when one of their kids comes home with a C. Sometimes Angie has a feeling that she is missing something that is right in front of her eyes. What that might be she doesn’t know and doesn’t worry about it often. Its just a feeling she gets every now and then.
One night Angie is awakened by a bright light outside their bedroom window. It is brighter than anything she has ever seen before, other than maybe a search light at a car dealer and you happen to pull up right next to it. Angie is not afraid but quite curious and gets up hoping not to wake David because he has to get up early. When she looks at her alarm clock the LED numbers are just flipping around and around. David’s alarm clock has hands and they are going around, not really fast like hers, but around and around. Now this is strange and Angie feels a little twinge of fear. What is going on she wonders again. Angie gets up quietly, hoping not to wake her husband. Just as she gets to the window the light goes away, not like turning off a light switch, but when you see a headlight going up the street and it gets dimmer then is gone. Angie looks at her neighbor’s house and all is dark. Now a dog starts barking and this causes her to realize how quiet it had been. Angie exhales and thinks maybe she was holding her breath. She smiles at that, how silly she had been, and gets back in bed. The memory was fading very quickly and Angie doesn’t realize how much she is forgetting. She lies back and sleeps soundly and in the morning she thinks she had a strange dream, but she cannot remember the details. Both of their alarm clocks failed to go off so they have to hurry. David takes the kids to school so they have time to eat before they go and life goes on.
A couple of weeks later Angie is awakened again by this strange light. As soon as she wakes up she remembers the previous incident for the first time. What is going on she wonders and decides she must wake up David so that she knows she is not crazy. First she gets up and looks out the window. The neighbor’s house is bathed in the light and the light is more blue/green than white. Again she notes the two alarm clocks are going crazy. She shakes her husband awake, whispering. David wakes easily, he was not sleeping well, he was having a strange dream. “What?” he says, but he sees the light right away. Angie shows him the clocks and then he gets up to look out the window.
About this time the light starts moving around, as if looking for something. David closes the curtains quickly. He does not think its nothing. David gets down on his knees as if someone was looking in the window, he crawls to to the other window and pulls those drapes tight also. Then they sit on the floor together for a minute. ” What the hell?” David says, not really asking. Then they both start feeling silly. Angie remembers this feeling from before and wants to get back in bed. Then she thinks of the children and crawls to the bedroom door. About that time the light leaves the area the same way it did before, very quickly but also gradually. After its gone the neighborhood noises come back and she gets to her feet and checks on her children who are both fast asleep. Now Angie and David are remembering the incident. They are keeping each other from forgetting. Somehow whatever it was is able to affect them in their home. David is sure Angie would have told him about the incident had she remembered the first one. Its very strange any way you look at it. They have put a camera on their nightstand and agreed that if either of them wakes up to anything strange they will be sure to wake the other up right away. They feel stronger as a couple and more equipped to deal with something weird together. David tells a buddy at work about it but Angie keeps it to herself. The children do not seem to have noticed anything, they do not seem to be extra tired. David’s buddy tells them they are being visited by ET – extra-terrestrials. Yeah right, is Angie’s reaction. But inside David has wondered the same thing, and Angie cannot imagine what it could be.
A few days after the second incident Angie sees an unusual car in the neighbor’s drive way. She is out on her porch watering flowers and takes advantage of the opportunity to walk over and see what is going on. The neighbors have lived there a couple of years and they are young with no children. They both work and they have always kind of stayed to themselves. Even when invited to neighborhood get-togethers they always declined, but Angie and David agreed they did not get the impression they were only there temporarily. The car in their driveway belongs to a realtor who tells Angie they have already moved and she is to try and sell the house for them. No she does not have a forwarding address she is permitted to give to anyone but she would forward a letter to them if Angie would like. Angie is quite unsettled by this. For one thing the supposed realtor does not have any identifiable logo on her car, also she did not give Angie a business card, or put a for sale sign in the yard. What realtor does not want their name and number easily accessible? As soon as David comes home she talks to him about it and he agrees its very strange. David hopes that is the end of the strange light and whatever the light meant. He is glad it was the neighbors and not his house and his family. This entire thing has really been bothering him, something is not right.
A few nights later Angie and David wake up together, they know immediately something is going on. They don’t see the lights right away, they have been making sure their drapes are completely closed before they go to sleep. David grabs the camera from his nightstand and rolls off the bed onto his knees and crawls to the window. He peeks out and sure enough the house next door is covered in the strange light. The light seems to be searching in the windows of the house. Angie just stays where she is, she is really frightened this time, although she doesn’t know why. David snaps a few pictures rapidly. Unfortunately the flash activates because they are in the dark. The light reacts to this as if it could see the flash. David stops and sits still against the wall, he can see the light is now on their yard. David’s heart is pounding.The light is on their house now, David takes the edge of the drape and holds it against the wall trying to keep the light from coming in at all. They are holding their breath, and as they slowly exhale David gathers his courage and lets the drape open ever so slightly. The light is retreating back to their neighbors house. A few minutes later it has gone. Angie checks their children and then she and David hold each other for a few minutes. “What the hell?” is all David can say.
A couple months later the house is still sitting empty. The Adams are still wondering what happened and beginning to think maybe they are just imagining things, except for the four pictures David took. He downloaded them onto the computer but is not going to have them printed anywhere except on his own printer. For some reason he knows better than to let anyone know about this. Angie said maybe there is a government agency that investigates things like this, but David has a gut feeling that might not work out very well for them. He doesn’t like the way their neighbors just “went away”.
The lights have not come back, but the house seems ominous. The kids have been told to stay away from the empty house and not to ride their bikes in the driveway to the empty house. Angie has never seen the realtor again so has not been able to send a letter. Maybe someone will move in there eventually, that might make Angie feel better. Both David and Angie talk about the strange happenings, sometimes, trying not to forget them. Angie hopes the lights don’t come back because she is afraid they will be looking for them next time.