I let out a deep breath, exhaling dust. I had been cleaning out the garage for all of two hours, cleaning off shelves and collecting a ton of dust in my lungs as I did so. As I moved boxes from place to place, unpacking and repacking them, I came upon a box that...looked just like all the others. I picked it up off the floor and stacked it on top of another box I had just placed in the corner, not bothering to open it. It was relatively light, so I figured it held nothing important.

As I was walking away, however, it started to...buzz. The sound that emitted from the box was akin to the noise that a bee or fly would make...I looked over my shoulder, raising my eyebrow. I approached the box warily. There was nothing strange about it. It was just a box, crudely closed up with duct tape and with the word 'FRAGILE' written in big words on its side. The only thing that made it different was the fact that it was letting off an incessant humming. Still eyeing it suspiciously, I grabbed the end of the tape that was keeping it shut, and pulled, not really knowing what to expect, except maybe a bee colony.

Light bulbs. Just light bulbs. I swiftly counted, and found there to be nine of them. I let out a little laugh. Of course it could be nothing interesting, this was my garage after all. Still…I wondered where that buzzing noise had come from? I picked up one of the light bulbs and looked it over. Nothing strange about it, just a perfectly normal light bu-what. All of a sudden it had lit up. Illuminated. Brightened. In my hand, with no power source. In shock, I dropped the light bulb and back away in surprise. How…how did it do that? Its brightness faded as it fell to the ground, where it shattered into a million little pieces, its filament letting off its last bit of light.

I stared at the pieces on the ground, wondering what had just happened when I sensed someone behind me. As I went to whir around to see who it was, a hand had clasped itself around my mouth, silencing any yells I could have made. As I struggled, a low voice whispered in my ear,

“Stay still if you wish to retain any of your sanity.”

I stopped moving, my breathing becoming labored.

“Do you have any idea what you just did?” the voice continued.

I shook my head, and suddenly there was a feeling like a bite on my ear. My cry was muffled by the hand., before I was released and pushed to the ground.

I looked up to see the person who had been holding me back, a boy who could not be very much older than I was. His outfit was weird…he seemed to be wearing a bell hops’ uniform, even up to the flat cap that covered his dark hair.

“See what you’ve done!” he said, pointing at the pieces to my left.

“I-I-I don’t kn-” I stared, before he cut me off.

“Of course you don’t know! You don’t know anything! One would think the daughter of Zee Carol would, but she doesn’t! Haha…” His voice was rising with a kind of dark humor, as he let out a strangled laugh and feel his his knees.

“You don’t know, oh, that’s rich. Whose idea was it to keep you in the dark, anyway? Zee thought it’d protect you, but, oh, it didn’t, now did it?” He stared at me, his anger seeming to weaken.

“Protect you, maybe, but what about us? What about Folle Tuesday? What about him and everything you’ve just destroyed?” His tone had taken on a defeated, sad tone.

“I don’t understand anything you’ve talking about! What the hell is going on? All I did was break a light bulb!” I said, staring at him in wonder.

“Haha, ‘All I did was break a light bulb!’” he said, mocking me. “And I suppose that’s all you think it is? A light bulb? That, my dear Tess Carol, is (or should I say, was) the home to millions of people who you’ve just killed.”

I raised an eyebrow. Alright, this was crazy. Who did this guy think he was, breaking into my garage and yelling at me for breaking a light bulb. Doesn’t he know those things cost like a dollar? No big deal. He was obviously messing with me; a prank from dad, or something.

“Alright, cool story bro. Now, would you mind getting out of my garage? I still have a lot of stuff left to pick up in here, and now I’ve got to sweep this up.” I said, getting up and dusting my self off. He looked at me in horror, his eyes wide.

“But…but…but the light bulb…” he stuttered, hugging himself. “Half of my family lived on that thing!”

“Who the hell sent you? Some guy from school? If this was anyway to ask me on a date, it’s not working. Now get out.” I reached for the broom leaning on the near wall.

“You…you think I’m joking?” he asked.

“Yeah. Haven’t I made that perfectly clear?” With broom in hand, I moved to sweep up the tiny pieces of the shattered bulb when the guy suddenly screamed and the broom was ripped from my hands. His expression was even more horrified.

“Don’t touch it! There might be survivors down there!”

“Dude. What the fuck? Get out of here! I’m not interested in your stories of people living in light bulbs..” I snorted in laughter. “Now give me back my broom.”

“If you don’t believe me, I’ll make you into a believer. Take my hand.” he said, looking completely serious.

I looked at his hand, and then at his face. Oh my god, he was serious.

“…Who are you?” I said, looking at him with wariness. I stepped back a few steps.

"I am a commissioner, an agent of Madame Domingo's." As he said his, his cheeks flushed with pride. "I was sent here to prevent you from breaking anything else."

"Who is Madame Domingo?" I asked, still wary.

"Madame Domingo is the overseer of Escas, otherwise known as Light Bulb Number Seven. That one, to be exact." With that, he pointed to the box at the lightbulb in the corner. As he did this, it flashed and I jumped.

"How did you do that?"

"You'd be surprised at how many people can do it. All those who are connected with the Bulbs can. That's why you were able to make Light Bulb Number Six flash, let alone pick it up. You're the daughter of Zee Carol!"

"What does my mom have to do with this?" I asked.

He sighed. "There are a lot of thing you don't even know, let alone understand. It will all be explained in due time. But first, it my primary duty to check on the inhabitants of Ebeos." He stood up, and dusted himself off.

"Ebeos...?"

"Light Bulb Number Six, which is now in a million little pieces to your side there, all of which stand for a person that lived on it." he explained, gesturing to the pile of glass. Now that I was really looking at it, I could see that the filament was still letting off a very, very slight glow.

"Now, it's time to go." he approaching me. "Come." He held out his hand.

"Go where?" I asked, eyeing his hand.

"Wow, do I have to spell it out for you? We must check on the status of Ebeos!" he said, starting to look angry again.

I looked down at the shattered glass. "Go there? How do you intend to do that?" I looked at him again. "You're crazy."

"Crazy, maybe, baby." He grinned, before taking a step towards me. I let out a yelp and turned to run, but before I could move, there was a flash before everything was black.

---

I opened my eyes. Everything was dark. I could see nothing. I strained my eyes to see something, anything, but things remained black. I thought I had probably fainted, and I was back in my garage, laying on the ground but unharmed, but...I could hear something near me. It sounded like footsteps. There was a clicking sound, before I saw a minute spot of light. It was half of that boy's face, lit up by a lighter, which explained the clicking.

"Tess?" he said, saying my name. "Are you near me?"

"I'm over here!" I called, starting to walk in his direction before the spot of light in the distance disappeared, along with his face. I stopped moving. Everything was black again.

I was scared. Where was I? Why was I here? How did I get here? I was dreaming, right? Surely I was...lost in my thoughts, I didn't notice the touch as first. Light as a feather, I could feel fingers stroking my arm. I was frozen, petrified. What. Is. That.

"Tess?" the voice said, and I relaxed as I realized it was the strange boy who had been in my garage. The stroking on my arm had stopped, but all was still dark.

"Hello?" I said, and as I did, his face was illuminated again, revealing him to be a mere foot away from me.

"Oh, there you are. I thought I'd found you." he said, smiling. I was, to sufficiently say, weirded out.

"Why...why were you touching my arm?" I asked.

"Looking for you, of course. Now, would you mind taking this?" he said.

"What is it?"

"You'll see."

I reached out to him, and he pushed something into my hands, and all of a sudden there was a light, a bit bigger than what his lighter had been giving off. The thing in my hands was a light bulb, plugged into nothing yet still on.

"How?" I asked, amazed.

"As I said, everything will be explained in due time. At the moment, though, our first order of business is to find a better light source than just that small bulb."

"How do you plan on doing that?" I asked, having no idea what was going on.

"All we need to do is find a wall, have you touch it, and all of our problems will be fixed!" He smiled again, appearing very different than how he had in my garage. What was up with this guy?

He took a step forward, and I took a tentative one as well. It didn’t take long for us to find a wall, and when we did, I laid my hand on it and suddenly a huge area was lit up. We were surrounded by four walls on each side, in the shape of square. We looked to be in an atrium, what with the fountain in the center that had stopped running and the garden that ran along the length of the walls. I saw now that we had stepped through a tomato patch, which explained the squishing noises that had come from beneath our feet. There was a door on the far wall, and windows high above our heads. No light shone through them.

“Where are we?” I asked, looking at the guy next to me.

“My sister’s house in Ebeos. The atrium of her house, to be exact. Strange enough, it’s in one piece…All we need to do is get to the far wall and see how the rest of world looks like. That is, if it’s even still there.” At this, his once light tone darkened, and he sent me something that looked almost like a glare.

“I suppose a sorry wouldn’t help?” I said.

“Just follow me.”

The world as black again as I let go of the wall, and we stumbled across the atrium to the far wall. I felt for the door handle, and, as I caught hold of it, the atrium was alight again. I yanked the door open, and the boy beside me let out a little whimper. Nothing in the world could have prepared me for what I saw.