WHEN THE LIGHTS WENT OUT — A PSYCHOLOGICAL ROMANTIC HORROR STORY

WHEN THE LIGHTS WENT OUT
— A PSYCHOLOGICAL ROMANTIC HORROR STORY

Part I – The Silence Between Two Strangers (1/5)

Selena had always believed that silence was harmless.
It was simply the space between words, the breath between two thoughts, the calm before someone spoke again. But that was before she moved into the apartment on Ravenwood Street, where silence felt like something alive… something watching.

The building was old, carved from heavy stone, with hallways that stretched too long and lights that flickered as if fighting for life. But rent was cheap, and Selena — a 24-year-old writer who had recently left her hometown — needed a place to breathe and restart.

What she didn’t expect was her neighbor.

Adrian Vale.

Their first encounter happened at 2 a.m., when Selena woke to a strange tapping on her wall.
Not loud. Not aggressive.
Just… consistent.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

She pressed her ear against the cold plaster, listening. When she opened her door to investigate, the hallway was dark except for the faint amber glow from a wall lamp.

Then she saw him.

Tall. Sharp features. Eyes like storms—quiet but dangerous. He stood barefoot outside her door, holding a cup of tea as though he had simply wandered there by accident.

“Sorry,” he said in a voice too soft for his size. “I think I woke you up.”

“You…?” She looked at the wall. “Were you tapping?”

“No.” His lips twitched. “I thought it was you.”

They stared at each other for a long moment — two strangers trying to read the silence between them.

Then Adrian added, “This building makes strange noises at night. You’ll get used to it.”

But the tapping had stopped the moment he appeared.

And Selena wasn’t sure if it was the building that made strange noises…
or Adrian Vale.


---

Part II – The Man Who Never Sleeps (2/5)

Over the following weeks, Selena noticed two things:

1. Adrian was always awake at night.


2. The tapping only happened when he wasn’t around.



Every time she opened her door, no matter the hour, Adrian was always there — leaning on the railing, sitting on the stairs, walking down the hall with a book in his hand. He moved quietly, like someone afraid to disturb something.

He wasn’t talkative, but when he spoke, his words felt heavy, intentional.

“You’re a writer?” he asked one night while she picked up her mail.

“Yes,” Selena replied. “How did you know?”

“You stare at people like you’re trying to understand them.”
A pause.
“That’s what writers do.”

She blushed, caught off guard by how easily he saw through her.

“And you?” she asked. “What do you do?”

He hesitated before answering.

“I stay awake,” he said finally. “I watch the building. Old places need watching.”

It was a strange answer — one that should have worried her — but instead she felt a calmness around him she couldn’t explain. He didn’t feel threatening. He felt… lonely.

One night, she woke to the tapping again. This time the sound came from behind her closet door.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

But when she opened it, the noise stopped.

A cold wind brushed her cheek, carrying a faint smell — old stone and burnt matches.

The next morning, she saw Adrian sitting downstairs with dark circles under his eyes.

“You didn’t sleep?” she asked.

“I don’t sleep,” he replied. “Not anymore.”

His gaze softened.

“Selena… if something in your apartment ever feels wrong… promise you’ll tell me.”

“Why me?”

“Because the building gets attached to certain people. And it has noticed you.”


---

Part III – The First Touch of Fear (3/5)

Selena should have been scared.
But instead, she felt something worse: curiosity.

So when her lights began flickering every night at exactly 1:13 a.m., she didn’t run. She stayed awake to watch.

The shadows in her room didn’t move normally — they shifted a second too late, like they were mimicking her instead of following her.

And sometimes, when she whispered into the darkness:

“Adrian?”

…the shadows seemed to shiver.

One evening, after a particularly long writing session, Selena found a note slipped under her door.

Do not turn off your lights tonight.
— A

She froze. Her hand trembled as she held the small paper.

Why?

What would happen if she did?

At exactly 1:13 a.m., the power in the entire building went out.

Pitch-black darkness filled her apartment.

She felt something move behind her — not loudly, not suddenly… just a shift in the air, like someone exhaling inches from her neck.

Her breath caught.

Then a hand grabbed her wrist.

Warm. Human.

“Selena.”

Adrian’s voice.

He pulled her close, guiding her through the dark until they reached the hallway, where the emergency lights glowed faintly red.

“What was that?” she whispered.

Adrian didn’t answer immediately. He just held her wrist a second too long before letting go.

“The building isn’t empty,” he said finally. “It never has been.”

“You mean… ghosts?”

“Not ghosts.” He shook his head slowly. “Something older.”

Selena swallowed hard.

“And why does it want me?”

Adrian looked at her with an expression she couldn’t read — part fear, part longing, part something darker.

“Because you remind it of someone it lost.”


---

Part IV – Love in the Dark (4/5)

The more time Selena spent with Adrian, the more she realized that the danger wasn’t only coming from the building.

It was also coming from him.

He was unpredictable. Sometimes warm and soft-spoken — the kind of man who looked at her like she was the only person in the world. Other times distant, haunted, as if he carried something heavy inside him that she wasn’t allowed to touch.

One rainy evening, she finally asked:

“Adrian… what happened to you?”

He didn’t answer at first. Instead, he led her to the rooftop, where the wind carried the smell of rain and electricity.

“Five years ago,” he said quietly, “someone I loved died in this building.”

Selena’s heart tightened.

“I tried to save her,” he continued, his voice cracking. “But the building… it didn’t let her leave. It wanted her. It wants you the same way.”

Selena stepped closer.

“Why me?”

He turned toward her — wet hair sticking to his forehead, eyes trembling with something she had never seen in him before.

“Because you’re the first person I’ve cared about since her.”

Her breath caught.

“And that makes you vulnerable.”

She placed her hand over his.

“I’m not afraid of you, Adrian.”

“You should be,” he whispered.

But he didn’t pull his hand away.

Not even when lightning tore across the sky and the rooftop lights flickered violently — as if warning them both.


---

Part V – The Night Everything Broke (5/5)

The final night began like all the others:

1:13 a.m.
Lights flicker.
Silence thickens.
Air grows colder.

But this time, the tapping didn’t come from her walls.

It came from under her bed.

Tap.
Tap.
TAP.

Selena froze.

A low voice — not human — whispered from the darkness:

“Finally.”

Her lamp shattered.
Her closet door slammed open.
The shadows rose like smoke, forming something tall, skeletal, and hungry.

Selena screamed —

And Adrian burst through her door.

“Selena! Come here!”

The creature lunged.

Adrian grabbed her shoulders and shoved her behind him, shouting words she didn’t understand — old, sharp, cutting through the dark like knives.

But the creature wasn’t attacking Adrian.

It was trying to grab her.

“Let her go,” Adrian growled.

A voice echoed from the walls — multiple voices stacked on top of each other.

“You lost the first one.
You will not lose this one.”

Selena gasped.

“You tried to save the woman you loved,” she whispered. “The building took her… and now it wants me?”

Adrian nodded slowly, shaking.

“Yes. Because it knows… I’d burn the world to keep you alive.”

His confession hit her harder than the darkness swirling around them.

But the creature lunged again — faster, stronger.

Adrian grabbed Selena’s face, pulling her close.

“Selena… listen to me. Whatever happens — don’t let go.”

“I won’t,” she whispered.

But the building had other plans.

The floor cracked beneath them.
Darkness rushed up from below like a wave.
The creature roared as the lights exploded overhead.

Adrian held her as tightly as he could.

“I’m not losing you,” he whispered.

She clung to him, burying her face in his chest.

“Adrian—!”

And then—

Everything went dark.


---

EPILOGUE – Love That Never Sleeps

Selena woke in a hospital room.

Alive.

Shaking.

Alone.

They told her the building caught fire. They told her a man named Adrian Vale never made it out.

But two weeks later, at 1:13 a.m., as she lay awake…

She heard it.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Not from her walls.

From her mirror.

And when she looked…

She saw Adrian standing behind her reflection.

Not dead.
Not alive.

Watching her with those same storm-filled eyes.

Protecting her.

Loving her.

Trapped forever between the world of the living and whatever waited in the silence.

And Selena smiled through her tears.

“Adrian,” she whispered, touching the cold glass.

“I’m not afraid.”

Because love — true love — doesn’t always end.

Sometimes it becomes something else.

Something darker.
Something eternal.

Something that never sleeps.