The sunlight streaming through the window onto my face and the song of a dozen birds woke me up the following morning. I groaned, sitting up in bed, and dragged my hands down my face. I squinted at my phone - 5:18am. That was too early for the sun to be so bright, but I got up all the same.

As I took my mug of hot chocolate - now long cold - back to the kitchen, I tried the light switches and pursed my lips at the empty clicking. The fridge was also off and no amount of jabbing at the kettle made it start boiling. The electricity from last night had run out which meant I needed to find that generator before everything spoiled in the fridge.

I washed my face with freezing cold water and threw on an old check shirt, jeans, and a pair of trainers before traipsing outside. My eyes immediately went to the treeline where I’d seen that figure last night and, of course, saw nothing. Shrugging, I stepped off the back porch and crunched my shoes into the debris of the clearing. Dead leaves and broken twigs snapped underfoot as I walked around the lodge, finding a small lean-to under the window of...the bedroom? I crouched down and frowned at the silent generator. How did I not hear it last night?

A few red cans of fuel lined the back of the lean-to and I grabbed one, struggling to lift it above the generator as I popped off the lid to the tank. I started pouring, listening to the liquid fill the empty tank until I could see the top line of the fuel through the hole. I recapped the can and the tank, returning the can to the line, and then grabbed the cord. It took a couple of yanks, but the generator soon roared into life, vibrating furiously where it stood. I straightened, the frown on my face deepening as I went back into the house and into the bedroom.

I listened. The generator sounded like an angry swarm of giant wasps immediately outside the window and, without a doubt, I should have been able to hear it last night. Just how tired had I been?

“Plan of the day,” I said to myself as I walked back to the kitchen. “Make breakfast. Find out how to get hot water. Unpack. Maybe take a stroll to the lake.”

Breakfast consisted of a mug of black coffee and...what was that?

Inside the fridge where last night I had definitely seen a pack of bacon lay a rotting slab of red meat, a truly full package of disease twitching with maggots and blackened flesh. I swallowed down the bile rising in my throat and picked up the plate holding the meat, fingers grasping onto the very edge and watching it as if the maggots would strike out at me if I moved too fast. I opened the bin with a kick of my foot on the pedal and dropped the meat heavily into the bag, the plate left with a yellow-red streak of putrid ooze.

“Not cool, not cool,” I muttered, drowning the plate in a steady stream of water in the kitchen sink. “Definitely not cool.”

Well, there went any desire for bacon or any form of breakfast for that matter. I forced myself to sip from my coffee, glaring at the plate in the sink. The water wasn’t draining away and the sink filled with murky yellow water, bubbles from the washing up liquid I’d generously squirted all over the plate now glimmering a dark crimson alike blood on the surface of the dirty water.

I screwed up my face, dunking my hand into the water to lift the plate and attempt to clear whatever was blocking the plug, only to gasp when I got hold of something solid. The sink drained and I stared at the rotting meat in my hand, maggots wriggling against my skin and between my fingers, that putrid yellow fluid dripping into my palm.

I launched it into the bin. “What the...what…” My heart thundered so loud I barely heard the slam as the meat landed at the bottom of the bag, where I’m completely and utterly sure I’d dumped it in before.

I scrubbed my hands raw under the tap, trying not to think too hard about the fact the water was searing my skin a vibrant red. “I...Maybe Adrian was right, I really needed a break. I’ve lost it. Totally lost it.” Or I’d just stepped into a horror movie, but I really didn’t want to go there.