Six of us have been dispatched to a small town called Bridgewood. A supposed “inventor” has been claimed to be starting a cult. After several investigations, we’ve determined the claims false. However, people have been disappearing in the household. Now, the only option is clear. Raid the property, and determine exactly what’s going on. My team and I arrive at the house in a less-than-subtle way, driving armored sedans through the field to the large mansion in the backwoods. The immediate smell of something burning fills the air, yet, nothing appears to be on fire. We all exit our vehicles, equipping ourselves with combat firearms.

As we approach the house, it has a particular gleam that sparkles in the sunlight like orange glitter. Standing on the porch, I wave my hand to signal two of my subordinates to inspect through the windows. They glance through the windows for any retaliation forces. “Chief! Check this out!” one of them shouts to me. I make my way to the window, peering inside to see a horrid sight. Charred bodies on the ground in what appears to be a ruined dinner setting. While no fire appears to be present, the bodies are most certainly seared. No more waiting! We must advance!

I Go back to the front door. I raise my boot, kicking forward and knocking the door down. We storm inside with guns raised. “FBI! If anyone’s alive in here, make yourselves known!” An eerie silence amongst the sound of guns clacking and boots creaking on a hardwood floor. I wave my hand, signaling a group to go upstairs, and another to go down the right corridor. My group and I will go down the center hall. We split up, searching the premises for any surviving person. We kick open every door, finding nothing but burnt corpses sprawled across the floors.

As we make it to the furthest room. We find a room that appears to be some sort of chemical lab. Inspecting further, we see heaps of orange dust, drums of coloring, and a strong smell of wet paint overwhelming the smell of burning flesh. I reach my hand towards the orange powder to attempt to identify it. “Chief!” A sudden shout rings out from the upstairs, followed by a loud thump! We charge down the hall and storm up the stairs to find one of my men seizing on the ground. Moving as if being electrocuted by something!

One of the men who had been with me reaches down to help him up! “Come on! Stand up!” I quickly grab him, stopping himself from touching the seizing man. “Don’t touch him!” I shout out as we watch. The horrific scene of one of my own violently shaking as smoke begins rolling from his body. His skin turns black, as if being severely burned from the inside out. His eyes melt from his skull, and eventually, his muscles stop responding, leaving him a smoldering corpse, just like the other residence of this house.

I grab the other man who had been with him by the shirt. “What the hell did he do for that to happen?!” I shouted. The man, confused and terrified, glances as the door. “He just… I don’t know! Grabbed the door or something!” Someone on the other side must be charging it with electricity or something! I kick the door open to reveal a man laying on the floor of a bathroom, burned beyond recognition while having his privates melted to his hands. No signs of sabotage or trickery. One of my men begin hyperventilating. “T-this is fucked up, man!” He steps backwards, touching his lead vest to the wall.

His body locks up as his muscles tighten. Shaking violently and foaming from the mouth, we can only watch on in horror as a second comrade of ours is electrocuted to death! The smoke from the two men begin filling the room, removing any remaining clean oxygen from the hallway. We flee from the upstairs, unable to do anything to save our companion. We make it back downstairs in a panic. “The fuck is going on?!” my remaining teammate asks with fear bleeding from his eyes. I pull my flashlight from my vest pocket and shine it across the walls.

The same orange glitter throughout the entire house! The paint may be different colors, but the sparkle is the same! “It’s copper!” I shout out. “This insane person put copper in his paint and now the whole house is live!” My partner looks around to see the gleaming sparkle around himself. “Why aren’t we being electrocuted from standing here, then?!” I lift my foot, showing the bottom of it. “There’s rubber on our boots, dumbass!” I lower my foot and point to the rooms further down the hall. “Go look for survivors, and DON’T touch anything with the orange shine!”

We split up as I make my way back down the stairs. I need to find the fuse box to shut the power to the house off. I head down the right corridor where the rest of my team went. I kick open each door, searching for one to a basement. After arriving at the final door, I see it’s already been kicked open, leading to what looks like an outdoor greenhouse. “Anyone out there?” I shout as I hold my gun up. No response from survivors or my companions. I step outside to see my two men burnt to the ground. By their positioning, one must have let their gun touch the wall, and the other’s hand is melted to his shoulder, signaling he must have tried saving him.

I look around to find a cellar door leading to the basement. Of course, the door is also painted with this copper-riddle paint. I begin shooting the door to break the hinges. I hear a sudden burst from inside the house. I’ll assume my gunshots startled him, and this is now a solo mission. After removing the hinges to the cellar door, I stomp on it, breaking the doors off. The ringing of the iron doors slamming to the ground in an otherwise silent room are practically silenced by my heartbeat. I walk carefully down the stairs. I scan the room with my flashlight. Tables, gardening supplies, tools, cleaning devices. All coated in a bright orange glitter.

This psychopath truly pushed for all his things to represent this failure of a product. I find the fuse box to shut down the power. I shoot the latch, breaking it off. Without anything to touch the box with, I remove one of my boots, balancing on one foot to use the rubber on it to touch the fuse box door. I open it and begin switching all of the switches to off. Once the power is completely shut down to the house, I let out a sigh of relief. Without thinking, I put my socked foot to the ground.

My body immediately locks up as a charge of electricity rushes through my body! Why?! What did I miss?! I could feel my body heating up, burning like all the others with no way to break the connection of myself to the floor! In my final thoughts, I could only regret not assuming there could possibly have been a back-up power source somewhere. Perhaps the next team… will… learn… sooner…