Something crazy was bound to happen at the party. No one knew what, but we knew the phantom existed and that it would strike that night. Yet somehow when it happened, we were all surprised.

I remember that as the liveliness of the party intensified, the air seemed to thicken. As people started to move around, the volume of the music began to pulse, but not enough to draw attention. The pulsing added a sort of urgency to whatever people were doing.

The temperature seemed to drop slightly with the pulsing of the music, but because everyone was moving with such urgency from the music, the room being slightly cooler was nothing we were disturbed by.

Before the final strike to our party, the phantom managed to get everyone in his grasp. He had captured everyone’s senses without us even knowing. But he would have no pride if his power was not acknowledged. He had to show us he had more power than all of us combined.

So he made his final strike. He disappeared. And in an instant everything went back to normal. That’s when we realized that it hadn’t been normal all along.