The torch was shining brightly up at the power lines across the complex from my apartment. Climbing all over the pole and the wires, short, green... things. They were making a chattering noise that sounded like laughter as they used sharp teeth to bite into the electrical cords.

One of the green things jumped as his teeth broke through the wire insulation and sliced the power cable. He had clearly gotten an electric jolt, but he had also accomplished his mission. All the lights in the complex went dark, including the torch that had been shining up at the swarm.

The chittering laughter continued, even growing more emphatic as true darkness fell. I heard the rev of an engine as someone started up a car across the lot. Fresh light fell on the parking lot illuminating a crowd of a couple dozen of the small creatures. They were getting into everything! And then a light went off in my head, an old eighties movie I had seen, but surely they weren't real! Surely they couldn't be.... Gremlins!

The next thing I knew they were coming at me.