Tonight, there was a power outage. I went to my son’s room to get some candles from under his bed, and that’s when I discovered this. Honestly, it’s the first time in my life I’ve ever seen anything like this, and I have absolutely no idea what it is. Does anyone know what it could be? The answer is in the first comment.

For a moment, I stood there, trying to adjust.

Then I remembered the candles under my son’s bed.

I walked slowly down the hallway, guided only by my memories and the blurry outlines of furniture I’d passed thousands of times. The house seemed different in the darkness: bigger, quieter, so strange that the slightest noise seemed amplified. Each footstep echoed a little too long, as if the walls were listening.

Arriving in his room, I carefully knelt down beside the bed. The air was still and slightly dusty, like in those forgotten places where things accumulate over time: lost socks, broken toys, various objects that children insist on calling “important,” even without being able to explain why.

I reached under the bed, expecting to find candles.

Instead, my fingers brushed against something cold.

Hard plastic.

I removed it slowly.