Reader Submission | That Night, the Sign Downstairs Had a Character on It I Couldn't Read

(This is an anonymous reader submission. The content has not been verified.)

I am not much good at writing this sort of thing. I will set down what happened that night in order, and you can judge for yourself.

I could not sleep that night. At 03:17 I was standing on the balcony having a cigarette, looking down at the 24-hour pharmacy below. The sign is always lit; I have looked at it for 3 years and I know every character on it. It was a bit damp that night and the railing was tacky under my hand. There were no cars on the road, only the drinks cooler by the pharmacy door humming.

Then it flickered.

There was nothing wrong with the tubes and the brightness did not change. In that one flicker the characters on the sign turned into other shapes, a lot of strokes packed in tight, nothing I recognised — and the strange part is that for that instant I seemed to know what they were saying. By the time I came back to myself, the sign was the original characters again.

I did not time it. Thinking back, about 4 seconds, maybe less. I rubbed my eyes first, turned to look at the clock in the living room, and only then remembered the phone was in my pocket.

I took a picture with it. There was something on the screen at the time and I could see it clearly. But when I opened the album the next morning that photo was solid black, without even the light of the pharmacy sign in it, and the file time had stopped at 03:17. I took the phone into the shop, and the assistant tested it for 20 minutes, said the camera module was fine and suggested I update the system.

I went downstairs to ask the pharmacy night clerk. He said everything had been normal and the sign had never failed. While he was talking his eyes went to the door for a moment, and the direction he looked was exactly the angle where I had seen the sign change the night before. Then he lowered his head to the till and did not look at me again.

The next night I was back on the balcony, standing there until 04:00. The sign was just a sign. The third night and the fourth were the same. I even stood on the same floor tile and got through 4 cigarettes, and nothing happened.

I started keeping times in the notes app on my phone: which nights I had not slept, what time I went out on the balcony, whether anything happened. I kept it for 11 days, and only that one night, in that one row, is there anything written. I screenshotted the notes later and put a copy on the computer, in case that goes as well.

I have gone over the explanations myself. If a sign like that is an LED panel, a crashed program scrambles the characters. I rang the sign company, and the man who picked up looked up the work order and said what they installed that year was a fixed panel: it cannot run characters, and it cannot be changed.

I have told 3 friends about it. One said I was overtired; one said I was seeing things and sent me an article about sleep deprivation. The third was listening, and halfway through he suddenly asked me, "Where were you up to?" — as if for a few seconds in the middle he had not been there at all. I did not press him. I changed the subject.

I have not told anyone else. I am writing it here instead. If you too, sometime past 3 in the morning, have seen a sign, or a face you know well, "flicker" and turn into something else, take a picture, keep several copies, and do not keep it only on your phone.

Also, if that photo turns solid black for no reason, the shop will tell you to update the system. I have updated it.