Two days ago the sun died.
It took eight minutes for the world to fall to darkness. No one realized at first. They sat in stifled silence, trying to figure out why the sky was black. Then the electricity started acting up.
Rolling black outs. People started getting random shocks whenever they touched something connected to a circuit. The first day there was thousands of electrocutions, most of them ended up being lethal.
One day ago the world lost all power. Earth officially fell into a dark abyss without a single hope for life to continue.
Today, magic bloomed into existence.
People panicked.
People died.
There’s a girl, sitting on the footsteps of her house with glowing hands. She holds a bloodied teddy bear tight to her chest. Her mouth opens and not a sound escapes.
“They called her Abeline.” Sam is somewhere across the street. Back where his house supposedly is. He can’t tell anymore, not after the first hectic move.
“That’s a… delicate name?” Maggie grabs his hand. He doesn’t know if it is for her comfort or for his own. His grasp tightens on it either way. He’ll take what he can get.
Abeline moves, this odd jerking motion as she bends into her teddy. Really, Abeline was a sweet girl a few days ago. A bit annoying, she always wanted to play with the grown up kids. Sam was always eager to get rid of her.
When he was younger, he tried to feed her to a dog once. Not literally, but she was pestering him and he just wanted to play tag; so he shoved her at the neighbors pit. How was he supposed to know the thing was feral?
Her hands dim, almost vanishing into the darkness.
There’s a part of him that panics. Losing that one bit of light is terrifying after all. He didn’t want to face a life in the pitch black darkness. At least if there’s light he can see them.
It’s a trap anyways. He already knows this. The light is a lure for Abeline’s prey to fall into. He would have fallen into it too, if he hadn’t known. If he hadn’t seen,
Hard not to, when there’s a sudden screaming and this horribly bright light.
“Yeah. She was a delicate kid.” Used to cry all the time and everything. He doesn’t say that. There’s this creeping guilt tugging at him whenever he thinks anything unkind of the girl now.
The light vanishes and Sam moves. He tugs at Maggie to get her to follow because they only have a limited amount of time. A minute, according to his counting. They have a minute to leave. That’s not enough time, especially since they can’t even see where they are going.
Technically, he remembers the street being a straight shot with a little bit of a cliff for the sidewalk. So, theoretically, as long as he and Maggie stick to the concrete- assuming they are walking on the concrete and not the road- they shouldn’t run into any obstacles.
They walk slowly, feet and hands testing out the air in front of them before they take a step. Sam’s heart lodges itself in his throat with every step. He keeps wanting to glance behind him, to where Abeline should be- just to verify.
He doesn’t.
He can’t.
Looking back will only serve to harm them in the end. All it takes is for one mistake-
So he doesn’t make a mistake. He’s careful, he’s slow. The second the world seems to brighten he freezes and Maggie freezes and they wait.
There’s another light, waving about in front of them. Another lure, another danger. It moves in these jagged patterns, nothing natural. Nothing human.
Sam’s lungs seize, squeezing tight as his heart escapes from him. His entire body falls into the cold chill of the world, even heat betraying him as he watches the light bouncing in front of them.
It turns,
It shifts,
If he squints, he could see a man. He could see a human if he wanted to. It’s part of the trap. Her name was Abeline after all. Not anymore. Now the girl is a monster and the man is a monster and they sit with their lures waiting for their prey.
The light creeps closer, glowing brighter and brighter. Sam squeezes the life out of Maggie’s hand and she can’t even complain.
They should have hidden in a house. Should have, but they heard screaming and they rushed out and by then it was too late. There was a creature dwarfing Abeline’s parents, its mouth skewed open as its hands glowed sharp and bright.
The creature was a lighthouse, showing lost ships their way to land. Except, instead of land those that wandered near found themselves face a mutilated creature with a wide open jaw of sharpened daggers.
The screaming lasted for hours and Sam was left frozen on their doorstep. He had backed away, slipped and a painful gasp had escaped him and then the creature had turned.
Blood dripped and it shifted, a warbled escaped it in some form of mimicry of the English language. It reached out with its horribly bright hands and Sam grabbed Maggie’s hand and ran.
In that instance the world fell into darkness and they stumbled their way to somewhere and when the light returned they were staring at Abeline, cuddling a bloodied teddy bear.
And now they were out in the open, somewhere on the street, between two of the monsters. Possibly more, he didn’t even know there was more than Abeline until he saw the glowing hands of the man looming somewhere in front of them.
Sam takes a step back, a mistake because he is apparently at the edge of the sidewalk and his weight shifts and shifts and-
He stumbles, rushing to catch his weight on his other foot and he can’t help the gasp for breath that escapes him as gravity tugs and tugs and-
Maggie is his savior, she shifts and drags him forward but it’s too late because the light is dimming in an awful way, but they can see the man staring straight at them. The monster looks like an average man, scuffed up and dirty. He’s got dark eyes and a nasty case of behead.
The man takes a step forward and Sam stumbles back. Maggie freezes, her hand hanging loose and empty and then-
The man takes another step, his hands flashing like a heartbeat. This gentle throb to and fro and the colors shift and-
Maggie takes a step forward, this slow ambling gait with too much swaying and not enough thought. Sam even spots her ankle twisting at an awkward angle as she catches her weight but-
He jerks at her hand-
She needs to look away, away, away.
The light is dangerous, this little lure fading in and out of his peripherals. He wants to look, but Maggie is being stupid and is trying to take another step. The man already knows about them, he’s just slowly walking forward and Maggie isn’t running away.
“Maggie!” He hisses out the word, hoping noise of all things would be enough but her hand just releases his and-
No, no, no, no-
He reaches forward, stepping back up on the concrete to drag her back. Violent and urgent. His heartbeat echoes in his ears, his grip bone breaking tight. There’s this throb in his fingertips as he tugs at her and-
The light dims, this soft amber color of the sunset and it’s so nice. Pleasant. He feels like he just woke up, a wash of comfort and warmth and-
His grip loosens. Maggie takes another step and-
Same shuts his eyes, grabs and tugs at Maggie and screams. This awful, blood curdling scream. His throat is torn to shreds at the very noise. It’s enough, it’s enough because suddenly, even with his eyes closed, the world is washed with this bright, bright light and Maggie gasps.
It’s that little noise that brings comfort, this shuddering little breath as her brain comes online. He risks opening his eyes, staring at the bright light as the man shift and turns and mutilates-
There’s a cracking noise and Sam can’t breathe, he can’t breathe. His heart escapes him, racing so far ahead that he has no hope to catch it and his body simply fails and fails and fails.
It takes a second, one long, horrible second as the monster creeps closer- it’s mouth wrenched wide open with sharp teeth bared and-
He offers one tug at Maggie’s arm before turning tail and running.
He can’t hear anything past his own racing heart, his feet slamming into the ground before forcing himself free of gravity for a split second, just enough to get away and away and away.
He has no direction, just not towards Abeline and away from the monster crawling to the surface behind him. A blink, the light dims, not as bright and-
It’s a time limit. He needs to be safe before the light vanishes. Before the darkness swallows them whole and leaves nothing but a black abyss and its guards.
He makes a beeline to the nearest house. He doesn’t care whose house as long as it’s unlocked. God, he hopes it is unlocked. If it isn’t-
If it isn’t-
His hands are a sweaty mess that can’t seem to grasp the door knob. They tremble and shake and it takes him one, two, three- turn, turn-
The light grows brighter and brighter before dimming again and-
He can hear it. This awful little cracking noise of something unnatural and he wishes he couldn’t. He wishes for his heartbeat to deafen him once again and-
Maggie is shoving him forward, he stumbles into the darkness-
Thank God it is unlocked-
The door slams shut, there’s some cursing and when Sam turns to look it is almost pitch black again. Maggie’s shadow is a trembling mess as her hands rush through the motions of locking the door and then Sam is up. Up and up-
He tugs at Maggie, they need to get away from the door. From the light, from the monster and-
Oh they just trapped themselves. They just trapped themselves into a house and who knows what those monsters can do and-
The world turns darker, slowly. It’s a tease, surely. Another lure, another danger but Maggie is there with her death grip on Sam’s hand and she whispers,
“We’re okay. We’re okay.” As if she could say it enough to make it true.
They stumble further into the house, blindly clutching at walls and furniture. There’s walls, and doors and they fall shut and then Sam collapses.
It’s safety, temporary safety but safety-
And the creatures, monsters, whatever they are, knew where they went. They had to have. They aren’t really safe, it is simply an illusion and-
A hiccupping gasp escapes him, his heart stuttering in his chest as everything pulls in tight as if his entire body is trying to suffocate him.
“We’re okay.” Maggie is there, tugging him close into a hug and Sam shuts his eyes. Not that there is a difference between his eyes being open or closed, everything was pitch as night. An empty abyss just waiting to consume them.
Two days ago the sun died.
One day ago the world lost all of its electricity.
Today the world ended and Sam honestly has no idea on how to deal with that.
Today, magic became a thing and the people that used it?
The people that used it became monsters that consumed other people.
Sam’s hands illuminate in a faint light as he cowers inside someone else’s house.
Maggie never notices.
