The heroes launched themselves forward fueled by their desire to save the planet, hitting the foul beast in its soft snout, the giant beast reared its head back before whimpering before the might of the heroes.
“You shall fall today in the name of justice” they screamed, their voice becoming single one, at that moment they became a single unit with all their focus on falling this great foe, but before being able to attack again, the beast jumped towards the heroes, its maw opened wide, spit flying to all sides before ruthlessly clumping around the greatest of them all, before shaking its head trying to separate his torso from his legs.
“No Brutus!!” I screamed with a shrill in my voice, “You’re not supposed to eat them!” I screamed as I jumped on the fluffy monstrosity that was the dog named Brutus.
“Mom help meeeee...” I screamed towards the kitchen, tears forming on my face as I pleaded for help, from the kitchen I heard soft laughter before hearing her voice with a lot of levity “Brutus come here I have some treats for you.” as soon as the last words were spoken Brutus let go of captain justice letting the figurine hit the ground with a wet thud.
Using the tip of my fingers I pulled Captain Justice by his feet before holding his legs, drool dripping on my hands before Captain Justice broke at the waist, the top half hitting the ground once again. Tears formed on my face as I screamed “Mooooooom… He killed Captain Justice, he’s DEAAAD!!!” tears were already running down my face.
I could hear soft laughter coming from the kitchen which just made me angry, she was not taking this seriously. With vision still blurry I started picking the other heroes figurines and setting them around both pieces of Captain Justice, after setting everything in place I closed my eyes and started the funeral.
“Food is ready.” came from the kitchen as I continued the funeral rites for the greatest of all heroes, I heard the calling a second and then a third time as I ignored her and continued with the finishing rites. “So it’s gonna be like that?” I almost jumped as the voice came from my left ear, my eyes shot open and my head hit Mom’s as I turned to look at her.
I started to rub my head and glared at Mom, it was not hurting but the shock still made the throb on my head forehead stand out, “I already called you five times,” she said with a calm voice but with an unspoken threat only a Mom can intone, “The food is gonna get cold if you stay here.”
I stopped rubbing my forehead and glared even harder, my eyes looking straight into her auburn-colored eyes, she kept the staring contest before blowing wind at my face, I started to blink uncontrollably as my eyes now burned from the sudden blow of wind and more tears started to form in my eyes.
“I told you to stop hitting Brutus with your toys, I told you this was gonna happen,” I started to rub my eyes, I still could feel as if something was stuck in my eyes as I tried to clean my vision “I can buy you a new one if you promise to stop doing this.” The words were slow and with a softness to it.
“But… But…” I started to stammer as I still could feel some sobs deep in my chest, before any more words could form I feel Mom’s arms wrapping around me, her hand moves through my hair and scratched my head “If you promise to not hit Brutus with your toys I’ll buy a new Captain Justice.” I couldn’t form any words but I made some sounds that hopefully said promise.
“Oh… this is the darkest of days,” I couldn’t stop a giggle as Mom started doing her best narrator voice, her voice going deeper and getting a sweet quality to it, each word coming out slowly “The greatest of heroes fallen by a foul beast, his upper body so rudely separated from his legs, and as his comrades mourn his loss. A princess is captured.” My vision spins for a second and laughter escapes my throat as I’m quickly lifted into the air and held in a princess carry
I start to giggle uncontrollably as I’m carried to the kitchen “And, oh… By the fates… she shall be fed by a giantess that loves her.”
She stops when we get near the table and puts me on the ground “Now, are you going to be a good girl and have dinner? We can go buy another Captain Justice when I get paid”, I climb onto my seat still getting the last of the giggles out of me “Thank you, I’ll be a very good girl,” I pause, “NO, I’ll be THE BEST GIRL.”
After laughing Mom stirs the ladle inside the still-steaming stewpot, before stirring for a bit, grabbing my plate and pouring some soup for me. I can see bits of carrots, broccoli, rice, and pasta but no sign of meat or anything else to give more taste to the food “Where’s the meat and not green stuff?” I stir the soup on my plate using my spoon and look right at Mom, “It’s the end of the month, and these greens are good for you, as soon as I’m paid I can buy more meat.” I look down at my plate before starting to dig into my food.
As soon as I’m done eating I stand up run to the living room and turn on the TV, after dinner time there is always the news and after a few minutes it’s the cartoons, Mom comes right after me and sits on the sofa taking half of it for herself and Brutus comes running from one of the room and jumps in the sofa, taking the other half of the sofa for himself, the giant ball of fur that stands almost as tall as me barks happily and moms scratches his head, the dumb fluff ball acts as if he doesn’t remember killing Captain Justice, I stand in front of the sofa before throwing myself in the ground, I regret instantly, as I feel my stomach slouching and the soup wanting to get back in my mouth “We just ate, don’t just throw yourself like that, if you throw up you’re gonna be the one cleaning it”.
From the TV “and it seems like these strange phenomena keep happening throughout the country, people continue to disappear without leaving traces,” - The News channel starts to cycle through multiple imagines and videos, each one showing an image of devastation, from streets with large swathes of concrete missing to aerial views of buildings starting to collapse - “as you all can see the damage appeared suddenly leaving hundreds dead and even more without housing, like most other such events no bodies were found near the damaged areas.”
“What is going on? First people started to disappear, then roads and buildings started to randomly show cracks and now buildings are suddenly being destroyed?” I can feel Mom’s eyes trying to burn the back of my head, “if you see anything like that happening you turn to the other direction and run as fast as you can.” I continue looking at the TV as they show aerial views of multiple buildings that look on the verge of collapsing, I stand to get on my knees before lifting my right hand to my heart and doing my best to make my voice deeper “I promise by everything that is beautiful and precious that I shall keep this promise”.
The news continues to talk about the theories around those phenomena until finally the News anchor says goodbye and I can hear the intro song for the cartoons.
————
Edina
When I see that Diann is hypnotized by the cartoons I slowly get up from the couch to not alert Brutus and pat her on the head and move my hand through the curls in her dark brown hair, moving slowly and undoing the curls just to see them coming back in shape, it takes a few moments but she finally notices and tries to pry my hand away from her hair.
I continue to fight back for a few moments before letting her move my hand, I blow some wind in her head before standing up and start walking away from the living room.
I walk past our small kitchen, with barely enough space for the table and 4 chairs, the sink, and the cabinets in the corner. The stewpot is still on the table, and both plates laying on top of one another in the sin.
I walk past the kitchen and onto a small undecorated corridor, with only 3 doors, an undecorated white painted wooden door to the right. Diann’s room is to the left, every piece of the door covered in stickers, from the bottom to the top of it, I still remember her using chairs to reach and place her stickers at the top, some are faded and the ones on the bottom are already peeling out from the most recent cleaning.
The last room in the corridor is my room, the door is still unadorned with the exception of black markings on the doorframe. Now closer to the doorframe I can see the tallest of markings, 8 - 1,20. it still feels like when we took the marker and measured her.
As soon as the door opens I can see the unkept twin-sized bed, and clothes stacked on top of one another, peering through some of the clothes some soft light can be seen shining, I sight and throw some of the clothes to the ground, finding the source of the light to be my notebook, that I forgot to close and charge, Again.
I open the notebook and look at the charge, 9%, I stumble around the room trying to find my charger, throwing some more clothing to the ground and promising myself that I’ll be cleaning this tomorrow.
I plug my charger into the notebook and start moving through some of my open tabs, looking for something specific in the mess of barely visible windows, not even a name can be seen, only the images visible.
It takes a few moments but I finally find what I’m looking for, one of the many forums that discuss this every time a phenomenon happens. A place where anyone can throw any ideas and discuss even the more wild of theories, r/SuddenlyGonne.
Cartoons should go for at least one hour, long enough for some browning before tucking Diann in bed.
————
Diann POV
My 9-year anniversary is right around the corner, I can barely contain my excitement while sitting beside Mom, my eyes wander around the waiting room, the place seems mostly empty there are two guys sitting on the other side from me and Mom, they seem to be ready to fall asleep in their seat, from the outside the sound of the cars can be heard and on one of the corners of the room an old TV is playing the Morning News.
30 minutes go by with me just looking at anything that grabs my eye, anything to keep me from falling asleep on my seat like one of the guys already did, Then I finally hear Mom’s name being called “This shouldn’t take too long if you start to get bored,” Mom moves her hand through her purse and gives me her cellphone and a pair of white headphones “there should be hours of all of the cartoons you like already downloaded.” she then stands up and goes in the room after apologizing for making the lady wait.
40 more minutes go by and I look up from the cellphone, the door is still closed, one of the guys seemed to have gone away while I was looking at the cellphone, the other is still asleep. Mom said this wouldn’t take too long and I’m starting to need to go to the bathroom, I stand up and stretch my legs before looking for the closest adult and asking where the bathrooms are, an old man with his back so curved he almost looked like the letter C offers to show me where to go.
“So… what is such a young girl like you doing alone here?” his voice is shaky and weak, he stops to take a breath as soon as he’s done speaking “Mom is trying to get work,” I don’t have to look too far up to look in his eyes, dull brown eyes looking at me, the corner of his eyes full of wrinkles and a welcoming smile on his face “she plays superheroes and the voices that tell stories in cartoons,” he freezes for a second, and what almost sounds like laughter comes out of his mouth before he starts to cough, I look worriedly at him and get closer to hold him if he falls “so she is a voice actor?” he says between coughing fits.
We stop in front of the bathroom “You should know how to get back from here” he says as he starts to slowly walk away, I watch him walk away a few more moments just to be sure he’s not gonna fall, before entering. I finish my business in the bathroom and start walking back to where Mom is - THUMP - I feel the strongest heartbeat, I feel the back of my throat burning, my chest burns with my breath and I can feel my heart wanting to explode in my chest.
I almost fall to the ground, my legs almost give out under me but I keep myself steady by leaning on the wall, I can feel my breakfast rebelling in my stomach, I take some deep breaths and try to walk - THUMP - this time I lose even the strength on my arms, falling to the ground and my breakfast jumps in my mouth before I swallow it back down, my chest is burning and feel like my chest wants to burst apart from the inside.
I hear the sound of the footsteps around me, and even my vision starts to blur as I hear some buzzing in my ear and something moving my body slightly - THUMP - the breakfast jumps out of my mouth and onto the floor, I hear concerned voices, someone moves my face, I can barely notice the shape of a face.
- THUMP - THUMP - THUMP- I can feel the beating getting worse, each beat feels like a hammer trying to break my chest open from the inside, my whole body spasms, I feel myself getting weak as I’m suddenly lifted from the ground, I try to say something, I try to tell them that Mom is here but I don’t have the strength to do any of that, each breath feels like needles entering my lungs, the beating keeps getting worse until I feel one so strong that my visions blacks out until I feel soft taps in my face.
Then… everything stops, I can’t feel any more tappings, the sounds of the cars are gone, and the beating finally stops. I weakly open my eyes and look around, everything seems bleaker as if someone threw gray paint over everything, and everything is frozen in place my eyes move around and land on the hands holding me in place.
The guy that was asleep is holding me, his hands feel like stones on my body as I try moving. As my mind starts to catch up I hear the noise for the first time, the sounds of something heavy, something falls on my face, flocks of concrete falling like dust, then a loud thud as the whole building shakes.
I start trashing around, trying to break free from the person holding me, but his grip still feels like stone locking me in place “LET ME GO! WE NEED TO RUN!” I scream as my thrashing grows more violent but accomplishes nothing.
The sounds start to get louder and some cracks start to spread along the ceiling, ground, and walls, I freeze in place when a piece of the ceiling breaks, falling on top of one of the adults around me his body folds with the weight before hitting the ground, unmoving and gaze still locked in worry, now looking at the ceiling.
My eyes start to burn and tears stream down my face as my trashing grows fiercer and I start screaming for Mom, the sounds get somehow even louder, as the cracks grow larger and some people are devoured by them, falling to the lower floor.
My movements slow as I start to get tired. I close my eyes and try to imagine myself with Mom, “Mom is here, she will save me,” I keep telling and repeating that to myself, even as the sounds get louder and my eyes burn even more.
After repeating that for some time I feel the ground buckling before feeling the wind rushing around me, after a few moments I heard a sickening cracking sound and something wet on my back - I was on the third floor of the building - I refuse to open my eyes as I feel my back getting wetter.
I can feel the rumbling of the ground followed by the thuds of everything falling around me, I repeat the phrase like my life depends on it, even as the thuds happen closer to me and my nose is assaulted by dust.
As my eyes start hurting from how much effort I’m using to keep my eyes closed I feel something different, first I stop feeling the beating on my chest, the drumming on my chest is gone, then the rising of my chest, the water in my mouth, it spreads slowly through my body until even the sound of the building disappears and the only thing left is the rumbling of the ground.
I don’t know how long I stayed like that but long after I couldn’t feel anything I stayed still until I tried looking around but nothing changed, I tried blinking but nothing happened, I tried taking a breath but my body refused, I tried moving and soon felt my body stopping after hitting something.
I tried moving my head but there hardly was enough space, I couldn’t feel anything, even as I know I should feel my body scraping what I believe to be the ground there was nothing, only the acknowledgment that something was below me and that there was something stopping my body from moving
I squirmed, trying to free myself from whatever is holding me down, but it was all for nothing, it didn’t matter what I did or how I did, nothing changed. I moved my head trying to look at something, anything, I just stared at what I believed to be up and waited, the thuds on the ground growing fainter but not stopping.
