It didn’t clear off. The lion claw marks were still there. There was no explanation for the symbol below her right boob. It was the faithful Tuesday and yet she wasn’t excited. The whole day felt off, like something big was going to go down, something was definitely going to go wrong. She had told Alexandra who just passed it off as excitement. It wasn’t. Amaya knew what excitement was. It wasn’t whatever this was. It was like her soul was warning her and yet no one listened, she ended up not listening either. What could it possibly be! Air pollution? Earthquakes? Tornados? The news said everywhere would be clear for the entire day and that nothing was notable. Not even rain would fall! Yet she couldn’t relax.

They were on the dinner boat already and it took every ounce of her not to drag Alexandra and run. Her senses were sending out alarms. Loud ones. The magician was performing in front of the boat. Each trick earned a round of applause from the audience and yet she couldn’t focus. Frankly, she didn’t care about what he was doing. He could do a million of them if it satisfied him. Her mental list of potential things that could go wrong was only getting longer. What if the lion was a vision warning her of her death? Or maybe quite literally there was a great evil approaching.

Crash! In the blink of an eye, a black tentacle landed on Alexandra and broke the boat in two. Her bones were shattered, and Amaya heard them. Her eyes widened as her body was sent flying out of the boat and into the water. She could swim, Alexandra on the other hand, couldn’t. It didn’t help that the tentacle had landed on her either. She was probably dead but Amaya couldn’t stand thinking of it. “Alexandra!”, she yelled. No response. She called out to her again silently cursing herself for not listening to her guts. She looked up finally getting a good view of the creature. It had squid-like tentacles but a spider's body. It had 24 red eyes scattered across it’s head and was covered in a dark galaxy pattern. It definitely wasn’t from Earth. It’s eyes rolled around till it spotted her. The creature screeched before slapping Amaya into the water with another tentacle. It hurt, her back hurt like hell. But she was alive, somehow. Her screams were silenced by the water. The creature screeched once more before taking down the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. Cars were sent down into the water and honks could be heard all around.

More creatures could be seen springing up in all places on the earth. Nowhere was safe! Not China, not Nigeria, not Antarctica. They were all over! The screams of the people were a melody to these creatures. It egged them on to cause more destruction. They were demons, anyone could see that. We were nothing but flies.

“All civilians please make your way to the evacuation points! All civilians please make your way to the evacuation points!”, the announcement boomed. What evacuation points? Where would they even be evacuated to? They were nothing but false comfort. All they’d be doing is gathering people to a point where they could be killed in masses. A missile flew through the air crashing into the face of one of the monsters. It was ineffective. The military was ineffective.

Amaya stood on the boat's remains and stared up at the creature. Alexandra would never survive a slap from that thing. The reality of the situation was just dawning on her. Her hope was dying and so was the earth. She knew it. She could sense it. The crimson sky was also a dead giveaway. How would she make it out alive? Was there a point in making it out alive? Where would she go if she managed to survive? What would she live for anyway?

She sat down, her knees to her chest. It was over and she would most likely end how she started, powerless. “You’re too stubborn Voer”, Rafka’s voice boomed as her space warped. “Your world is ending and even then you refuse to call on me. You may be the most stubborn version of Rafka’s vessel”, Rafka stated. Amaya was sitting in front of him now, the same way she was on the ruble. “You’re real?”

“You still didn’t believe I existed?”, Rafka questioned.

“You’re the protector of the earth, right? Do something!”

“Correction, I am the protector of the mortal realm and I can’t do anything”

“What?”

“A late believer will suffer when the calamity comes will they not?”, Rafka reasoned.

“You said you needed a vessel. You can use me!”

“I will use you but I’m afraid your world will be destroyed regardless”

“What?”, Amaya stood up.

“As you said once ‘sucks to suck’. Look where it landed you”, Rafka floated around her carefree. Her heart sunk to her stomach. The lion was actually telling the truth. “I always say no and I end up regretting it, " she whispered in disbelief.

“Exactly, you’ve done the same in all your lives. I can’t count how many planets you’ve destroyed in your rotation Voer. It’s not like I don’t want to help you. It’s that even if we were to make the contract now. It would take at least a week for you to merge with me enough to use a small fraction of my power”

“So how exactly do I remedy this?”

“Simply put, you cannot, 95 per cent of your world has already perished and the remaining 5 will perish in 30 minutes”, Rafka stated.

“But it’s been an hour and a half since the first appearance”

“Your world is the weakest of the mortal realm. They shall obviously work faster than usual”

“This is unfair! So all I can do is sit and watch while the planet gets destroyed?”, Amaya asked in disbelief.

“You refused your position as my vessel and now you must witness the destruction of your world. You can take it as sort of your cannon event”, Rafka stated jumping onto another cloud.