Isaac

“Attention, due to unforeseen circumstances, all flights have been canceled until further notice. Please evacuate the airport immediately. Failure to comply will result in federal charges, including trespassing.”

There were moments when the world split in two. When every fiber of your being was torn between the urge to run and the impulse to stand your ground. That primal instinct, buried deep in the recesses of our minds, decided whether we fought or fled. Most of the time, it was a quick decision. A flash of adrenaline and fear mixed, pushing us to react before we knew what was happening.

But then, there were times when the choice wasn’t so clear. When confusion clouded the mind. When the world around me didn’t make sense. And the lines between reality and nightmare blurred. In those moments, every instinct was at war with itself.

Right now, I was caught in that limbo.

People gasped, wide-eyed. Some dropped their bags, while others frantically shoved past each other in a scared rush for the exits. A suitcase tumbled over, clothes spilling onto the tile floor. A security guard barked orders. Phones rang nonstop. The noise rose as confusion gave way to chaos.

But not everyone was panicking. A growing number of people stood their ground, refusing to believe it. Angry voices rose above the crowd, defiantly insisting there had to be some mistake. They refused to accept the flights were canceled and ignored the warnings that they would be accused of trespassing. Everyone was trying to figure out what the hell was happening.

The sense of dread that had been creeping up on me all morning exploded into full-blown panic. My brain was lagging, so I dialed Josh without thinking.

“Come on, come on…”

The tone rang once, twice—then a loud beep.

Busy.

“Shit!” I cursed under my breath, hanging up and trying again. The line rang, but no answer. A wave of nausea hit me as I pushed through the crowd, people bumping into me. The usual mix of coffee, cheap perfume, and body odor was gone, replaced by an acrid scent—and something else, something burning. My eyes darted upward toward the flickering lights.

“Josh. Pick up!”

Sweat started dripping down the back of my neck, and my throat became so dry that it hurt. I was holding my phone so tight my hand started cramping.

Finally, the call connected.

“Josh, they canceled! They canceled the flight! I—I was on a video call with Will and Karla, and it cut off. The kids were screaming. I don’t know what’s going on. I—”

“Isaac.” Josh’s tone was calm, but there was a strange hesitation behind it. “Take a breath—”

Josh’s words cut off abruptly. A low groan echoed around me, and it wasn’t just him—everyone in the terminal seemed to join in, their collective cries merging as if they were all gripped by the same force.

There was a sound, an eerie, high-pitched wail, almost like the blare of a distant horn, but distorted. No, it was more like a call—unnatural, oppressing, overwhelming.

I yanked the phone from my ear, yet it didn’t matter—the sound was everywhere, drowning out everything else. People flinched, some clapping their hands over their ears.

I turned, searching for the source of the sound. Mid-step, I came to a dead stop, something pulling my attention back. I retraced my steps, my eyes locking onto the TV screens in the café. Every screen had switched to breaking news.

“What the fuck is—” I stammered, frozen as I stared at them.

“Breaking news. We are receiving reports of an unprecedented situation in the San Francisco area. A giant black cloud hangs over the city. It’s unclear if it’s a storm. Communications in the entire region have gone down, and no one has been able to reach the affected area.”

My stomach dropped. San Francisco. Where Will was. Where Karla and the kids were.

The news anchor pressed her hand to her earpiece, fear flashing across her face. “We’re getting reports of the same phenomenon in New York, London, Paris, Sydney and Tokyo. Authorities urge everyone to stay inside and avoid travel. Martial law will be in effect within the next 24 hours in all major cities until we have more information.”

The broadcast switched to a live feed.

“We have visuals from San Francisco,” she continued, but her voice wavered. The aerial shot was shaky, taken from a helicopter hovering over the city. Thick, swirling black clouds loomed over the skyline, darkening everything beneath them.

A bolt of lightning shot from the clouds, striking a building below. People sucked in sharp breaths as I leaned forward, gripping the edge of a chair. Black tendrils followed the lightning. They snaked down from the clouds and wrapped around buildings like living creatures. The camera zoomed in on the dark limbs as they stiffened, crushing concrete and steel.

The image shifted, showing military helicopters circling the cloud. Lightning arced toward them. One helicopter spiraled out of control, vanishing into the darkness. Another fell, trailing smoke.

Then, through the strands of darkness, something moved—a figure—floating.

The camera’s shaky focus locked on the figure in the black cloud. It hovered, motionless, above the chaos. At first, it was just a shadow, a vague shape in the storm. But as I stared, the form became clearer. What I thought was just a force of nature began to look more like a figure—a man. No, not a man. He looked like a demon.

He was tall, unnaturally so. A tattered black hooded cape cloaked his frame. It rippled like smoke in the storm. The hood obscured much of his face, but his sharp features cut through the shadow even from a distance—a mouth full of jagged, sharp teeth.

His skin was a deathly white, translucent. Black veins twisted and pulsed beneath, coiling up his neck and across his face like a sign of death.

Black.

Bile rose in my throat. The space around me had become too still, the airport fading into a suffocating silence. I blinked, and tears spilled down my cheeks. I couldn’t tell if they were from fear or the growing ache in my chest. Will… Karla… the kids—the thought of them trapped in that city, with that out there…

I clumsily handled my phone, pressing it back to my ear. “Josh,” I croaked. “Are you watching the TV?”

Josh didn’t answer right away, and for a second, my heart stopped. But then I heard him. “Yeah… yeah, I’m seeing it.”

Before I could say anything else, the figure on the screen moved. The floating entity, cloaked in black, lifted its head slightly. The camera zoomed in. His hood hid his eyes. And still, it felt like he was staring at us, seeing everything.

And then… he spoke.

I didn’t hear the voice on the TV. It wasn’t coming from the speakers. Instead, the sound slammed into my mind like a tidal wave, crushing everything in its path. My knees buckled, and I dropped to the floor with a thud.

The sound he made wasn’t a language I could recognize or something I’d ever heard. It was deep, raw, ancient. It reverberates through every nerve in my body, sinking into my brain like they’d always been there, waiting to be woken up.

“Oh, humans… Corrupted sinners… Look how far you’ve fallen this time.”

Around me, people collapsed, gripping their heads as if trying to block out the voice. I was shaking so badly that my phone slipped from my grasp, hitting the tile with a hard crack.

“I, Aldragoth, was born from your corruption, and now you have forgotten me. You have forgotten the gods that once watched over you. Now, your final trial has come. You have been given countless chances. Millennia upon millennia. And yet, you fall further still.

“I could exterminate you all this very moment. But where is the joy in that? Instead, you have seven days. Seven days to prove there is any goodness left in your kind. If you fail, your world will be wiped clean, and every soul will be consumed by the decay you have brought upon yourselves.”

He paused. I stared at the god on the screen. But gods don’t exist. Not anymore. My entire body tensed under the pressure. No matter how much I wanted to, I couldn’t keep looking at the screen. My hands curled into fists, every muscle straining against the crushing force.

“As a gift…” My vision blurred as I was pressed deeper into the floor. “I will awaken the dormant power within you. You who carry the blood of gods will now wield their power. With it, you will face the gods you have forgotten in the clouds, dungeons that will consume your cities. Your final trial. Seven days and no more.”

Just as the last word left his lips—“Ver’thain*”—the floor beneath me rumbled. At first, there was a low vibration. Then, everything shook violently, as if the earth were being torn apart. If that first sound had been overwhelming, this was unbearable. The wail from before had been a distant nightmare. Now, the entire world screamed. People were yelling, curling up, trying to shield themselves from the inevitable disaster.

My body was being ripped apart. Torn into a million tiny shards of glass, breaking and distorting all at once. I wheezed, staring down at my hands in horror as they began to shift. One second, they looked small, like a toddler’s. The next, they were wrinkled, worn—like an old man’s. I couldn’t tell where I began or ended. The quake lasted only a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity.

Then, as suddenly as it had started, it stopped.

I crumpled to the floor. My chest heaved, and I clutched at it, feeling a sting ripple through my body. The room was silent, aside from the panicked breathing of the people around me.

I forced myself to look up, and that thing stood as still as ever, but his gaze felt like it was cutting straight through the screen, through the walls, into me. The world blurred, and everything was dragged away, fading into nothing.

*Ver’thain (pronounced: Vehr-thayn): Awaken