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. Everyone tried 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, and without thinking, I dialed Josh.
“Come on, come on…”
The tone rang once, twice—then a loud beep.
Busy.
“Shit!” I cursed under my breath. I hung up and tried again. The line rang, but no answer. A wave of nausea hit me as I started pushing through the crowd, people bumping into me. The usual mix of coffee, cheap perfume, and body odor was gone. An acrid scent and something else—burning—replaced it. My eyes swished 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 voice was calm, but there was a strange hesitation behind it. “Take a breath—”
Suddenly, Josh’s voice vanished. A groan bled through the line, but it wasn’t just Josh. It was everyone.
Something loud, too loud, pierced the commotion. It crawled under my skin. It was 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, trying to find its source, and that’s when I noticed the TV screens in the café. Every screen had switched to breaking news.
“What the fuck is—” My words faltered 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 tendrils as they tightened, 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. 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 and coiled up his neck and across his face like a sign of death.
Subtle at first, the space around me had become too still, too quiet. The airport faded 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. My blood turned to ice.
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 voice wasn’t in any language I knew. It wasn’t even a sound I’d ever heard. It was deep, raw, ancient. It reverberated in my mind. Yet, I understood it completely. Like the meaning had been branded into my brain since birth.
“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 sharp crack.
“I, Aldragoth, was born from your corruption and decay, and now you have forgotten me. You have forgotten the gods that once watched over you. My brothers died by my hand for the sake of your mercy. But now, it has been proven—once more—that a final purge must be done.
“You have been given countless chances. Millennia upon millennia. And yet, you fall further still. Now, I wish to see just how much lower you can fall. I could exterminate you all this very moment. But where is the joy in that? No. You will writhe in despair for seven days, not because you can be saved—but because I want to savor every moment of your struggle. Show me whatever scraps of goodness you think remain, though it won’t matter in the end. After all, seven days is only the beginning of your suffering.”
He paused, and the silence that followed was so thick I could almost feel the god smiling. My entire body tensed under the pressure. No matter how much I wanted to, I couldn’t look at the screen. My hands curled into fists, every muscle straining against the crushing force.
“And now, a final gift…” My vision blurred as I was pressed deeper into the floor. “You will be granted a sliver of the power of the merciful gods who died for you. A gift… or perhaps… a curse. This power will not save you. It will not spare you the trials to come. It will only prolong your agony. It will give you a taste—a fleeting grasp of what you squandered.
“With it, you will fight—for your souls, for whatever pitiful hope you cling to. You will face the gods that you have forgotten within the clouds, dungeons that consume your cities, your final trial. Seven days. Seven trials. But make no mistake—as the same of the powers, this trial is not to save you. I will enjoy watching you break, one by one, as you realize the truth. And when you do—when your bodies lie shattered, and your souls lay bare—I will be there to claim what’s left of your pathetic existence.”
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 collapsed onto the floor. My chest heaved, and I clutched at it, feeling the sharp sting ripple through my ribs. The room was silent, aside from the panicked breathing of the people around me.
I forced myself to look up. That’s when I saw him. 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
Comments (11)
See all