The Last One

I ran away from them… The thing pretending to Clarke tried to reach me… But he was too weak. A muffled sound was heard, and the muscular man was standing on top of the thing… with his arms pointing to the sky.

I didn’t want to look… But a stronger quake made me trip. I fell on my back… and with full view of that horror. A writhing mass, black and red… like if two oils of those colors were being churned, but they never mix, they weren’t separated colors, they didn’t stain or speckle each other… My eyes hurt from seeing that impossible spectacle…

When I saw that horrendous thing… I could swear it was shaking with laughter… laughing with every earthquake. It… It…

Suddenly all went black. All lights were gone… all sounds were gone. There wasn’t any screaming or disaster…

When I woke up…  I was in a ruined city. Everything was a wreck. The sky was red with smoke. Piles of debris and trash lined the streets… Everything was in disrepair. Corpses where sprawled on the floor, each depicting horrific wounds and otherworldly deformities…

Those weren’t terrorists…. Those things… they weren’t even human. What are they?! Why they did to us?! Why did they let me live

I was shouting and screaming… when a huge shadow covered me. I turned to see… It… Its mask… Its smile… The blue orbs in his eyeholes.  I felt like a child in front of his presence….

“Be thankful, vassal. You shall be safe here. Here… under my watchful rule… under my rule, the best for all.”

I am thankful… I will be safe… Safe with you…  My Saviour….

 

 

My Disgrace

They eventually returned, they caught me when I was weak… But I still prevailed. Human warfare may not be the best answer, but under my counsel, we could repulse them out of kingdom.

They were very joyous with their victory… our victory. They were growing quite arrogant…

And there is nothing more hurtful for a father to see his children denying his help.

 So I silently gazed, I was not them. I am not a cruel father. I could not leave them defenceless… but sometimes I was tempted to do so. So I did the best next thing.

Their arrogance was because they thought they did everything. But I showed them the errors they were making. I made myself known.

Many were asking for the reason they have not died yet, doubts were starting to arise in their hearts and brains... So I, as the loving father I am, decided to show them the reason of their unnatural longevity.

It was a transmission from an once respected and powerful building, where the nations gathered in council. Those interesting machines should not have worked, neither for sending or receiving something… But for me, nothing is impossible. From the ruins of that building, I made myself known…

 There was fear and dread in the air. I could feel it… But they were not being submissive. As I foresaw, they wanted to fight… They rebelled against me! Me! Their saviour! The one that gave them everything!

 I quickly hushed the boiling rebellion. Doing so caused me great pain… but they could not terminate the beautiful order I created. No, they could not. I was not willing to go to these extremes, but they, as unruly children they were, needed to be disciplined.

 Now we live in discipline. We live in fervent order. They returned to the normality they once coveted so much. I made it possible for them… but now I see they would not go very far if they are not supervised…

 They paid tribute. Every time they saw my face, they swore to never do anything wrongful. My enforcement made this tradition remain, for I have many faces among the lands…

And should they try something, this father will stop being kind and generous.

They paint me as the villain… So if they so wish, I will be the villain.

Six

Shane knew a route to safety. He was faster than me, my arm’s pain kept me from running. He noticed, and in a gesture of… I don’t know… generosity? He ripped part of his shirt to make an impromptu sling for me.

There were a series of tremors, each worse than the last one.  They levelled the zone, destroying many houses, cracking the ground… And with each tremor, we saw the visions… And each time, it was getting harder to distinguish between the reality and hallucination.

Eventually, we arrived to the designated safe zone. Giant steel double doors made a wall. There was a small keypad; Shane tipped a few numbers… And another quake struck.

No… it wasn’t a quake… It was more like someone trying to break the ground. Pushing, trying to emerge…

The metal was giving away. There was a loud banging sound. The militiaman stood dumbfounded as huge black tendrils tore the ground apart. The tendrils wrapped on each other, forming a body. It looked like the trunk of a tree, and in fact looked like a tree, with branches and all.

With its branches all spread, I saw in amazement as small red leaves blossomed. The canopy of the tree was now full of a scarlet colour, and it was waving, as if blown by an inexistent wind.

“No! Not that!” Lieutenant Shane said, his face pale with fear.

A voice flew through the air. “Whenever there’s smoke…”

From the canopy of the tree, emerged the unnamed officer and other man. the tree raised some roots for them to stand on. His companion was a massively muscular man with huge broken chains hanging from his body... In fact... He looked like... The man from the riots!! Oh God...

“You!? How could…You betrayed us!” The lieutenant roared.

The officer simply smiled, before affecting a voice. A voice I knew too well… “The thing… it killed all of my platoon. If anyone hears this… please send help!”

The lieutenant… he was petrified. The tree then lowered its root, so the man could be on the ground.

“No… But… But… We saw your body. You were dead!”

The officer or whatever it was… it was smiling. It massaged its throat, as if trying for a different voice…

“We saw yours too.” The thing said in an intercut way, as if the words were repeated from a damaged recording… a recording of Shane’s voice.

I didn’t believe what the man said. Lieutenant Shane was alive! He was standing in front of me! Maybe they mistook Clark’s body… He was alive too! Maybe… Maybe… He betrayed us! He went mad!

Four and Five

The vision ended with another tremor. When we woke up from it, we were greeted with… with something monstrous.

It was Joey. No, it was a monster hiding inside Joey, as he had those black marks in his face, just like his son. He was carrying a sledgehammer, hitting a car with mad fury. Hiding inside it were Hayley and Louise, begging him to stop. His eyes weren't unfocused... No, they were keen on a task. He was smiling wickedly. He knew what he wanted to do.

I looked for the officer, but he was gone. He was nowhere to be seen.

I looked at Anderson with impotence, until I felt something… Something was bubbling in me… It hurt… It burned… It encouraged me.

I saw red in that moment. I couldn’t control myself… I ran at Joey and threw him to the ground.  I don’t know how, but I felt that my punches were going straight through him. I hit him as hard as that burning fury let me… I felt someone grabbing my arm, a crunching sound briefly awaking me… Joey was grabbing my arm with such strength…

But that just made me angrier. The pain in my arm did nothing to dissuade me. I held his neck, as hard as I could… A light cracking sound… And then I was back.

I saw his body… My best friend… sprawled in the ground, all life choked out of him. The shock in his eyes… God… I couldn’t … God… The black marks disappeared... Unlike Ritchie....

All the strength I gained was suddenly gone. I collapsed on top of the now lukewarm body of my friend… I wished to cry… But I was too weak to do it. I was too weak to even get up…

Everything was blurry, but I could hear steps. And laughter.

“Good… good…”

I tried to move, but nothing came from my muscles. I was immobile, tired… a wounded gazelle, with a lion coming from behind.

I felt a soft hand in my shoulder. I felt a huge weight in my back. Legs intertwined with mine, pinning me to the ground. A humid breath warmed my neck, but chilled the rest of me…

“Best in ages…”

Something wet ran through my neck, as hands caressed my tired arms. It felt so heavenly… so relaxing… The weight slowly got more bearable, and the touches and kisses… It remembered me of those days in Barbados.

I completely forgot about the bad feelings. It felt so pleasuring...

The delight in the experience made us roll to the side, falling from the inert base where we began. I was greeted by the sweet face of Hayley, framed by her beautiful… red… hair… I noticed the change, but she shut me up with a kiss.

A huge chill woke me up from the trance, much to the disgust of that… thing.

“Hush… Or you’ll spoil it.” She said, kissing me. An immense sense of revulsion struck me, making me squirm and push her back. She looked a little peeved, and she raised an eyebrow. Her face was very different from Hayley’s now, looking more refined and striking, despite the red weird marks in her face… Those marks…

She smiled, as a little drop of blood came from her mouth. She pinned me down again, keen on kissing me again, as more blood trickled from her mouth. I tried to shake her off, but my arm kept me from making rash movements. She lowered her face, now all covered in blood, it came from her mouth, her nose, her eyes…. She was about to kiss me, when she was suddenly pulled away from me.

I looked up, and the lieutenant was there. The bloodied monster stood up, and her face wasn’t bloodied anymore. She looked almost like Hayley, save for the monstrous red veins in her neck and her arms. She looked afraid; she threw herself to the ground… But it was useless.

“Not today.” Shane said, emptying his gun on her.

I was speechless… Then, something told me to look at the car… It was full of bullet holes. The man then came to me, helping me up.

“That thing has been busy.” Lieutenant Shane said. “It downed most of the population”

“How many are alive?”

He chuckled then he patted my shoulder. “We need to get out of here. Whenever there’s smoke…”

Two and Three

The soldier helped me get back on my feet. I was still in shock, when a loud scream broke our silence.

We ran outside, it was coming from a couple of houses ahead of ours. I told the man to call for back-up but not only he dismissed my comments; he also dragged me to the scene. Literally, he dragged me, despite my protests…

Once inside the house, we saw that it was a mess. The officer tried switching on the lights, but all were broken. He rummaged through his suit, until he found a torch. He gestured me to light his path…

It was an empty house; all walls were covered in blood, it forming mad scrabbles… Looking through the disaster, we found Oscar, or what remained of it… We were investigating when another scream followed…

We ran to the master bedroom. Travis was there; held immobile by horrible gashes to its arms and legs. Emma was there too, lying immobile on the floor, with massive wounds in her back. Removing a knife from the woman's back, a little kid greeted us with a cold smile.

“R-Ritchie?! What do you think you are doing? “

The kid didn’t answer. He gave me one murderous smile, a smile so cold and callous that only a true monster could give it. 

“Didn’t you hear me? Drop that knife right now!”

I suddenly noted Ritchie’s face. It had five black marks, all expanding from the centre of his face. Its eyes were unnatural, they weren't focused on anything, it was like if he was under the influence of something…The officer was unnerved by that stare, and made a threatening gesture with its gun.

Ritchie simply sighted…

“Out”

All I could do was look in horror, as a huge black hand came out of Ritchie’s mouth. Then another, and then… I vomited when I saw it. Travis was just speechless.

In front of me stood a creature… No, in front of me stood a monster. It was black, black as night. Its human-like body was held together by stitches, as if it were a ragdoll. Every part of him, every limb, every joint, even its face, was stitched together.

Such being moved in such a way, it moved like if its tendons were made of concrete. Such a stiff gait, a stiff and disjointed gait… It moved until being face to face with the poor Scotsman. The creature then put its hand on its face.

“IN!!”

The man was screaming, flailing and trying to get out of the creature’s hold, inadvertently making more blood flow out of his body. The officer began shooting at the creature, but all bullets went through it. The creature then jammed his hand into Travis's mouth, much to his horror.

“IN!! IN!!”

The creature kept shouting “In” while gripping the man’s face. It then noticed all the blood around it. TRhe creature then started clawing at the blood. It then gave up, moving in its unnatural way towards Ritchie.  A horrible cracking noise assaulted my ears as the creature’s arms and legs suddenly began growing in length, as it began contorting in such horrifying shapes…

It then grabbed the unconscious boy by its face and held it high. It began shouting “In” as before, but this time, I threw myself at it. I don’t know what grabbed hold of me… I just… I just wanted to protect the boy. I pinned the creature to the ground, trying to not vomit by hearing those disgusting breaking sounds…

The creature didn’t make an attempt to free itself.  It simply stood still, and it wasn’t because I was applying strength. It didn’t want to move.

“Done”

The creature gave a big sight. My eyes widened and I quickly recoiled, as its body slowly melted in a huge black fog. It was so foul and it burned, like pepper spray…  I got up immediately, seeking to hide from that malignant miasma… But it engulfed me, no matter where I went.

Something told me to not breathe. I contained my breath, not matter how much I struggled for air… I could feel hands trying to pry my mouth open. I heard poor Travis letting out an ear-splitting scream, and a malignant voice laughing heartily.

I was getting dizzy, for a minute I felt a hand inside my mouth... The world was slowly fading to black... It felt like I was going away....

But then the cloud dissipated. I gasped for air, taking many mouthfuls of it… Allowing my lungs to expand… And I see Travis. Or what remained of him… His body withered, as if he had been left in vinegar for too long.  His skin turned to an ugly blackish color; it became thin and too stretched, his eyes were gone… 

 God… His face… His face was frozen in an endless scream…

As soon as I regained my breath, I threw myself at Ritchie. His eyes were open… but for all intents and purposes… He was gone.  Tears were bubbling behind my eyes. I… I… I felt devastated. What was I going to tell his father? That a black cloud of death got his son? That those bloody terrorists attacked him here? I couldn’t say any of this to him… I was going to be called mad. Or worse…

I hugged the poor kid’s cold body. I wasn’t his father, but I felt so much pain… Two persons gone… One after the other…

A huge tremor shook me out of my grief. A loud sound assaulted my ears… It sounded like metal clashing together… I heard desperate begging and crying… Immediately, I ran outside.

The officer followed me, as we came into an abominable visage. People were running; the streets were aflame… Disaster was reigning… A long pennant hanged from a building, depicting the same stylized mask from before… Along with the motto “His reign is the best… For us all.”

One

For some reason, Hayley's phone went off in an alarm, despite it having the earphones plugged; because of that, the officers noticed. They went to Hayley and took her phone, and they smashed against the ground.

Joey was outraged and confronted the duo, but the one of the officers simply kicked him back to his seat. Cindy was about to rise too, but the other officer didn’t have much kindness… He simply pointed his rifle at her head.

“One more mistake like that and both of you are meat for them. They just want that! They just want to be known!”  One of the officers said. He was an imposing man of dark skin and black hair.

His partner, a pale-skinned man of brown hair and beard, simply stood silent by his side. He seemed quite fidgety, and all he did was being back-up for his fellow officer. I also noticed something… While the first officer had a name tag, Lt. A. Shane, the second didn’t have anything. He noticed my staring, and quickly motioned his gun, shielding his reaction behind Lieutenant Shane´s threat.

There was something wrong with that guy… But I couldn’t see what. Something about him didn’t quite seem right. He was very pale… and his uniform was rather messy, with some parts of it being very tattered and ripped open, a complete contrast to Shane’s immaculate outfit. I was about to make a comment, but I felt a terrible stare… So powerful, and… and horrible… My mind froze… I forgot about making the comment… I don’t even remember what it was about.

We were all very uncomfortable… The silence was very unnerving. Save for an occasional weak meow from Oscar, nobody dared to make a sound. The poor pussycat didn’t look well; it was very lethargic and barely reacted to Louise’s attentions…

After five hours of long travel, according to Joey’s watch, we disembarked. It was a peculiar zone... A small town, but it didn’t feel quite British. Perhaps it was a Welsh zone? I don’t know… But I am positive we aren’t in England any more.

The officers escorted us through the small town. It wasn’t even a town, but rather an assortment of buildings spread through an open field. We stopped in front of one of those buildings. One big hangar with big metallic double doors. The white officer went to open the doors, but they didn’t budge. He shook them, kicked them… They weren’t opening.

Lieutenant Shane went to help him. The two battled for some time, until the doors suddenly swung open after a violent kick from the mysterious agent… Inside the hangar, there were a lot of crates and containers… and a little set of stairways going downwards.

The unnamed officer looked at them quizzically, before proceeding. Once down… what we saw was amazing…

It was a town underground, a pretty big town, probably extending kilometers. Save for the metallic streets and roof and the lack of a sun, this place could pass for a neighbourhood. There was a decent illumination system, mainly streetlights and huge lamps hanging from the roof.

Lieutenant Shane turned to the group, and spoke in his deep, threatening voice. “This will be temporal. Try to not get too comfortable. Any weird behaviour…” He cocked his gun and adjusted the cartridge.

Immediately, the six of us went looking for a good flat, one far from the entrance of the town. There were many rows of houses, all looking exactly the same. The southernmost rows seemed a bit different; they had a blue and purple paintjob, and happened to strike a good impression on Cindy and Hayley.

We picked two adjacent houses, just in case. Strangely, a sudden weariness brought down Hayley and Anderson, discouraging them from going further into the place. We were feeling quite energetic. We were exploring our new house… A bit basic, two rooms, a kitchen, two bathrooms… And the décor certainly made Cindy retch.

“Who the hell taught Feng Shui to these guys? Even a donkey can see that this pattern stinks!”

I didn’t pay much attention to her ramblings; I was focused on her phone.  It was buzzing with tweets, messages and whatnot. If these guys hate information spreading… why do they have free Wi-Fi? I looked, she had a voicemail.

“TROY HAS BEEN BREACHED.”

It was the voice from the Chemist Shop. I was shocked. I heard a noise, some things falling to the ground… Cindy was frozen on her tracks, and a jar's broken pieces were lying on the ground. I turned off the phone immediately after hearing that abominable voice.

It took us some time before we could recover from the scare. It was helped by some soft whispering… a small, gentle noise that slowly took the worries away…

“There’s no need to be afraid.”

It was a soft noise, barely audible. What we could hear, was very relaxing, it was a sweet voice appealing to our tiredness. I suddenly began marching towards my bed… Cindy did too, as weariness began taking its toll on our bodies.

“You don’t have to be afraid.”

We felt very sleepy, our march suddenly became a tired, shambling gait. Had not the wish to meet our beds been keeping us awake, we might as well be sleeping on the floor. But we went on, reaching for our room. We saw our bed, waiting for us…

“Nothing has been real… all wa-“

The whispering stopped. And with it, that marvelous feeling vanished. In my dazed state, I saw something moving on my bed. It was dark and I couldn’t see it… but it was there. I swear…

“Run. Run. RUN!!”

I was confused. I was still sleepy… but then I heard most horrible of noises… Like metal scratching a blackboard mixed with the screech of a woman. I looked at the bed. There was a man, his shadowed outline indicating he was crouched on our mattress. Where his head should be, two horrific yellow orbs flickered…

“Run… NOW!”

The lights were suddenly on, revealing a monstrous figure. It was… so malformed… so horrible… That chalk white skin… Those metallic claws…

The creature pounced at us. It jumped from the bed to me, landing squarely in my chest. The air rushed out of me as I felt to the ground.  The beast then focused on Cindy, pinning her to the floor the same way it did with me.

It dragged her close to me, and stood on top of us. My heart was pumping hard, and the creature liked it. It smiled, flashing needle-like black teeth… I tried to move out of its way, breath was slowly returning to me… But it stomped our stomachs, disabling us again. It lowered its head, so we could hear the horrific plan he had for us.

“Best meal… ages.”

It then raised both of his claws, and was about to bring them down, when a loud sound invaded the room. The smell of gunpowder came to us… And the creature was recoiling. We turned to see the unnamed officer shooting down the monster.

The monster hissed at the man, before a shot went through his mouth. It began retching, spitting a black foul blood. I think it was shocked to see it, and it was about to recede...But it noticed that Cindy was still close to it.

He is raising his claw... God...

NO!!!

.....

.....

The beast vanished. It simply disappeared… No smoke, no light… It was there, and in a minute, it wasn’t. I was too shocked… I was still… trying to comprehend what I saw…. But Cindy... God.... No... Why?

Solution

Our deliberation took more time than expected, and sooner than anticipated, another attack happened, then it became the same story again and again…

One Fear would be attacked by another, the attacker demonstrating a strange disregard for anything, themselves included. The attacks were often short and soon enough one of them would leave. But, of course, when the attacker was found later, they would be of sound mind and deny ever doing such a thing.

Paranoia began to sit like a heavy mist, old and petty dislikes and hatreds began to flare up and keep on burning. I am positive that the Brute would have enjoyed being in an atmosphere with these characteristics… But the mere mention of it seems had a strange effect on the Bride. Her flames, usually bright... They were dim, and her face expressed nothing but sorrow.

Eventually the childish rancour and dreads died away in the face of our predicaments. The few servants that weren’t deluded by their master’s atypical behaviours informed us that these attacks were extending to humanity as well. At first the humans blamed it on terrorist actions and chemical warfare but things began to get worse and worse…

We intervened were we could, always trying to stay out of the way; arriving early enough to catch the Fear attacking and stop them, or at least remove the bodies before they added to general panic.

And then something extraordinary happened. Two fears that came from interrogating a suspect found an attack, by that very same suspect, but something was wrong with it... It was a somewhat perfect copy in countenance but mindless and maligned in conduct. When news of such event arrived, immediately wild theories began to swirl around and between us, it was only the late arrival of an old friend, the Tassiturn, which prevented the ideological chaos from stopping our efforts.

His confirmation as to the nature of these attacks proved vital over the next few days, as we became more productive in our efforts, but it was not enough. More and more attacks came often in places we could not intervene, for fear of alerting humanity to us. Regardless, we began to press our servants into use, to speak in our behalf in convincing the remaining human governments to trust us.

This act alone began to turn the tide, perhaps not as much as we could have hoped, for even as we worked, time was growing short. The Tassiturn theorized that while the actions of our opponents were made by instinct and in the interests of spreading general chaos, it still wasn't sure as to why they behaved that way. Moreover, he expressed something that left us in a desperate situation... Among those "afflicted" with this bout of madness, was the Quiet. Its presence, coupled with he multitude of attacks by many Fears, were eroding the Veil... Without it, any unwanted reality may bleed over... 

 

At the rhythm this is going, we dread that a complete overlay may happen. Through our servants, and later by our ally’s help, we have learned that a particular universe is trying to converge. We have seen little flashes of it, which became longer in duration the more the Quiet tears at the veil…

Through the little "visions" we have seen of this reality, we noticed a particular presence. A creature unlike any other… golden and majestic in look, with a mask shielding its features…

What it was, we could not be sure. But the strange and cold rule over the remaining humans in that world told us of a creature alien in mind… That was not dissimilar to us…

And curiously… we never found others of us.  It was only that creature…. And nothing else.