"Now be smart. Why don't you climb that small boulder and leave this one to me."
"No ma! I will climb higher than you. Just wait, you will see."
Boomie's mother sighed.
"This kid would be the death of me," she muttered. "Ok come here, but do exactly as I say."
"Yay!"
Boomie felt his hand would fall off if he did not rest them on something. He slept like a log in the truck until they reached their home.
"Now, in a few weeks, you will be in middle school. I want you to make some good friends there."
Boomie's mother said, emphasizing her words, and dragged him out of the truck.
"Where is your father? Is he supposed to be this late?"
Boomie cleaned away the drool using the end of his sleeve, "I have plenty of friends."
1 month has passed since then.
"Now I would have to take care of this bitch for the rest of my life. Hah!" Boomie's father snorted.
Boomie ran out of home after seeing his father smashing glasses. And soon found himself lost in the crowded town.
'Guo Antique Shop,' Boomie read the signboard. And now, more curious than scared, he went in. Nobody was in the shop, but he found that the things there looked interesting. Checking out things here and there, he found the door to the basement slightly ajar. The darkness was too scary for him, and involuntarily his steps became lighter to not make any sound. He could see a condensed mass of light in a corner. Boomie, still on the stairs, crouched down to look.
Horrified wasn't a word Boomie was much aware of in his age, but he got to experience the immensity of that word.
A boy, almost the same age as him, was cutting up a big lizard using a surgical knife. And no, he didn't seem scared, but Boomie had seen this 'look' many times. Whenever he had gone with his mother for bouldering, he had seen the same expressions on his mother.
The expressions of intense satisfaction and anticipation.
The boy spun his head towards him and Boomie let out a scream. Boomie wasn't sure how fast or in which direction he ran, but somehow he had found his home. The only thing on his mind was to not go out of the house, otherwise the boy would get him. So he locked himself in his mother's room.
He told her everything, but she didn't reply. Crying and clueless, he turned on the TV, and luckily it was his favorite show on the air, Dexter's Laboratory. The horrifying scenes in his memory got lost in the child's fascination with cartoons. And at some point, the image of Dexter got blended with the boy in the basement.
13 years had passed since then.
And not only had he found a great friend as his mother wished but also had become as good as her in climbing.
[…
Life Analyzation Complete
Assigning Class…
Terminating Dream Phase
…]
*
"Son, why don't you show him? Your science project."
"Oh! What a cute child. Is it true?" The man in the gray beard asked.
But Aldrich didn't want to show him. He felt he shouldn't.
Odd feelings for a 4-year-old.
But things weren't in his hands now. The secret project he had made in the basement was not a secret anymore, as his parents had brought home this person.
"Let's see it for yourself." Aldrich's father urged the teacher.
They all came down to the basement and found a fish tank there. An oval-cylindrical object was floating in it.
"You were right, it is a submarine."
The plump teacher held the object in his hands and kept turning it around.
"Hmm, very good. So he made it by himself?" the teacher pointed at Aldrich.
"Yes, yes. What do you think, should we take him to a special school?"
"Haha, no need for that, Mrs. Guo. I will take care of him by myself."
Aldrich's father bowed to him and said, "Thank you. We will provide the tuition fees too. Just help him get into a good college."
"That's too far, father."
"What do you know? Do as we say, Ok?" Aldrich's mother retorted.
Aldrich went to the teacher's home the next day. The teacher seemed somewhat over enthusiastic about him coming over.
"Come, come! My wife has made cookies for you."
"Now I want you to tell me exactly how you made that submarine."
"I don't know."
"But how did you understand all the things? Who helped you in that area?"
"No one did, it was all easy and self-explanatory." Aldrich felt bored by all these questions, a waste of time.
"Here, take this paper and I want you to write the whole procedure."
Aldrich wasn't stupid, and the teacher had not realized it yet. But for the sake of his parents, he had no choice but to write it. And that was the only day he got cookies in that house.
"Now remember, if you do any more projects like this, I want you to come to me first."
1 month later, Aldrich found out that the same teacher's son had won a science project in his high school. Aldrich analyzed there wasn't much a sole person could do. Either conquer the world to lift yourself above mediocrity or make yourself the most normal person. Only then he could do what he loved.
The thoughts of a 4-year-old were too scary.
20 years have passed since then.
Aldrich went to his tent and sat down for his daily meditation.
'This is a dream, this is a dream, this… Wait a minute, something is wrong!' A thought flashed through him.
[…
Life Analyzation Failed
Reinitiating Dream Phase…
Iteration: 2nd
…]
For some people, this night was bound to be longer than others.
*
1 June 2020
07:00 AM (UTC)
Earth
Darkness had engulfed half of the Earth's hemisphere. Where there was a day, it had turned into a night. It wasn't a surprise that people got scared.
One could say that the whole Earth experienced a disturbing but oddly beautiful night at the same time. Websites were exploding within 5 minutes of the strange event. It seemed some people had waited their whole life for this chance to let out their ingenious theories.
The theories did nothing but add fuel to the Panic. What is happening? Why is it happening? Who did it? And what is it?
People had just asked the questions, but one could have already seen the nonsensical answers within the first 30 minutes. People were being reported missing in the number of 1000s per minute from all over the world. Some eyewitnesses said that they had been walking when a man in front of them vanished. They couldn't believe their eyes, but in the next moment, The Night had descended. Some were husbands, sleeping comfortably on the bed. Some were students, having fun in college. Yet, within a single second, all ceased to exist.
The baffling reports didn't end there. Vehicles and machines operated by these missing persons had stagnated with no repercussions. It was like a pre-planned worldwide joke. Police were busy enough with the calls, so in the next hour, the military had to take over the situation. But the world was enormous, and there were places even the Internet couldn't reach. The sheer nature of the unexplainable events that had happened flabbergasted teams of scientists from all over the world.
It was like someone was adamant on proving wrong all the achievements of scientific evolution. The world that seemed so feeble from a broad perspective had somehow handled itself relatively well. But something much more sinister had been happening underneath the brewing storm.
After a full 90 minutes of the Night, new articles had overtaken their predecessors. People could see pics and videos of statues all over the world. A semi-transparent black film had covered the statues. The film looked like a veil and an oily liquid at the same time. But all those who saw it shared a feeling of dread. It was the same feeling a prey must have felt while looking at his natural predator.
World's leader had convened an online meeting by the end of the 4th hour. Everyone shared their findings, their facts, and all came to the same conclusion: they did not know what was going on. Those whose friends or family members had been among the 'vanished' were asking for answers. But all they got in return were even more questions.
As the 5th hour came to a close, it had left the entire world bewildered by all the chaotic misinformation that had arisen by the people's imagination. It was the Doom; it was the end; it was the Invasion, and it was the Apocalypse, were the hottest topics. And these theories were prominent in the intellectual and superstitious minds alike. But they were all disappointed by the time the 6th hour had started. One hemisphere of the Earth was on the verge of its dawn, the other was approaching dusk.
The people that had vanished returned to the same place. Some were at their office, some were at their home, somewhere deep in the forests, and some were just out there in an unknown place.
It all felt like nothing had changed. But this feeling would crumble at the sight of huge pillars of misty-yellow light, which were rising from the sinister statues. This feeling would also crumble after observing the strange behavior and actions of the reappeared people. And if someone were to hold on to this feeling even then, then this feeling would disappear by looking into their eyes.
Those eyes, for some time, had been glowing with strange, incomprehensible symbols.