Aside from the continued sounds of howling and the distant rampage of whatever mysterious creature continued to sound throughout the dark hours, night passed uneventfully. The day met a weary group of confused neighbors, gathering together to brew coffee in one of the few homes with a gas stove in the neighborhood.
In total, twenty individuals had gathered from this small neighborhood community, nine of which were children between the ages of a couple months for the youngest up to 16 years old for the eldest. Amongst the 11 adults were Vincent, Miss G, Dave and his wife Carla, as well as two other couples, the Smiths and the Paulsons, as well as a group of three college students who roomed together in a rental, Jake, Wendy, and Randall.
Vincent received no small amount of attention in the morning. They had all been too tired to question him much last night, but between the strange glow in his irises that matched the orb sky and the glowing dagger of stars he couldn't stop summoning just to stare at, it was only natural that he piqued their curiosity.
Sam Paulson, a very curious eight year old, had no qualms about asking the questions on many of their minds.
"Mister Vincent," he asked, his puppy dog eyes full of undisguised curiosity,
"Why are your eyes glowing? How come you fought a big bug in the sky and how do you keep making that knife appear?"
The ears of many adults perked up at this barrage of questions, doing their best to appear unassuming while listening keenly as Vincent scratched his head with a chuckle before answering the boy.
"When that star exploded," Vincent began, looking up to the beautiful light show in question that still danced vibrantly in the daytime sky above them.
"I think that because I was looking right at it, it did something to my eyes. I don't know any more than any of you, but when I was looking at the sky, it was like my eyes were drawn to the knife by the same energy from the explosion up there and my eyes. When I grabbed it, I was transported up there, and you saw the rest. I don't know how any of this works, but now I can summon this knife which can cut through solid steel like it's nothing."
The adults merely nodded at first before Dave did a spit take at Vincent's description of the knife's efficiency. He hesitantly asked while gesturing at a car standing dead in his driveway, "Could you demonstrate?"
Vincent merely shrugged before summoning the knife once more and turning its blade to point at the car door while he allowed it to hover in mid air for all to see. A few surprised gasps echoed out as the knife hovered before he nudged it by the pommel to slowly approach the car from a few feet away. The dagger inched across the space before, yo everyone's surprise, the tip of the blade slowly sank into the car as if meeting no resistance before lodging up to the hilt in the metal door. A gesture from Vincent caused the blade to disappear, revealing the thin slice going cleanly through the door. Dave let out an appreciative whistle.
"Whatever is going on out there, from the howling and screaming I heard last night, we've got some kind of dangerous beasts on our hands. Are you able to lend the knife to me? I'm trained in knife combat and a blade like that would be useful."
Vincent hesitated before handing the knife to Dave. As he reached out to grab it, however, Dave was surprised to find that they as he might, his hand simply passed through the handle, scattering star dust as he tried to grab it. He frowned briefly, "Guess only you can use it… I can teach you what I know about knives later if we get the time, but today we need to scout the town and figure out what the hell is happening around here. I'd love to have you with me along with anyone else willing to join us. There's some safety in numbers. We should leave some people here to fortify our location and account for our supplies. I hate to be a downer but we have no idea the scale of this disaster or when the power could be coming back on. Gina, Cara."
Dave looked at Miss G and his wife, "I need the two of you to be in charge of the kids safety and our supplies. Everyone, you have ten minutes, decide if you want to join the scout team or the home team. We're heading out after that. The water tower on the old hill is only a couple miles north of our position. We should be able to walk there and back in a few hours if we move carefully. We should be able to get a broader idea of what we're facing from there."
Vincent nodded, and after a brief series of discussion, he, Dave, Jake, Randall, Wendy, and the Paulsons, a couple in their thirties by the names of Matthew and Jaime moved out. They wore backpacks stocked with some supplies and basic first aid, and brought what weapons they could find. Dave, Jaime, and Matthew all held firearms while Vincent gripped his glowing blade tightly. Wendy who had long played baseball wielder a trusty metal bat, while Jake and Randall made do with kitchen knives. Under the curious gazes of those who peeked through the shutters of their homes to look, a party of unlikely acquaintances made their way carefully into town, passing the occasional unmoving car out in the road, before eventually, they stumbled upon the first signs of some kind of struggle.
On the corner of what was once a busy intersection, a car was lying on its hood, one of the doors missing entirely, as in the driver's seat lay a corpse, mutilated by what could only be the claws of some massive beast, the same claw marks gouged in the metal of the car. Randall heaved the contents of his stomach onto the pavement under the disappointed or comforting gazes of the party members as Dave and Jaime knelt down closer to inspect the body.