Ariana was worried about her boyfriend, he asked for her to bring some important documents to just put them inside his locker. After that, Boris took a break from work and had her stay with him, something was wrong and he wasn't good hiding his nervousness, she asked him about it but he refused to explain, they just hugged and spent a comfortable time together, it was nice and strange at the same time.
It was almost midnight when they entered a room with two people playing chess, a male patient and a female doctor, both looked young, their concentration on the board. When they noticed the couple, the young man stared at the clock on the wall, stood up and introduced himself as Mario Castillo, a friend of Boris. The woman doctor followed after him, introducing herself as Marianne Moore, a doctor from the institution.
The mood in the room was strange, an awkward silence mixed with nervous stares towards the clock, Ariana didn't know what to say, she didn't know these people and there was something wrong with her boyfriend, the male nurse held her hand tightly and tried to keep a smile on his face, she could tell he was forcing himself. She was about to ask him to explain, when Mario said, "It's time".
Suddenly, all lights went off, a loud ringing sound could be heard all around them, she had to cover her ears for a moment, letting go of Boris's hand. When she came to herself the noise was gone and she found herself surrounded by complete darkness.
"Ariana? Are you okay?", she felt her boyfriend grabbing her, knowing he was there made her feel safe, she could barely see his silhouette and the figures of the other two people in the room thanks to a slight hint of light coming from the outside.
"My phone is off", she heard the voice of the female doctor, "I won't turn on, it's dead", the woman sounded calm, clearly not as confused as Ariana was feeling.
"Mine is dead too", said Boris who was standing next to her, "Dios mío, it really is happening", she noticed the fear in his voice.
She saw Mario opening the door to the outside of the building, he stopped after just stepping out of the room, his gaze fixed on the night sky. All three of them followed after him, when she saw the moon on the sky, her eyes widened, she couldn't believe what was there, the moon had shattered in half, two broken sides floating there for everyone to see, the night sky would never be the same.
"What the…", her boyfriend started cursing, he was usually a very devout and proper person, but when things were too much for him to handle, the filthiest curses would come out of his mouth.
It took her a while to come out from the shock, the image in front of her had been more than she could deal with, she didn't understand, how could that happen to the moon? Nothing came to her mind.
"What an entrance they made", said the doctor, the mental institution was on higher ground, a hill which allowed full view of the city, Marianne was pointing towards the dark silhouettes of the buildings. Looking closer, there were a couple of small fires in the city, it looked like car accidents happened when everything went dark.
"All electronics are dead", she heard a voice coming from inside the building, at some point Mario went back inside, "My guess is cars shouldn't be working either, this complicates things, I didn't know what I was expecting, this wasn't it".
"They crippled us", said Marianne, "our whole society depends on electricity to properly work".
They? What were these two talking about? It's like they were expecting something to happen, waiting for it. She looked at Boris, the man had a grim expression on his face, but he wasn't as shocked as she was, he knew something too. The man noticed her gaze, understanding coming to his face, "I'm sorry my love", he said, "I will explain", he looked at the other two, grabbed her hand and took Ariana to a different spot.
"Mario told us something was going to happen tonight, that's why I called you here", Boris said, "At first, I thought it was the words of a crazy person, but I know him, he is not like that, and then…", she could see her boyfriend hesitating, "he showed us something, I was hoping he was wrong, but I couldn't take the risk, I needed you by my side".
He hugged her, she let him wrap her into his arms, he was almost two heads taller than her, his arms covering her with ease. She felt herself trembling, tears leaving her eyes, a sense of profound sadness had filled her, seeing the moon broken like that made her feel like she had lost something important, and she was sure they were all feeling it, an existential dread of what is to come, so she cried in his arms.
It must not have been more than a minute in his embrace, when she heard a gun go off in the distance. She left her lover's warm embrace and turned towards the view of the city, shots fired at different places all across the city could be seen lighting up the darkness of the night.
They went back to Mario and the doctor, they too were looking at the city, "it's started", the man said, "I wonder what it is we will have to survive".
And then she saw it, a creature of pure darkness standing next to Mario, it looked like a person made of shadows, "What now my friend?", the creature's voice sounded strange, unnatural, creeping her out.
"Now we wait for the sun to come up", the man answered, "there is no point in risking our lives with the darkness of the night hiding our enemies".
Their conversation was interrupted by a shout from within the building, a cry for help turned to screams of unbearable pain, which seconds later became total silence.
She saw Boris's face going pale, "they are here", she felt his hand holding hers tighter.