"Elise!" A girl squealed.
The trio lightly winced, the noise echoing across the house as they turned towards the direction of the stairs. They spotted the familiar, impish silhouette of Alice wearing pink pyjamas as she stomped down the stairs, her little legs making it a comical sight. Alice reached the last two steps, abruptly jumping into the waiting arms of Elise, the duo engaging in a hug.
"Hello, Alice." Elise chuckled, "It's nice to see you again. How are you?"
"I'm good." Alice said, "I- I made four friends at school! Wanna hear their names?"
"Su-"
"Alli, Rebecca, Maria and Shania. They're all girls 'cause the boys are smelly."
Mark ruffled the girl's hair and laughed, Alice shaking her head at his actions.
"So, you remembered the last girl's name, then?" Mark asked.
"Stop! Stop!" She giggled, "Yeah... I overheard Alli say it, so I just remembered it."
"Ahhh, I see. You just remembered it." Mark chuckled, "Well, at least you know now."
'God, she's still as lively as ever. If only I was still as energetic as her. How time flies.'
"And what are you still doing awake, Miss?" Amelia sternly questioned, "Where's Dad? Has he not put you to bed? Ugh..."
Elise let the young girl down, Alice turning sheepish and started twiddling her thumbs.
"Erm... I fink dad went to sleep. He tucked me in, but I... erm... I stayed awake. Sorry!"
Amelia smiled, "It's fine, you're lucky it's not far past your bedtime. Come on then, upstairs; you need to get to bed. It might be the weekend tomorrow, but you don't want to be tired for school on Monday."
The mother picked up her child, carrying her up the stairs as she left a comment for the couple at the bottom.
"You two better not stay downstairs for too much longer; I don't want to be awoken by the noise of the alarm being set."
"Sure, we'll be up shortly, anyway." Mark waved his hand dismissively, "You want something to eat, Elise? I am famished!"
"Nah, I'm good; I had something whilst you played footy. Don't take too long."
"Oh, ok." He shrugged, "I'll just grab a packet of crips or something."
Walking into the kitchen, he ransacked the cupboards to find his favourite flavour, Elise moving into his room. Finding the flavour he wanted, Smoky Bacon, he grabbed it and set the alarm. With the device turned on, he tapped a small screen showing all the downstairs lights, turning them all off one by one.
With everything set, he headed upstairs to meet Elise, popping into Alice's room beforehand, his stepmother snugging her into bed.
"Just come to say goodnight." Mark smiled.
He entered inside, hugging Alice goodnight and kissing her forehead, saying the same to Amelia and leaving. His bedroom door was left slightly ajar as he entered, spotting Elise in her underwear and getting into bed. Tutting at spotting her clothes left in a dirty heap, he tiredly sighed.
"How many times have I got to tell you?" Mark chuckled, "Don't just leave all your shit in a heap on the floor."
Getting undressed, he laid his clothes into a neat pile, per Amelia's specifications. Now in his boxers, he closed the door, turned off the light and hopped into bed as Elise flicked through the television.
"What you watching?" Mark asked.
"Ugh, what do you think?" Elise complained, "There's never anything on; all the same shit. Even the news is dour, talking about another Afghan bombing."
'Another?' He thought, incredulous, 'So a fifth? Or is she talking about the fourth? Psh, they're getting too common. The world is starting to become like the Occupation again.'
Elise unclipped her bra, the sound distracting him as she exposed her boobs, a prominent brown nipple showing.
"Fuck the news, Mark." Elise said huskily, "How about you... fuck me?"
She put herself on all fours, like a cat and in a mixture of graceful and sultry movements, she progressed towards him. Feeling the usual reaction, Mark glanced downwards before looking straight into her eyes, a deep, lingering passion within.
"Don't you think we should wait for Alice and my parents to sleep?" Mark questioned, "It's going to be awkward as fuck tomorrow morning..."
"Why? Didn't you say the walls were thick the first time?" Elise purred, "Or was that just because you wanted it more than me? I'll be quiet, don't worry."
Her hand hovered around his thigh, sliding upwards and into his pants, abruptly grabbing his hardness. She rose to whisper into his ear like a succubus.
"Besides... you men need breaks, right? We can start slow... we have all night, Mark. All... night."
She smiled like a shark catching its prey, her words seductive as Mark found his hormones raging out of control.
"Fuck... you're too much." He quietly cried, the pair pulling off their last garments.
"That's more like it, stud. As I said, we can start slow."
Her hand pumped up and down his shaft before she pushed him onto his back, her face drawing closer and closer to his manhood. A sleepless night ensued, changing acts and positions, trying old favourites and bold new ones; an exhilarating time, until, fast asleep, it was not.
Mark woke up, a void of darkness greeting him, his mind still foggy from the sex.
'Shit... where am I'
It was black; the darkness corroded into nothing as the Void had returned and, this time, in over a decade, involuntarily. Mark's heartbeat rose, and his eyes widened, thoughts racing at a million miles per hour.
"Shit... W- Why am I here? Did something change? I don't understand. Argh!"
He doubled over and screamed, a hammer striking the inside of his head, the headache returning with a furious vengeance. The blow was sudden and constant, his eyes bulging as he finally noticed it. It was something he had never encountered before, something that would be labelled impossible by science.
A ripple. Waves. Changes. Space was physically moving; Mark did not know how and he did not understand why, but it was happening. It was clearly visible, yet impossibly hard to see, the contradiction burning his mind as its mere presence bore into his head like a drill.
His thoughts wandered as he thought about the day, the strangeness of it: The walk or time skip, the bus delays, relief from pain seemingly at random. It made no sense to him, a series of events that he thought unrelated, now perhaps were conjoined. The more he thought, the more it confused him. Why were the buses delayed all day? Why did none of his friends mention it? Why did his headache appear and then disappear; did he skip time or displace locations? They were all questions without an answer.
"Arghhhh!" Mark wailed, "I don't understand! What changed!? Why is this happening; why now!? Everything's so good now... Why!? Why!?"
He screamed and cried into the Void, but received nothing but silence and ripples. Blood coursed through his body at light speed, heart racing faster than humanely possible as immaterial sweat poured from his body.
'Why is it showing this to me? Is it sentient? Does it have a purpose? I don't... fucking... understand!'
"What do you want from me!?"
The eerie silence continued with no audible response but there was, perhaps, a physical one. The waves in space moved more, multiplying and escalating as if leading Mark towards something or bringing something towards him.
Yet, looking around, there was nothing. He could see darkness and nothing else; perhaps it could not be seen. Despite the crippling agony, he grew terror-stricken as thoughts of some cosmic entity of horror and death could be lingering nearby.
'Am I dead? Is this a covenant with an eldritch being? Reincarnation?'
"Ahhh! Fuck!"
As if the invisible hammer hits were not enough, a full body agony struck him, a torture so excruciating it forced him to his knees. His mouth was wide open; vocal cords were strained to the point of a silent scream. Pain. It was all he could think about, unending searing pain. The Void was covering him, his body being consumed as his skin turned black, stars starting to burn bright across the shadow of his skin. Mark could sense the changes but could do nothing as time passed agonizingly slowly.
Then, he was gone, the Void replaced with his room. Kneeling on the floor, he gained a small amount of clarity through the pain as snake-like black-white lightning flickered over him. It hissed and zapped across the room as blood streamed from his pores and orifices endlessly.
His skin was peeled off and split. His body's bones broke as his nails were pried off and then replaced, over and over. Time slowed down, Elise in his vision, trying to grab him, to save him. Yet, as if driven by fate, she could never reach; like an illusion, a seemingly normal hallway but actually infinite. She would never reach him; she could not stop this, nothing would.
Mark's eardrums blew up from a sound that defied all conventions. It was akin to a fearsome roar of a dragon or the deep rumbling of a thunderstorm but as loud as the clashing of two galaxies. It was a signal that things would change, of an inevitable, impending catastrophe. It was the End of the Cycle.
Space tore open inside and outside the house, the universe crying out in anguish as Mark saw visions through the cracks. He saw stars bursting into supernovas as planets cracked at the seams and moons fell upon their hosts. There were monsters in the reverberating splits in space; Mark also spotted his friends with... abilities... as they fought... something.
He grunted, a massive pressure building from within his chest, forcing itself outwards. A sphere of energy, a sphere of death, emerged around him, the lightning striking the room. It was an unexplainable act that should not exist, but it does.
Unable to hold it any longer, he roared, the sound shattering glass across the city. It was so deafening that it almost blocked out the shriek from Elise, a screech that would haunt him to the end of his days.
"MARK!"
Then there was tranquillity, the sphere expanding faster than light; nothing could stop it, and nothing would. And in that split second, usually so ordinary were a billion acts occurred of far more significance, were blinded by a newcomer to existence. It had waited and waited, dwelling in the dark, the world between worlds and finally, after aeons of waiting... Chaos had come.