The breeze gently caressed the trees surrounding the small town, as if nature itself sought to embrace that corner of the world. The sun was still high in the sky, but it began to lean toward the horizon, pouring out a golden light that painted the landscape with a warm and serene glow. It was a spring afternoon, around 4:30 p.m., and the cool weather wrapped everything in an atmosphere that bordered on the idyllic.
From a nearby mountain, a boy, no more than five years old, gazed at the town below. His small, curious eyes explored every corner of the panorama: the red-roofed houses that looked like tiny pieces of a board game, the narrow streets intertwined like snakes, and the central plaza, where a fountain surrounded by flowers drew the eye as if it were the beating heart of the town. It was a perfect scene, a place where reality seemed to have no sharp edges.
The wind whispered around him, carrying the scent of earth and flowers. The light breeze, soft as a touch, tousled his hair as he, absorbed in the scene, felt an inexplicable tranquility. There was something in that calm that made him feel safe, as if the landscape were a refuge from all harm. Yet, inside him, a spark of unease began to flicker, a vague premonition hiding behind the serenity of the moment.
Then, the wind changed. Suddenly, as if an invisible force had exhaled in fury, the gentle breeze turned into an erratic gust. The leaves of the trees swirled in unexpected chaos, and the atmosphere became dense, laden with palpable tension. The boy felt a shiver run down his spine, and his gaze instinctively turned toward the center of the town. A silent whisper seemed to resonate in the air, a murmur only he could hear. Something was about to happen.
A fraction of a second later, the sky tore apart. A deafening explosion shattered the silence, and the boy trembled as a blinding light erupted from the heart of the town. It was as if the sun had suddenly descended, igniting with a fire that devoured everything in its path. The shockwave spread in all directions, making the buildings tremble before they were swallowed by the blaze.
The boy watched, paralyzed, as a sphere of energy rapidly grew, consuming buildings, streets, and anything in its way. The town he had calmly observed transformed into a hell of chaos and destruction. The shockwave reached him, throwing him to the ground. A roar echoed in his ears, as if a thousand storms had been unleashed at once. Everything around him had become a whirlwind of light and shadow.
He tried to get up, to understand what was happening, but then he saw it. A fragment of rock, the size of a fist, flew toward him, propelled by the explosion. He had no time to react. The impact struck him in the head, and a sharp pain pierced through him like lightning. His body was thrown backward, and his vision blurred before darkness enveloped him completely.
The blackness swallowed him, cold and dense, like the embrace of a creature from the shadows. In his subconscious, everything he knew faded away. There was no town, no mountain, not even the sky he had admired. Only a vast, black void remained, an endless abyss where time and space held no meaning.
The boy found himself alone in that infinite space. His breathing was the only thing breaking the silence, each exhalation echoing like a distant sound. He took a step forward, his movement resounding as if walking on an invisible floor. The feeling of loneliness enveloped him, pressing on his chest. But something inside him urged him to keep moving, to search... for what? He didn't know, but he felt the urgency.
Suddenly, it appeared. A shadow in the distance. Tall, thin, its edges fading into the darkness as if part of it. The boy stopped, an ancient fear seized him, a terror born from the deepest part of his being. The shadow began to move toward him, slow but inexorable, like a dark tide approaching without stopping. The air around him grew cold, and an invisible pressure pinned him down.
The shadow came closer and closer, extending what appeared to be arms. They were elongated limbs, sharp like blades, reaching out to grasp him. His feet didn't move, his body didn't respond. He could only stare, wide-eyed, the terror reflected in his pupils. His heartbeat became a frantic drumbeat pounding in his ears.
At that instant, when the shadow was about to reach him, the unthinkable happened. From within the darkness itself, a spear emerged and pierced the figure. A guttural scream escaped the shadow, a sound not belonging to this world. The figure staggered, and another spear appeared, lodging in its shoulder, followed by another that struck its neck. The shadow writhed, its movements becoming erratic, as if an invisible force were tearing it apart.
The boy, still paralyzed, watched as the shadow was subdued by a series of spears that appeared from nowhere, piercing it from all directions. It was a surreal spectacle, almost ritualistic, as if some unknown entity were executing judgment. The spears glowed with an eerie light, flashing in the darkness like distant stars.
The figure knelt, its dark form riddled and pinned to the invisible ground. The boy felt a mix of terror and awe. The threat that had been about to consume him now lay motionless, trapped by a force he could not comprehend. The silence deepened, heavy like a leaden blanket. In that void, the boy sensed a shift. The darkness surrounding him was no longer just an absence of light; it was alive, pulsing with a power that did not belong to this world.
Then, his eyes slowly opened. The boy blinked, his breathing heavy as the cold of the mountain enveloped him once more. His head spun, and the sharp pain in his forehead reminded him of the recent impact. He struggled to stand, his shaky legs fighting to hold him up. He looked around, confused, as if everything that had happened had been nothing more than a bad dream.
But when he approached the edge of the mountain, reality unfolded before him. The town, the one he had admired with such fascination, lay in ruins. His gaze swept over the destroyed landscape, the houses reduced to rubble, the streets a disordered mess of fragments and dust. The town's center, where the fountain he loved once stood, was no longer there. In its place, an immense crater opened up like a wound in the earth, a void that seemed to absorb the light of the setting sun.
The boy looked at that abyss with a sense of loss that overwhelmed him completely. Everything he had known had vanished in an instant. The fountain, with its flowers and charm, had become nothing more than an echo of the past. There, at the edge of the crater, the void stared back at him, a silent reminder of what had occurred.
The breeze began to blow again, but this time it was cold, as if the very air had changed with the devastation. The boy closed his eyes, unable to comprehend how everything had disappeared so quickly. A chill ran through his body, and for the first time, he felt that the world was no longer a safe place, but a stage where light and shadow could exchange roles in the blink of an eye.