Everything went dark.
As pitch black as it felt I could say it was darker than black. I know it doesn't make any sense but sense was never a priority to begin with.
I could move but couldn't at the same time, floating on a liquid, it felt heavier than water but gave off this weird uneasiness when touched, it almost reminds me of blood.
I felt weighed down by something, tied down to something below like an anchored ship...
To understand how i got here we will have to go back a little in time
***
It was a really ordinary day when it began, I seriously don't understand how it came to this. But anyways, it was an ordinary day, I got up at 7, got ready and went to work. On the way, I thought of plans for the weekend though I pretty much knew I wasn't getting any of that done.....
I didn't really have much conversations or interactions at work, partly because i was new to this job, at least that was what I was convincing myself.....
I overtimed as usual, it helped me avoid extra attention and also got me an extra penny or two as well.
Now this is where things began going downhill,
I got into my cab, but noticed unusual tension near my office building. My office itself was quite ordinary, managing the minimal logistics of the eastern continent, but the building it was in, was no ordinary thing.
It was an engineering masterpiece called Nova Aquarius, the 'Nova', part of it's name came from the city's name 'Nova Haven' and the 'Aquarius' part was due to it's structure. It was a 1200 meter tall tower with 244 floors, most of it was blue tinted glass panes with the four corners of the building golden in color. From these corners water flowed from the top to the base like a waterfall continuing into the artificial river like ponds in the gardens of the building. Overall, I would say it would be quite an expense to construct such a thing, there's a reason it's called the tallest building in the world.
Now the tension I mentioned, was among the cops near the building. Since it was such a huge diplomatically important building and also a symbol of the power the continent held, it always had such security. The cops who were on the security duty always seemed pretty chill because this place was pretty peaceful so it might as well be the favorite job of these cops on patrol.
It was the first time I had seen these guys so worried and rushing everywhere, the car I was in began to move and at the same time the all the radios of these cops began to play together, which meant it was the general channel.
"Rou.....ne-" came a cracking voice from them, barely audible, because it was many radios at the same time. After that, many other patrol cars passed us by in a rush, the cops near the building began to rush to head to the scene after them.
I could feel something big happening due to the atmosphere but decided to ignore it for now. As we slowly passed through the city, we had to stop for a while because of a traffic signal. There I saw one of my former colleagues from my old job hanging out with her friends. I remembered her speaking of a viral 'MONSTER' incident back then, it had gotten me quite interested back then but I forgot to look into it in the end.
With nothing to do, I took out my phone to check it. It took me a while to find it, i guess it's popularity rusted with time. It almost felt like a prank when i read it, so much so that I had went back to see if it was the correct website I was using.
The incident's details were as following, it had occurred at this 5-star hotel called "Le Château de Lumière", it was the kind of place you'd have to sell an eye, to eat at. What happened could be called a massacre but not exactly. If you entered the place, at first glance everything would feel completely normal, smiling people, rushing waiters, a crowdy yet elegant atmosphere, but as you continue to look you would understand within an instant what was wrong. Everyone in the building had frozen in time, or to be exact died in their places. In the autopsy it was found that none of the dead in the building had any blood left within them, it had completely dried up leaving not a drop behind. They had no injuries and the cause of their death could be defined nothing more than an excess of blood loss. The one thing that stood out was that one lady among all these dead had actually tried escaping, she had lost a leg, which could not be found anywhere, and in her last moments she had written with the blood from her bleeding leg, the word 'Monster', giving the incident it's name. It was the once in a century case which would be talked about even in the next centuries but really the police didn't bring any results so far and it had been 6 months since it occurred.
I got distracted for a bit and looked at the other articles on the page but it was all pretty bland. I turned my phone off and was about to keep it aside on the seat, but was interrupted by the sound of a sword slash.
No it was NOT a sudden attack by a mysterious swordsman in a modern world, that was just the ringtone of my notification, what did stand out was the notification itself.
It was a message from a blank-profiled unknown number, it said, "I have been waiting for you", it sounded like a dramatic dialogue from one of those pre-boss fight scenes but nevertheless I decided to play along,
"What would it be that you want from me?" I replied, trying to keep up the dramatic atmosphere.
"I want nothing from, instead I have a gift for you" the number replied,
"Oh, and what would that be?"
"You don't need to worry about that Reo, we at Elyria await your appearance."
Oh Elyria I se- wait wtf this guy knows my name and tf's Elyria!?
"wait who are you dude??" I replied in a hurry shocked by the previous message,
There was no reply after that," Hello?" "Are you there?" "Excuse me? dude just freaking reply already" I texted him again quite a lot of times but was met with disappointment.
After so many failures, I again tried setting my phone aside but was interrupted again, this time by the sudden brakes of my car. I looked out to see a chaotic scene in front of me and a cop walking towards us and also shouting at us to stop.
I got down to see a fallen and burning Kyrialis and a huge crowd of policemen, firemen you get the picture right?
Now 'Kyrialis' is the name of a tree, why a name for a tree you might ask? Well that's because the Kyrialis is freaking 300 meters tall and 50 meters wide. Personally speaking when I first read of it I didn't believe it and thought it was an exaggeration, after seeing it for myself I had no doubts left, at this point I have gotten used to it. It's so old that no one in the world knows how old it is. It's origin, species, data everything's a mess and science can do nothing about it. Other than that it is home to a lot of different species, a tourist place and even has cults built around it. The Capital of the eastern continent, which is this city was built around this city which makes the tree historically important too.
I got down and it began raining at the same time, the sun had gone down. The rain began to put out the gigantic fire relieving all the people on the scene.
"Well that reduces the work to be done at least" the middle aged cop beside me said,
"What happened here?" I asked, "Kyrialis is on fire can't you see kid?" he replied grumpily
"No, like how?"
"Well it was struck by several lightning bolts simultaneously, it was almost supernatural. Well normally I wouldn't have allowed you in the premises but since the fire's gonna be out soon you may go but I can't allow that car, where are you trying to go?"
"The metro..?"
"Well good luck getting there the rain's pretty harsh I must say" he said looking towards the tree.
***
I was Infront of the 'Kyrialis' subway station, named after the closest landmark obviously, it was quite a pain to get here I did need good luck getting here. The weather continues to worsen every second like how is that even possible scientifically, isn't there stuff like high and low pressure?
I almost got into quite a few accidents on the way but made it luckily.
The rest went on pretty peacefully, the rain had got my clothes drenched so I thought of going to the clothing showroom... but decided it wasn't necessary(frankly I'm just broke).
I went through the usual process and entered the metro, there were less people today, but much more stares than usual ahem, this is uncomfortable man, for sure never entering a train with wet clothes again. But stuff like that doesn't really happen often so maybe my worries are in vain.
I found an empty seat easily, there weren't much people so the seats were empty, I looked at the buildings that passed by as the train moved on.
Suddenly everything outside the windows disappeared in a split second and was replaced by jet-black in it's place. I stood back up in surprise.
The track took a violent and sudden halt and everyone was thrown off their seats, the shock sent me back further and I hit my head against a rod in the train and fell down, I rubbed my head as it throbbed in pain and my phone slipped from my other hand.
I couldn't see clearly, and then I heard a sudden thud accompanied by a woman's scream, low cries of uncountable people filled the people, their voices pleading me for something.
I regained my vision and turned to my left to hear another loud thud, and then I saw the compartment at the furthest be replaced by the same blackness in an instant. I heard another slash sound, I looked down to see a message saying "Welcome to the selection" on the cracked screen of my phone, I couldn't process what was happening and replying was the last thing you could expect. The thud happened again on my right as the furthest compartment turned to black.
It happened again to my left, it repeated again on the right, it's pace increasing at an unfathomable rate, I finally regained my senses and got up to run but before I could run the darkness had reached me and began enveloping me from my feet.
My surroundings had turned completely dark, darker than black, and the darkness consumed me from below holding me still in time and eventually consumed me whole with everything turning black.
***
And that's how I got here, I wonder if the other people in the compartment are also somewhere close by though I don't think my first impression on them was that great.
I stayed still for a while and then the weight holding me down disappeared, I got up and began to look around, an unfathomably vast darkness lay ahead of me, I asked myself if maybe this was the afterlife.
Suddenly I saw a light coming from behind falling on the liquid beneath my feet, I turned to see a little girl in ragged clothes in the distance. I took a step forward and she was in front of me in a slightly glowing purple royal mantle. I took my step back surprised by the sudden appearance in front of me.
She moved her lips slightly, However, I couldn't hear anything and continued to look at her
"You.." she said in a low voice,
"Me..?" I asked
"...Do you want to live?"
I paused for a moment and then spoke,
"Frankly, no, not at all, so does that mean this is the afterlife or something?" I somehow expected her to know a lot about all this maybe she was a messenger of death or like the grim reaper something I expected more like a man cloaked in black with a badass scythe.
The girl's head fell down ever so slightly and she let out a small smile. She suddenly began to glow brighter as the purple light continued to cover more and more volume and at one point she burst into thousands of purple and black butterflies with the same glow.
They began to fly around me eventually forming a dome around me generating a heavy wind resembling a tornado as everything around began to fly around. I was at the center of this monstrous dome and it then suddenly collapsed and fell towards me with a high speed. I reflexively raised up my hands in front of my face and closed my eyes.
Everything went silent and after a few moments I realized nothing had happened.
In front of me a circle of flowing liquid of the same glowing purple stood. It was nearly my own size, I touched it out of curiosity.
It didn't feel wet at all, i took my hand out to see part of it sticking to my hand connecting it to the circle, It then violently began to cover my entire body at a rapid speed as I was filled with a nerve-wracking pain.
It eventually consumed me whole masking my muffled screams and everything turned black again.
***
I opened my eyes to find myself back in the backseat of the taxi, we were at the Kyrialis where we were stopped by the cop earlier.
I stepped out, tapping my coat's pockets to check for my phone and looked around to see the situation. Rain began to fall down with my first step out.
The Firemen and the cop's shouts, the cop heading towards me, the sudden relief entering their foreheads within seconds of the rains beginning, I realized I was actually back in time.
"Well that reduces the work to be done at least" the middle aged cop beside me said again, I then realized I couldn't feel my phone up my pockets.
"Crap.. It was all real." I said in a surprised voice.
The very next moment, the building beside us exploded, I retreated in advance and managed to avoid anything that could hit me.
However, one of the flying rocks from the rubble due to the explosion came flying at the policeman beside me.
When I opened my eyes, the cop's body lay coldly beside me. Half his head was crushed, the skull shattered into a mush of blood and organ. His mouth was frozen in a silent scream. The blood-soaked scene was too much to bear, and I vomited, overcome with disgust.
I slowly got up, barely recovering myself from the shock, some cops in the distance began to head in our direction.
"Sir, I think I will be leaving for now I don't think this is a good situation" the taxi driver said me as he started up his car to leave.
"Wait, I'm coming too!" I said jumping into the backseat closing the half open door with as I got in.
He kicked the accelerator with all his force as he took a U-turn and raced back to where we had come from. Several police cars began to follow us at high speeds to catch up to us.
Chaos unfolded as we raced through the city's highway with many cars getting into an accident, "I think it would be better if we just let them catch us sir" the driver said.
"We are not escaping from the police we are escaping from something much bigger just do your job I'll do the thinking"
I was confident in my words and was sure staying there would be a bad idea but somewhere in my heart a small doubt began to dwindle about.
We were approaching Nova Aquarius and there were more cops there, the cops weren't the issue but this place just felt like somewhere I should be.
Suddenly a loud thud happened outside somewhere above, it's magnitude incomparable to the thud in the metro.
"Stop the ca-" I said and the man slammed the brakes before I could even finish what I was saying.
I got down expecting the force ahead of us to be pointing guns at me, I stepped out with my hands behind my head, but to my surprise the cops were in complete disarray troubled by something much bigger than the suspect of a bomb blast.
Above I saw huge volumes of smoke coming from a hole in the aquarius near it's roof, inside the hole was a crashed commercial airplane.
"What in the actual fuck is even happening?" I thought to myself, as another plane crashed into the same spot accompanied by another loud thud.
And then happened something no one could have ever thought plausible, I heard the loudest sound ever in my life as the aquarius' head began to come down, literally.
The falling building's top began to crush the entire humongous structure as if it was mere clay.
I had the thought of running away at one point but realized it would be futile. Spreading out my arms, I closed my eyes, the sounds of chaos and destruction fading into the background. I was resigned to my fate and then everything went black.
*****