Chapter 3: HE
The world was tinged in a dark-red hue. Every living thing had been wiped out from the face of the earth. Every building had crumbled down. The pride of humanity, the beautiful works of art they created were all gone.
Pyramid of Giza, gone.
Mount Rushmore, gone.
Taj Mahal, gone.
Only some unrecognizable pieces of stone remained.
The choir had long stopped playing, turning the world silent like all those years ago, before the living beings tainted it with their impurity.
Only The Monolith stood proud.
He, like a king, stood before the ashes of creation.
This is not the first time He witnessed this, and it won't be the last. Everything that happened had and will be wiped once more.
All that remained was the radioactive material the humans had left, polluting the planet even after their demise. But even the radiation, given enough time would subside.
…
13 November 20,023.
11:19 am.
After 18,000 years, Gray's shadow inexplicably became sentient.
The black figure moved slowly on the surface of the earth. It slid like a snake, as if searching for something. The shadow moved with great uncertainty. After all, it didn't have any eyes.
…
It slowly traveled amidst the ruins of the world, searching over the earth and under the sand, still not finding what it was looking for.
10 February 120,920.
8:01 pm.
Following many years of searching, it finally found something worth looking for. The shadow touched the tall Monolith that stood unchanged, eternally pure.
The shadow stirred and increased in size, fusing with The Monolith.
Before touching it, the dark figure was only able to "see" what it had touched. But now, it could "see" and "feel" whatever was under its shade.
It became as big as a country but unfortunately, it didn't find what it was looking for.
The figure stirred once more and encompassed under its shade a whole continent.
It still wasn't enough.
The shadow expanded itself, reaching every spot of the earth.
It felt every grain of sand; it could feel the tectonic plates smashing into each other, and could even sense the gravitational pull from the sun.
For every passing seconds, its dark cloak increased in size.
…
It's shade eventually reached the cosmos and encompassed the solar system.
The figure, as it covered the sun, scorched Mercury and could feel itself being scorched. It could hear Venus suffocate from its dense and poisonous atmosphere; it could smell the rust that had turned the moon blood-red; it could feel the winds of the great red spot of Jupiter; it could sense the madness residing within the hexagon of Saturn and could feel the loneliness of the planets at the outer edge of the solar system.
Unexpectedly, the dark figure formed a thought or the first time in ages.
WHERE IS SHE?!
This desperate thought roared throughout its being endlessly, torturing its existence.
…
The shadow sometimes encountered horrific beings spouting hate over the universe, corrupting it with their abominable energy. Their bodies were a mass full of endlessly flaying tendrils that marked whatever came for them, whatever searched for them, whatever was disgustingly unlucky to ever see, hear, or smell them.
The figure was relentless, however, and it still covered them with his shade.
After 10,000 years, the shadow reached the closest solar system as the one it used to inhabit. It surrounded it, and kept moving.
Every time his shadow covered something, it became faster.
After 5,000 years, it covered the whole galaxy with his domain.
After 2,500 years, it covered Andromeda.
After 500 years, it encompassed the Laniakea supercluster, containing over 100,000 galaxies.
And after 50 years, it surrounded everything that had ever existed.
…
Monday, November 13th 2023
6:25 a.m
An horrified shriek echoed throughout the neighborhood.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
Boom!
Suddenly, Gray's door unhinged and shot across the room at impossible speeds, hitting his wardrobe.
"Whats going on? Whats wrong with you?" screamed a young woman.
The girl was really beautiful. Her jet-black hair were pulled into a ponytail with some strands covering her forehead. Her eyes were unnaturally dark, but that, mixed with a mole on the side of her eyes, plus her long eyelashes made her look unreal, like a fairy belonging to the night.
Gray was holding his chest in pain, hyperventilating at the same time. His expression was riddled with fear.
"Are you alright?" she asked, her worry as clear as day.
Gray stared at his sister in disbelief as tears welled up in his eyes.
"Kathy…"
Kathy was his older sister; she was a twenty-year old woman. She was the one who nurtured him when his mother had passed.
After her death, they were able to survive with the money that their dad brought to them every month.
But when Kathy became fifteen, the money stopped coming.
They could have sued their dad for not paying child support, but then the government would have found out that they were living without the supervision of an adult. So, his sister decided to drop out of school to start working.
She switched between multiple jobs, acquiring various experiences in the working field. Luckily, working as a waitress in a respectable restaurant made her income stable, making her think about enrolling in school once more.
She's alive? Was it just a dream? But it was so realistic! Gray thought, feeling an overwhelming amount of relief wash over him. He however, was still afraid. What if this too, was a dream?
Seeing his distraught expression, Kathy decided to joke around to alleviate her brother's anxiety. "Did your girlfriend break up with you?" Kathy inquired with interest.
"What? No, I don't have one!" Gray replied with a tinge of embarrassment.
It's her, it's truly her! What I've seen was just a dream!
She chuckled and said, "Are you sure?"
"Yes, I was just having a nightmare..." he mumbled under his breath.
Kathy's smile grew even more, clearly having found an another way to mock his little brother.
"That must've been really scary, you screamed like a little girl."
He had been defeated by Kathy once more. The poor boy could never escape her mockery.
"What about my door?" Gray asked.
"What door?" Kathy replied, feigning ignorance.
She then joyfully went out of his room while humming a melody.
While she had to get ready for work, Gray sat in the edge of his bed for some moments before sighing and getting up to check himself on the mirror, noticing the presence of a large amount of clothes on his floor.
I really have to clean my room. No, that doesn't matter for now! What the hell was my dream!
Gray went towards his mirror and immediately, a clear reflection appeared. As he expected, he wasn't injured in any way. His long, jet-black hair were unkempt, his eyelashes were wet by his tears, his eyes were swollen and had deep eye-bags.
It was clear that, if he looked after himself a bit more, he'd be able to make any girl fall from him.
Additionally, he noticed a small sized crack on the mirror, but he brushed it off, forgetting about it immediately. Seeing just how bad he looked in that moment, Gray took a deep breath and sighed.
"I look like shit…"
He searched everywhere in room to find some slippers, all while thinking to himself of how badly he needed to clean it. He then departed to the bathroom after having found them, stretching and yawning in the meanwhile.
Once he had reached it, Gray took his toothbrush and squeezed the toothpaste.
Nothing came out.
"We need to buy some toothpaste!" Gray yelled joyfully, happy to talk with his dear sister once more.
"I'll buy it later!" Kathy yelled back at him.
"That moment, Gray Montoya had to use all of his power to squeeze as hard as he could to get some toothpaste. Even the minimum amount was enough.
The young man forehead vein throbbed as he squeezed with all of his might. And at last, some toothpaste came out of the tube.
Heh…
When he started brushing his teeth, he couldn't help but think about the content of his strange dream.
So, to summarize:
1. A trumpet boomed in the sky, making every single tree ignite.
2. My phone received cryptic texts.
3. A terrifying choir started singing.
4. Some otherworldly beings appeared in the world.
5. Something killed my friends, their injuries were extremely unnatural. Maybe it was the mantis?
6. Casanova had superpowers?
7. A second trumpet boomed in the sky, but I don't know what happened later.
8. Someone attacked my sister and prayed in front of a monolith with a strange tree carved on it.
9. The third trumpet sounded, making a meteor fall from the sky? It resembled a nuclear bomb though…
I think that something else had happened after that… I can't remember clearly, but I'm pretty sure I was inside a dark place without feeling anything for a very long time.
Could that be what comes after death?
But what kind of dream was this?
Am I actually crazy?
Once he was done brushing his teeth, Gray spat in the sink and rinsed his mouth with some water. After that, he took out a cup and filled it with mouthwash. He rinsed his mouth for one minute and then spat the bluish liquid out, rinsing his mouth with water once again.
Gray then took out an hair tie and lazily tied his hair up. The young man washed his face thoroughly with cold water so he could avoid feeling tired in the middle of the day.
Afterwards, he went back to his room. Gray looked at the clothes on the floor and decided to avoid wearing the same clothes he had inside his dream.
I can't risk it…
He then walked towards his wardrobe and opened its shutter. Gray's jaw suddenly dropped when the handle of the wardrobe broke off, remaining in his hand.
Oh.
He dropped it on the floor and started looking for some clothes.
Gray decided to wear a black t-shirt beneath an hoodie with the same color. For the pants, he decided to put some black, baggy jeans. He additionally decided to wear gloves since it was a cold morning. Obviously, he didn't wear the same pair of gloves that he had in his dream.
Once Gray was done with getting dressed, he started went out of his room. Looking at the rooms of his home, he felt as if he hadn't seen them for many years.
Back when his mother lived with them, the house seemed more lively, but now it looked empty. Luckily, Kathy's personality was extremely large, able to fill every corner of the house.
Still reminiscing about his mother, Gray walked into the kitchen, hungry for a toast. He then took a pan and turned the stove on. He reached upwards to open the cupboard, grabbing some sliced bread.
He put the slices of bread on the pan before going towards the fridge and reaching for 2 eggs.
He took a different pan and turned the stove on low heat. He cracked the eggs on the pan before stirring them with a comically large wooden fork.
At that moment, his sister Kathy came to the kitchen.
Gray glanced at her multiple times, trying not to get caught. He felt a bizarre sensation of sorrow overwhelm him.
I get that I had a bad dream and that I was deeply afraid of what happened to her, but is this feeling normal? I just hope she won't think that I'm weird… I can't explain to her that I missed her this much.
She would mock me until I'm at my deathbed!
"What are you looking at," Kathy said authoritatively.
Shit.
Gray's neurons ran at unprecedented speeds as he tried to formulate a lie capable to convince the devil itself.
"Uh, did you change something about your hair?"
Why did I say that! That's so stupid!
Her eyes widened in surprise as she inquired for more info, her voice sounding more lively than before.
"You noticed? Does my hair look that good?"
Oh.
"Yes, it does," he nodded seriously.
Kathy glanced behind him, frowned slightly, and said,
"Your bread is burning. I can see the smoke coming from the pan" Kathy then sniffed the air while adding, "Plus i can smell it very clearly."
Gray couldn't help but curse loudly. He turned around and ran towards both pans, turning the stoves off. He quickly noticed that the slices of bread had been burnt, the same fate following the eggs.
He sighed exasperatedly, annoyed of having wasted his sister's groceries. Kathy walked towards him, and after she saw the contents of the pans, she slapped the back of his head lightly.
Unfortunately, his sister greatly underestimated her strength.
Ow…
"Don't go to school hungry, you should eat some cookies," she advised before going towards the fridge. She looked inside the fridge for some time, sighing slightly. "Go to the store to buy some milk." Kathy said before adding, "Oh and by the way, you should wear a coat, it's really cold outside."
Hearing those accursed phrases, Gray's face slowly contorted in horror.