The power outage should've just been a normal blackout. A temporary failure. A minor inconvenience.
But this time, it felt different.
I could hear the city outside—sirens blaring, distant screams carried by the wind. The kind of sounds you only hear during a disaster. A fire. A riot. Or something worse.
I exhaled sharply, gripping my phone tighter. My apartment was pitch dark, save for the dim glow of my phone screen. The air inside felt heavy, suffocating, as if the walls themselves knew something was wrong.
I unlocked my phone.
Stan: Holy shit. The orb is moving fast now.
Michael: People are running. Dan, if you're still at your place, GET OUT.
I stared at the messages, my heartbeat hammering in my ears.
Get out.
I should've done that earlier.
Something deep in my gut twisted into a tight knot. I needed to move. Now.
My hands were already reaching for my closet before my brain caught up. I yanked my backpack from the top shelf, my fingers moving on instinct—shoving in clothes, my wallet, my phone charger. Water. Food. Anything useful.
I tried to stay calm. But my hands were shaking.
Where the hell was I supposed to go?
If panic had already set in, the roads would be jammed. Trains, useless. Flights, impossible.
And the orb…
I hesitated, gripping the edge of my desk.
I needed to see it for myself.
The thought made my skin crawl, but I forced myself toward the window.
The moment I pulled the curtain aside, my breath hitched.
The sky was wrong.
A massive void loomed in the distance, stretching high above the city skyline. An abyss of swirling darkness, its center shifting and twisting like an open wound in reality.
And it was moving.
Not floating. Consuming.
Buildings near the outskirts bent unnaturally, warping as if being sucked toward it. Streetlights flickered violently. The air itself shimmered, like the heatwaves over burning asphalt.
My stomach churned.
I could actually see things getting pulled in.
Vehicles—whole buses and cars, tumbling through the air like weightless debris. Billboards ripped from their frames, disappearing into the abyss. Even the goddamn trees were getting uprooted.
My fingers dug into the windowsill.
This wasn't just a phenomenon. It wasn't a storm, or an explosion, or anything remotely explainable.
This was something else.
Then—movement.
Down in the streets.
I blinked, my vision adjusting to the chaos below.
People. Hundreds of them, running.
Some darted between unmoving traffic, trying to force their way through clogged streets. Others simply abandoned their cars, sprinting on foot.
A few stood frozen, staring at the orb in pure horror, unable to move.
And some…
Some were already being pulled in.
I saw a woman—mid-run—suddenly yanked backward. Her body lifted off the ground, flailing wildly as she screamed. Her cries were cut short as she vanished into the darkness.
A man—clinging to a lamppost—fingers slipping. He struggled for a few seconds before his grip gave out, his body spiraling upward.
It was like a slow-motion apocalypse.
And I was watching it unfold from my apartment.
I stumbled back, chest rising and falling.
This wasn't something I could outrun.
I turned away from the window, gripping the straps of my backpack.
I had to go. Now.
Frantic Escape
My mind raced as I reached for my door handle. Should I take the stairs? Try the fire escape? Would it even matter?
I yanked the door open—
And froze.
The hallway outside was not right.
It was as if the apartment complex itself was being affected.
A deep, unnatural hum vibrated through the walls, rattling the frames and furniture inside.
The sound was gut-wrenching, a low-frequency drone that settled into my bones.
Then—a scream.
Close.
I whipped my head toward the stairwell.
The sound of frantic footsteps pounded against the concrete steps, echoing up the building. Someone was coming—fast.
I barely had time to react before a neighbor—a young man in a hoodie, maybe early twenties—burst into the hallway.
His eyes were wide, filled with raw panic. He didn't even look at me as he ran straight past, heading for the opposite end of the hall.
But then—
He tripped.
And suddenly, his body lifted off the ground.
I watched, horror-stricken, as his legs flailed midair. He was yelling, clawing at the floor—anything to keep himself down.
But it was useless.
His body tilted backward, like gravity had shifted just for him. His fingers scraped against the floor, leaving streaks of blood as he was dragged down the hall—
And then, in an instant—
He was gone.
Pulled into nothingness.
I staggered backward, my heart pounding in my ears.
That hum… that vibration in the walls—
It was getting stronger.
And then—
Gravity Shifted
BOOM.
The entire building shook.
I nearly lost my balance, crashing into the wall as the lights burst, shattering into sparks.
And then—
Everything tilted.
My stomach lurched.
Objects inside my apartment slid sideways. The desk skidded toward the wall, books and papers scattering. The fridge in the kitchen tipped over, crashing onto the floor with a deafening slam.
It was as if the entire city had been tilted at an angle.
I grabbed onto the doorframe, my muscles straining to keep myself from falling.
And then I realized—
It wasn't just me.
The entire building was shifting.
Outside, the cityscape warped, like a painting smearing into itself. Skyscrapers bent unnaturally, their steel frames groaning. The ground below rippled, sidewalks buckling as the streets curled upward toward the sky.
And then—
Everything snapped.
Gravity wasn't tilting anymore. It was PULLING.
---
My stomach dropped as my entire body lurched sideways.
Everything in my apartment dragged toward the window. My desk slid across the floor, slamming into the wall. The TV ripped from its mount and crashed onto the ground.
I barely had time to react before I was lifted off my feet.
An invisible force yanked me toward the shattered window, glass shards cutting into my skin as the wind roared like a jet engine.
Outside, the world was collapsing.
The streets were a chaotic nightmare. Cars were being pulled into the sky, twisting and contorting before vanishing into the swirling void above. Buildings buckled and tore apart, their pieces spiraling upward like weightless debris.
People were still running, desperately clinging to street signs, to anything that would keep them grounded. But one by one, they were sucked upward—screaming, thrashing—until they disappeared into the void.
My fingers clawed at the floor, my nails scraping against the wood. But it was useless.
The abyss had me.
My grip slipped.
And then—
I let go.
---
I expected to die.
To feel my body ripped apart, consumed by the same nothingness that had devoured my city.
But instead—
I woke up.
Face-down on something rough.
Not concrete. Not wood. Something… charred.
I groaned, my body aching. Slowly, I pushed myself up.
And my blood ran cold.
The world around me was hell.
Ruined buildings, half-collapsed and covered in ash. Streets lined with debris—cars, metal beams, shattered glass. Some of them still smoking, like they had been pulled from a fresh disaster.
And then, the bodies.
Old and new. Some fresh, like they had just been caught in the collapse. Others rotting, skeletons barely clinging to what was once flesh.
My breath came in sharp gasps.
Where the hell was I?
A deep crackling noise made me snap my head upward.
The sky.
It was wrong.
A deep, swirling red and black vortex, stretching endlessly above me. And within it—
Tears.
Rips in the sky, opening like wounds.
And from them, chunks of debris rained down.
A bus, its windows shattered, spiraled out of one vortex and crashed into the distance. A massive stone pillar, ancient and weathered, tumbled from another.
These vortexes weren't just hovering there.
They were bringing things in.
Tearing pieces of different worlds and throwing them into this one.
And I was one of them.
I staggered backward, my chest tightening with panic.
I needed to think. To figure out what was going on.
But before I could even process my next step—
A low, distant howl echoed through the ruins.
And I wasn't sure if I was alone anymore.