"Relax, it's not going to bite you, it's just a toaster." Clair attempted to calm herself down, still eyeing that miraculous helper – a present from the colleagues. She looked around and sighed heavily - there were already so many electronic devices in her apartment, when this one was just a small kitchen equipment, it was nothing to worry about, but Clair still couldn't get herself together. She glanced at her analog watch - it was almost 6:00 am. It meant that she had plenty of time before leaving for work. She took a seat, then stood up, then started to walk back and forth, suspiciously looking at the metallic side of a toaster.

"Well, Clair, you must admit that you like toasts. You can still spend half an hour to get your favorite bakery or you can do it at home." Clair always talked to herself when she was alone, especially in moments like this. When she discovered that she had electrophobia she went to see many psychiatrists, but the more sessions she attended, the worse she felt. It went on and on until she couldn't even look at anything that consisted of electric circuits. Clair had to resolve to reading and found herself a method to relax – she simply talked to herself when nobody was watching. Because of her "self-conversations" she allowed herself to use lights in the hall and in the bathroom, using a ski stick to switch them on and off. The rest of electronic devices remained unplugged. There were candles for special occasions in the closet, but she only used them in urgent situations. Luckily for her, it was 1981, and not many electronic devices were implemented in everyday life. Still single in her late twenties she had everything a housewife could ever ask for. Clair didn't dream of Prince Charming, instead, she wanted a career as a head editor of "Bizarre magazine". It wasn't a famous one, but it was rather promising. They had great stories and articles. Most of them were about alien invasions and different experiments, not a usual choice for the lady, but she liked the topics. There was something unique and intriguing about those stories that gave Clair hope that one day she could be published too.

But now Clair was dealing with a small electronic device, which didn't seem to cooperate. She took a deep breath, came closer to the toaster, chuckled and pointed a finger at it.

"You must be brave! I know you would prefer to have another master, not me - silly girl, but it is what it is. Let's agree on these terms - you don't harm me and I don't keep you plugged in for the whole day. Deal?" Clair realized that she looked ridiculous negotiating with the silent toaster trapped in the prison of her kitchen. She took a rubber glove she bought at the nearby convenience store earlier, put it on and slowly plugged the toaster into the outlet. She narrowed her eyes anticipating a boom of a sort. To her surprise, nothing happened. There were no bad sounds or disturbing clicks. Clair looked around, feeling watched, as if she was on stage. Then, she took two pieces of bread and inserted them into the toaster. Nothing happened. Then, according to the manual, Clair pressed the lever and toasts disappeared inside the machine. But there was nothing still - no sounds or an unusual smell coming out of the appliance. Clair was standing in the kitchen, thinking about what went wrong. She picked up the manual and gave it another read. One of the main points that she missed was to check whether electricity was working or not. Clair slowly moved to the corridor, took a ski stick and switched the light on. No light appeared and Clair exhaled with relief.

All of a sudden, someone knocked at her front door as if trying to break it wide open. Clair screamed at once, like a girl who was caught doing something inappropriate. Knocks continued and Clair approached the door. When she opened it, she saw a tall man, with a smile all over his face. He was wearing a jumpsuit with a logo of Wilson's Electricity Company. He was holding a bag full of equipment in one hand.

"Sorry for the disturbance, miss. I have to check your circuits." He fired immediately staring straight into Clair's eyes. He reminded her of Harry - a guy, who used to be her boyfriend for almost half a year. He was so nice and gentle that Clair began to think that she could get married and be a good wife, but all good things ended the day Harry called her saying that he was going to marry someone else and that he wasn't going to continue with Clair anymore. It was as shocking as it was ridiculous. Later, in the office, Hannah (one of the authors they worked with) told Clair that she was lucky not to be married at all. The two spent a lot of time together discussing relationships with men, drinking coffee and exchanging snacks, and eventually Clair realized that it was easier to edit manuscripts than to get a good decent man by her side.

Standing there, in front of that charming electrician Clair could only squeeze two words out of herself. "Yes, please." She had no idea what to do and just let the man in. The electrician looked around and quickly found an electric panel. He grabbed a chair and climbed on it to get the better view. Then he went on around the living room checking up every socket.

"New here?" He asked. 

"Yes... How do you know?" Clair was indeed new here. "Hannah must have told you... "

"Sorry miss, I don't know any Hannah. Your outlets – most of them have never been used. And the radio could perfectly fit in here." The man smiled and took something out of his bag. He barely touched the outlet with his device, when sudden cracks and a terrifying soundwave hit him. He fell on the floor unconscious. Clair was stunned. The man laid on the floor with no movement at all.

"Hey... mister..." Clair felt the panic kick in. She has never seen someone being electrocuted. The electrician remained silent, it looked like he didn't breathe at all. Clair took a deep breath, grabbed the ski stick and poked the man, but it didn't do anything at all.

"Okay, Clair. You need to call for an emergency. Just calm down. " Clair took the key, left the front door open and moved out of her apartment. She didn't have a habit of using the phone, but her neighbor, the old war veteran Mr. Smith could have no problems dialing the hospital. She slowly approached his door and quietly knocked. The old man appeared shortly after. He didn't have a pleasant appearance because of his nose that seemed to have been broken multiple times during his life, but he was a kind and understanding neighbor. His eyes were now expressing a surprise. He didn't have any visitors as far as Clair was concerned.

"Clair, darling, what's wrong?" He quickly noticed that Clair wasn't acting as always, her hands were shaking.

 "The electrician... he has been shocked... I..." Clair was speaking slowly, trying to get herself together. Mr. Smith left his apartment at once and moved across the corridor to Clair's apartment. He quickly jogged back. "He's lucky that I'm at home today… emergency…" The old man ran into his own apartment and moved to his phone. Mr. Smith began dialing the number. Clair wanted to say something, but before she uttered a single sound a handset exploded in Mr. Smith's hand right next to his ear. His blood sprinkled her face. Clair was shocked and numb at the same time. She wanted to scream, but could only helplessly observe how warm body of Mr. Smith fell down on the floor. And when it did she ran downstairs to Mr. Caffe - the owner of the convenience store across the street. Witnessing two deaths in one day - Clair didn't want anything else, but help.

She didn't know how long it took her to get to the front door of the store, but Mr. Caffe was already at work. Clair was trying to be as calm as she could but it was obvious for Mr. Caffe that something terrible must have happened. When he asked her about it, Clair replied, but barely could remember a thing she said. Fortunately, that was enough for Mr. Caffe to close the shop and take her to the hospital. While sitting in the car, Clair was thinking about what she saw. I felt like a fog had interfered with her mental processes. 

The doors of the hospital were open as usual. There was a huge amount of people waiting for the aid. If Clair wasn't absent from what was going on around her, she would have had noticed that most of them were injured, shocked, even with burns, but she was out, she just sat in the waiting room expecting a doctor. Then, Mr. Caffe, who tried to be helpful, said something about the shortage and a blackout and left. There was a thin woolen blanket on the chair next to Clair. She wrapped herself in the blanket, didn't even notice that she was still wearing that rubber glove. She closed her eyes and when she opened them, the hospital was empty. There was no one around, it seemed like everyone has just disappeared and left everything working. The lights were on, the doors of the hospital were open. Clair stood up at a loss looking for anyone. "Hello, is anyone here?" There was no response. She heard her own words echoing through the corridor and moved along to the lobby. The emergency cars were ready to go, their engines were still running, but there was nobody there. "Hello?" Clair repeated, but still to no avail. She looked confused, but suddenly the idea of her dreaming came to her mind. She came close to the car and touched it. No, it was real – she realized it as soon as her fingers touched the cold steel.

"It's not a dream, right? So where is everyone?" Clair asked herself in her usual manner and moved outside. There she heard a barely audible cry of a kid. She moved along the street - there was no one around either, but it seemed that she was getting closer and closer to the source of the disturbance. Clair couldn't say how long she walked, but suddenly she realized that her house was just one block away. There, in the corner of the street she noticed the first dark figure.

"Finally, the first person." Clair quietly told herself and moved faster to catch a man. "Mister!" She called him loudly and the figure stopped. When Clair approached him, she saw a tall old fellow in a grey suit, whose facial appearance was not something outstanding or memorable, but despite all of this Clair couldn't get rid of a feeling that she knew this man.

"Hello. Do you know what is going on? Where is everybody?"

"Do you hear this cry? It's a boy, and he needs your help." The man in the grey suit had been listening to the cry this whole time, or so it seemed. Then he became straightforward and serious, his eyes locked on Clair's face, and she felt being pierced through. "I can't answer all of what you want to ask," he said, "but what I can tell you is that we all are here because of him... "

Sudden shadows from out of nowhere moved around the street. The grey suit grabbed Clair and moved inside the dark corner, holding her mouth tight. The shadows went past them and moved in the direction of the cry, like a beasts hunting the prey. When they left, the man released her.

"We are in danger. You must find this boy. He is somewhere there." He pointed to the street 1226 where shadows supposedly headed to. Clair wanted to argue, but the man pushed her, and she hit the corner of the building with her head and fell down. When she opened her eyes she realized that she was back in the hospital. There was a slight headache, but she felt fine. Clair looked around – the place was full of life and everything seemed normal. There were lots of patients, doctors and other stuff members. The electricity was working fine, as if there was no blackout at all.

Clair put the blanket aside as soon as she saw a couple of police officers approaching her. She was ready to answer all the questions they might have had and could even show where all the accidents took place. Officers wrote down her statement with all the details in order to file the report further. After they finished, they eagerly drove Clair back home to check the scenes. As three of them were coming upstairs Clair wondered about the horrors the officers were going to see and shivered. She wasn't sure if it was going to be a usual thing for them, but for her, for sure, seeing cold lifeless bodies was going to be a challenge. To her wild astonishment, everything was normal. Mister Smith was alive and kicking. The charismatic electrician joined the old man in the kitchen. They were drinking hot tea or something, Clair didn't care at this point. She was so confused that she wasn't able to explain what had happened. After a few questions from the police officers, Mister Smith and the electrician explained the situation. Both of them were really electrocuted and even lost consciousness, but no one died or got injured, moreover, they both fixed the problem in Clair's apartment.

While the questioning continued, Clair couldn't believe what she was seeing and hearing. She wasn't mental or imaginative, but everything seemed out of logic for her. Police officers granted Clair with a disapproving look as if saying what an attention-seeking lady she was, which made her feel sad. It wasn't fair. The talk finished and everyone went back to their business, but Clair still felt like she was deceived. With this feeling she took the bus to the building were the editorial office was. She couldn't believe that people she considered dead were alive, she was certain that she didn't imagine it. Something was not right, but Clair couldn't explain what it was exactly.

She got off the bus and slowly headed towards the building. She had a lot of time before the work started, but she was distracted once again when she noticed a boy, who was simply squatting in the middle of the street and crying. It reminded Clair of the same cry that she heard while dreaming. He was all alone, crying, and nobody seemed to care, nobody stopped or even looked at him. It was as if the boy just wasn't real. Clair decided that he needed help and approached him. 

"Hey, are you lost?" Clair inquired but the boy was not responding, only cried. Clair came closer, but it seemed like he didn't notice her at all. Only when Clair's face was in front of his he greeted her with eyes full of tears. He looked like he was around seven or so. He had short blond hair and dark hazel eyes.

"They told me that they were going to protect me, but shadows didn't leave me alone." The boy whispered, expecting that Clair would understand him rather than just ignore him.

"Where are your parents? What are you doing here?" Clair wasn't sure if the boy was referring to the same very shadows that she and the old mysterious acquaintance of her had seen earlier that day.

"I ran away because they couldn't protect me. No one can. Only the gray man." The boy whimpered.

"Alright, what is your name? How can I help you?" Clair failed to believe what she was hearing.

"My name is Deron. The grey man is my only help..." He spoke quietly. Then, the hand appeared in front of them.

Clair looked up and saw an old woman with short grey hair, in a dark dress covered in white flowers. "Deron, come over here." The old lady's voice sounded very calm.

"Auntie Zira!" The boy reacted with a big wide smile, but quickly calmed down and hugged the familiar old woman. Clair felt nice about what happened.

"Is this lady bothering you?" Zira took Deron's hand, suspiciously looking at Clair.

"No, she tried to help. Where is uncle Stellan?" The boy was looking around, but saw no one.

"I will take you home. You will be safe, I promise." Zira took his hand and without any farewell speeches they left. Clair saw a Deron waving goodbye in a very shyly manner. The two quickly left the street, while Clair moved to her work. She couldn't stop thinking about what she saw and what Deron said.

The working day went the usual way - there was nothing strange or bizarre going on. Clair had enough time to visit Hannah, who came to the office to edit some of her new stories. If Clair was a little more open-minded, she probably would have spent lunch with Hannah telling her about what happened, but since Clair lacked the courage to have more friends, she spent all day focused on work. In the evening, Clair was sitting on the bench, waiting for a bus. There was a tree growing too close to the bench and Clair leaned against it and closed her eyes. When she opened them, she saw a car in front of her. The familiar man in the grey suit walked out of the car and joined Clair on the bench.

"Busy day, huh?" The man in grey suit asked. Clair only nodded, looking at him with intense. "Do you still think that I am your imagination or a dream?"

"I don't know, you tell me. Because I begin to doubt my sanity. I'm telling you honestly, I have never felt as stupid and as embarrassed... Everything I have discovered is probably my sick imagination… But you appear and I don't know what to think." Clair couldn't hold it in herself anymore. She was trying not to think about what happened, but her thoughts were bringing her back to the events that she has experienced today over and over again. The man in grey suit was listening, while gazing into the dark night. The he gasped, and his lips moved into a short smile.

"Thanks for helping me. You found a boy just in time. I'm Archibald, by the way." The man in grey suit give Clair his hand to shake. She shook it warily. Archibald noticed that and continued. "I'm real, see? You are not crazy."

"I'm not sure about that anymore.... but this dream, or whatever it was, I saw you there. And... And... my neighbor and... the electrician... I saw them dead..." Clair started to speak but stuttered because the extremely strong emotions were overwhelming her. 

"Well, I only can judge the dreams. What happened in your residence wasn't a dream, I think, more like a prediction." Archibald wanted to explain as best as he could, but only confused Clair more. He decided to change the tactics. "Let's say everything begins at the moment the power plant explodes."

"What? What power plant? Here, in this city, we don't have any power plants." Clair felt like she was losing her sanity.

It's hard to believe this, I know, but I'm telling the truth. In 1954 the power plant will explode, and which will create electrical impulses of a new form all around the world." Archibald wanted to continue, but Clair granted him a smile of her classic idiotic grin, which she used to do every time when she didn't believe a single word a person said.

"How is that connected to me? I never lived near the power plant. My stepmom and I lived in the countryside for as long as I can remember." 

"There is a study from professor Zeitaf, who wrote multiple works about the ways one energy transforms into another. And he proved theoretically that electrical impulses can create something you would call "a breach", in which this energy is being divided and flows from one object to another."

"It looks like good sci-fi story, but, mister, I studied well at school. I definitely don't remember reading Zeitaf." Clair sighed.

"I knew it would be hard to explain. I just want to tell you that soon everything is going to change, and you have to be prepared." Archibald stood up and looked around. Night was falling down on the city. Traffic lights were glowing like fireflies. It was a nice view.

"I really thought that you were kidding me." Clair uttered calmly, despite one matter still bothering her. "What I still don't understand is how it was even possible to see you in my dream. I haven't ever met you until now. "

"Well, if you wish to know, go to the public library, find a book "Physical energy of the universe" by A. A. Zeitaf, on the shelf 1583. There you will find all the answers. Or you can do anything you want and see what happens." Archibald said it in such a tone as if she was his last hope. He approached his car, waved goodbye and drove away. Clair was left alone. She had so many things revealed to her that she failed to understand half of them. Maybe she needed a consultation with a doctor. The book that Archibald mentioned had to exist. What harm could a reading do? The bus arrived just in time. Clair had to move home.

Slowly going upstairs to her apartment, Clair was still deep in her thoughts. The corridor that featured pictures of death shock and disbelief earlier, was now eerie and quiet. Clair opened the door of her apartment and sneakily went in. She didn't want to cause any disturbance, but right after she closed the front door behind her, she heard the noise outside. "It's not your business, go to bed." Clair told herself, suppressing the curiosity.

In the early morning, the loud knock on the door woke her up. Still half asleep Clair slowly moved to the door. She opened the door and yawned at the same time, but wished that she didn't, because there were two detectives standing in front of her. They were wearing formal attires. "Can we talk?" They introduced themselves and showed her their badges.

"What happened?" Clair became serious and ready.

"Murder. Your neighbor, Mr. Smith is dead. And because yesterday you witnessed seeing him dead, we would like to talk to you. Can we come in?" The man with moustaches asked in a polite manner. He was speaking in a clam tone.

Clair let them in, and in a few minutes two detectives were sitting at the dining table interrogating her. She told them everything just as she remembered it. Both detectives made notes and hastily left her apartment without any comments.

"What is going on?" Clair asked herself, while getting ready to work. When she went out of her apartment she saw a lot of forensic experts and police officers investigating the crime scene. While moving along the corridor, Clair peeked into the neighbor's apartment and noticed blood. She couldn't look at it and hurried away. She took the very first bus that arrived. A cold sweat broke out of her body. When she moved out of the station, she noticed a man, the electrician, who was dressed the same way as yesterday, moving to the backstreet. Clair followed him, eager to talk, but somehow she lost him in the back alley. She felt disappointed, but at the same very moment a sudden noise startled her. She turned around and saw the electrician laying on the ground, bleeding. There was a creature of incomprehensible nature, with huge black eyes. It was standing right in front of the electrician, looking at his prey from above. Sharp spiked teeth pointed outward. It glowed and distorted air around itself like it was made of electricity. What seemed like a body of this monstrosity had huge spikes which constantly changed their location.

The creature noticed Clair, but didn't target her because it was ready to attack the electrician. The poor man was laying on the ground, unable to move or even defend himself. Clair saw him raise one arm in order to protect his face. Clair had to do something. She grabbed a stick, which was conveniently placed next to the wall and swung it a few times trying to drive the monster away as if it was nothing but a bad dog. She yelled at the creature, but it only made things worse - the creature finally considered Clair as its priority. She was terrified, but she had no other choice but to defend herself. The creature growled and ran at full speed straight at her. She braced herself for impact, but before she could even blink her eye, she was pinned down with an immense force. Clair felt electricity moving through her body. She was in shock, her heart was galloping at an uneven pace. Dying, however, was not part of her plan. Clair pushed the monster back, despite the pain she suffered. She bought herself a few seconds to catch her breath, but the creature was clearly ready to make another attempt.

Sudden sound of thunder stopped it from taking action. The wind in a matter of seconds became strong enough to blow away everything in its range. The creature felt it and retreated as fast as it could. Clair tried to stand up, but couldn't due to this powerful force of nature. Or was it of mystic nature? Clair couldn't tell. The weather was rapidly worsening – thunder and lightning were occasionally reminding of themselves.

"Stay down, hold onto something!" Clair heard the electrician shouting from behind the car. She looked around. There weren't many options. Clair noticed a thin little tree and put her arms around it. The wind was behaving like a beast who finally got out of the cage. Clair heard noise behind her and rapidly turned around. The car that the electrician was hiding behind was now upside down and the man was being trapped under. Clair approached the man as soon as the wind subsided, hoping that he was still alive, but unfortunately, he turned out to be dead - squashed by the force with which the car pinned him down. 

"Too many deaths, Clair. Too many." She told herself, moving out of that cursed backstreet. What she saw shocked her even more. Clair's eyes opened wide, and cold ran through her veins. There was a huge mess on the streets – vehicles were topsy-turvy, there were cries of agony coming out of multiple directions. Something was burning. Few injured people passed her by, staggering on their way somewhere, they all looked dazed. There were no first responders around, not even a single ambulance. Clair wanted to help someone, but couldn't. Voices were coming from here and there, and Clair failed to decide in which direction to go. She felt helpless. She closed her eyes, hoping that it would make all of this disappear like a bad dream, but it only made it worse. She saw a phone booth nearby and rushed towards it in order to dial help. And even though she made no delays and acted swiftly, she had to face an obstacle - all lines were busy. Frustrated, she placed the phone handle back, but as soon as she did. the phone suddenly rang. Clair slowly picked up the phone, scared, and having completely forgotten about her electrophobia.

"Yes?" Clair felt paranoia.

"Hello, this Stellan speaking." It was a voice of an old man. There was little noise on the background, and it made Clair pay attention. Clair admitted that the name that the caller used to introduce himself with sounded familiar, but she wasn't able to recall where she heard it exactly.

"To whom are you calling?"

"To you. Your name is Clair, you are in the phone booth, and behind you is a famous "Strange Ways Café, is that right?" 

Clair looked around. Much to her astonishment the café with such a name was indeed there. "Is it a prank? It's not funny." 

"No, I wish it was. I have to talk to you. It's about what you have witnessed recently. Meet me in that cafe in an hour. Order something but try not to talk to anyone." Stellan sounded serious.

"Why should I listen to you? How do you know me?" Clair wanted a rational explanation. 

"Listen, you are in grave danger. If you want to leave, fine, let it be. I won't be able to stop you anyway, but I warn you, if you do, you'll be dead by the end of the day."

"Are you serious? Are you threatening me?" Clair's eyes grew wider just as the feeling of shock and disbelief was. 

"That creature you saw and the wind going wild were just the beginning. There will be more in hours to come. I really wish to help." Stellan sounded very serious, but Clair couldn't believe her ears. What the stranger said made no sense, had no rational explanation and sounded so bizarre that Clair just couldn't accept it. 

"I think I can deal with that. I don't need your help." Clair wanted to finish conversation and hurry back to safety of the office building, but the mysterious caller wasn't going to let go easily.

"Fine, you stupid!" Stellan sounded like he was losing patience. "Go and die then, enjoy your day!" The connection was abruptly cut. Still in shock and disbelief Clair left the booth and decided to hit the road. All of a sudden she was under a heavy rain. All soaked wet she decided to move faster. When she was passing by "Strange Ways Café" she noticed two people tending to their injuries. They noticed her, and an elderly man snapped at her. "Get the hell out of here!"

Clair felt awkward. She stood next to the entrance, trying not to interfere with anyone's actions.

"I said, get the hell out of here!" The old man was being really mean.

"C'mon! It's raining cats and dogs..." Clair started, but the old man quickly grabbed her arm and tried to push her back on the street. Clair had to fight back, but she accidentally hit the mean old man harder than she expected.

"You brought us death!" He became enraged, grabbed a wooden cane and hit her again and again. "You should have listened! But now it's too late, Dwertiis is coming! And we all are going to die, because of you!" The old man was screaming his lungs out, hysterically hitting Clair with the cane. Clair felt tired opposing. She closed her eyes calling for help, and in a moment, abruptly, the hitting stopped. When Clair opened her eyes she saw a group of glowing creatures inside the Café. The visitors were panicking. Terrified, cold, and in pain, Clair gathered the last of her strength and ran off. She forbid herself to think about the fate those people suffered. The rain was pouring down heavily, she was wet to the bone, running as fast as she could while shielding her face from the cold strong shower violently pouring from above. She met no people on her way to the office. It was as if all of them were wiped out. Only Clair and rain were left. As Clair continued her way to the office, she occasionally pulled a few doors, but, unfortunately for her, everything was closed. 

Clair ran a few blocks until she finally reached the front entrance of her office building. It had no power, when she entered. Also, there was no one inside. Cold, wet and frustrated, she used the emergency staircase and rushed straight to her workspace. She opened a drawer and took out a new casually looking Tshirt and sweatpants. The set of clothes had the official logo of the magazine printed on it. Clair planned to wear it to the teambuilding event. She rapidly took all her clothes off, and tried to dry herself with a hand towel which she normally kept near her mug. While doing this Clair felt an extreme urge to relax and cuddle in her armchair with a hot cup of coffee. Then she put the fresh new uniform on, feeling shame for wearing it under the wrong circumstances. All of a sudden, a stationery phone on her table ran. Clair got scared and ignored it completely. Clair was heading to the lead editor's office when she noticed a trail of blood. With the corner of her eye she saw a glowing creature feasting on a corpse. She hoped that it wasn't her Chief, but today hadn't proven itself as a day full of particularly hopeful events, so she thought that the worst scenario took place. Clair sneaked out of the building. She was lucky that the creature was busy chewing. Outside, the rain had stopped, but city lights weren't working and darkness was creeping all around, followed by a cold breeze. The only sources of light were the sources of death - the electrical beasts were flashing all over the streets of the neighborhood, teleporting themselves here and there. Clair tried to sneak past them, avoiding sources of light at all costs. She found an open door, sneaked in there and barricaded. It was a dark empty public bathroom. Clair sat down on the floor, leaned her back against a tiled cold wall and instantly dozed off.

A sudden buzzing sound of a power grid working woke her up. This place was no longer safe. Anxious, Clair jumped up to the sink, threw cold water on her face and hurried outside. It was blinding dark outside, and there were no glowing monstrosities in the vicinity, but there definitely were human voices nearby.

"Finally." Clair whispered, hoping to get some help or shelter or hopefully see a friendly face. Her search brought her to the large square, where a dozen of robed figures were chanting something sinister while standing in a summoning circle surrounded by candles and power cables. Clair wondered if they were trying to save the city or to destroy it. One of them noticed Clair and pointed at her. "Here she is!" He commanded.

Clair wanted to run away, but found herself surrounded by glowing creatures and cultists in a blink of an eye. They forcefully brought her into the center of the square where a huge altar was waiting. There was a glowing breach on the stone surface, and Clair could clearly see red and grey lights fighting each other. Clair was then released. She made another attempt to escape, but monsters promptly reminded her of themselves.

"Who are you people? What does it mean? Why am I here?" Clair shouted at men, but they didn't answer, remaining silent.

Then, the breach changed, dark red color became primal. The electricity bolt came out of the breach and struck Clair. She fell on her knees, coughing severely. It then repeated again and again, until Clair was laying on the cold pavement, begging them to stop.

"Your vessel is ready! Release yourself!" One of the men in the robes shouted. The huge wave of electricity came out of the breach and struck Clair again. She was cried like a dying animal. She suffered a lot, but then everything stopped. Clair stood up and looked around, noticing that everything has remained the same - creatures, darkness, men in robes and the breach.

"Can someone explain...?" Clair began, but suddenly exploded into pieces, covering the cultists in her insides. Only the puddle of blood remained. A creature appeared out of it. It looked like the rest of the monstrosities, only shinier. It had a partially humanoid face and was smiling.

"Wait! Is that all? Is this how it ends?" A woman looked at an aspiring young author sitting in front of her.

"Yes. Do you like it?" The young author was a sweet young woman with spark in her eyes. She was looking with hope at her interlocutor, whose experience as an editor was incomparable.

"Well, generally, the story is good, despite the ending, but at the same time, some passages have to be better. Do you mind a few questions?" The woman put away her glasses and looked at the young girl.

"No, go ahead, please."

"I can't help but notice that the main character of your story reminds me of Clair that works here,"

"Yes, to be honest, she inspired me. I'm sorry, was. I used to live in the same house as she did, but now I'm changing the city. "A girl smiled.

"Marriage?"

"Yes, I'm so excited!" The young girl got visibly happier when the woman mentioned marriage.

"I see. Why didn't your main character listen to anyone?"

"Well, that's how I feel her." The author cunningly smiled.

"A bit arrogant, I see, right? Well, I guess, it won't hurt. I am not here to challenge the plot or the storyline, it's the author's idea. One more question. Has Clair herself read it? "

"I had no time to show it to her. But if you are going to print it soon, she would read it anyway."

"I tell you honestly, it may be in our new edition this summer. But as for the royalties..."

"Its fine, I'm not looking for a fame or a quick buck." The girl interrupted. Publishing is enough." She smiled.

"I can't promise you anything. We'll see." The editor smiled back and stood up. The author left the office with a short "thank you".

She went to the car parked outside of the building. "Will she read it?" An old man asked as soon as she joined him in the car.

"Yes. I know how important it is that she reads it. She is the vessel, we need to protect her." The young woman sighed heavily. It now became obvious how hard for her was to play a role of a promising young lady. She looked very sad.

"Tired?" Archibald wanted to be as nice as he could. She looked at him with admiration.

"Yes, a lot. And this travelling through time and space made me younger and younger. I wish you could do the same... "

"Yes, well, I'm just getting older." He smiled nicely like he always did to melt her heart.

"I don't know Archie, how long can I do this. I always feel so exhausted..." The young woman looked at him, as if asking his permission to stop travelling through time and space.

"I hope this is going to be the last try. The boy has to run away and emit his powerful cry. Clair must find him before the cultists do. And I must be there to help her. Some things must go the way they usually do." Archibald exhaled. He was tired too, but full of hope.

The young woman took her notebook out and put some notes in. Then closed it. There were initials o the front side of the notebook - A.A.Vent. The car moved off the main road leaving both of them into their own thoughts.