1 Nightmare

Today has been a rather normal day really. I got up, did my morning routine and went to work. Work was as boring as it usually is, being a magazine editor can be exciting yet monotonous. I always loved magazine's about fashion and books growing up so I considered this the perfect job for myself. The job is decent and it pays well so honestly I don't regret studing English in university. At least I'm doing something that I enjoy.

My name is Cassandra, though everyone calls me Cassie for short. I am currently on my way home and I'm feeling rather melancholic about life itself. I live in City A which is a pretty busy city so I can't really take my time and walk slowly to the train otherwise I'll be late. I pick up the pace as I try to make the train back home. It's been quite cold here lately, winter is just starting. I take a quick glance up at the sky and I notice the dark clouds that are starting to gather, yeah I need to get home.

I finally see the large and familiar buidling that is the train station, I make my way through the machine that checks for the tickets and I quickly enter the train, just in time. Most of the people around me have coats and ties on and I see people on their phones which makes me think of my friends and our hour long phone calls. There's an empty seat right by the door so I take it before someone else can get to it. As the train starts moving I keep my head down and fiddle with my phone.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the train has reached it's destination" said the robotic voice from the speakers in the train.

That finally got me out of my head and I quickly got up and made my way out of the train station. As I was rushing out with all the other people who were making their way home I saw a man walking around trying to get people to speak to him. When I noticed him I immediatly put my head down and tried to pick up my pace so I wouldn't have to speak to him.

"Hello ma'am, could you please sign this?" said a man who was standing at the entrance of the building.

He's holding a wooden board with a paper and pen on it, clearly a petition of some sort but right now I'm not interested so I quickly walk past him and head up to the streets. When I reach a road by the mall I call a taxi and head home.

The taxi man is nice and respectful so I give him a tip and exit the car.

My apartment building is tall and large. I have lots of neighbours and I'm close a shopping centre which makes it a prime housing location. I enter the building and open up my mailbox. As I'm opening it I see one of my neighbours, Rose, walking in through the doors.

"Hey Rose, how have you been?" I ask while I filter through my mail.

"I've been good with work and everything, just happy that it's finally friday," Rose answers back with a laugh.

I close up my mailbox and lock it then I put my mail in my bag and turn to the elevator. I smile and reply back.

"Friday is honestly the best day, I've had so much work lately and I just need time to relax."

She comes up to stand next to me as we wait for the elevator to come down to the first floor, "Seriously, I just want to sit and mindlessly watch a tv show right now, all that paperwork I've been doing has done nothing but numb my brain."

I nod my head in agreement and loosen up my scarf a little, it's warmer in the building than it is outside.

Ding!

The elevator doors open and we get in. I live up on the 6th floor of the building so I'm not too high up, I think it's the perfect floor because even if the elevator doesn't work I don't have to walk up 10 flights of stairs.

"I just can't wait to get a good night's rest Rose," I say as I take my scarf off and get out of the elevator. "You should rest early tonight too."

She just waves goodbye to me and goes into her own apartment just before I reach my door.

I enter the passcode and open the door. Then I take off my shoes before getting into my apartment and closing the door behind me. I lean back against it the door and take a deep breath while looking up the the ceiling. It's been a long day and all I want to do is eat dinner and sleep.

My apartment is a decent sized place, it's a two bedroom apartment with one bathroom, a living room and a decently sized kitchen. I walk to my room and put down my bag and change my clothes into some comfortable pajama's. When I take a look at the clock it says it's currently 8pm.

I make myself a quick dinner and close all the windows and curtains aound my apartment then I finally tuck myself into bed. I slowly drift off into sleep and eventually find myself dreaming.

"Help! Help me please!" I hear a woman scream from a distance, I frantically look around, shocked by what I see around me.

I'm standing in the middle of a road and there are multiple buildings on fire and hundreds of people running off in all directions. The few buidlings around that aren't on fire have people by the entrances trying to close the doors as fast as they can, while others are running frantically up the stairs.

When my eyes finally settle on the woman who I had heard screaming, I see that she's kicking a man off of her and trying to run and the man on top of her is acting like a wild dog, his head is twisting and twitching unaturally. He has tenticles of some sort coming out of his back and he's trying to literally bite her neck off and as much as the woman dressed in a yellow shirt and jeans tries to prevent him from doing so he eventually does just that.

When I see the corners of his mouth rip open, I look away and run to a shop that's by the corner of the road and as I run I notice that that the sky is darker than usual and that snow is falling rather heavily around us.

I quickly make my way into the shop and see other people inside, the people inside the shop, two men and three women are trying to find places to hide.

"What is going on out there!?" one of the men asks, he is dressed in a suit and tie holding a briefcase and trying to open a door by the back, probably the storage room.

The other man who finally notices me runs to the front door and tries to close it, I notice his uniform and name tag, he's an employee here.

"I don't know man," he turns his head to look at the other man and yells, "Leave that door alone for now and help me out with the front door! If we don't close it, they're going to get in!"

Everyone else moves to the front door just as more growls can be heard in the distance getting closer. The two men eventually get the door to close and one of the women suggests that we find things that we can use to block the door.

However, as soon as we start to do that, I hear tires screeching outside and the growling has gotten much closer.

Everyone freezes and I tentativly look outside the glass doors and immediatly make eye contact with a grey-skinned man with eyes that have gone completely black.

This is the point in which I finally wake up and jump up out of my bed. I run up to the window in my bedroom, rip my curtains open and sigh in relief as I see the quiet streets and the moon shining brigthly outside.

Then I hear a voice in my mind.

"Hello, I'm a system! The end of the world begins in a month! Would you like the system introduction and tutorial?"