the day the portals descended

It was a normal day like any other. I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock ringing at 7:30, my room a mess from simply being too lazy to clean it, though my mom had always told me to clean it. Carefully walking past the numerous game consoles and books, and simply walking over a mat-to-be comprised of my socks, shirts, and pants, I reached the door.

Yanking the door open, I walked out of my room and began walking down the stairs. Halfway through, however, I heard the voice of my mother.

"Mark, glad to have you awake, eat and then GO!" she told me in an urgent yet practiced tone, waking up at 7:20 made every school day somewhat of a rush.

"Yeah, I will, I will" I said, after all, I had school at 8:00.

Completing my walk down the stairs, I headed to the dining table/ living room where I saw my sister munching down on some cereal and watching some TV.

"Ahhh!!, AGAIN, this CHANNEL keeps playing the Return Of The Potatoes 6 over and over again, where are the blockbusters" my sister screamed belatedly.

"Well, if you think the movie is so repetitive, why don't you just change the channel? and besides we don't have time for that, we have to get to school!" I reminded her.

"Well, I like this movie, and BESIDES, we have a lot of time!" she remarked lazily.

"Yeah right, also where's dad?" I said to my sister.

"he left quite a while ago"

My mother was your typical stay-at-home mom, and my father was your typical breadwinner father who I rarely saw. As for my sister Bianca, she was 4 years younger than me. We both weren't anything special and she was your average middle schooler and I was your average high schooler.

I sat down on the couch and grabbed a bowl and quickly started eating my own cereal. When it was roughly 7:40, I finished eating and grabbed my bag to leave for school.

"C'mon we gotta leave for school, we're gonna be late" I reminded my sister who was still watching the movie.

"Yeah, coming" she said as she grabbed her bag and joined me at the doorstep.

"BYE MOM!!" we both screamed to no room whatsoever of our house. Not a second later, a voice muffled by countless doors shouted "BYE KIDS!!"

"Lets go" I said, closing the door and ushering my sister forwards.

"Bye Mark" Bianca said as she left the driveway and reached the sidewalk, going left.

"Bye Bianca" I said, reaching the sidewalk as well, going right. We went to different schools, though when I was in middle school, I did go to her school, so when she graduated from middle school, I suppose she would go to my school, however, unbeknownst to me or anyone else, I would not see her graduate middle school or any other grade of school, in fact, I would not see her or my parents for a very long time.

From the first right turn, I walked forwards until I reached a crosswalk which I crossed, made a left turn, walked a bit, and reached my school. I was able to wake up quite late because I lived quite close to my school.

Arriving at my school at roughly 7:50, I entered the gate to a wide road meant for cars to pass. From there, I walked straight to reach the doors and walked in. Entering, I felt a blast of AC, the honking, beeping, skidding noises cars make replaced by the lively chatter students the age of 14-18 tend to do. Walking past the lobby full of people, I reached a once-wide hallway, now narrow with the addition of multiple large couches on the sides of the hallway. Finding an empty couch, Mark sat down and took out his phone to play some games, he had 10 minutes to spare before classes started.

𝐈𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧, 𝐚𝐭 𝟕:𝟓𝟖:𝟒𝟐 𝐀𝐌, 𝐉𝐚𝐧𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝟒𝐭𝐡, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟑, 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐝.

Around 30 seconds after the arrival of portals, the ground started rumbling.

"Umm..., i- it seems we have an earthquake, everyone please hide under any available desks or chairs, stay clear of any windows, and keep your hands on your head to avoid any debris as per usual" the gravelly voice of the principal sounded.

We had had earthquake drills before, and to the students and everyone here, this very obviously seemed to be an earthquake. However, this was no mere earthquake, this was the arrival of the portals, spacial rifts connecting certain segments of dimensions much like our own and behaved very similar to that of a dungeon, where there was a clear condition and you were unable to leave the dungeon unless you cleared that dungeon... supposedly. These spacial rifts "spawned" randomly, in the ocean, in the air, and in buildings, though there were two exceptions, they could not spawn in or under the earth's crust layer, and they could not spawn above the troposphere. As for the massive global earthquake, the opening of portals had allowed mana flowing from the other dimensions to fill the "mana-empty" Earth, enriching the Earth and imbuing mana stones into the Earth, causing a massive earthquake. Additionally, this mana enrichment allowed animals to evolve much faster and become more attuned to the mana, making them grow much stronger and able to use magic abilities.

Feeling the earth trembling beneath my feet, I was scared, I immediately put my phone in my pocket and rolled under the very couch I was just sitting on, putting my hands over my head, fearing for my life.

Under the couch, I suddenly heard a ringing noise. quickly, I tried covering my ears yet that did not seem to deafen the sound at all, looking to the left, I saw another student hiding under a couch. Like me, he seemed to try to cover his ears, to no avail, hearing the sound seemingly intensify, I started screaming, it was like the loudest and most alien sound I had ever heard in my life, it sounded foreign, and like something I would have expected some all-powerful being to make.

And then I was whisked away.