1 Twilight's Lament: The Last Echo

Half slouching in his gaming chair, Leo was slowly skimming across the page. The room was definitely not well lit enough for one to properly study, but Leo wasn't someone who was that enthusiastic about tests, especially the one tomorrow. The room was messy, with closet doors ajar, piles of books scattered across the room, couple pieces of clothing laying on the bed, and empty plastic bottles that he was too lazy to toss out.

The equations and numbers on the page began to dance as Leo's attention drifted off. Twirling the pen in his hand, Leo began to daydream about life if he wasn't stuck to his desk everyday, studying day and night for tests that he didn't really care about. He wanted something that made his heart race, something that will make his adrenaline levels shoot through the roof. His phone lit up as it vibrated, the sudden bright light in the dim room made him squint his bloodshot eyes.

[We will be back soon, take care of yourself.] The text message from his mother appeared on the screen. The slight pain from his cracked lips reminded him that he should have a drink. Looking at the bottles that were full of stale liquid, he wasn't sure if they were safe to drink. "Oh well, guess I'll head downstairs," Leo thought, as he stretched his limbs that were sore after who knows how long of sitting. Looking at his glasses, he thought for brief moment before deciding that this simple "expedition" for water did not require good vision. He nearsightedness would have severely hindered his daily life were it not for his glasses, but he could still see without them.

The oak door creaked as the rusty hinges barely held up the door. Feeling the cold marble tiles beneath his bare feet, Leo took a second to adjust to the darkness. His room was on the fifth floor, the wooden staircase up led to the attic, while the staircase down was completely made of marble. The attic always scared Leo as a kid, since he would imagine that unknown monsters and beasts dwell in the dusty upstairs. But as he grew up, he slowly felt as he himself was cradled by the dark and gloomy surroundings. Looking down the dark staircase, the feeling that he was alone in the house finally reached him, the pitch black darkness was like an abyss that was trying to swallow him. Not even bothered to turn on the lights, he slowly climbed down the stairs.

Reaching the living room, some of the lights were still on, probably because his mother didn't want the roaches to emerge from the shadows. The dim yellow light created a weird feeling that his current life was merely a illusion. Swinging open the fridge door, he quickly scanned the interior to see if anything caught his eye. Grabbing a sad looking apple before closing the fridge, Leo sank into the leather couch. Turning on the TV, news about the wars going on around the world appeared on the screen.

Sighing, Leo instantly turned off the television, sick of all the terrible things that were happening all around the globe. Perhaps it was due to his own mood, but it was as if everywhere he looked was full of misery, death, depression, and rage. "Has the world gone insane?" Leo thought, who still couldn't quite understand why thousands of people were dying daily simply because they believed in different values. "Perhaps we have never evolved from the cave dwelling ancestors of ours, still a bunch of idiots obsessed with tribalism," Leo thought, quickly devouring the apple. Sucking off the sweet residue off his fingers, he tossed the core into the trash can.

Returning to his room, he took a deep breath, preparing himself mentally for another round of combat with his textbooks. But before he could react, his phone went off, loud sounds blaring from its speakers. [National Alert: Unknown shockwaves have been detected, please stay calm.] Reading the text, Leo felt his heart skip a beat. Unknown attack from another nation? An earthquake? A volcanic eruption? Dozens of guesses clouded his mind, but he grabbed his phone before quickly leaping on his bed to get away from all the stuff that could fall down from the shelves on top of his desk. Trying to call his mother to check on them, the beeping noise meant that no one picked up the call.

Crack! The two large sliding glass doors that led to the balcony shattered, shards of glass flew everywhere, some even sinking into his skin. "Fuck!" Leo thought, as he hid beneath the thick blanket. He could hear the neighbor's dogs barking, alarms on the cars all went off, and the chilling screams of people. The curtains began to flutter as howling winds swept through his room. The books on his shelf began to fall down as the whole world began to tremble, the sound of shattering glass could be heard downstairs.

Hanging up the unanswered call, he decided dial his father's number. But before he could enter the number, his phone's screen began to flicker. "What the hell? An EMP bomb?" Leo thought, he always thought that a EMP bomb only existed in Sci fi movies. The whole house began to shake, his bottles of drink fell to the ground, his metal thermos made loud clanking noises as it rolled around.

The dim light of his reading lamp also began to flicker before it completely snuffed out, plunging his room into darkness. A large explosion sound could be heard, the red light from the crimson flames lit up his room. "The natural gas pipes!" Leo instantly recognized the source of the explosion. Since the neighborhood still used gas stoves instead of electric ones, there were pipelines that transported natural gas to every house.

Leo began to curse as he felt so helpless in this situation, he could only simply wait for everything to end. The screams and barks fell silent, Leo was not sure whether if they've died or just too terrified to make a sound. Suddenly, he could hear cracking sounds all around him. Peeking out from the safety of his covers, he saw cracks form all over the walls of his room. This definitely wasn't a good sign since Leo was technically a couple floors in the air. Making up his mind, he bolted for the door.

He could feel his heart racing, the adrenaline pumping through his veins numbed the piercing pain from stepping on the shards of shattered glass. He half crawled half tumbled down the stairs, leaving a bloody trail. The lights were already out in the living room, the china his family put up as decoration were all on the ground in thousands of pieces. Panicking, he tried to grab anything that would be useful when a natural disaster occurs. Looking around, he realized that there was a slight problem, he'd left his glasses upstairs. There was no way he could go up the stairs since the earthquake intensified. Half blind, he grabbed the first thing that he saw, a plastic bottle of water, before quickly running outdoors.

Outside, the thick black smoke covered the night sky, the garden that used to be home to a beautiful tree was reduced to ashes. There were large fissures in the ground, a whole house had already fell down the bottomless abyss. The pavement outside was cracked, he could see some of his neighbors gathered around in a small group around five people. One of them was holding a plastic cage, which probably held their pet. He was going to group up with them, but a wave of dizziness assaulted him. The same sensation also occurred for the group of people in front of him, he could see them all fell to the ground on all fours.

The plastic cage that the man was holding fell to the ground, the cage door swung wide open. A black cat darted out from the cage, but its clumsy steps clearly indicated that it was also affected by the weird phenomenon. "What in the world is happening?" thought Leo, he slowly picked himself up as the nausea slowly faded. The others also began to sober up, some were covered in their own vomit. But before Leo could head towards the group, a blood curdling scream pierced through the night. Due to the fact that he left his glasses behind, he couldn't see clearly. But he could see one of the neighbor's heads roll onto the ground, the lifeless corpse tumbling to the floor with a loud thud. Blood sprayed everywhere, covering the shocked people that were frozen in fear.

Processing the scene in front of them, they scattered immediately, running for their lives. Squinting his eyes, Leo finally got a better view of the culprit. It looked to be a beast that was about six feet long, its slick black pelt made it hard to spot in the darkness. The yellow eyes glowed, it slowly licked the blood of its paws as it savored the victim. Somehow, the figure of the beast reminded Leo of the black cat that had escaped from the cage. Impossible, Leo quickly tried to dismiss that thought. There was no way that a harmless cat could turn into a monster that could easily murder people with a simple slash.