The next three days were filled with tension no one in the family could even talk about.
Every morning, Donald left for his mechanic shop with an indifference that called the bluff of the news reports.
Linda was a realistic woman that has been shaped by the harsh realities of life and death based on her experience as a nurse. But even as tough as she thought she was, her composure began to crack.
She would call home during her breaks, her voice was a little too sharp. A little too insistent, anytime to called to check on Daniel and Chloe.
True to her word, Chloe refused to go to school.
She'd spend the majority of her day just sitting idly near the window and staring at the sky.
Meanwhile, Daniel was caught in between the whole drama. He tried distracting himself from the whole thing by spending more hours playing video games.
But the image of his sister's face lingered, her eyes filled with a certainty that felt both ancient and absolute.
But the image of his sister's face looking terrified kept flashing on his mind.
He found himself often taking glances at the clock. The passing hours felt less like a countdown… and more like the ticking of a bomb.
On the third day, the D-day, everything seemed totally normal. There was nothing unusual. The sun rose at its usual time. People carried on with their lives as if nothing was wrong.
By the afternoon, Linda had already called three times.
Donald called once. His tone was blunt.
"Daniel, make sure your sister isn't scaring herself silly."
The house was silent but for the refrigerator's low hum and the tense voices of newscasters on the television. Daniel's mind had blurred all the noise out.
He was about to pull out a can of soda from the fridge in the kitchen, when the clock on the microwave changed to 2:30 PM.
It didn't start with a sound. It began with a feeling.
A deep, intense quake began way down in the earth and shot upward, almost like a giant creature was waking up beneath the ground that holds everything up.
The ground beneath Daniel shifted to the side, causing a glass to fall off the counter and smash against the tiles, the crash quickly drowned out by an overwhelming roar.
"Daniel!" Chloe screamed from the living room.
He stumbled and grabbed onto the doorframe as the whole house shook wildly. Books went tumbling off the shelves, pictures banged against the walls, and a loud, creaking crack spread across the plaster beside him.
This wasn't just a little shake, it felt like the ground was splitting apart beneath them with a massive earthquake that hit a staggering 15.8 on the magnitude scale.
He could hear the painful screams of bending metal and the thunderous sound of buildings coming down from outside.
The shaking was so powerful that it felt like the world was splitting apart. Then, just like that, it all came to an end. An absolute silence settled in.
But the terror was far from over!
Daniel stared out the window, feeling a chill as the soft afternoon light started to disappear way too fast.
It wasn't the sunset as usual. It was as if a giant, cosmic switch had been flipped.
The sun... was being consumed.
In seconds, it vanished completely. Replaced by a perfect, terrifying circle of absolute blackness.
The world was plunged into an abyssal darkness. A void colder and more complete than any night.
It wasn't totally dark. Right in the middle of the sky, where the sun was meant
to be, a new glowing object suddenly appeared.
A moon hung in the sky, but it wasn't the usual silver-white one they were used to, instead, it glowed with a disturbing blood-red hue.
This eerie light turned the world into shades of deep crimson and black, making their once-familiar street look like something out of a horror movie.
Chaos broke loose. The brief moment of quiet was shattered by the blaring of car alarms, the screeching of tires, and the sickening thud of metal colliding together as drivers, caught off guard by the unexpected darkness, crashed into each other.
Then, the screams began. They were raw, and filled with sheer terror, coming from every direction.
"Daniel, what's happening?" Chloe stood next to him, shaking like a leaf, her face pale in the eerie red light.
He gently tugged her away from the window, his heart started racing wildly in his chest like a bird trying to escape.
On the TV, the news anchor was no longer her usual composed self.
Her face glowed under the studio lights, slick with perspiration.
"We… we are getting disturbing reports… I just don't get it," she lamented, her voice trembling and breaking.
The camera switched to a shaky view from a news helicopter, revealing a city street also bathed in the same hellish-red glow.
People were running in all direction, their bodies casting elongated and distorted shadows.
But they weren't just fleeing the chaos, they were escaping something far more terrifying!
As the camera zoomed in, the image became pixelated and shaky.
Strange figures were starting to emerge from alleyways and, impossibly, from shimmering cracks that seemed to tear open in the air itself.
They were monstrous. Some took on the form of humans, but had twisted horns protruding from their forehead , with long limbs and skin the colour of bruised flesh.
Others were more like insects, darting with a speed that was truly unsettling.
The reporter's voice choked off into a terrified scream.
"They're everywhere!! Oh God, they're killing people! They're monsters! They're...." The feed cut to static.
Terror, cold and absolute, seized Daniel.
This wasn't a natural disaster. It was an invasion.
His father's sarcastic comments about survival kits and his own irritation over missing the football game now seemed like faint echoes from a life that was long gone.
At this moment, what truly mattered was the small, trembling girl standing next to him.
His mind, which had been dull and uncaring, suddenly became clear and filled with a sense of urgency.
"Get away from the windows!" he shouted, his voice sounding unfamiliar even to him.
He pushed Chloe towards the central hallway of the house while rushing to the front door, locking the deadbolt with a loud slam.
He ran through the small house, a whirlwind of desperate energy, locking the back door, and pulling the curtains shut, plunging them into near-total darkness, a sanctuary from the blood-red nightmare outside.
He grabbed his phone, his thumb fumbling with the screen.
He dialled his mother's number. The call didn't even ring.
A pre-recorded voice, chillingly calm, announced: "All circuits are busy. Please try your call again later."
He tried again. And again. Nothing.
His hands shaking, he dialled his father's number. The same result. They were alone. Completely and utterly alone.
The screams outside were getting closer now, punctuated by deep, inhuman roars that vibrated through the walls of the house.
He heard a window shatter at the neighbour's house, followed by a series of wet, tearing sounds and a final, choked-off cry.
They were coming!
Chloe was sobbing now, her small hands clamped over her mouth to stifle the sound.
Her wide, terrified eyes glowed in the gloom.
They couldn't stay in the hallway. They needed to hide. His eyes darted around the room, searching, assessing.
The couch? Too obvious. Under the beds? The first place anyone would look.
Then his eyes fell on the heavy, old-fashioned wooden wardrobe in his bedroom. It was deep, packed with old clothes and blankets his mom refused to throw away.
A sanctuary of forgotten things.
"Chloe, listen to me," he said, grabbing her by the shoulders. His voice was a harsh whisper. "We have to hide. Now!"
He practically dragged her into his bedroom.
The monstrous sounds were just outside their front door now, a heavy, rhythmic thudding, accompanied by a low, scraping noise, like claws on concrete.
They didn't have seconds!
He pulled the wardrobe door open, the old wood groaning in protest. He began moving aside piles of clothes, creating a space at the back.
"Get in. All the way to the back," he commanded.
Chloe, paralyzed by fear, just stared at him. The thudding at the front door became a splintering crash. They were inside.
"NOW!" Daniel roared, the sound raw with panic. The fear in his voice finally broke her paralysis.
She scrambled into the wardrobe, crawling into the dark space. He threw clothes and an old, musty-smelling comforter on top of her, concealing her completely.
Then, just as heavy, non-human footsteps began to stomp through their living room, he squeezed himself into the remaining space, pulling the heavy door shut until it was closed, leaving only a sliver of a crack.
The darkness inside the wardrobe was absolute, thick with the smell of mothballs and dust.
He could feel Chloe's small, shivering body pressed against his back. He wrapped an arm around her, holding her tight.
He could hear the creatures in the house now. They were overturning furniture, their movements punctuated by guttural clicks and low snarls.
They were searching.
He lowered his head until his lips were right beside Chloe's ear. He could feel the frantic, terrified puffs of her breath against his cheek.
He gave her the only instruction that mattered, the one their lives depended on.
"Do not make a sound."