On the top floor of a cheap rental building, inside a messy yet clean room, loud noises of frustration suddenly erupted.
—Damn troll! —Monx shouted, frowning, his eyes glued to the screen.
He couldn't stand having his only moment of leisure ruined because of a stranger.
Someone who, after losing their favorite character to a teammate, decided to vent their frustration by sabotaging the entire team.
Before he could continue cursing, a violent knock on the door interrupted him.
—Shut up already, you damn brat! —roared Fabio, the old, muscular neighbor who always picked on him for being, in his words, scrawny.
Not wanting to escalate the conflict, Monx walked to the door and answered without raising his voice.
—I'm sorry, neighbor. It won't happen again —he said in a conciliatory tone—. I'll try not to make noise.
—You better —Fabio replied, his voice heavy with threat—. I've been living here long before you, and I'm friends with the owner. With a few complaints, I could have you kicked out —he added with a mocking laugh—. Ha, ha, ha.
With the conversation over, Monx returned to his desk only to find the word DEFEAT displayed in huge letters on his laptop screen.
He stared at it for a few seconds.
«Excellent. Angry neighbor, lost match… the day just keeps getting better.»
He took a deep breath and stretched his arms, trying to release the tension.
He checked the time on his phone: he still had four hours before his night shift.
Maybe —he told himself without much conviction— if he arrived early, his boss would be in a better mood.
The idea crumbled on its own in his mind.
He set the phone aside. Before changing clothes, he walked to the window to watch the beginning of the sunset.
He never got the chance.
A brutal earthquake shook the entire area without warning.
The walls began to crack. Objects were thrown to the floor, shattering the fragile and damaging even the sturdy ones.
Monx lost his balance and fell hard, left dazed. He barely managed to cover his head on instinct.
Nervous, he remained lying on the floor even after the tremors stopped.
Suddenly, a deafening clamor exploded outside.
The screams multiplied, sharp and desperate, until curiosity overpowered fear.
Still aching, he stood up with difficulty and approached the window, now filled with cracks.
His eyes widened.
There, where the pale moon should have been, hung a sphere red as blood.
It pulsed with an unnatural glow, bathing the world in a nightmarish hue. His room was dyed by that unsettling light, and confusion turned into pure panic.
Only the howls, growing more intense by the second, managed to snap him out of shock.
They were sounds so cold they froze his skin.
Clumsily, he leaned out the window to see what was happening in the streets.
From his position, he could make out humanoid monsters with grotesque appearances.
Even from a distance, the sight was hard to endure.
Monx's stomach churned.
Those things… were not human. Their skin peeled off in strips, chunks of flesh dangled from their bodies, swollen eyes looked ready to burst, and their deformed legs showed ruptured veins.
He held back the urge to vomit, trying to comprehend that his life had just changed forever.
It was as if a collective nightmare had materialized right in front of him.
Although those creatures seemed to move clumsily, they were surprisingly fast, and their strength was absurd: they could tear a person in half without much effort.
«If I go out now, I die. What am I supposed to fight with? I have nothing…
Locking myself in is the only thing I can do. But… what if this lasts for days? Without food, I'm finished.»
A sudden noise in the hallway made him flinch, sending a cold sweat down his back.
«Monsters in the hallway? No… they're too big. I would've heard the walls breaking.»
But the sound continued, scraping against his already fragile calm.
Doubt was the trigger.
The fear, piled up from witnessing so much horror in so little time, began to boil.
It was no longer just terror; it was a bitter mix of helplessness and rage.
«To hell with it… If I'm going to die, it won't be while hiding.»
Firm in his new decision, he opened the door in search of an answer.
He found it immediately.
The neighbors had formed a tight circle.
At the center, writhing on the floor, was Fabio. His body was halfway through a monstrous transformation. The crowd wasn't trying to help him; they were unloading knife stabs and hammer blows that disfigured him even more.
Then the unexpected happened.
A look.
A look filled with pain and desperate forgiveness pierced him from a distance, followed by words he never would have imagined hearing.
—Please… —Fabio's voice, unrecognizable and broken by a choked scream, managed to slip through the blows—. Monx… help me!