What Dan saw that morning outside the town's news station was the same as what Vanessa saw looking out the window of her classroom, and the same as what John saw leaving the town in his truck.

The object would objectively have to be called some sort of spacecraft. However, if we were better at naming things, we would call it something else. It was suspended nearly half a kilometer above the ground and appeared to be a featureless black capsule of indeterminate size. None could believe what they saw. There had to be an explanation. It was as if it had just been placed there by something. No rational human thought could provide a sensible clarification as to what it was or how it got there.

It made no sound initially. Its silence permeated through the air louder than any sound it could have made. But just then a deep, bellowing roar erupted from above them, shaking the earth beneath their feet, and all eyes returned to the sky.

The craft slowly began unraveling into a flat circular plane, cloaking the sky in a deep black and eclipsing the sun, enveloping the town in darkness, save for the light that leaked in far in the horizon at the edge of the disk. Looking up, the inner machinations of the ship were now visible: pipes circulated in and around the craft like blood vessels, structures protruded with no apparent coordination, moving components slithered around its belly and cogs spun and creaked. As obvious as it may sound, it was simply alien; incomprehensible to the human mind, an oppressive nightmare that reminded every person in the vicinity of how small they were. How insignificant their lives were. How little knowledge they possessed and how much was still so completely inaccessible to them.

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It took no time for the shock of the event to pass, and soon the minds of every citizen fell prey to the maelstrom of confusion, fear, and chaos that swathed over their little town, as tangible and terrifying as the spacecraft itself. Some ran for cover, some whispered prayers, but most could do nothing but stand and watch hopelessly at the distillation of cosmic terror before them, frozen in place as if touched by the cold void of space itself. If Lucifer himself appeared before them, the fiery pits of Hell in his breast, it wouldn’t be sufficient to break the trance that the people had been placed in.

At the peak of the hysteria, three circular ports opened at the center of the plane, and pillars of light cascaded outwards like the first sunlight penetrating the overcast sky after a storm. Out of the ports descended bright spheres of light akin to small suns, casting the once-dark town back into twilight. The citizens, snapping out of their madness, returned to gazing at this new phenomenon, a primordial feeling overcoming them as if discovering fire for the first time.

Shortly after, the three spheres began revolving around a point at their center, picking up such speed that they began to lose their individual form, creating a luminous ring. With the increase in speed, they began emitting more light, increasing until it was too much for people to bear, as if the sun itself had been placed only meters away from them. Reaching the climax of their speed, one final, blinding flash exploded onto the town, and just as soon as the gleam arrived, it disappeared along with the object itself.

All was dark, and the town was left a collapsed shell of what it once was.