Heavy rain pounded against the roof like battering artillery, miles away thunder was cracking through the clouded sky. The mist was thick enough that some of it leaked inside of the house. The smell of unrelenting rain had invaded the inside of the house, and while he almost always found it welcoming, right now it had been slightly terrifying. It felt like a prelude to something more concerning.

Angelo huddled forward in front of his personal computer, blue light escaped from the wide display, casting light in the darkroom along his walls. Page after page, tab after tab, jumping from one forum to another, nothing much appeared on Mainstream media and Conspiracy forums shared the same old, same old story. The same old happenings and nothing burgers, regurgitated old information regarding the anomalous activity around the air.

One thread did however catch his eyes. “Planet X/XI formerly known as Nibiru secretly disclosed by U.S. Government insiders! The end is near!” He clicked on it, his heart racing with a dose of experimental dread and excitement.

404….? This page does not exist. Nothing is here, refresh or reload.

It was a dead thread, no, a removed one.

He sighed, how many of these events did he miss, just by the offbeat of a half-hour or two? It was a pity that all website archival projects had been intercepted by big governments and corporations.

“Come on!” he muttered to himself, going back to scrolling.”Every fucking time…”

“It’s that damned computer!” The A.I. shouted from the living.”Kids these days.”

He responded by throwing an empty out of his room.

“That’s right, let it all out, it will make you feel better.”

“Don’t make me jailbreak your hardware.”

“Oooh, that sounds exciting.” It rebutted.

The storm intensified outside and he peered out. Something heavy was hitting the ground. Small chunks of ice started shooting down out of the air, like hammers pounding the earth. A large crash echoed from another room upstairs. A piece of hail must have smashed through the windows.

Not his problem, at least for now.

“I’d advise you to get away from the window, come sit with me in the living room, you brooding boy. Let's play a game together.”

“I’m good thank you, housekeeper bot, pull up the metal shutters. Don't need more windows breaking.”

“You didn’t say please.”

“I wonder how my father will react to defective software, he said.”

His threat made the A.I. react immediately. A metal shield enveloped every window, around the house.

‘Seriously, they have way too much agency these days.’

Suddenly a massive boom clapped the streets, making him jump. The screen flickers for a moment then goes dark. He stared at the blank black monitor and before he could react, his phone started buzzing aggressively in his pocket. There was an emergency alert being sent out to people in the area.

“Attention all residents of Sonnedrift. Severe weather conditions inbound. Do not leave your residences. Expect severe connection outages.”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Ah. Nature-induced load shedding was just what he needed.

“Curie, can you connect to the backup grid, please?”

“Impossible backup energy grid is offline, No incoming satellite signals. It’s like everything just went dark. Please rely on UPS and locally sourced networks. I'll be on ultra power saving mode going forward. It's likely just the effect of the weather, consider hiding in the basement, if it intensifies.”

Anxiety started prickling his heart, It’s never happened so suddenly.

It’s just a heavy storm, right?

For a moment, he wonders whether this was it. His brain tells him to calm down and think it through, maybe pop another energy drink eat more chips, and wait it out. Read a book, sleep it out. It’s just rain and thunder, nothing more right?

No!

A funny itch grew at the back of his mind. The urge to loom outside and see the storm for himself hits hard. His body moves on its own like he is being pulled outside, he heads towards the door.

“Where are you going Angelo, there’s a possible hazard outside. I highly recommend staying indoors.” The AI did nothing to deter him.

The storm outside was terrible, but his attention was not on the storm itself. He felt compelled to wait. The mist was unnaturally thick–that the outside world looked like a foreign, perhaps even alien. He swore under the purplish sky, that the mist appeared reddish, a smell of iron also pervaded the air. More distant howling of wild thunder, like a furious beast. And out of nowhere–

He could hear the sound of turbulence, like a plane making its landing. For a moment it became so loud that it drowned everything out. And then BOOM! Something landed near the house, closer to the street. He could barely perceive with his naked eye.

The impact had shaken the earth beneath him, he could not make out the thing in the thickened mist. He would have to investigate. All manner of possibilities ran around his mind. But more than likely it was either the thickest piece of hail or a meteorite.

Impulse grips him. He runs across the muddy yard, his heart pounding as he attempts to home on the landing. The rain made it very hard to make anything out, and hail made his movement harder. But he could vaguely make out the disturbance, smoke came from the area.

Up close, it looked like a molten pit was formed by the impact of the asteroid. It wasn’t smoke, it was steam. The sound of hissing metal and evaporating water being jetted about. Inside the molten hole, lay a spherical object, like obsidian, its metallic radiance shone with light. For a brief moment, it was beautiful, completely alien.

His first thought was to take his phone out. But he realizes he left inside the house. He forgets about it, who cares if no one else saw this?

Then, he heard a faint metallic crack. A small fissure appeared in the middle of the metallic ball, slowly opening. Inside there was nothing just pitch black darkness.

He couldn’t see and so he veered even closer, with the heat rapidly dissipating. He sticks his face practically inside. He freezes, there is something inside. It was barely perceptible like a speck of dust, it moved with surgical precision. Mechanical, the only hint of its existence was a glint of light reflecting off it.

It vibrated, like a ringing phone, then tore through the air itself-

It went into his face, it felt metallic and had tiny legs, wiggling like a very small spider. It got into his eye and started burrowing. He tried screaming, but no sound would come out. He could hear the sound of his heartbeat, irregularly loud, so loud it drowned out everything else.

He tried clawing it out of his eye, but it slipped and disappeared. A sharp pain cut into his brain and he became overly nauseous. It was moving around like an animated needle, sticking pain as fast it moved and it moved fast.

The pain was severe and intense, and more importantly–his own body felt foreign, he was twitching uncontrollably like it was moving on its own. He stumbles backward, falling on his behind, but it is far too late. Whatever entered him, has started to settle. His vision blurs and everything he has eaten since early morning comes bawling out. Causing a biological catastrophe in front of him. His stomach emptied, leaving him weak.

Images flashed in his head. Numbers and symbols, strange and foreign like computer code but not based on anything he has seen. Mathematical complexities, things he couldn’t comprehend, plagued him. Serial codes.

Then it flashed vague visions of people in his head, not anything he recognized. Archaic clothing, strange levitating vessels. The architecture was akin to Sumerian-esque buildings, a ziggurat. A god, not the gods of Sumer. He saw some of it, it had ingrained itself in his head. The deluge, the flood. Lots of things.

It thing spoke to him.

“Angelo. An-ge-lo. Angelo.” It repeated ad nauseam.

“Get the fuck out of my head, he shouted in the air.”

“Angelo…” It didn’t stop.

“Immediate shelter is advised. Seek safety indoors. Immediate shelter is advised. Seek safety indoors. It was Curie, who kept repeating itself as well adding to his increasing madness.

The hail started intensifying again. Large chunks crashed into his skin, he winced in even more pain. He clutches the right side of his face, it feels disjointed and disconnected–The thing made itself home there. He runs towards the house, half stumbling. And panting.

It was now for the first time he realized, the atmosphere was too thick, and the ground was unstable. Everything felt wrong. He felt the thing inside him, pulsing like a heart. His colors tweaked between normal and warped saturation and hues.

As he burst through the front door, he slammed it shut. Falling on the ground, he struggles to get up.

“Angelo…” it said, warped, robotic and twisted.

“Shut the fuck up, shut the fuck up.”

The A.I noticed his distress, rays of white and red started flashing in the room.

“What is wrong, Angelo, do you require medical assistance? I told you not to leave. ” curie said.

He stumbles onto his bed, collapsing on it. His heart was racing faster and faster, like a growing panic attack but without the all anxiety. Then everything started quieting–everything became too quiet. He could only hear static, has his vision started blacking out.

“Unable to call appropriate medical services, please resort to self-medical care,” Curie announced. Her out-of-tone voice did not help at all.

The thing inside of him was messing with him, which compelled him to go look at the thing without his gun. Maybe, he could shoot it.

‘No, no time for regrets.’ what was he gonna do about it?

“Hello Angelo,” it said again. This time its voice was very feminine, very soft. “You have been given a very special opportunity and burden. Please bear with it.”

He wanted to respond but couldn't. He blacked out. It was the last thing he had heard.