The underground train station, previously littering with fluorescent lights, finally plunged into the void of darkness as a half torn corpse of the man flew, hitting the last remaining luminarie and finally crashed against the wall. Intestines spilling out of his torn torso, accompanied by the crimson blood.
The blood trail followed the path down the broken marble floor of the platform, where even more corpses laid dormant. They were everywhere, unmoving, over the broken metal benches, inside the torn off train compartment. Trails of blood were everywhere around me. Glass windows of train, some broken, some littered with the passengers' torn off organs and blood, gradually moving downwards. I moved, over the blooded platform, over the mutilated corpses, with the strength that my own little feet could have mustered, looking for my mother. I found her, lying behind the metal bench, torn in halves from head to breasts, revealing her sharp inner ribs. I moved, sitting beside her, as my own bloodied, small and shivering fingers carcassed through my mother's messed up hairs. A second trembling hand pushed the remaining half section, trying my best to put the two halves together.
Trying my best to not to slip towards the brain matter, encased in between the torn skull.
Nothingness...
But.
Nothing worked.
She wasn't moving anymore. Her eyes still wide open, just as before.
Tears.
All over my face, as they cascaded through the crimson eyes, effortlessly like a dam overflowing with water.
Then, it finally arrived.
For the last survivor.
I heard a loud crash and goosebumps went down my spine. It was there, after massacring every last survivor inside the train, it finally came for me.
A monster, there was no title more suitable for it. It was there with it's gleaming azure eyes, staring down from the shadowy platform. Sound of claws, scratching over the metallic surface broke the silence. From a secluded corner of the station, the beast arose from dusk. Eight gleaming blue eyes, about the size of a minibus. A face so frightening, as if it rose from the terrors of entire human race combined as one. Two giant dusk horns, rose from the terror incarnate, twisting and tearing the roof as it advanced towards me.
Hot sizzling green acid, dripping down off it's long tounge in a hideous motion, burning the ground on impact. Sharp unhinged canines, constantly releasing the same green terror.
Emptyness...
I had lost all sense of reason, what is it? Why is it? What's happening? There was not a single thought on my mind, not anymore. Just a soft flame that burnt inside of me, calling forth my final remaining sanity.
A twisted singularity.
That's all that remained as the creature advanced further.
Finally it arrived, overshadowing my small figure. It stood dormant, as if proud in the carnage it brought forth over the station of peaceful passengers. I stared wide eyed, heavy arms laced with deadly claws moved, on my both sides, crushing my mother's corpse as the beast sniffed me like a special dessert saved after a meal it had. Green acid, leaving it's bloody tounge, sizzled down my skin poking holes inside.
It was hot.
It burned.
The flame inside me roared, as my stubborn consciousness kept itself from disappearing with the thin threads of sanity.
But.
The sight of my mother's corpse crushed under the clawed hooves of monstrosity, the torn insides spilling out. Her flesh jammed between those hooves as the monster kicked her away.
It snapped.
It finally snapped, the last thread that kept my consciousness. The flame inside me roared and finally engulfed my sanity.
Eternal Peace...
It was when, my vision plunged into abyssal darkness.
Attribute of Judgement detected!
Lesser Insanity: Activated!
And what remained.
Wasn't me.
***
I woke up, hyperventilating as I pushed the blanket covering me away. The same disembodied screen that I've been seeing for more than a decade now, blocked my vision.
Jury Mccoy Age 21 Affiliation System 23451, S.Sl.448, Pl.48972 (Earth) Current stats: Hp 121/121 Mana 0/0 Stamina 10/10 Attack 8 Defense 16 Agility 12
Fatigue: Physical 2/100 Mental 0/100
Skills: (+)Judgement (Ex)[Pre-Awakened]
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Oh, fuck off!
Pushing it away to the corner of my vision, I reached for the jug of water. Filling a glass of water and maniacally gulping it down my throat, I sat, pushing my hands against my throbbing cranial pulses while simultaneously trying to stimulate my heavy breathing.
Damn it! That dream... again?
I leaned against the bed.
Dream would not be the exact terminology in the context, it was... a nightmare.
I closed my eyes.
My trauma from several years ago, still haunting me.
Clear sounds of footsteps echoed through the corridor, drawing nigh as the door opened. Revealing a young man, with loose white shirt and track pants, and a fairly athletic build. Hiding a glass jar behind his back, as if surprised to see me awake, he awkwardly stepped forward.
"Oh? Morning Jury... Never expected you to be up so early."
"And what did you expect? Wait for my asshole twin to throw a jar full of water to wake me up?", I rolled my eyes.
"I would never!", Jason said.
With the same crimson eyes as mine, he scrutinised the room, reaching the windows and removing the curtains, allowing the direct sunlight to pierce through my eyeballs.
"Oh! And what's in your hands then? Don't tell me you bought a jar full of cold water for...", I looked at him, squinting my eyes, "for what exactly, Jason?" I asked.
"Ah, umm... This... Oh, yes! It's for Benjo..."
He can't lie to me. I knew for what it was, I always did. My therapist called it a shared empathy that exists between twins, and it was not one way either. Shared emotions, shared feelings, something that tells you that you're not alone, even in your nightmares. It was the third time I had the same nightmare this week. I thought that I was over it, like it's already been 15 years since that incident, but...
Noticing the sweat over his face, he must've came running knowing I'm having the same nightmare. But yeah, I woke up early this time. I never made it to the second part of the nightmare, which I'm quite thankful to.
Benjo, who was sleeping peacefully right next to me was startled awake now. Whimpering, he rushed past the blanket with his small fluffy legs. Just like a potato. A very expansive potato that barks.
I picked the fluffball, small toe beans were caressing against my neck as I snuggled with him.
"He's gonna be 6 months old today.", Jason jumped in, gently scratching the neck of the little whimpering corgi.
"Aww, who's gonna be a big handsome doggo?"
Benjo looked at me. Licking his snout.
"Ofcourse it's you, sweetheart."
Perhaps he was my anti-second-part-nightmare-charm today that I never made to the second part of the dream. I hugged Benjo tightly.
I love this potato so much.
"City is going under lockdown starting tomorrow, you better finish whatever's pending. Who knows for how long this one's gonna last. Even last one lasted for two whole months.", Jason said as he stood up.
"Was it the towers again?", I asked.
"Yeah. I don't know what exactly is happening but I'm sure that they are not disclosing the whole situation. The scale appears to be quite large this time."
The towers.
6th June 2005. Exactly at 2:00 AM in the morning.
They appeared 15 years ago, when I was just a 5 years old kid.
Scarlet towers, which was the name given to them by humanity, due to their beautiful scarlet appearance as the sun sets.
They stood, looming over the world with their tetrahedron structures. Each side exceeding several kilometres in length, they hung above us with the thin threads of space.
Over the cities, over the forests, over the deserts and plains, over the gigantic mountains and over the surface of great oceans. They were everywhere.
Defying every order that has ever existed, they worked past the natural law of the world. They hovered over the earthen flesh, but the rays of sun just passed through them. Even in the experiments conducted by humanity, every kind of Light past through them, but by no means were they transparent. No light reflected over them, neither did it refract. Still, we were able to perceive their crystalline structre, their scarlet insides. Like large gemstones in the the sky, they were beautiful.
People called them supernatural. Some called them the Harbringers of divine punishment. For some they were possible sources of communication with aliens whereas some, were scared of an outlander invasion. But I called them preternatural, they might seem as miracles, but for me, it was something, yet to be understood.
I looked outside.
Something yet to be woven like variables within an equation.
Something, yet to be studied.
One of the towers also appeared in the Los Angeles, my hometown. It was visible, outside the frame of my windows, far over the misty sky surface, like an inverted pyramid, it gazed over the city with it's scarlet eyes.
The countries went under lockdown, whenever the energy levels within the towers rose. Which, in turn, usually lead to a supernatural occurence. Sometimes it was an unnatural climate change or an earthquake. Falling snow in the equator regions. Monsoon breeze in moist scarced deserts. Earthquakes where the tectonic plates shouldn't have collided.
There was one more phenomenon. One that never came to light, once occured, it gets buried deeper and deeper within the weblike structre of this land. So, since nobody actually knows about it, it was never given a name. But that doesn’t mean that it never happened. The weight I had been carrying since I was a little child, who hadn't even made it past half a decade in this world.
A mother dies of terrorism. Delusional daughter makes up story about the monsters.
That's how it ended.
That was how world saw me.
But I never dug deeper.
Because it's not just my life.
I smiled at my brother.
Because I was never alone.
He smiled back at me.
Even in our nightmares.