Jack sits at his classroom table, holding his head and continues glancing towards the clock. The time was close to 3:00 PM, school is almost over, and he is eager to get himself out of those school gates.
The clock rings. Jack swings his already packed bag over his shoulder and rushes his way outside the door and into the school hallway.
“Hey babe, thank fuck today's over. Your house or mine today?”
Jack looks up the school hall to see a girl with dirty blonde hair and blue eyes, wearing a casual green dress with a small skinny blue backpack coming towards him. The backpack is so small that it couldn’t fit even a contemporary book in it.
“Hey Grace… don’t care your choice, let's just get out of here” Jack says as he slumps his free hand around her.
“Call me babe… I hate it when you say my name like that”
Both Jack and Grace proceed down the school hall to the exit of the door when Jack is suddenly jolted from behind.
“What the fuck did you say about me!”
The force of the jolt rips jack from holding Grace and nudges him forward a few paces. Jacks turns around to see a slim boy about Jacks height with dark curly hair, blue shirt and jeans. The boy’s eyes were low, and his posture was in an over exaggerated aggressive position with his arms out like he was carrying watermelons.
Jack’s demeanor changes, tilting his head down and raising his brown eyes up. Jack then imitates this person’s body language by putting himself in the same exaggerated posture.
Both boys keep their aggressive stares as they slowly walked towards each other until their heads touch.
“You wanna do this Isaac?” Jack sneers whilst heads were locked.
“Yea, lets” Isaac responds.
Jack quickly pushes Isaac who takes a step back. Isaac raises his arm in front of him. Jack grabs Isaac's hand and they then proceeds to come in for a manly hug.
“Ahh, I scared ya there Jack!” Isaac says as he lets go of Jacks hand.
“No way… will take more than that. You coming with us or what?”
“Yeah. Will beat you to the car!” Isaac says as he sprints outside the building.
Jack and Grace both follow Isaac in a fast run until they reach the car park. Isaac was waiting next to a black four door Jeep.
“Too slow, I call shotgun!” Isaac says as Jack uses his keys to remotely unlock the car.
Isaac moves to the passenger door, opens it but to his surprise was interrupted from getting into the car by Grace moving in front of him.
“How many times do I have to tell you! Girlfriend beats shotgun.” Grace says panting as she proceeds to sit in the passenger seat.
Isaac rolls his eyes and opens the back door, begins to get in, looks at Jack and sighs.
“What ever happened to the bro code Jack?”
“One day you’ll get yourself a girl, then you try telling her that” Jack explains as he sits himself inside the car and turns the ignition.
“Let’s go to my house today, mum just said she’s got some snacks for us.” Grace announces while putting her seat belt on.
“Sounds good!” Jack says as the car reverses out of the parking spot and exits the school car park.
Jack, Grace and Isaac continue along, making multiple turns in the car as the radio blares out Graces alternate rock radio station. The music from the radio ends and moves into a news bulletin.
“This is 108.4 FM bringing you a quick live news update. Plenty of people going missing in America and around the world today. 38 missing persons calls across the Los Angeles alone today with 87 missing persons across the country. In Australia, a secondary school of 248 students from a regional town in New South Wales are not accounted for. Police are on the scene investigating.”
“That’s odd.” Grace curiously states.
“They probably just went for a walk. The outback is a pretty big place” Isaac responds.
“Shut up, like you’ve been… You’ve never even gone outside of LA” Jack jokingly mocks as the car pulls up into a driveway.
Jack, Isaac and Grace get out of the car. Grace runs toward a large window with a hedge hugging the house wall and a brick path wrapping around the side of the house. Grace leans over and knocks on the window.
“Mum, mum, we are home” Grace says.
The quaint little white front door of the house slowly begins to open and the face of a lady in her late 50’s, oak blonde hair and the biggest smile emerges.
“Why helloooo lovelies, come on in!”
“Thanks Mrs. Sealy” Jack excitedly blurts as all three enter the house.
Grace and Isaac both take a seat at the brown leather couch. Isaac places his hands into the large glass bowl and grabs a handful of crispy chips while putting his feat on the table. Jack walks past Grace and Isaac and closes the bathrooms dirty white door.
“What are you doing babe? And get your feet off the table” Grace curiously asks as Jack takes off his shirt.
“My games on tonight, just getting changed. Are you guys coming?” Jack shouts.
Jack removes his shoes and pants leaving him in a set of boxers.
“Fuck it, I got nothing on, I’ll go” Isaac mumbles while he continues to loudly chew the crisps in his mouth.
“Isaac! Watch your language” Mrs. Sealy snaps from the kitchen.
Isaac looks over the back of the couch towards the kitchen door.
“Sorry Mrs. Sealy” Isaac says in a raised voice while getting another handful of chips.
“Isaac, your always so rude.” Jack accuses as he heads towards the couch while sliding his football jersey down his chiseled body.
“Show off!” Grace bubbles with a cheeky smile as she notices his body.
“Yeah, you know you like it!” Jack cheekily replies.
The afternoon fades into evening as the TV plays its ambient noises and the snacks, empty glass bowls and soft drinks stack up on the coffee table.
Jack, between Isaac and Grace on the three-person couch decides to slap both of their knees as he prepares to get up.
“Whelp, this has been fun. Time to get going.” Jack said.
As soon as Jack stands up the TV switched to a news broadcast.
“This is NBC Los Angeles breaking news. Reports of missing people are skyrocketing. Germany is calling for a state of emergency as a crowd of approximately sixty-three thousand people go missing from the Allianz Arena in Munich. A similar phenomenon has happened at Heathrow Airport in London in which dozens of passengers from multiple planes on the tarmac had vanished.”
The TV then cuts to a scene of a police officer at the Heathrow Airport.
“We are still investigating the circumstances surrounding these disappearances and we urge people to remain calm and not jump to conclusions”
The TV transitions back to the reporter.
“Act of terrorism or elaborate prank? We will keep you updated as the story…”
The television goes to a blank screen as Isaac presses the power button on the remote.
“Sick joke. You watch. They’ll say it’s a prank tomorrow morning” Isaac blurts out as the group heads towards the door.
“Pretty elaborate for a prank don’t you think?” Grace said to the others as they make their way to the car.
Standing next to the car Jack looks at Grace and then shrugs his shoulders. Grace looks towards Isaac who mimics Jack. Both Jack and Isaac open their car doors and slide into the car.
“You guys are useless” Grace quips as she too gets into the car.
The drive to the football grounds feels the same as every other day that Jack had done it. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
Stolen story; please report.
Jack, Grace and Isaac finally reach their destination. Isaac peers out of the window as Jack looks for a parking spot to see a well presented oval, flood lights illuminating the grass and three large, almost fully packed-out bleachers.
“Big crowd tonight” Isaac says after closing his car door.
“Yup… semi finals tonight” Jack responds as he begins to jog towards the field.
Grace and Isaac continue their walk towards the field and into the bleachers.
“Do you think they will win this game?” Grace says raising her voice due to the loudness of the crowd around them.
“St. Johns is pretty strong this season. But Jack is a pretty good quarterback. He had been training, well forced to train from way back in elementary. He is quick and has pretty good reflexes. Not to mention the throw he’s got on him” Isaac replies.
“You know him well, you never got into football yourself?”
The whistle for kick off blows as Isaac and Grace continue their conversation.
“Na, I’m a nerd. Jacks’ dad also wanted the typical football jock son so that’s the path he took. Me on the other hand liked all things mechanical and computerish. Me and Jack had been next door neighbors since we were still in diapers. So, Jacks always looked out for me when it came to being picked on.”
“That explains why your still confident around women.”
Grace stands up and cheers as Jack makes a successful pass to the receiver.
“Sorry” Grace says in an excited manner as she sits back down.
“Its cool. So how come you don’t know this about Jack?”
“We’ve only been dating for 3 months. Jack doesn’t like to talk about himself much.”
“That’s…” Isaac begins to say but is interrupted by Grace standing up.
Isaac realizes that the crowd is dead silent, people begin standing up. Grace covers her mouth and then eerie screaming begins to boom from the mouths of multiple people standing in the bleachers.
“What’s happening Grace?” Isaac says in a panicked voice.
Isaac stands up to be knocked back down to his seat by panicked people running from the back of the bleachers. Isaac tries to stand again when he hears Jacks voice.
“Isaac, Grace hurry the fuck up! We have to go now!”
Isaac stands up again and looks out see multiple body parts of the players severed and strewn across the field. Isaac in horrified but continues to watch as the St. Johns halfback is lifted in the air by an invisible force.
“HELP!” the halfback wails as his left shoulder down to his torso is ripped in half.
“What the fuck!” Isaac yelps.
“Oh my god!” Grace screams as both Isaac and Grace watch on in horror.
“Fucking come on. Get to the fucking car!” Jack shouts as he grabs Graces hand with one hand and pushes Isaac with the other.
Jack, Grace and Isaac push their way past the panicked crowds. They almost make it to the car until a girl is pushed into the side of a red sedan with enough force that it produces a dent around the impact. Horrified and injured the girl, with dark hair brown eyes, same age, begins to flail for her life and tries to grab onto anything that she can to release her from this invisible entity.
Jack breaks from Grace and Isaac who are standing at the car and runs towards the girl.
“Hang on, I’m coming!” Jack shouts.
The girl, fighting for her life, doesn’t respond to Jacks calls. Instead, the girl finally grabs on to the side mirror of the car and begins to try and pull herself free.
Jack makes it to the front of the car and tightly grips the girl’s hands.
“I got you, I got you” Jack gasps as he attempts to pull the girl.
The girl focuses on Jack and uses her strength to pull towards him.
“Its working!” The girl scared but excitedly shrieks as her body begins to move towards Jack.
Jack continues to pull but in a split second finds his ass hitting the pavement with his arms still in the air. Jack looks up and in shock realizes he is holding the girls’ severed hands, blood running from her hands down his arms.
Jack throws the arms and lets out a disgusted low sounding noise while using his hands and feet and belly in the air to crawl backwards from the danger. Jack quickly turns around, props himself back up and runs towards his car.
“In, in in! Get the fuck in the car!” Jack screams.
Grace and Isaac try opening the door.
“Jack its locked. Unlock it!” Isaac snaps.
Jack struggles to locate his keys in his pocket as he continues to run towards the car. Shaking uncontrollably, Jack grabs the keys with both hands to steady himself and presses the button to unlock the car.
Grace and Jack open their doors and quickly scramble into the car. As Jack is scrambling to put the key into the ignition, he hears Isaac.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck Jack I’m still locked out!”
“I’m unlocking, don’t try to open the car until I do” Jack responds as he presses the button.
Isaac finally gets his door open and slides in quickly. Jack turns the ignition over for the car to start.
“Go, go, go!” Isaac shouts as he closes his door to the car.
Jack puts the car into reverse, backs out of the parking spot and accelerates so quickly that the Jeep’s tires squeal as it picks up speed.
Jack, Grace and Isaac, using the car, make their way out of the car park. Before they reach the exit, the three observe a person running to his car only to have his head lopped off his body. Jack shakes his head in shock. He couldn’t even think of what happened to the girl he tried to save.
“I need to know if mum and dad are okay” Graces says in a shaky voice.
“Okay, we will go to your place first” Jack responds.
Jack, Grace and Isaac reach the street that Graces house is on. A white station wagon races towards them in the other lane. Jack slows down and moves over to the curb.
“This person is crazy; I’ll wait until they pass us” Jack explains.
Just before the station wagon intended to pass it forcefully stops. The front of the station wagon crumples inwards and shockingly, the driver is ejected from his seat, head hitting the floor and body dragging across the road like a rag doll.
“What the fuck is going on?” Isaac says while looking away as Jack accelerates to escape the grotesque scene.
“I don’t know, the worlds going to hell.” Jack replies.
Jack, Grace and Isaac near Grace’s house only to see the neighbor outside on his front lawn holding a sawn-off double barrel shotgun.
The car pulls into the driveway and the three get out of the car and curiously watch on as the neighbor slowly moves to his rose garden bed, gun at the ready, shaking.
The neighbor stops moving and takes aim as the rose plants with white and pink roses begin to snap away and separate as if something was moving through them.
“I see you…” The neighbor says under his breath.
The neighbor fires a shot towards the rose bush. A piercing shriek is made, and the rose bush violently rips outward with stems and leaves flying in the air. The neighbor sees his grass, about two inches in height quickly separate like feet heading towards him.
He takes aim again and fires another shot. As he does, he finds himself lifted in the air by what looked be an invisible claw. The only way you could tell it was a claw was from the neighbors’ blood running off it. The neighbors’ dark eyes turn white as they roll to the back of his brain. Blood dripping from the corners of his mouth.
“Shit, get inside!” Jack yelps opening the door to the house.
The door was unlocked. Jack opens the door and the three quickly move themselves inside to be greeted by Mr. Sealy pointing a black pump action shotgun at them. Mr. Sealy quickly lowers the gun.
“I almost shot you three!” Mr. Sealy shakily said.
The lights were off in the house. Jack, using the moonlight radiating into the doorway, looks at Mr. Sealy and could see by his ragged brown hair, dirty yellow hi-vis work shirt, heavy duty khaki pants and grease smeared across his hands and face that he had most likely come back from his workshop fixing cars all day.
“Sorry John.” Jack responded as they proceed into the poorly lit main living room.
“What is going on?” A shaken-up Mrs. Sealy asks to the group.
“We don’t know. Its horrible. They are some kind of monster, or alien, or devil. Also, they are invisible so we can’t fucking see them” Grace replies.
“What did I say about your swearing Grace!” Mrs. Sealy snaps while moving to the kitchen doorway.
“Mum, this is not the time!” Grace quickly snaps back.
“Are they gone?” Isaac asked as Jack peers through the white and grey patterned curtains.
“Can’t tell. They’re invisible.” Jack replies.
“Wait…” Jack slowly says under his breath.
The grass outside was depressing and underneath the window that Jack was peering from was a hedge bush. Jack notices the hedge bush slowly crushing inward as if something was moving through it.
Jack quickly moves away from the window.
“What is it?” Isaac asks.
“Shh, one is right outside I think”
The group quietly moves away from the windows while Mrs. Sealy disappears into the kitchen.
“Where are you going?” John questions softly, but Mrs. Sealy does not respond. Instead, the squeak of the pantry door opening can be heard.
The evening is silent with only the sound of the crickets. The group continue to look at each other from different parts of the room, trying to be as quiet as possible. Then, from the window a large crashing sound is made as the curtains rip inward and the glass from the window smashes across the coffee table and floor.
“Back up!” John shouts as he points the shotgun into the room.
Jack grabs the lamp on the small counter next to the couch, it was easy now to see into the room due to the full moon’s pale blue illumination. The curtains flailed around half ripped from being caught by the invisible object. The coffee table lifts from the ground and crashes into the back wall smashing into large wooden pieces.
Mrs. Sealy comes back into the doorway, opens and tosses a porcelain jar of flour into the center of the room which reveals a sinister looking creature. The creature is as tall as a human, two arms that are disproportionate from its body, long sharp claws, two legs and what Jack can only describe in his head as a tail. The flour only shows the outline of the creature, so it’s difficult to know what its skin looks like, if it had skin in the first place.
“Out of the way. Move!” John shouts as he aims the shotgun towards the creature.
Bang! A large shot echoes throughout the room knocking the creature back a step and making it shriek.
The creature stabilizes itself and lunges at John who at the same time fires another shot. The shot grazes the creature’s arm, but the creature was able to step over the coffee table and use its other arm to knock the shotgun out of Johns hands and push John to the floor.
“Dad!” Grace screams in horror.
The creature raises that same arm over John as if prepared to impale him through the body with its long claws.
Suddenly, the creature looks towards the window and takes a step back as if compelled or commanded to do so.
Whilst the creature is distracted, Jack gets down on his hands and knees and crawls slowly towards the shotgun which is at the back of the room. Jack’s arms shaking as he tries carefully to pick up the shotgun in a way that does not provoke the creature further.
Everyone in the room is quiet with shocked looks on their faces. The creature slowly heads towards the broken window making a sinister low gurgling growl. Jack grips the shotgun. The creature uses its good arm to wrap its hands around the edge of the window and proceeds to move one leg into the hedge outside the room.
“No…” Jack says to himself under his breath.
Jack knew the creature is leaving, it has its back turned. Jack quickly moves behind it knowing it was distracted.
The creature hears Jacks sudden movements and begins to look back, but it was too late. Jack fires the shot directly into the creature. The creature shrieks as Jack fires again for good measure. The force of the two shots pushes the creature outside the house and over the hedge onto the front yard grass.
The creature shrieks in pain. Jack could see from inside the house that the creature couldn’t recover. It slumps to the ground and withers in pain.
“I got it.” Jack says with a surprised look on his face.
The creature twitches until, it finally becomes lifeless. An odd thick liquid oozing from the bullet holes. Jack puts his leg where the window originally was for a closer look and as he did, he notices something strange begin to happen. The body of the creature begins to what Jack describes as eroding away into a sand like substance or dust.
“What the?” Jack questions himself curiously.
“What’s happening Jack?” Grace asks from the corner of the room.
“The thing is disappearing. It looks like it’s turning into sand” Jack responds.
The sand begins to stir in circles and levitate off the ground.
“Get back again guys!” Jack hastily says as he backs up deeper into the room.
“Watch out!” Isaac shouts.
The sand shoots through the open window and completely engulfs Jack, moving in circular patterns.
Jack suddenly drops to his knees in a searing pain like a migraine on steroids. Jack closes his eyes and holds his head as the pain intensifies until Jack begins to moan in agony.
“What is this!” Jack says shriveled in pain.
Jack continues to close his eyes, trying to fight nausea coming on and while he does he begins to see jumbled purple lines and writing forming in his head. Jack could almost make out a word as the pain forces him to put his head on the wooden floorboards between the broken glass.
The word was. Dust.