The clothes fit nicely. Jeremy was tall and lean enough that finding pants of a good fit was sometimes a challenge, but the jeans Moira provided were okay, and she gave him a wide leather belt to go with them. He double-knotted his laces and shrugged on the lightweight jacket. Water no longer dripped from his hair down the back of his neck. He ran his fingers through it and made a mental note to get a haircut soon.
Virginia was still muggy and warm in the autumn, but the nights and mornings grew cool. The dust of the mansion collapse began to settle, and a mist rose on the pond's surface and open grassy areas. When he was not looking directly, the mist swirled and shifted as though something had moved through it. It seemed like last night’s eeriness that had frogs hopping out of the water to stare at them and eyes peeking out of shadows where there were none continued into the morning. Jeremy took a deep breath and blew it out to chase away some anxiety that tightened his chest. But he could not shake it.
Their phones were dead, and everyone else was dead, so nobody had called 911. A whole mansion collapsing should not have gone unnoticed. The ground shook. A dust cloud rose. Yet, no first responders had arrived. Jeremy walked back over to Moira. She was playing around on her phone.
“Your phone works?” He asks.
“Yeah,” She looked up at him, “Doesn’t yours?”
“It was underwater.”
“So? Is your phone not waterproof?”
“Not that waterproof.”
“Oh.” She looked back down, “That sucks.”
Jeremy sat beside her. “Have you called 911 yet?”
“And tell them what?” Moira said.
“Some tunnels in your backyard caved in, and there was a gas leak because of the collapse, which blew up your house.” Jeremy said, “I don’t know. They always blame it on gas leaks in movies.”
“Well, this is not a movie. And I don’t think anyone would have trouble believing me if I told them it was an old god.” She showed him her phone. It was a video of a woman made of wood and leaves emerging from a tree trunk and walking toward the person filming. Moira flicked her thumb to show him the next video. A guy in pajamas stood in a kitchen with a ball of swirling water hovering above his palm, screaming about how he was a water bender.
She flicked her thumb. A long shot of a cornfield captured a huge arch looming above the cornstalks. The person filming went on for a little bit about aliens. The next video showed cars blocking traffic while waiting at a gas station. ‘I hope you stocked up on toilet paper this time, guys,’ the person filming said. Another video showed a dragon perched on a high rise, its claws shattering the top windows. The rest of the glass sides of the tower burst. People started screaming.
“There’s a lot.” Moira pulled the phone away, “I don’t know if anybody would even come if I called 911.”
A mansion collapsing in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Virginia would take precedence, but Jeremy did not say anything about that. “Just try.”
She huffed and dialed. Nobody picked up. She sent him a pointed look.
“Okay, so the god did not take away magic from your Aunt and Uncle.” Jeremy said, “It gave magic to the rest of the world? And made dragons a thing?”
“I don’t know.” Moira said, “My parents never told me anything about any of this.”
“Damn,” he said. “What are you going to do then?”
“I’m not going to stay here.” Moira tutted at the rubble, “I guess I am going to go find my boyfriend and stay with him. How about you?”
“Check on my parents.” Jeremy shrugged, “Actually, can I borrow your phone to call them?”
“Sure.”
He dialed their number. They still used their old landline, so it was the same number they made him memorize when he was in elementary school. The phone rang a few times.
“Hello?”
“Dad?” Jeremy said, “Hey, it’s Jeremy.”
“Better be.” His dad said, “You’re the only one who calls me dad.”
Jeremy let out a sigh of relief. A little bit of the tension eased in his chest. “Have you…uh…watched the news?”
“Your mom is in the living room watching it now. Looks like the world has gone to hell in a handbasket. It’s 2020 all over again. Thank God I stocked up on toilet paper this time around. They already shut down air travel…something about satellites not working right. And the schools are closed too.”
“You guys are okay, though?”
“Sure. Your mom is a little peeved that she couldn’t run to the store for the capers she needs for dinner tonight, but apparently, there is a run on groceries, so it's not worth it.”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“That’s good. Just stay put.” Jeremy said, “I’m out of the city right now. It’ll take me a couple of hours to come see you guys, but I’m heading your way.”
“Don’t worry about us, honey.” His mom’s voice was small and far away from the phone.
“That’s right.” His dad said, “We’ll be fine. Like I said, I stocked up for a while. Besides, we wouldn’t want to go anywhere and miss any of the press conferences. Supposedly, there will be a presidential address in a few hours.”
“Okay.” Jeremy said, “Sounds good. My phone is broken, so you won’t be able to call me.”
“Just give us a call when you can. Love you.”
“Love you too.”
The call ended, and Jeremy handed the phone back. Moira looked at him softly, which made him vaguely uncomfortable, so he stood up and stretched.
“Your parents seem like they are taking this well.” She stood beside him.
“The moon could fall into the earth, and my mom would be more concerned about what to make for dinner tonight.” Jeremy said, “I could die, and the first thing she would do is plan the food for the funeral.”
Moira raised her eyebrows.
“She’s a chef.” Jeremy explained, “Gave up the fast-paced restaurant lifestyle when I was born and started to teach classes in our house.”
“Oh.” Moira nodded, “Can I catch a ride with you? My cars were in the garage under the mansion.”
“Sure.”
His car was safely parked in the parking lot – yes, parking lot – that the caterers and servants – yes, servants – used. All the fancy beamers and jags valet-parked here last night were gone from their spaces. Jeremy looked back toward the collapsed mansion. Hopefully, that meant everyone was out when the building collapsed. Moira plopped in the passenger seat and began poking around. She opened the glove compartment and sorted through his registration, car manual, and napkins.
“Do you have anything to eat?” She asked as he started the engine.
“There are granola bars in the glove compartment.”
“Oh.” She pulled one out, “Your car is nice.”
It was an old car, but Jeremy cared for it meticulously. He scheduled regular oil changes and maintenance checks. He took it to the gas station car wash once a week. Once a month, he detailed the interior.
“It has roll-down windows!” Moira exclaimed as they pulled onto the long driveway. She rolled down a window, and then she rolled it back up. Jeremy fiddled with the radio. The first thing they heard was the long tone of the emergency broadcast system. A static voice filled the car to inform them that the governor had declared a state of emergency. The threat was unknown. It urged people to stay in their homes and not go out. Moira’s phone lit up with a wireless alert. The broadcast ended, and the radio hosts returned to discussing the fact that one of them could now speak to cats. They had a station cat that was loudly lodging its complaints with him. The radio hosts were flabbergasted.
“This is crazy,” Moira said as she scrolled through more videos. They reached the end of the drive and turned onto the main road. Jeremy flipped down the sun visor. He only looked away from the road for a moment. When he looked back, a deer was straddling the double yellow line. He slammed on the brakes. Moira cursed.
The deer eyed them impassively. It had an overlay of strange symbols in lavender and several glowing, white rings looped around its figure. Jeremy squinted at the symbols, but the deer hopped into the forest along the road's edge and disappeared.
“They are saying that huge forests and other things have popped up all over the world.” Moira said, “Like there is a massive, hundreds of thousands of acres of forest in the middle of New York City now. And distances are all messed up.”
She looked over her shoulder through the back window. “Normally, it only takes two minutes to get down my driveway. That was…what, like fifteen or twenty?”
“This is way stranger than a Zombie apocalypse.” She settled back into her seat. The radio hosts were trying to calm down the cat whisperer. He’d devolved into meowing at them, apparently confused about how to communicate now that he could talk to a cat.
“I have to go back to my apartment for my cat too.” He thought out loud.
“You have a cat?”
“Yeah.”
“Hey, what did you mean back there about seeing magic?” Moira turned her phone off and tucked it beneath her thigh. Jeremy thumbed the wheel and pursed his lips.
“Well, it’s like an overlay.” He said, “Have you ever seen pictures of flowers under UV lights? They have patterns like bullseyes for bees and hummingbirds?”
“No shit?” Moira grinned, “That’s cool. I didn’t know that.”
“Well, it's kinda like that now.” Jeremy explained, “Before, it was like an acid trip,”
“That I can imagine.”
“…right. It was awful and confusing, but the god put its hand over my head, and everything calmed down into an overlay. I have to concentrate to see it. There are also symbols like those on the pillar under the pond. You have them, and so do I.”
Moira held her arms out and looked at them, “I can’t see anything like that.”
“Maybe it's not something everyone can do.”
“I want to be able to do something cool like that.” She pouted, “My Aunt and Uncle knew how to cast spells and stuff. I wonder if they have any information in the penthouse. My uncle has an office he always keeps locked. My dad did, too. After he died, I was going to break in and take a look at his stuff, but my Uncle came with a key and cleared it out before I could.”
“It would be good to know how to use magic.” Jeremy nodded at her phone, “Some videos showed creatures attacking people.”
“We can go there if you want.” Moira pulled her phone out and checked it, “I want to know if they have any useful instruction manuals. How cool would it be to learn magic! First, I want to check on Derek. He’s not picking up his phone.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Jeremy said. He stopped at a four-way stop. “Can you load up directions? I don’t know how to get back from here.”
“Turn left,” Moira said.
Jeremy flipped on his turn signal, looked both ways, then turned left, “My address is 1643,”
“We aren’t going to your place.” Moira interrupted, “We are going to Derek’s and my Uncle’s. Why do I need your address?”
“I need to check on my cat.”
“Why? Cats aren’t like dogs. It has a litter box.”
Jeremy raised his eyebrows, “I need to feed her.”
“Derek is more important than your cat.”
“Just put my address in. Maybe it is on the way.”
Moira inhaled to keep arguing, so Jeremy slammed on the brakes. “Put in my address or get out of the car.”
“Jeeze, okay.” She tapped his address in, and he sped up again. After a minute, she groaned in frustration and put the phone down, “It’s not working anyway. My phone can’t find a GPS signal.”
Jeremy remembered his dad saying something about satellite issues. “Well, if you get me to the highway, I can find my way home.”
“Just keep straight on this road for another fifteen minutes.” Moira instructed, “It’ll end, and then you turn right.”
An hour later, the road still had not ended.
“What the fuck?” Moira muttered.
On the roadside, a speed limit sign stretched before them like a long-exposure photograph as far as they could see. Jeremy was ten above the limit. The sign stretched like that for at least five minutes while they gaped out the window at it. It finally ended. The road continued.