Forest Park, Clayton County, Georgia. Monday, October 7th, 2019. 17:40.
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Some would say there was no better day for Armageddon than a Monday. They would soon learn there was no such thing. All days of the week were equally bad.
Somewhere east of I-75, a girl stirred in bed. Not quite asleep but not fully alert either, she waited for an allegedly important phone call that would never come. Something else bothered her and she couldn't pin it to anything. It was an eerie feeling of impending doom she couldn't shake off, it kept her from falling asleep. Like something big would happen soon.
She was absolutely right.
Her bedroom was small and lacked many decorations one usually expected in a high school girl's bedroom. That was in part due to her belief that she was a little more than a tenant in her own residence. Or foster home, as child protection services called it. She also wouldn't stay much longer there. With less than three months to her eighteenth birthday, the checks that granted her a roof would stop coming and she would be on her own. Sara would be finally free sitting before the steering wheel of her life.
She had some money to her name. Settlement money from Seattle government, Mr. Hodges the corrupt caseworker that dreamed of a wealthy retirement and instead gained fifteen years clad in orange with the Washington penitentiary system, and the bank that allowed the fraudsters to steal her modest inheritance without doing their job of checking the documents. Though she had more than before the Millers stole her inheritance, she wasn't happy. She was forced to abandon her surname twice already and now her driver's license had some gibberish next to her real name. Her money was under the watchful eyes of the US Marshals, as was her. The couple acting as her current foster parents didn't know of her status as a protegé of the witness protection program.
Raising her head from the pillow, Sara got a heartburn as another wave of bad feelings washed over her raising goosebumps on her arms. It was over just as fast as it suddenly came. To calm her mind, the girl sat up and looked at the only comfort item in her room.
A portrait of a lovely tanned brunette woman with a tiny frame and mixed heritage wearing a gorgeous flower-pattern lacy sundress. The woman in the picture resembled an older Sara, posing in front of a flower field on a spring morning, holding a baby girl in her arms like the most precious thing in the world. She wore the cutest smile ever, the proudest mother in the entire world. In the back, in gorgeous cursive, the words, "My best Christmas gift ever".
The girl wished she could smile as carefree as her late mother, but try as she might, she couldn't. The inside of her nose and her eyes stung. A promise of a life of love and happiness was destroyed in some freaky accident.
The bad feeling came back a third time. She stood up and went to the window. The girl gasped and shrieked as she looked up. The late afternoon sky was replaced by what could only be described as the work of a deranged renaissance painter. Gone were the blue abode and white clouds tinted red and orange by the setting sun. Gone was any notion of sanity.
She saw the valiant Heavenly Host on its final charge. Angels of various shapes, from humanoid giants made of glinting gold to balls of feathers and eyes with eight wings. Yet they all radiate Divinity, a glory to behold. She felt she could spend an eternity witnessing each detail of their marvelous figures which appeared as detailed as if up close, regardless of the infinite distance. She could see it all in rich detail as if they were an inch from her nose. Her Fate was to witness that scene.
On the other side, the depths of sulfurous caves full of tormented, wailing souls and molten magma, wicked chains, and rivers of smoldering blood, caustic vapors which could melt flesh in seconds. And the demons. Wicked hulking beings made of bone, pulsing rotten flesh, pus, clotted veins, twisted sinew, horns, fangs, bones attached all wrong. Creatures that shouldn't move yet had the feline grace of an apex predator as they tensed to strike. Barbed spears, jagged swords of impossible geometry intended to cause as much pain as possible.
The denizens rose from the pits of hell as the demonic hordes rushed to battle against the heavenly host on the other side, defending the gates of paradise. It was far, far away yet she could see every blow, every demon slain and every celestial downed in the massive clash. Frozen by fear and awe, she could only witness the final battle as it grew to occupy her whole field of view, unobstructed by mundane things like concrete, or the steel of the fire stairs outside her window. Her Fate was to be a witness.
Her heart dreaded for the Heavenly Host as it seemed that every Celestial, such creatures of beauty, were destined to die in the Final Battle. The human mind was not supposed to take in such a violent clash. It happened at a speed that defied logic but every moment felt frozen as if time held no meaning. It happened between two breaths and then it was over but she felt like an eternity had passed before her stunned eyes.
Heaven and hell crumbled and fell on Earth. It was as if the sky itself was torn asunder and a gash impossible to exist in the tridimensional world opened all over the planet. Mountains of sulfur and pits of magma, rocks of all kinds fell from Hell as chunks of pearly towers and idyllic meadows of Heaven did the same. No place on the planet seemed to be safe from the infinite amount of debris.
Reality bent and folded as the two realms weren't satisfied with sending only their inhabitants into the fray. A majestic castle standing atop the clouds trembled under the cataclysmic battle below,, its exalted halls crumbled and met the torrential downpour from the rivers of steaming blood and smoldering magma dragging the souls of the damned in a whirlpool of madness... The pristine walls, battlements, and machicolations crashed upon the abyssal depths, extinguishing billions of penitents. Another pulse of eldritch energy escaped these two dimensions and washed over the mortal realm, revealing to her the source of her subconscious worries. But this time, it was stronger than anything before. Unknown to her, the pulse of Mana from another reality awoke the dormant, shriveled Ley Lines of the third planet of the Sol system. It washed over every living creature and left none unchanged.
The girl fell on her knees, every nerve firing at the same time, telling her brain her whole body burned. Foreign energy penetrated every cell of her body, burning unused paths clogged with metaphysical dross. She could feel needles crawling inside her veins, a tiny fraction of her blood boiled by the power of quintessential Fire. She was one of the lucky ones. The agony lasted mere moments, yet felt like an eternity.
As for the others... Unable to handle raw magic, fewer than one in every thousand humans survived. Sara was brought down on her knees, eardrums threatening to rupture, her whole body trembling before the might unleashed. Mana and Qi seeped into her body, invading every cell, every drop of her blood. She burned and screamed along with her fellow humans. Their death wail lasted for only a few heartbeats but it was like a choir of the damned had shouted a single dissonant chord. Beyond the door of her bedroom, she heard her foster parents scream their last breath in unison. On her knees, eyes wide open, white knuckles holding onto the windowsill as if she would be sucked up into that scenery of destruction. Steam and a terrible smell of burnt hair and charred meat spread everywhere people died.
Dogs howled. Birds flew desperately and crashed on one another or into buildings. Space warped around the planet and the crumbling parallel realities ceased to exist as all matter they contained was ejected around Earth. Stars fell from the sky, and pieces of the Heavens and Hells alike were ejected all around the planet at the boundary between realities. They were inbound to crash upon the land unceremoniously, bringing destruction to every corner of the world.
The girl believed it was her end as the debris ignited in the atmosphere and the combined glow of millions of meteorites drowned the dying rays of the sun, leaving trails of dark smoke behind, clouding the firmament, and choking the atmosphere. Her gaze focused on one singularity, a glowing golden meteor tethered by a ray of light to a smaller golden meteor, too small for the naked eye. Just as before, she could see it in an uncannily crisp definition. And it was coming straight at her. The small one, as the bigger meteor was heading straight to Stonecrest Lake.
Several miles above her apartment, the twin meteors shone brighter than a hundred suns and shoved all other nearby debris away, clearing the sky in the shape of an eight-figure. She could see the rest of the remnants of Heaven and Hell veer away while the golden bolides kept on their collision course, one with her building and another inbound for the lake. Before it hit, the larger golden meteorite flashed a pulse of energy and vanished. A piece of her sanity also vanished with it.
Sara wished she had fainted at that moment. Yet a mysterious power awoke in her body and changed it, as it did to every survivor. Unlike the others, however, fate willed her to remain conscious. To witness the death of two higher dimensions and the doom of one planet.
*
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What will one day be known as North America. Thursday, October 7th, 919 AD. 17:40.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
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The skies above the land opened as a golden meteorite appeared out of nowhere. It crashed into the pine forest without any ceremony, creating a massive crater more than twenty miles across. Soon, part of it would fill with water turn into a lake, and become the main water supply for the region.
The changes caused by this time-traveling crystal would be uncountable. The area around the lake would develop more than otherwise, causing the cities around the massive reservoir to become many times larger than in the timeline where the crash didn't happen. The city of Stonecrest, in DeKalb County, Georgia, United States would never come to be as the area was half a mile underwater. For some reason, the lake bore its name instead.
Buried deep inside the crater, the crystal slept and spread its roots far and deep into the planet. For a thousand years it would gather energy and prepare. It laid in wait of the key that would restart its dormant Core.
*
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Lakeview Apartments, Forest Park, Clayton County, Georgia. Monday, October 7th, 2019. 17:55.
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The world ended at rush hour.
But the girl survived, barely conscious. Even under the symphony of destruction, she still heard and felt when the golden meteorite impacted against the roof of her apartment building. It didn't wreck the place as one would have expected. She heard nothing breaking, no explosions, nothing of the sort and yet she heard the collision as if it had happened right next to her. She felt compelled to climb the stairs and go see what it was. On uneasy and worn legs, she did.
Reaching the roof, Sara saw a glowing creature. The smaller golden meteorite was nothing but one of the Celestials, a man-sized white and gold creature with ball of glittering plumes for a body, adorned with seven eyes in a circle with eight broken wings forming two matching sets on each side. No legs, no arms, no mouth or nose or beak, horn or claw.
Golden blood seeped from the fallen creature and spread like molten metal. Its broken wings and tarnished feathers lost their luster as the creature stopped glowing. The creature's spherical body was covered by the finest down she had ever seen. Softest too, she would soon learn. The pinions were white with golden barbs. She felt enraptured by the beauty of the creature and saddened by its mortal wounds. It was something not meant for this crude Earth.
Mesmerized by the beauty before her, she wept. The girl knew it would expire soon and thought to aid it. Her heart of hearts also knew this was the last Celestial alive. Though she couldn't understand or dedicate much energy to reason, she knew she had to do something. Anything.
Unaware of the nature of the being before her and mistaking it for a strange bird, Sara approached and knelt on the pool of molten gold as she ran her hands over the fluffy and soft plumes covering spherical body, trying to offer it some warmth, some comfort in their final moments. Though she didn't go to church, she still prayed for the Celestial.
A soothing voice rang in her mind.
"What? Who?" She mumbled in confusion, then spoke out loud, looking around. "How do you know me? Where you are, show yourself!"
Her two eyes met myriad as they looked at each other. For both of them, each breath was a struggle. One wounded, the other losing her mind as she drowned in sorrow, each inhalation bringing in smoke, burning her airways.
"You're the one in pain," she rebutted between sobs, staring at her hands stained by the thick golden blood. "How can I help you? I want to save you. You cannot die."
Her cynical brain thought the Celestial was going overboard. It was promptly silenced by the rush of emotions. Sara threw herself over the creature, embracing them, "No! There must be something! A hospital! A veterinarian! Sorry, I... dunno! Somewhere we can take you!"
Not offended in the least, the Celestial chuckled at her mention of a veterinarian.
"How could I ever forget..." She hiccuped and sobbed, hands pointing at the broken firmament, Heaven and Hell still crumbling and falling on Earth "...this?"
The Celestial extended one wing.
The girl clumsily shook it. "Sara but you already knew that, stupid, they said your name," She mumbled to herself, shaking her head. "Sorry. Nice to meet you, Verachiel," she tried to smile but it a clumsy grimace came out.
"No!" She protested. "I don't understand what you're saying, but this is not about me. It's about you. I'm not what you think I am. I did… bad things. I'm not worthy."
Absolution was not in her daily schedule, but then again, the schedule went to Hell (not the best metaphor, hell had come hither instead) way earlier. Sara chuckled at the irony between sobs, then hiccuped as she lost control of her chest muscles.
Verachiel dipped a wing in their own blood and anointed her forehead. Sara lost it, the calm the normal conversation brought vanishing in the fleeting soot-ridden wind. She felt unworthy. She wept for the dying Celestial.
Another wing brushed the hair out of her face and wiped her tears.
"I don't understand," she mumbled. "Me? What can I ever do?" She doubted herself.
"Yes."
"Why me?" She was drowning in self-doubt. Her date of birth notwithstanding, she had no idea why the Celestial came to her. Of all people in the world, surely there was someone else best qualified for this task. "Why me? Just because I was close to the lake?"
"Then tell me the truth! I can't even live my life without stumbling around, how... how... I'll screw this up. Humanity is doomed," she bawled and howled.
Sara's eyes lit up. "A priest! Why not give him the honor?" She meant burden. Her head hung. "I have no idea." the Seraph begged. She blushed, sniffled, then resigned herself. "Humanity is doomed either way. But you're here, so... What do I need to do?" Verachiel produced a yellow-gold gem an inch across from between its plumage that was roughly egg-shaped, perfectly cut with a myriad of facets, and had its own inner glow. She didn't see where it came from, only that it floated from between its feathers and onto her hands. She couldn't believe the gem floated. She stared at the crystal hovering in the air before her. The glow was mesmerizing. Sara could feel a presence inside it even though the gem was crystal clear and flawless. "I... what is this?" Sara closed her eyes and tried to calm her mind and heart, to make sense of what she witnessed. Her head spun and her heart seemed to want to jump out of her chest, up her throat, and go take a hike. The girl knew not what to do. This encounter, the whole situation was beyond her. She felt the light, the warmth of the crystal as well as the fading presence of the Seraph. It was dying. "What should I do?" She knew not the burden she would shoulder. But Sara also knew deeper inside that the gem was the last spark of a bygone Realm. The Seraph didn't offer it lightly or spoke any falsehood. She was truly Verachiel's last hope. So she accepted the task. She sealed her Fate. The moment she claimed the crystal egg, the Celestial creature expired. Verachiel the Seraph was no more and its feathers quickly dissolved into vapor, one moment there, the next gone, one by one. The golden blood evaporated without fanfare, without sparkles, leaving only memories and wisps of steam drifting away and mixing with the clouds of smoke. Only a pinion the length of her forearm remained on her lap. Sara stared at the feather and crystal. The gem was quickly losing its glow so she honored her brief friend's wishes. The moment it touched its lips, the crystal melted like quicksilver and rushed down her throat. Sara choked and gasped and heaved as she felt her whole being burn. It went down her limbs and up her head. A Celestial's power was not something meant for mortals. Should someone see her in that brief moment, they would see a transfigured person. Her skin glowed under the burning decaying firmament. Then a moment later it was over, the girl was back to being just a girl, the changes invisible to the naked eye. Panting and sweating, Sara remained on her knees alone on the roof, barefoot, holding only a large white feather with a golden striped vane. She wept for a dying world. She wept for a lost friend, no matter how brief such friendship lasted.