My dreams that night were an absolute tempest of nightmarish horror. When I woke up screaming, I didn't remember anything other than a robed figure speaking to me as it sat on a throne.

Aaron jolted awake beside me and Jared's head snapped up.

"What's wrong?! What happened?!" Jared shouted as he aimed the gun all around.

I let out a huge sigh, "Nothing, just nightmares..."

Jared looked relieved for a second, but then his eyes widened, he set the gun down and slapped himself in the face, "God damn it! I dozed off!"

I shined the flashlight on my watch; it was just past eleven o'clock in the morning.

Jared cursed himself.

I got up and stretched, my body still aching from yesterday.

"Don't worry, Jared, I don't blame you at all... yesterday was quite the day..." I said as the events from the day before all came flooding back.

"Still... what if something happened?!" he said as he shook his head.

"Well, it already happened and we're fine, so there's no sense beating yourself up over it. Just be more careful next time I guess."

We had something to eat in silence, our minds still reeling over everything. As we ate, Jared fiddled with the radio, trying to find a working station. To no surprise, all he found was static.

After we finished, Aaron spoke up, "I guess we're going to have some more food somewhere..."

He was right, we only had enough food to last for a few days. It could maybe last us a week if we really stretched it out, but that was wishful thinking. We didn't have a safe source of water either. We could always try collecting the rain water, but... something told me that wasn't a good idea. God knows what would happen if you drank from this accursed rain, and I didn't really want to test it.

But where would we get food? All the houses were gone.

...I guess we had no choice but to keep moving. Every house can't be missing, right?

"Our first priority should be to find another working car," Jared said, "We don't have enough food to risk staying here, and after what happened yesterday, I don't think it's a good idea to go on foot anymore. It's way too dangerous. Then again... I guess there was that flying thing... but it didn't try to kill us, right? As far as we know, being in a car is still safer than walking around."

I nodded, "Yeah, if we didn't have a car when those dogs were chasing us... we wouldn't have made it."

After moving the barricade aside, I stared up at the dark clouds as the rain pattered on my face. Please, let us make it to the manor. I can't imagine there being any other safe place for us on this earth that we could actually reach. So... we had to get there.

"Right or left?" Jared asked as we stared down the empty streets lined with empty lots.

"Left leads to the city, right goes around it. So we should go right."

We marched on through what had once probably been a relatively normal neighborhood. I had only been around Crestland a few times before, so I was kind of familiar with the area. Compared to most other towns, this suburban area near the city had actually remained relatively well off. There had actually been some houses here before instead of endless apartment complexes.

So that's why it was especially eerie to see all the houses completely missing.

What the hell had done this, and why? A slight chill shook me as I stared at the cleanly emptied foundation of what must have once been a pretty big house. Why was any of this happening? What was the end goal of the creatures? Were they even working towards an individual goal?

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In my head, I went over the many monstrosities we had encountered so far, comparing their appearances and actions, trying to find some connection between them, some sort of link chaining them together.

There was the sadist. It had been the very living shape of malevolence and cruelty. It toyed with its victims for seemingly no reason at all other than for what must have been some twisted form of pleasure.

There was the dogs. I was still utterly baffled by them. That one dog had followed us all the way from the city, and the pack had chased after us so fervently. As far as I could tell, they may as well never get tired. But why had they chased us with such force only to just turn around and bail? I couldn't understand. There was something incredibly unnerving about them I couldn't put my finger on, something beyond their obviously terrifying appearance and behavior. What were they? What had they be trying to do? I hoped we wouldn't encounter them again, because as much as those questions were nagging me, I would be satisfied with them going unanswered if it meant I didn't have to see them again.

We hadn't actually seen them, but the band or orchestra had barged violently into the house and played that hellish tune above us... I couldn't even begin to imagine what they looked like, or why they did it. I still shuddered every time I remembered that... Ha, what am I saying? I shuddered every time I remembered any of these bastards.

There was that flying thing that looked like some twisted pterodactyl. It had shut off our car and then flown away, probably searching for some other car to shut down. Did it go after all machines? Why? Why wouldn't it try to kill us or eat us or something? Why would a living thing behave like that? None of these things really acted like animals, or any other living thing for that matter...

There were the balls of light, the "fairies" and their "king". Much like the sadist, they seemed to revel in torture. Well, that's what it seemed like anyway. We never actually saw them kill anyone, and any of the harm they caused us was psychological. Judging by the skeletons though... there was no way they were friendly. But there was something different about the way they behaved. They seemed to just be doing it as some sort of playful game and they didn't really have the cunning intelligence of the sadist, aside from mimicking Aaron's voice. Also, they had only tried to abduct Aaron. All of the skeletons that reappeared were children. What was up with that? And when it came to their bizarre anatomy, I don't know how that could even function. The other creatures, as insane as they were, were at least relatively biologically possible. But the fairies? It was pure and utter fantasy. How could their shadows be their true bodies? None of it made any sense, it defied all laws of physics. It made me question whether the encounter had even happened at all or if it had just been some delusion or dream. They had manipulated my mind to make me unable to see and hear them at first, so it wasn't an impossibility. Then again, everything in this storm makes me question whether I'm awake or not. And the way the king had died... it didn't even really seem to care. And where did the other ones go? Would they... come back?

Then there was the emaciated deer with hands for antlers, a third eye and stretching mouth. I was so panicked by that thing, that looking back now I don't even know if it was actually following after us or not. Either way, it had eaten a human. Well, human remains, at least.

Last but not least was... The Storm.

Was it the cause of everything in this nightmare? I couldn't tell, but with what I knew at the time, that was my best guess.

Maybe all of these things were coming from The Storm? Did it birth them, somehow? That made the most sense. The sadist had followed it as it traveled around the country, so I guessed the other monsters had done the same. If the storm was stretching out to cover a larger area like I was guessing, maybe the things started to disperse and spread out?

The sadist, the fairies, probably the deer... the three of them were definitely trying to kill us, or in the fairies case they were at least after Aaron. The dogs... I couldn't be sure, but if I were to take an educated guess, they must have had some malicious reason to be chasing after us.

The flying thing went after our machine. It basically ignored us.

I glanced around at the empty lots. If I were to make an assumption, I think that some kind of creature or group of creatures did all of this.

I had no idea what was up with the orchestra, so I forgot about them for now.

And of course, there was The Storm at the center of everything, probably the cause.

Three (maybe four) of the seven things we had encountered had been out to kill humans.

Two of them (the flying thing and the presumed thing we had yet to encounter, the thing that removed the houses) had gone after man-made things.

The Storm... it was a force that preyed on everything around it indiscriminately and unthinkingly.

From what I could gather... the one connection I could make between all of them is that they were trying to kill or destroy anything related to humans. But why? And if they did all come from The Storm... where did The Storm come from?

A sudden thought rose up from the depths of my mind. That recurring dream I had been having about the cathedral, with the throne and the figure on the throne... was that just a dream, or...?

Damn it, we needed to find a working radio station, or better yet, another living human being. Otherwise, we would be in the dark forever.

Almost as if on cue, a scream echoed from up ahead. It was without a doubt a human woman's scream. The three of us froze, not quite sure what course of action we should take.