“The arrival of the twin-tailed ball of dust, shalt signal the end of the crust.

Some will fight, some will reason, some will find hope in religion.

The bane of worlds shall be unbound.

Only in death shall respite be found.

In the—”

Lukas shut his eyes as he pushed himself away from the computer screen.

This was the third night in a row he was up working on this nonsense. With barely a month left until his semester’s end, he was supposed to be studying for his finals, not writing... poetry.

Yet here he was.

Opening a single eye, he glared at the screen.

How can anyone take this crap seriously?

He was supposed to edit an article on an ancient Akkadian prophecy for a sensational news article. Edit, being the keyword. Somewhere along the line, Emma not only had him writing the entire article, but also reworking the translated prophecy so that it rhymed.

As if translating the gibberish into readable English wasn’t enough.

Idiots.

He glanced to his right. There, alongside his randomly stacked assortment of law books, was his latest purchase: Dracula— the original, unabridged edition. Not exactly standard reading for a law student, but fantasy had been his drug of choice for the last several months.

An escape, for when work and school got too overwhelming.

He had planned on finishing it over the weekend, but his workload had increased tremendously over the last couple of weeks after two of the website’s main writers left.

He peered at his shabby reflection in the mirror. A gaunt, half-starved face with thick, dark bangs covering the better part of his forehead stared back at him.

If this keeps up, I’ll end up looking like a vampire myself.

Lukas looked back at the book lying inconspicuously in the corner.

It was so tempting.

With a rueful sigh, he pushed it away and got back to work. Regardless of how much it sucked, he needed the cash and really couldn’t afford to lose this job.

No matter how stupid it was.

His fingers automatically moved to rub the metallic object around his neck, a habit from his childhood. It was a sort of family heirloom, at least according to his late grandfather.

It certainly didn’t look very special.

With its dull gray sheen and elongated triangular shape, it essentially looked like the nib of a fountain pen— the really old-school kind.

He wasn’t sure why he kept wearing it. It was incredibly tacky and not particularly comfortable to wear, its tip constantly digging into his skin.

Perhaps it was sentiment; after all, it was the last thing he had to remember his grandfather by. Or maybe it was something… more. His grandfather had claimed it was special, and that it would protect him if something ever went wrong.

Lukas had no real way to verify that, but every time he’d taken it off, something just felt... wrong. A strange sense of emptiness that just would not leave until he wore it again.

And so he never really did. Now, it was simply a constant in his life.

Sighing, Lukas pushed his chair back and pulled out his phone— it had been vibrating for quite a while. You’d think that after being ignored for so long, the caller would have gotten the message.

Call me back. Urgent.

XOXO

Emma

What’s with her now?

His phone had been on silent, as it always was when he was working. Constant distractions had a way of making him unproductive, and his phone beeping was one of the easiest ways to get him out of ‘work-mode’.

The sharp ring of his doorbell interrupted his musings. Before he could get up, it rang again— and then again.

Lukas groaned as he made his way to the door.

Please don’t be Emma. Please don’t be Emma. Please don’t be—

He cracked open the door, and standing in front of him was—

“Emma.”

Emma smiled widely. “You don’t call, you don’t text... I was starting to think you were dead!”

Lukas let out a sigh that spoke of untold suffering. Letting the door swing open, he moved back towards his chair, his motions almost robotic. “Come in. Close the door behind you.”

“This late?” the girl teased impishly, “Aren’t you afraid your neighbors will talk?”

Lukas ignored her with practiced ease. It was way too late to deal with Emma and her… Emma-ness. He’d had more than enough of that back when they were dating. With her feisty personality and bohemian outlook at life in general, she had entered his own like a fierce storm.

Fun fact: her departure had also been like a hurricane— messy and destructive.

“You said you’d need this shit in three days,” Lukas commented, tossing her a can of coke.

Emma frowned. “This shit pays your bills.”

Lukas turned to face her. “That's not what I’m being paid for, Emma. I’m an editor, not a writer.”

“Oh, quit whining,” Emma made her distinctive puppy-face, “Your articles are awesome! Why’d you take up law anyway? You’d be a great writer.”

“That's high endorsement coming from a conspiracy-website manager,” Lukas scoffed. “I can’t believe people are stupid enough to believe in this crap!”

“It’s all about destiny!” Emma exclaimed, her hand theatrically laid on her chest, “A non-believer would never understand!”

This girl...

Emma, short for Emmeline Brooks— a name that she really hated.

He didn’t particularly love his own either. Lukas Aguilar. He had tried to shorten it to Luke in school, but his dad had made it his business to make sure everyone knew his full name.

“Are you done staring or do you want a closer look?”

“Hmmm?” Lukas asked, momentarily confused. A second later, he realized just what he was staring at.

Emma wiggled her eyebrows.

“I wasn’t—” he began but Emma cut him off.

“C’mon, get back to work,” Emma nudged him impatiently as she herself perched atop the armrest of his chair. He did his best to ignore the sudden closeness as she leaned in.

She always had been good at exciting him, though she was usually only this blatant when she wanted something from him.

“Now show me,” Emma put her reading glasses on and inched closer to the screen. “How far did you get?”

“Ugh, fine. Give me a sec,” Lukas groaned, before opening the page he had just closed a moment ago. Obviously, he wouldn’t be getting anything else done tonight.

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“Mmmm,” she nodded, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear as she leaned forward.

Lukas exhaled.

To be honest, he thought he was done with the phase of his life that had Emma in it. But fate was funny like that. After his dad's death, Lukas had been forced to take up a side job as a website content editor. Which was when he found out that he’d have to work closely with his ex. A person that Lukas had cut out of his life.

At least he thought he did.

“So…” he began, attempting to make small talk. “Why are you here this late?”

Emma tilted her head. “You’re acting like it's the first time I’ve been over.”

Lukas stared at her.

An awkward moment passed before she looked away and groaned. “Fiiiiiinee! My boss wants this article posted and updated by midnight. We don’t want to miss the big event.”

“What big event?”

She flicked his forehead with her finger. “It’s like you don’t even watch TV. The Atlas Comet. Ring any bells?”

Right. That one.

For the past few days, Lukas had come across it as he skimmed over the news headlines. It was supposed to be the brightest comet seen in decades, and would be making its appearance a little after midnight.

It turned out that his employers were really psyched about it ever since they’d dug up some information from an old Akkadian scroll. The company's resident armchair theorist was pretty confident that it was talking about this particular comet. While there wasn’t anything concrete about the prophecy he was forced to turn into a nursery rhyme, it still attracted conspiracy buffs in droves. Predicting the end of the world was literally the easiest way to get them hyped.

“I was supposed to get three days for this.”

Direct and to the point. It was in Emma’s nature to divert and swap topics until you basically forgot what you wanted to talk to her about in the first place. If you really wanted to get an answer out of her, being direct was the best— and possibly only— option.

He knew that from experience.

“How about a goodnight kiss?” Emma offered.

Lukas ignored her. He had already spent the entire afternoon slogging his way through the unnecessarily long-winded Akkadian creation myths, and he really wasn’t in the mood to deal with this. His finals were just around the corner, and if he could have, he would have taken a break from work.

Bills. He reminded himself.

“Now you’re just being mean,” Emma pouted. “Can’t you just help me out here? For old times sake?”

“...”

“C’mon, please?” She leaned into him gently. “For me?”

Lukas breathed, taking in her perfume.

Jasmine.

He knew what she was doing to him. The problem was, she did too. That she still held feelings for him was no secret— but instead of trying to repair a broken relationship, she had taken the unconventional route.

Teasing the hell out of him and trying to make him want her back.

And frankly, he wasn’t completely opposed to it either. The dates, the intimacy, the sex— it had been a wild ride.

Yet, it had all been what Emma wanted to do. Endless parties with her friends downtown. Useless Instagrammable nights with her girlfriends. Emma was a hurricane. He… he was just a stronghold, one that occasionally kept her in check.

Something that existed to add texture to her life.

Emma tilted her face, their cheeks barely inches apart.

“Lukas,” she began huskily, “why are you avoiding me?”

Cause you’re bad for me? “I’m... not.”

“I think you are. Lukas, I really want us to get back the way we were. Don’t you?”

“Emma,” he muttered carefully, pushing himself back to avoid the closeness. “I don’t think—”

“Don’t think,” Emma replied in a throaty voice, her arms snaking around his neck as she inched closer.

Their noses touched.

“Emma!” he stressed, pushing himself back a second time.

“What?” she asked, the rejection now truly getting to her.

“I don’t want to do this.” He pushed himself off the chair. “Not again.”

“But… why?” She was practically pleading at the end.

“I’ll get this stuff done by tonight,” Lukas muttered in a tone of finality, “but that’s everything. You have to pull your weight here. I don’t get paid to do your job.”

“You…” Emma stared at him in disbelief and frustration, her hands shaking. “I just—”

Giving up, she spun around and strode out the door, slamming it with a loud thud.

Well, Lukas thought, that went well.

----------------------------------------

Something stirred in the darkness.

She opened her eyes and mentally probed the relic.

Cold.

Silent.

Unmoving.

She’d have described it as dead if not for the scraps of energy passing through its form, the truths it embodied by its mere existence.

Still, something had changed. For the first time in millennia, it had shifted.

Responded to something.

It was weak, but she could feel it. A link to the Great Mother. A way out of this forgotten realm.

The being in the darkness stirred again.

This was the moment she had been waiting for. A way out. She would not fail now. And she would have her revenge.

...

...

...

Lukas woke up with a start.

His entire body was cold and clammy, and apparently trembling from the overwhelming dream he just jolted out of. Turning to the other side of the bed, he—

Wait.

It wasn’t him that was shaking.

It was the bed.

As if on cue, the tremors intensified.

Pushing himself off the bed, he quickly put on his trousers. He almost fell over as he threw on his shirt— the building’s vibrations getting worse by the second.

What kind of earthquake—

The entire room began to shake violently. Dust and debris fell to the floor in clumps. Managing to pull his laptop into his arms, Lukas dove underneath the closest table.

What was going on? There hadn’t been any warnings on earthquakes.

Covering his head with a fallen bowl, Lukas peered out from underneath the table. Pieces of plaster were falling from the ceiling, and cracks quickly spread through the walls.

It wasn’t safe.

And then, a sudden, even more intense rumble shook the room. It felt like everything was going to fall apart.

Lukas lost it.

Jumping out, he ran for the door, ignoring the falling chunks of plaster and the quaking beneath his feet.

He needed to get out of the building before it got worse.

And then, it got worse.

The apartment roared to life like an enraged animal shredding its prey apart. Lukas could hear screams from the rest of the building as the room began to lurch. The walls shook violently, causing even more debris to fall. His wardrobe, his speakers, his books— everything was buried beneath a pile of brick and broken cement.

And still, the madness did not end.

Lukas didn’t know what was going on, but what he did know was that he couldn’t stay here in this— this nightmare.

Not if he wanted to survive.

Lukas leaped over piles of rubble as he rushed down the stairwell as fast as his body allowed. The constant shaking and falling debris were potentially lethal dangers. Too much was happening, and he needed to get out.

Another giant rumble followed, and this time, the walls caved in.

It didn’t end well.

Trying to dodge falling debris while running down a shaking building was a lot harder than they made it look in movies.

His head had rammed into the wall, and it hurt. He could literally see the red encroaching upon his vision.

I need to get out.

Cursing himself for living on the second floor, Lukas stumbled down the rest of the stairs—

Only to see the entrance buried behind shattered brick and plaster.

By now, he could hear shouts and cries from the people outside. It was terrifying. Lukas put down his laptop and began to look for other exits. There had to be a way out of this mess. He wouldn’t die here. Not in this godforsaken apartment without even—

Stab.

“Ouch!” Lukas glanced down at his chest. More precisely, at his pendant, which was currently stabbing into him. A good chunk of its nib was buried under his skin, though surprisingly there was no pain after the initial jolt.

Lukas blinked.

No, it was still stabbing into him, and that wasn’t all. Blood was actually flowing out of his chest in thin tendrils, contorting into various shapes as it vanished into the surface of the pendant itself.

It was almost as if—

As if it was drinking his blood.

I— I— This has to be a dream. It—

The ceiling began to crack, as large fragments of lath and plaster rained down everywhere. Lukas quickly dove out of the way, scraping his arms in the process.

Pain.

This probably wasn’t a dream then, as hard as that was to believe.

Lukas looked around. There was literally no way out. The stairs had been demolished. The front had collapsed. It was possible that the back entrance had survived, but Lukas wasn’t going to bet on it.

He had never been the luckiest of individuals.

Almost on cue, a large fracture began to spread across the floor, forming what looked like a giant chasm in front of him.

“...”

You know, Lukas thought deliriously, maybe the shitty prophecy was right. The world really is ending.

Earthquake, check. Creepy bloodsucking pendant, check. Chasms opening in his apartment lobby, check.

Yep. All signs of an impending apocalypse.

The building let out one last mournful creak, akin to a dying scream. And then, the whole thing began to collapse.

On the ground, the chasm had begun to expand. Wider and wider, it seemed like it would split the building in two from beneath.

And Lukas stood in the middle of it all. There was nowhere to go, nowhere to flee. In fact, there was nothing to do but wait for imminent death.

Lukas closed his eyes. He didn’t consider himself a coward, but waiting for the building to fall on top of him… that was too much. He only hoped it would be painless.

...

Stab.

Lukas winced. There it was again. Why the hell did his pendant keep stabbing him?

And more importantly, why was he still alive?

Opening his eyes, Lukas looked up. The ceiling was still falling apart, yet every chunk of plaster, every brick… they were all missing him. It almost looked intentional.

And then, something shot out from within the fissure on the ground and embedded itself into his chest. Something sharp and unimaginably painful. Before he could even try to look at what impaled him, the chasm widened even further and swallowed him whole.