CHAPTER 15: CALAMITY (PART 1)

Leya’s POV

It was a day like any other when he told me that he was going to school. He usually liked to stay out till later in the day…but he’d never gone past midnight without telling me beforehand… Granted, up to then he was acting out of character. I didn’t know why, but my mother’s intuition was screaming at me saying that something just wasn’t right, with how he always had a tired yet determined look that replaced his languid stare.

After not being back for an entire day, I decided to ask his friend Matthew, who I happened to meet while asking about my little boy’s whereabouts at school. He said that he didn’t know where James was, and that he’d help me look for him. We even involved the police by the 3rd day.

Just like that….3 months passed…..

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Matthew’s POV

It’s been 3 months since James’ disappearance, and no sign of him had shown up during that time. Even the police failed to find anything, telling me and his mom that he seemed to have “vanished into thin air.” James’ mom wasn’t faring very well, she’d fallen into a state of depression, even calling James’ dad and sister, telling them that her “dear boy was missing.”

Meanwhile, I had to stop looking for James because a new problem had shown up…..my dad was hospitalised.

Even after taking that money from those loan sharks to buy him the best treatments, he’d fallen into a coma and had to be moved into Intensive Care. My world was slowly falling apart…..

My friend was missing, my own mother and fallen into a state of shock, devolving to the emotional state of a toddler. She cried and cried and cried until her eyes dried out, and then she’d go to sleep while lying on my shoulder, only to be moved into her small room. Meanwhile, it fell on me to earn enough money to pay back the loan sharks and support my small family. I stopped going to school and managed to get 2 part time jobs, barely making enough to get by. The loan sharks kept coming into my house and breaking everything while threatening that if I didn’t pay them back…..that I could tell my parents goodbye.

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1 more month passed, marking the 4th since James’ disappearance. This also meant that I had 14 more days to pay back the debt. However, something much worse had happened…not just to me, but to the entire world….

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On April 1st of the year 2024…..monsters had started invading the Earth. It happened so fast that it didn’t feel real. The first places to go were the big cities of the world such as New York, London, and Beijing. Footage from cameras streamed these…..creatures invading the cities and tearing their citizens apart. At the beginning they ranged from bipedal dogs, to ugly green children. However, after a week, stronger monsters started appearing out of thin air, leaving behind these “cracks” in space that more monsters walked through. The militaries of the large countries were able to handle the monsters until that point, but by the second week every major power had suffered a defeat. My small town was safe because it was in the rural parts of British Columbia, but that didn’t last for long….

“Goblins,” as the green monsters were now called, started attacking the town. They arrived on the perimeter and started massacring people after the second month of “The Calamity”. I left my mom in the house with all the lock on and windows closed, and ran as fast as I could to check on my dad in the hospital. As I reached the hospital’s door, I tripped on something. When I stood back up and looked at what it was….I started vomiting on the spot.

I had tripped on…..a severed arm, and close to that arm was a goblin. It stared at me with beady yellow eyes, and crooked teeth shaped into an equally crooked smile. It walked closer to me with its club hanging in the air, and I tried my best to shuffle backwards. As small as those things were, they had a lot more power than the average person. I tripped again, but this time out of fear. Instead of one goblin coming towards me, there were now three. I slowly recalled my life up to now, as I came to terms with the fact that my final moments were right before my eyes….

I remembered the happy days, when my family was all together, enjoying every moment.

I also remembered the sad days, watching my mom sob about my dad getting diagnosed with cancer while he held her in his arms….

I’m sorry mom and dad….but it seems I’ll be leaving this world before you do….

I could feel tears streaming down my face as I tried my best to look these creatures in the eyes. It seemed they’d gotten bored, because the one in the middle raised there club and as they were bringing it down-

Time seemed to stop

“Human….do you desire power?”

“What….?”

“Do you desire the power to change your fate? The power to serve justice to all those who harmed you? Even at the potential cost of yourself?”

As soon as the voice finished their speech I replied. I didn’t need time to think because it was either I died like an insignificant ant.

“YES. Give me this power, I don’t care what it costs if I can finally fight back against all the people who hurt me!”

“HAHAHAHA…very well. I shall bestow upon you the title of Spirit Warrior. Serve your justice to all those who’ve wronged you!”

I could feel the power surging through me! It caused a shockwave, knocking everything away. However, just as I saw the three goblins, no, the three ants quiver in fear….everything turned dark.