Location: Orlando, Fl
April 2, 2026, 12:49 am
The night was still. The air was warm and a breeze passed between the buildings and over Athens Park, rustling the leaves and the trees. After midnight, the streets were quiet on the edge of the city. The soft glow of the streetlights and the flashing yellow stoplights provided just enough light to see down the empty roads and vacant sidewalks.
The only movement was a man in his bed slippers. His a bath robe loosely-tied around his waist, walking his Cairn Terrier. He yawned and scratched through the material of his coffee-stained wife beater that was peeking through his robe. He peered down at the terrier as he tried to rub the sleep from his eyes.
"Come on Todo. It's after midnight and I've only gotten 4 hours of sleep in the past two days writing headlines from all the crazy events that happened yesterday!"The dog sniffed at yet another tree, deciding this one didn't meet it's standards for an appropriate bathroom either.
"A building full of men were beaten and killed. One was thrown out a window... others were shot in cold blood in the middle of the street in broad daylight. The city just isn't safe anymore." he muttered to himself as the dog moseyed up to another tree.
James Stewart was a journalist for
The Olympian and although he was happy with his job, the chaos with yesterdays events kept him glued in front of his computer screen for the past 24 hours. At this point, all that he wanted was some peace and quiet and a little shut-eye before his boss called him in to write about the next tragedy that was bound to happen.
Todo's ears perked up. James looked down as Todo began peeing uncontrollably on the spot. Eyes-wide and fur raised. James was curious with his dog's behavior but his focus wavered as goose bumps covered the length of his arms and the hair on the back of his neck stood on end.
His watch began to spin and now, even his hair was lifting up. Peeling his gaze away from his watch, James looked up and off into the distance. The stars began to twist and swirl. The building's edges started to distort and warp in unnatural ways. In the center, in the space between the buildings, all light was being pulled into darkness. Todo yelped and ran off in the oppisite direction, yanking the leash from his hands. James yearned to join him. He
screamed at his legs, willing them to move but he was frozen in place as sweat slid down his neck.
A pop and a rumble broke the silence as he felt himself being pulled, no; sucked into the void. Suddenly, a mass of black and violet, indigo and flashes of light erupted from the void as an object was hurled from the center of the vortex.
Another
BANG that sounded and
felt like a sonic boom forced James to look away as glass shattered and the distortion was split and frayed. And just as quickly as it had come in, the air was still, the stars were all in place as they were before and the only disturbance were the sound of car alarms echoing down the neighborhood.
As Jame's eyes regained focus, something was lying on the ground and that something ...was beginning to
move.
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