Chapter 2: Am I Really Living in This Place?
Crack!
A loud cracking sound echoed in the ears of every living creature on Earth. If someone had heard it before this destruction, they would've thought it was the sound of regular glass shattering — but sadly, that wasn't the case this time.
Every creature still alive on Earth lifted its head to witness something unbelievable. The sky was full of terrifying cracks.
No one understood what was happening. Was this real? Or just a hallucination? But if it was only an illusion, why did it appear before everyone's eyes? And why did it seem so real?
Animals started roaring and wailing all over the world, as if they knew what was coming — as if they were warning humans of something. People panicked, especially after witnessing such strange behavior from the animals.
You must have figured out who I am by now. I'm one of the lucky few who survived this catastrophe. I used to think of myself as both lucky and unlucky at the same time. The misfortune came in the form of losing my entire family during the nuclear bombardment.
You're probably wondering how they died while I survived. That, in fact, is the luck I was talking about. I was, as usual, studying in my room when one of my friends called and asked me to go with him to explore the old underground tunnels. You might find the timing odd, but this was normal for us. We often explored those tunnels, though we never ventured too deep for fear of getting lost.
These tunnels had existed since World War I, built as a means to hide from enemy sight. After the war, they were abandoned and forgotten — except by me and that friend.
This time, he challenged me to go alone and push beyond the point we had reached last time. He said he'd start a timer to track how long I took to go in and return.
I agreed to the idea. He pressed the button, and the countdown began:
1, 2, 3… 3697.
It took me over an hour to go in and come back — quite a record for a first solo attempt. I thought I'd try again later, as the pitch-black darkness had disoriented me. But little did I know that I wouldn't get the chance. In fact, I wouldn't even see anyone in my city again.
When I exited the tunnel, I was met with a horrifying sight.
Blood stains, destroyed buildings, and the earth itself was literally shattered. I couldn't understand how I hadn't felt anything while all this was happening — maybe I had gone so deep underground that no tremors from the nuclear explosions reached me.
In my shock, all I could think about was my family — my mother, father, and sister. I ran as fast as I could toward my home, forgetting completely about my friend. Along the way, I saw no signs of life, only dust and scattered drops of blood. Not much, just small droplets everywhere.
I ran while glancing around, praying nothing had happened to my family or my house. It may have been irrational, but in that moment, logic didn't matter. I just wanted them to be okay.
I made my way to the city center, where my house was. When I arrived, everything was destroyed. The entire neighborhood had been leveled — except for one place. And I'm sure you can guess what it was: my house. Yes, my house. But what was strange was that it hadn't been destroyed — it had disappeared. Not blown up or vaporized — it had literally vanished, as if it had never existed. The spot where it once stood was now just empty land.
Let's say the house had somehow been uprooted and relocated — then why was the ground still level, with no sign of displacement?
That's when I began to doubt everything. Do I really live here? Was everything I went through just a fantasy? Do I even have a family? Was that friend real, or just a figment of my imagination? Am I insane?
In the midst of despair and confusion, I heard a familiar sound:
Crack!
A sound I was used to hearing when glass or kitchenware broke — but this time, it wasn't that. I looked left and right, saw nothing. Then I looked up — and saw a terrifying sight.
The sky was splitting open. I didn't believe it at first — until a bird flew into one of the cracks and didn't come back.
I didn't feel safe and tried to back away — but where to? That scene was in the sky, and I was on the ground. No matter how far I ran or where I hid, it wouldn't matter. So, I stood my ground and kept watching that terrifying scene.
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Shatter!
Explosion!
A violent explosion erupted within the crack — and then came a horrifying sight. A gigantic eye, the size of both the sky and earth, opened from the other side. It shifted left and right as if observing the entire world. Red veins burst across its surface, radiating fury.
Then a deep, terrifying voice was heard — a voice that reached the ears of every living being on Earth:
"Useless creatures."
These two words were spoken — and the monstrous eye closed and disappeared.
But then, something even more terrifying happened. The sky continued to shatter further, forming holes of various sizes — small, medium, large — all over.
People couldn't understand these strange openings. But they all agreed on one thing: they looked like wormholes, or what is known as space-time portals — capable of transporting anything that enters to an entirely different time and place.
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I never expected something so fantastical to happen. Modern science had confirmed the impossibility of extraterrestrial life — but what had I just witnessed?
Yes! I had seen an eye. An absurdly massive eye that made the Earth feel like a speck of dust in comparison. But… there's no "but." I had thought myself insane just moments before — and what erased that idea was this eye and what followed.
"Useless creatures!"
That eye — or rather, the being it belonged to — spoke those cruel and terrifying words.
The pressure I felt at that moment was overwhelming, like I was being crushed. The sound alone was terrifying beyond belief. I froze in place, dazed, as if I had dozed off briefly. When I regained my senses, the eye was gone — but what happened afterward was even worse.
Strange holes began opening in the sky and the ground — glowing with shifting colors, some dark and ominous, others so faint they were barely visible.
I felt like I had seen holes like these before — but only in fantasy stories. Could fiction really become reality? That's what I used to think. But remembering the sky tearing open, that horrifying eye, and now these holes — there was no reason to think otherwise anymore.
Maybe these holes are gateways — connected to other worlds, other civilizations — ones that might be preparing to cross over and invade our already-ruined Earth.