I was walking down the narrow street of my neighborhood, the soles of my slippers dragging against the cracked pavement. The houses on both sides were old — the kind that had lived through several generations. Their paints were dull, peeling like dried skin, but the owners still kept them clean. Every window had curtains, every balcony had flower pots, every wall had stories older than me.
My head was low, eyes glued to the screen of my phone. Same recycled videos, same hollow jokes, same brain-rotting reels that gave short bursts of laughter followed by a longer emptiness.
"Life is so boring," I groaned under my breath.
"Rishi!" someone called.
I looked up.
An old man with a bald head and a few stubborn strands of white hair was waving at me. His moustache, thin and faded, clung to his wrinkled face like a relic from the past.
His back was arched, but his eyes — oh, they still had that mischievous spark of children.
"Good evening, Grandpa," I greeted, walking toward him.
Everyone in the neighborhood called him that — Grandpa. He wasn't related to anyone, but somehow, everyone treated him like family. He sat in front of his small house, a weathered carrom board laid between him and an empty chair.
""Evening, my foot!" he scolded, voice half-grumpy, half-playful. "You were walking with your nose inside that damn phone again. If this old man wasn't here, you'd have tripped into the gutter or kissed a lamp post."
"Relax, Grandpa," I said, sitting opposite him and grabbed the striker, spinning it on my fingers.
"I've been walking these streets since I was born. I know every step, every pebble, every crack, even if I'm on my phone, I know what's happening around me."
I flicked the striker with a practiced motion — and missed every single coin.
Not my fault though I am pretty sure that this old man must have rigged the striker.
The old man snorted and took his turn.
His gnarled fingers adjusted the striker with care. "Oh, you know every step of this street? but you barely leave your house, maybe you explore it through your phone screen now, hmm?"
I smiled faintly. "You're not wrong."
"You know every neighbor, yet you don't even remember the name of the girl living next door" He struck, and two black coins disappeared into the pocket with a sharp click
"I just don't care," I replied flatly, flicking the striker again and missed again.
Yeah, it is surely rigged, even though I mostly play on phone, I cannot be this bad in real.
He clicked his tongue, eyes narrowing with mock irritation. "When I was your age, we used to chase kites, talk to people, fall in love, break bones, make mistakes — and live! You kids just… exist."
I sighed. "You sound like my mom."
"Then maybe listen to one of us for once and start doing something productive," he said, eyes turning a little serious — and then his gaze shifted upward. "What's that?"
At first, I thought he was joking, but then I heard it too — a deep, thrumming sound. The air itself vibrated, like a distant roar trapped under the clouds.
And then — the sky split open.
A tear — like glass cracking underwater — spread across the blue expanse.
Day turned into night and a jagged fissure glowing with colors that didn't belong to this world: violet, green, black — shades that twisted the mind just by looking at them was in place of the sun.
The old man stood up slowly, squinting. "What in the…"
The crack widened, and a deep rumbling voice — ancient, hollow, rolled through the air — not heard through ears but felt through the bones.
"SO THIS IS YOUR LAST CARD… YOUR FINAL DEFENSE AGAINST ME?"
The voice wasn't human.
It echoed from every direction, a thousand tones speaking in unison — masculine, feminine, mechanical, monstrous.
"PATHETIC! I AM INEVITABLE AND I WILL WATCH AS YOUR LAST PLOY IS TORN ASUNDER."
I blinked, dazed. Inevitable? That line sounded so dramatic, like something out of a superhero movie I once watched. "Oh great," I muttered, "even the end of the world is plagiarized from a purple giant."
I joked even though the voice was scary, I thought it was just some prank.
Grandpa didn't laugh. He was frozen his face pale, staring at the sky with a fear I'd never seen in him before.
"Grandpa, look how the AR technology has advanced, even the illogical thing like a crack in sky looks real." I explained seeing the fear in his eyes.
"Rishi," he said quietly. "Go home."
"What?"
"NOW!"
Before I could move, something fell from the rift — like meteor, but alive.
The first creature crashed onto the street, shaking the ground. It stood — a twisted silhouette of muscle and bone, its face was just a skull with glowing red slits for eyes. Its arms were long, claws glinting like knives, and its chest pulsed like something alive inside it. It didn't have any legs or specifically, anything beneath torso.
Behind it, more of them emerged, each more grotesque than the last. Some had arms like blades, others had no faces at all.
The crack in the sky widened to horizon and creatures like it started pouring down like rain.
People started screaming and running.
The air filled with panic and chaos as creatures lunged at anything that moved.
"Get inside!" the old man shouted.
I stumbled back, heart hammering.
My phone slipped from my hand and cracked on the road, but I didn't care. One of the beasts turned toward us, and let out a gurgling snarl that sounded like metal grinding on bone.
"Run!" Grandpa yelled, grabbing a wooden chair like it was a weapon.
The creature snarled and leapt upon us but grandpa swung the chair — it shattered on impact. The thing barely flinched before slashing again then I just saw the blur of movement, and the spray of blood —
"GRANDPA!" I screamed.
He staggered back, clutching his chest, blood seeping through his fingers. But somehow, he swung again — the broken leg of the chair hitting the monster across its jaw, the creature hissed, recoiled — and then impaled him through the stomach.
"NO!"
The old man's body went limp and the monster tossed him aside like trash.
But I didn't go to him to check whether he is alive or dead or lunged at the monster for revenge.
I just ran with tears in my eyes and fear in my heart, towards my home.
The air was filled with screams and roars.
I ran through the alleyways I knew by heart — the same streets I bragged about knowing blindfolded — but now they felt foreign, alien. The familiar houses were burning, the smell of smoke and blood thick in the air.
My mind screamed one word over and over.
Mom
I burst out onto the main road — and froze.
Bodies lay everywhere, some I knew and some I didn't. The once-quiet neighborhood was a war zone.
One of the creatures — taller, leaner, with two curved horns sprouting from its back — was dragging a man by the leg.
"RISHI! HELP!" the man shouted with desperation and despair in his eyes.
Even though I didn't know him, he knew about me.
"Mom…" I whispered, I clutched my chest and forced my legs to move again and even faster.
I could clearly heard behind me firstly the curses of anger, then the prayers filled with despair and lastly the heart- agonizing scream filled with pain so immense that I wished to have died before leaving that man behind.
I grabbed a broken pipe from the rubble and ran.
My heart was pounding so hard that it could anytime burst forth from my chest.
Halfway home, another creature dropped in front of me — this one different.
It walked upright, its limbs too long, skin pale like stretched wax. Its eyes were pits of black fire, and its mouth split wider than any human's could. Its body was lean, yet its every step made the ground quake slightly.
A sound escaped its throat — not a growl, not a roar, but a distorted laugh.
I backed away slowly, gripping the pipe tighter "Stay back… just stay back."
The monster tilted its head, studying me like I was prey.
Then it lunged towards me.
I swung the pipe with all my strength — it connected with a loud clang, hitting its shoulder. The creature barely budged and then Its claw came down, slicing the metal clean in half.
I fell backward, scrambling on the ground.
"HELP!" I shouted instinctively, but no one answered. The only sounds were distant screams and the roar of fire.
The creature raised its claw again — but then something hit it from behind.
A sharp clang — the sound of metal striking bone was heard.
I looked up.
It was Grandpa's iron rod — and beside it, Grandpa himself.
He was barely standing, his shirt soaked in blood, face pale — but his eyes still burned with defiance.
"Get… away… from him!" he roared, swinging again.
The creature turned, irritated. It caught the rod mid-swing and snapped it like a twig.
"Grandpa, no!" I tried to get up, but my leg throbbed with pain — I'd twisted it when I fell.
The monster grabbed the old man by the neck.
He looked at me — blood dripping down his chin — and forced a smile. "Live… Rishi."
The claw pierced through his chest.
The sound it made was wet, and final.
The monster flung his body aside and turned back toward me.
Something in me broke as I saw the man who I had left behind came again to help me, but died.
I grabbed the half-pipe again and screamed, charging forward — tears, rage, terror, everything blending into one raw instinct. I swung wildly, again and again, hitting its arm, its chest, its head.
"DIE! DIE!"
But the creature didn't die, it just watched, almost amused.
It caught the pipe mid-swing and slammed me into the wall. My back exploded with pain. I coughed, blood spraying from my lips.
Still, I got up. "You… killed him…"
The creature tilted its head, as if mocking. Then it struck — claws slicing across my stomach. The pain I felt was so immense that I couldn't even name it.
I fell to my knees, vision blurring.
The world around me dimmed — smoke, fire, screams — all fading into darkness.
The monster loomed over me, its red eyes glowing brighter. I could feel its breath — hot, reeking of death — as it lifted me by the throat.
My body was weak, but my mind… my mind wasn't quiet.
It whispered.
Laugh.
I didn't understand it but somehow… I obeyed.
A sound escaped me — broken, hysterical laughter.
The monster paused its claws twitched, maybe it didn't understand either.
I was dying — and I was laughing.
"Guess… I was wrong," I wheezed between the laughter. "Life's not boring after all."
The creature's expression twisted — if it even had one — and it drove its claw straight through my heart.
Everything went black.
The last thing I saw was a pillar of blue light surrounding me and few more pillars like mine were there in the sky, and I heard the voice, this time different-- ancient and powerful but calming and monotonous.
"INTERESTING. YOU LAUGHED."
And for a moment, before oblivion took me, I thought I saw my reflection in the creature's red eyes — but it wasn't humane anymore.
It was me smiling at the face of death.