Today started out like any other day, with the usual noise of morning traffic, everyone going about their day, not noticing that something was different. Jacob was no exception just another regular Tuesday for him.
He went to school like he always did, half-awake and convinced the day would be as boring as the last. Classes blurred together, the hours dragging by, and nothing felt out of the ordinary.
When the final bell rang, he packed up and began his walk home. Halfway through his usual route, a strange feeling crept over him like someone, or something, was watching him. He tried to shake it off, brushing it aside as his imagination... but maybe he should've trusted his instincts. Maybe then he would've been prepared for what was coming.
That was when the sky began to darken not like a normal raincloud, but as if the light itself was being drained away. Birds stopped singing. Dogs whimpered and hid. Even the wind felt wrong, carrying a quiet tension that made Jacob's skin crawl.
And then everything changed.
A thunderous BOOM split the air.
The ground trembled beneath his feet.
And from the heart of the growing darkness...
The first creature appeared
From the heart of the darkness, something small scuttled forward its movements sharp and jerky, like a broken puppet learning to walk.
Then Alexander saw it clearly.
A creature barely three feet tall crawled out onto the pavement. Its skin was a sickly, swamp-green, stretched tight over a bony frame. Long ears twitched at every sound, and its yellow eyes glowed with a hungry, unnatural light. In its clawed hands, it gripped a jagged scrap of metal something between a knife and a rusted cleaver.
Another one followed.
Then another.
Within seconds, a whole cluster of the creatures poured out of the rip in the sky, shrieking in high-pitched, broken voices. Some dragged makeshift weapons rusty blades, cracked clubs, even sharpened pipes. Others crawled on all fours, sniffing the air, their nostrils flaring as if they could smell fear.
They were goblin-like, but twisted meaner, sharper, designed for one purpose: killing.
Jacob stood frozen as they spread across the street, their eyes locking onto the nearest human shapes like predators spotting prey.
And that was when he realized the truth:
This wasn't just an attack.
This was the beginning of something far worse.