001 – It Won’t Be The End of the World

Time to Apocalypse: 00:05

“It won’t be the end of the world,” I said. A statement I’d come to regret very soon. I plugged the last cable into my computer and emerged from under the desk. With that, at last, the most important step of setting up the new place was done.

I picked up my phone and looked at that last exchange with Claire again.

We need to talk. My last message, exactly a year ago today.

Mike gently plucked the phone from my hands and put it on the table before he took my hands into his. Against his dark skin, I looked even paler than usual. Six feet tall and built like a bouncer, he was one of the smartest and kindest people I knew.

“Eve. You are a smart girl. What would you say to me if I were playing with the idea of calling my ex? In the middle of the night?”

I looked away from him and down at the phone again.

“It’s just 10 p.m. Not like she’d be in bed already.”

He let go of my hand and returned to filling the shelf next to the desk. “You are dodging the actual question.”

I sighed and took one of the plushies he’d placed on the shelf and put it on the desk, next to my left screen. Others had a rubber duck, I had my fluffy corvid. “I’d tell you it was a horrible idea and that there was a reason you broke up in the first place.”

“But?”

“But… Maybe she has changed? She said she wanted to go to therapy again back then. Also, shouldn’t I at least warn her that I was back in New York? We could meet out there.”

“No, you don’t need to warn her, Eve. You don’t owe her anything. Despite the fact that we are having this discussion, you are both grown-ups. Should you encounter her ‘out there’, you can just move on. Absolutely no reason for any drama.”

“I think she’d be angry.”

“There you go. If that isn’t a reason to stay away from her, what is? Why do you think she’d be angry if she ran into you?”

I sat down in my desk chair and hugged my legs. “Dunno. Probably because I didn’t warn her I was back?”

“So you want to call her to avoid an unreasonable conflict, just so she can’t make you feel guilty for having failed to do so? What if you called her and she told you to come over to talk? For old times’ sake?”

“I suppose I’d go?”

“Dear Lord. Was the sex that good, Eve? This is a horrible idea and you know it. I’m done being the voice of sanity.”

For a long time I wouldn’t know what caused the events that’d follow. To me, many things happened at the same time:

I lost time, just a couple of seconds, but where I had been hugging my legs before, my feet were suddenly firmly planted on the ground. The time lapse was accompanied by a strange sensation of displacement. Like the drop of a rollercoaster, but for mind, body, and soul at once.

Then there was the UI. At the edges of my vision appeared what could only be called a UI. Bars and numbers and notifications. Mike must have gone through something similar, as he stumbled away from the shelf, staring at empty space.

“What the fuck?” I said.

Half a second later, the power went out.

“The hell?” he said.

Light flashed by the window, illuminating the room in an orange glow, for another fraction of a second. Shortly after, there was an explosion outside, the ground shook and the window burst in.

“You are in great danger, Eve. You have to stay calm and listen to me,” said a voice in my head.

And then, as if the world ending weren’t enough punishment for my stupid idea of calling her, she one-upped me and called me first. Mike stared at me as I picked up the phone. Outside in the hallway there were noises. A woman screamed.

“Hello, Eve,” Claire said. “We don’t have time. Listen carefully. Don’t listen to the voice in your head. Stay away from the window. Leave the apartment and wait in the hallway. Help will arrive soon.”

“That’s not Claire. Do not, under any circumstances, open that door, Eve,” said the voice in my head. The one I was supposed to ignore?

Mike slowly walked toward the door, leaning in and listening for more noises. I turned to look toward the window. The building across the street was illuminated by the reflection of flames.

“How do you know what’s happening?” I asked.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.