The sun looks sick today… Zander thought, waking from his undisturbed slumber, only to be greeted with a sickly green ray of light piercing through his window, illuminating his unkempt auburn hair and bright blue eyes. He stretched, groaning softly as he swiftly swung upright, catching himself from falling off the side of his bed as he straightened himself.
He slowly looked around his room, observing the messy, unorganized collection of books, clothing, and bottles of both water and soda, which scattered around both his desk and the floor. He flushed with embarrassment at the sight. He'd been meaning to clean up around here for the past week or so, yet each time he went to do it, he procrastinated until he found something else to do. Now he was left with this… conundrum.
He quickly picked up a few pieces of litter, a few articles of clothing, a paper plate that had fallen off the nearby desk, and tidied up his room, before exiting towards the kitchen of his solitary apartment. He reached towards the counter, where an unpowered phone sat charging into the wall, lighting up with a bright color as he took it into his palms, shining against the harsh, greenish light brought by the sun.
His eyes passed along the photo that was his lockscreen, a small image of four people, him and his brother, along with his parents. His eyes narrowed as he thought of them, his heart sore as he stared at the image. His parents' faces were so bright, so happy, despite the struggles they'd had at the time. They'd been hit with layoffs, leaving them both unemployed and looking to support him and his brother, who'd been in middle school at the time. With Mom's failing heart, times were tough, and they only got worse.
He shook his head, pushing himself out of his nostalgic stupor, and finally noticed the nearly hundred missed texts that awaited him this morning. News sites, various online friends, and even his own brother showered him with messages, urgently trying to get his attention. Curious, he read the headlines that awaited him, his brows furrowing with concern.
Mass Disappearances Throughout the World! Scientists Shocked!
Citizens Vanishing from Thin Air! Is this the Work of the US Government, or is it a Punishment of God?
An Estimated Three Billion People Missing Since 8 A.M., Officials Say! What Does This Mean?
Hundreds of articles lined his feed, a new notification popping up every few seconds.
Thunk!
He dropped his phone onto the countertop, the small device thudding against the granite tile. His eyes widened and his breath quickened, finding himself increasingly nervous as he read on. Quickly, he clicked one of the links, one of the few articles that didn't require payment to view.
Mass Disappearances Causes Worldwide Panic!
Just this morning, beginning at 8 A.M. CST, millions of people have gone missing, with more each hour. Camera footage shows citizens vanishing into thin air, alongside a bright flash of light. Witnesses claim one of the disappearances, a man named Daniel Scott, felt "overwhelmingly claustrophobic," as the main told them shortly before vanishing without a trace.
In an effort to get more information, we set up an interview with one Arthur Redwater, from Murphy, Texas. During the interview, the same phenomenon occurred exactly one hour after the first round of disappearances. Click here to watch what happened:
The article led to an interactable link, which sent him to a video from the RSN network website, displaying a singular video titled "Man Vanishes Into Thin Air." Zander eagerly clicked the play button, watching an unedited video of an interview, with the interviewer asking questions about what happened to his brother, who'd been vanished in an instant in front of him.
"Well," the man, Arthur said, his shoulders shaking. "Mira- I mean Mirabeau, my brother, was standin' just over there- by the kitchen-" He pointed behind him, towards a small wooden door. "I was talkin' to him 'bout goin' for a walk with Pa, but when he tried to say somethin', he told me 'Art, I can't breathe,' and then he popped! Well- he wasn't popped like a balloon or nothin', but he disappeared in a bright blue light, just in the blink of an eye! The sound he made… it was somethin' out of a nightmare, like a cork on a bottle poppin' off, but instead of swee-" He lurched in place, clutching his heart, his eyes growing wide with fear.
"I-I don't feel so good…" He muttered, his hands grasping the brim of his shirt tightly. He gasped, his chest heaving for air as he flailed frantically, trying to grab hold of something to stabilize himself, but there was nothing around. "I feel like I'm bein' squeezed, like the walls around me are bein' pushed together. H-h-help!" He stuttered, reaching for the interviewer, who sat perfectly still, frozen in shock. Just as Zander could tell the man was about to scream in pain, a flash of light enveloped the camera, shaking it violently. A loud noise rang out across the room, but the audio quality was so poor he couldn't get more than static. As the screen stabilized, and Zander could make out features of the video again, the man was gone. Then the video ended.
Zander didn't know what to think. He took a loaf of bread from the nearby cabinet, shoving it into his mouth before sitting on the nearby couch, scrolling through more of the messages. They all had pretty much the same topic, with the loss of millions people, and seemingly millions more per hour.
He glanced at the clock, which read 10:51. Nine minutes before another potential vanishing… He went back to his phone, finally tapping on the messages from his brother.
Kim Jiwoo (Cool Guy): Did you see what's going on???
Kim Jiwoo (Cool Guy): Hello?????
Kim Jiwoo (Cool Guy): Wake up!!
Kim Jiwoo (Cool Guy): My neighbor just vanished. The sound was so loud I think it woke up the whole building.
Kim Jiwoo (Cool Guy): I can feel it. I feel like I'm being crushed by a rock or something
Kim Jiwoo (Cool Guy): If I don't get to see you again, I love you. Thanks for everything.
The last message was nearly an hour ago. Zander's breath caught in his throat as goosebumps appeared along his arms, sending a shiver down his spine. He frantically sent a text back, then another, and another, but none of them were read. His brother was gone.
A wail erupted from his lungs, piercing the silence with his cry. He didn't even mean to scream, but it rose up from his throat, like he was vomiting his sorrows away. He began to shake as he sobbed, a small tear running down his cheek as he slumped against the couch, feeling like he couldn't sink deep enough.
He glanced at the clock.
10:59
He clenched his eyes, hugging himself tightly, as if making himself into a ball. He felt like screaming, like punching whatever it was that threatened him, yet he knew there was no way to stop it. He could feel… something? Like a pressure, faintly from within. Was it there? Or was it a trick of his mind? His head spun as he felt every second tick by, feeling like hours. His eyes clenched tightly, so much that it hurt, and he began to sob silently as he felt it coming. He knew it was here, he knew he was next. He couldn't take it anymore when-
Pop!
He opened his eyes, finding… nothing changed. He sat up from the couch, unfurling his limbs from the tight ball he'd tucked himself into. He looked around the apartment. Nothing was different, all of it was familiar. He rushed towards the window, finding the same, sickly green sun accompanying the same view. Rows of apartment buildings stretched onwards towards the campus that lay up the hill.
A shriek erupted from the room over, and panic immediately settled back in. His neighbors, a small couple that lived together whilst they saved for college, were nice enough, though Zander never really interacted with them. Now however, it appears that one of them had vanished.
Shit… he thought, finding his way back into his room. He paced for a minute or two, frantically thinking about what he could do, different ways to top himself from moving. Maybe he could cut himself off from light? Was it a sun thing? A virus? Some… death beam from the sky? Nothing made a lick of sense.
It took him nearly five minutes before he came to a conclusion. He decided to simply… do nothing. There was nothing for him to do, after all. Instead, he plucked a book from his shelf, titled Where the Silver Flows, one of the few novels he'd never tried quite yet, and sat in his new chair, a beanbag chair that sat comfortably in the corner of his room. Once he settled in, he began to read.
Time flew by, and Zander did not care. He absorbed himself in the book, diving into the world, ignoring the loss of his brother, of nearly half of humanity, ignoring the fact that he could meet the same fate at any given time. He lost himself, lost the worry, and embraced what was to come. If he was to die, he wanted to go out doing what he loved.
His internal clock was lost, but he felt nearly an hour pass by in an instant, but once the hour began to tick over, he felt time begin to slow. Despite his attempts to ignore the death that awaited him, he couldn't help but worry. Surely it was close to noon, right? He felt ashamed when he thought of how he cowered in the corner, begging for whatever it was to leave him be, to spare him. He hated it.
He began to force himself to read, each word beginning to feel like a chore as his worry increased. He grunted in frustration as he lightly slapped his cheek, turning back to the book, and continued his death-read, his final act of independence before his inevitable end.
He heard screams from the neighboring rooms, a desperate sob in the face of inescapable death. As once again the world embraced for another disappearance, every single person holding their breath, leaving nothing but pure, inherent silence, and the buzzing of the air conditioning.
Zander did not care anymore, he brought his book to his face, not allowing him to see anything else on the outside, nothing but the words on the page. He felt a jolt of electricity flash through him, like a sharp shock, which sent him reeling slightly, before the spark that flew through him crackled softly in the air, only audible by him. He gasped as he felt the wind get knocked out of him, and suddenly a pressure placed itself on his chest, pressing down like an anvil, crushing him in place. He gasped, heaving for breath as he patiently waited, the pressure growing more and more intense, until finally…
The world blurred.