Stygian Winter: Prologue

Prologue

Tim drummed his pencil against the table. The eraser had been worn down to nothing and the ferrule made a metallic clack against the surface. His body was haphazardly sprawled across the metal table that was otherwise covered in piles of equipment with blinking lights, dials, switches, buttons and odd read out displays. Despite what appeared to be a flurry of activity from the various boxes and lights, Tim seemed largely uninterested. Instead he peered through thick, black rimmed glasses at the tip of his pencil as it bounced over and over against the desk he was sprawled across.

The rest of the cramped office included even more displays, screens, lights, dials, switches, buttons and keyboards. It seemed as if every wall space was covered with a device only the initiated could recognize. As well metal racks haphazardly strew about were also haphazardly stacked with more equipment with added wires and cables crisscrossing the room. Tim was slouched across one of the work stations with the rest of him sprawled into the narrow walk way. He swayed back and forth on the wheels of his chair. His slender but lanky frame was clearly not designed for the size of the height of the work station he was at or the size of the observation room itself. A second work station was occupied by a much smaller and heavier man who appeared to be several years older than Tim’s youthful 18, as well as several pounds heavier.

Frank was a sloppy as the stereotype of his name implied. Both men were disheveled from days of working in the tight quarters. Each had patches of stubble and had unkempt hair. Frank’s clothes however were additionally stained with unknown food and liquids. In front of him was a keyboard at which he furiously entered data, checked and cross checked. The casual observer would have as little understanding of what Frank was doing as they would any of the equipment before them. The only thing clearly apparent was the large, bulky headphones Frank wore over one ear. His pudgy face was a mixture of annoyance and concentration as stubby fingers banged away on the keyboard.

After several more minutes of tapping—and Frank’s face growing ever more impatient—he finally spun his office chair to face Tim who sat behind him facing away towards the other station. He rolled his eyes and took a single labored breath.

“Do you have to do that?” he growled with a British precision not indicative of his appearance.

“Do what?” Tim replied.

“Tap the fucking pencil!”

Tim rolled his eyes towards his bushy black eyes brows. He pushed his complaint through a thick Australian accent, “Don’t you have headphones on?”

“Yes,” Frank huffed, “but I don’t enjoy hearing only background radio noise for hours on end.”

Tim finally stopped tapping the pencil and turned to face Frank, “So you’d rather hear… silence out of one ear?”

Tim grunted and flexed his fingers a few times to relieve the stress. His fingers brushed through his long, greasy brown hair and pushed the headphones around his neck. He rested his other hand, holding a diet soda can, on the slight bulge that was his gut, “No… we could try having a conversation or something?”

“Talk about what?” Tim scoffed, “We’ve been here for days, listening to nothing in space. We’ve talked about everything there is to talk about.”

“Listen, it’s just annoying when you rap that stupid pen,” Frank was cut off by a beeping of another sort from the adjacent room.

Both men turned to look as the third member of their observation team entered the room. By comparison to either scrawny Tim or chubby Frank, Madison was a vision of health. She appeared to be about the same age as Tim, but was likely a runner or some other type of lithe athlete. She was not traditionally beautiful, however. Instead she was what most would have regarded as plain and wore unflattering glasses and baggy clothes. Regardless, to Frank and Tim she was ideal.

She emerged from the other room holding a small plate with a personal, microwaveable pizza. It took her a moment to navigate the tangle of wires and equipment. Her feet nearly tangled in the wheels of Tim’s chair, but she managed to catch herself before spilling to the floor. Once she flopped into her own seat she cast an unnoticed glare in Tim’s direction. He had resumed idly tapping the pencil and staring into space.

“Thanks Tim… way to make it easy to navigate,” Madison said.

“Anytime,” Tim replied without even hearing the question.

Frank rolled his eyes at the other man and turned his attention to Madison, “Didn’t you eat like… twenty minutes ago at seven thirty?”

Madison shrugged and stuffed a rolled up edge of the small pizza into her mouth. Only after taking a huge bite and half chewing did she reply, “I’m hungry.”

Frank didn’t bat an eye at the spray of saliva, cheese, crust and pepperoni bits issued from her mouth as she spoke. Instead he leaned back in his chair, which groaned under shift in movement, and folded his stubby fingers behind his head. Though she didn’t change her outward expression, Madison desperately wanted to roll her eyes. There wasn’t a day that went by that one—or both—of them didn’t try to make a few passes at her. This seemed to be yet another attempt. She prepared herself for the onslaught.

“But you’re so…” Madison raised one untamed eyebrow above her gaudy glasses as she waited for him to stumble over his compliment awkwardly, “trim.”

“Trim?” Madison parroted.

“Yeah… like… fit,” Frank felt himself floundering and his body began to sink just as his heart did. Why his hopes ever raised Madison would never figure out.

“Thanks,” Madison replied and spun her chair around to face her workstation.

For, a moment, Frank did the same. He pulled his headphones up over both ears to drown out the sound of Tim tapping with the marginally more interesting sounds of static as well as the odd beeping, pulsing or buzzing of the universe as he scanned across the sky. Madison sat silently, stunned that he had given up so quickly. Instead she busied herself taking notes and occasionally glancing at the read outs of her own instruments. Madison counted the moments between the failure of his first awkward pass and when she heard the mechanical squeak of his chair turning to face her once more. They were tragically few.

“So Madison, I was thinking,” he began.

For a moment Frank stumbled, unsure of exactly how to phrase what he intended to ask. Madison slowly turned to face him. She looked on expectantly. In the awkward silence neither of them even noticed that Tim had stopped tapping the pencil. Half formed words and stuttering utterances began to bubble their way out of his mouth to fill the void. He started his sentence three or four times as he attempted to express himself. It was just enough of a pause for Tim to interrupt the moment.

“Hey,” Tim mumbled.

“I was thinking,” Frank tried again.

“Hey,” Tim insisted this time.

“Well, I had this idea that,” Frank began speech once more.

“Frank!” Tim finally shouted.

“What?” came the sharp retort.

“Tune to these coordinates.”

Frank scowled and wheeled his office chair to look over Tim’s shoulder. He read the coordinates with dull, uninterested eyes. After only a moment or two of mental processing Frank sighed and pushed his chair back over to his own station. Both Madison and Tim waited with baited breath as he entered the various data into the system. They each shifted expectantly with anticipation as he pulled his headphones back up over one ear. Tim seemed to grow more impatient by the minute.

After what felt like fifteen minutes Tim began to tap his finger nail nervously against the metal workstation. His knee bounced up and down as jittery energy coursed through his lanky frame. Still, Frank said nothing in reply. He only continued to furiously enter data, press his hand to his headphone covered ear, take a few hand written notes and then resume the cycle. The agony finally broke Tim.

“Well!?”

“Well what, Tim?” Frank said in an almost stereotypically annoyed British tone.

“The coordinates?”

“It’s Jupiter, Tim. You want me to point at Jupiter.”

“It’s sending out a radio signal…” Tim murmured as if uttering it too loud would summon forth a demon.

“It always sends out radio signals. We’ve known that for years. It’s no big deal.”

“No, Frank,” Tim said with a gravity that he rarely possessed, “Not like this.”

It was enough to convince Frank to at least give it a look. With a labored sigh, he began to enter the command necessary to realign the radio telescope of the Mount Pleasant Radio Observatory in Tasmania, Australia. After a few moments the twenty six meter radio telescope began to swing into position in the night sky. It took Frank not only a few moments to swing the dish into position, but a few more to being collecting the data. Frank’s expression was nearly as dismissive as it had been up until this point as he began to press the ear piece to his right ear.

Slowly his face changed from one of boredom and frustration to confusion and then finally shock. He seemed stunned to a frozen silence as he listened to the sound piping into his ear. For the moment he tuned out the chatter of Madison and Tim who demanded to know what he heard and just listened. It only took another few heart beats for his awe to turn to unease. First he flipped one switch to begin recording the signal. Secondly, to abate the increasing demands of Madison and Tim, Frank flipped another switch which piped the ominous nose into the room. Instead of the normal radio sounds Jupiter often emitted, a strange background static with an unusual, rhythmic pulsing filled the air. Somewhere layered behind it was a somehow chilling, high pitched chattering.

The three college students sat in stunned silence as they listened to the transmission. It was only a moment of silence however before an excited Madison broke the quiet with her own revelation.

“Guys!” she blurted out, “there is a similar signal being sent towards Jupiter from an unknown, mobile source that is currently on an intercept course with Jupiter itself…”

An eerie sort of calm settled over the room once more before Frank finally dove for the phone. He pressed the black plastic receiver to his ear as his chubby fingers mashed down on the numbers as furiously as possible, “Doctor Cole… I’m sorry to call during dinner, but I think you are going to want to get down here.”

* * *

By the time a car pulled up outside the small, white observatory building at the University of Tasmania, the office had become a bustle of activity. The three physics students were each furiously working at one station before, in what could only be describe as a disorganized mess, they resumed their hectic activity. Each would occasionally shout a series of what would otherwise be nonsense to the others. This new data would somehow be incorporated in the activity and the flow would change in some inexplicable way.

They were so consumed with their activity that they wouldn’t have noticed a monster in the room, let alone the vehicle pull up outside. It was plain enough. Nothing more special than a tan, late model sedan. It was the most ordinary thing that the rental agency could offer. The man who stepped out of the car was equally ordinary. He appeared to be in his mid-forties. His hair had migrated to a bushy, but neatly trimmed mustache and had otherwise abandoned his head in all but the typical ring from ear around his head to other ear. Though he was trim he didn’t appear overly powerful. As well his features were awkward and unflattering. It wasn’t that he was unattractive. He was simply plain and forgettable.

His suit, equally lackluster in color as the rental car, was simple as well. As were the tan wing tips that capped off his outfit. The only thing which stood out about him at all was that his entire outfit was spotless, perfectly pressed and absolutely wrinkle free. This, combined with how simple and unexciting it was gave him a pedantic feel. It was as if he were a forty five year old child off to boarding school. His eyes glanced over the building with interest as he made his way towards the door. He seemed to be studying it with a particular intensity. At least until they settled upon a box where the collection of wires and cables exited the building to run to their various destination. He focused there for a moment before he let his gaze wander about. He seemed in no hurry to enter the building. Instead he looked over the radio tower itself and seemed to take in the complex as a whole.

To contrast the blandness of his entrance, what occurred inside the building had built to a chaotic level. Not only were the three students still hustling about the room, their pace had quickened to the point where they couldn’t avoid the occasional collision. As well, the occasional astronomical jargon or numerical shouting had become a constant din of noise. It was such that they didn’t even notice the plain man in the plain suit enter the room. He didn’t say anything at first or interrupt. Instead he patiently waited with a friendly smile draped across his lips. It took almost five minutes for him to give up on patience and clear his throat politely. Nothing happened. He repeated his effort with more vigor. There was still no result.

“Excuse me!”

His word ground the activity to a halt. Each of the students stopped instantly and shifted their attention to the stranger. For a moment he regarded them with the same friendly smile he always seemed to have. It was only when the students turned to look at each other expectantly and the majority of them addressed Frank that he approached. He held out his right hand to shake while his left reached into his breast pocket.

“Mr. Agosto, I presume?”

Frank took his hand with a puzzled look splashed across his chubby cheeks, “Yes?”

The longer the stranger smiled at him, the less he looked friendly and the more he looked like a used car salesman. The stranger vigorously shook Frank’s hand. In return Frank offered a lack luster response. Once the gesture had been completed, the strange finished withdrawing his wallet from his pocket. He pulled from that a business card and passed it to Frank with two fingers.

“I’m Doctor Nathos H. Hodst. I’m with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration,” Madison perked up at what she considered his ‘lack of accent’. There were few American students at the University of Tasmania and almost none in the Physics department. It was nice to hear a familiar sound.

Before Frank replied, he took the card and glanced down at it. He stared in disbelief at the NASA logo which stared back at him. He couldn’t ever imagine meeting a real NASA representative. This was a dream come true. The entire night was just getting better and better. First the discovery and now this. He broke his reverie by shaking his head and glancing back up at Hodst.

“I… wow… welcome! Please, come in. I apologize. It’s a little hectic around here.”

“No, no… It’s more than understandable,” Doctor Hodst replied. “Can I ask for a brief overview of the events?”

“Sure!” Frank blurted out, “At exactly seven fifty one pm we noticed-”

Tim interrupted, “I noticed.”

“Seven, five, one, one, one, one, two, one, nine, nine, eight…” Hodst muttered nearly silently under his breath.

Frank rolled his eyes and continued, “Tim noticed and unusual radio signal from the surface of Jupiter.”

“Jupiter is always emitting radio signals…” he trailed off as Frank repeated him.

“… emitting radio signals, I know. However, these are not the normal pops, pecks and crackling of Jupiter’s storms. And it’s not in the 10 to 25 megahertz range. This is something else. This isn’t High Frequency… its Extremely High Frequency.”

This seemed to perk up Hodst’s attention. He folded his arms and tilted his head to the side to listen as Frank continued to explain.

“We started receiving these crazy burst transmissions from Jupiter. But things start to get really insane when a reply signal started to fill the gaps.”

Hodst’s eyes narrowed, “Reply signal?”

“Yes!” Tim called out, unable to contain his excitement anymore, “Every time the signal on Jupiter would pause and then a signal approximately forty nine million miles away from Jupiter would burst back at incredibly high frequency. We are talking frequencies near one hundred gigahertz.”

Frank jumped in once more, “The two sources seemed to exchange transmission bursts for several minutes at which point the transmissions began to slow. They are just beginning to peter out now. We were a little…”

“Caught off guard,” Madison chimed in, attempting to feel helpful.

“Caught off guard,” Frank repeated, “and we didn’t start recording the transmission for several moments, but we got most of it.”

Hodst attention bounced back and forth between the various excited students as they explained the situation. His interested smile never faded. Several times he nodded to indicate his engagement. Once they mentioned the recording her perked up even more.

“Can I hear it?”

“Of course!” Frank blurted out, “Why didn’t I just start playing that for you as soon as you showed up!”

“Good job Frank!” Tim jabbed.

Frank took only a moment to shoot Tim a look before he began to pipe their recording of the transmissions into the control room. The high frequency bursts began to thrum through the air. To the average listener they would have sounded entirely unpleasant. Little more than short, bursts of high pitched noise. To the students in the room it was something much more. It was a potential discovery they couldn’t even being to imagine. They hadn’t even graduated and already they were about to be famous. Or so they though.

The wonder that was evident on Hodst’s face was different. This wasn’t the excitement of a scientific discovery. This wasn’t even the look of a potential payoff. His face displayed reverence. He was seized by a look of devotion. Instead of science or greed, his eyes were filled with a religious fervor. It went unnoticed at first but as the moments dragged on the students began to notice the faraway look that had filled Hodst’s eyes. As the seconds ticked to minutes, an eerie tension had filled the room. Something about the transmission felt unsettling and attention had only been drawn to it now that Hodst had arrived.

It took several moments for Frank to speak. He had made eye contact with his fellow students several times. Each time there was a general acknowledgement that someone needed to say something but in each case they filled to muster a response. Madison began to fidget nervously with her pant leg as she pleaded with Frank to do something with her eyes. Tim on the other hand only made occasional, frantic contact before he would let his gaze dart frantically around the room once more. It was only after five full minutes that Frank could open his mouth.

“Um… you said you were from NASA? How did you…”

Hodst broke his reverie and turned to Frank with his trademark smile. The smile had transformed entirely from the friendly gesture it first one and beyond sleazy car salesman. Instead it had taken a creepy, sinister feel. “Yes. Your professor, Doctor Cole, called me.”

“But,” Tim mumbled, “NASA is in America.”

Hodst shifted his grin to Tim, “I was working at an astrophysics lab in Richmond.” He seemed to have an answer for everything.

Madison remained unsatisfied, “There’s… no lab in Richmond.”

Hodst slowly turned his head to face Madison. His fake, uneasy smile turned into a sinister, twisted smirk. It was the only thing about the next few moments that happened slowly. For the next six seconds the room exploded into movement and screaming and terror. It was impossible to determine where Hodst even produced the blade from. It wasn’t an extravagant weapon or a flash sword. It was just a simple, straight bladed knife with a razors edge for slashing and a vicious point for stabbing.

Before Madison or Frank had even noticed the weapon, he had already run it swiftly across Tim’s throat. Before he even felt the cut, his hands grasp his throat instinctively. It didn’t stop the crimson liquid which issued forth. He made only a few gargling noises as he sank first to his knees and then the floor. Hodst stepped over Tim’s twitching form as he approached Madison and Frank.

Frank was a victim of shock. The sight of watching another human’s throat cut like livestock had caused his body to seize up. He was helpless as Hodst pushed the weapon into his stomach with ease and disinterest on his face. Fear oozed into Frank’s eyes as Hodst slowly pulled the knife upwards, ensuring that the wound was absolutely fatal. The fatality of it wouldn’t prevent it from taking time however. It was a thought that began to sink in as Frank slipped off the blade. His body joined Tim’s on the floor. His companion had already mercifully expired. His hands were still clasped around his throat desperately and blood still oozed out occasionally but his pale countenance and look of vacant terror betrayed his death.

Frank only entertained the question of why Tim was given such a quick end for a moment or two before his eyes were forced to look down. The numb shock was pulled away and replaced with terror at what had begun to spill out of him. Shaking fingers tentatively touched the fluids and tissues which slipped out of the gaping opening in his body. The recorded sounds of Jupiter didn’t manage to drown out the hysterical sobbing that began to pour out of him with equal vigor.

It couldn’t drown out Madison’s screaming either. Seeing the brutal assault of two of her fellow students had finally broken her stun. She had no chance of escape. The speed at which the attacker seemed to move bordered on the inhuman. He seemed to possess a finesse and grace beyond anything that Madison could process. It added to the surreal filter on the moment. Despite the near certainty of her fate, she chose to waste the precious few moments she had left in screaming terror. Her body couldn’t even be forced into movement as Hodst snatched her hair, yanked her head back and drove the knife into her flesh.

She expected the pain to radiate out from her throat or even her chest. But instead her leg erupted in agony. He had plunged the six inch weapon into her right thigh. Unsatisfied with the damage and pain that had caused, however, he began to twist the blade as casually as one would stir a hot bowl of soup. Madison’s screams and pleas seemed to be unheard rather than simply disregarded. Only now satisfied, Hodst dropped her body to the floor and turned towards the controls. The moment his finger touched the blade until Madison’s frame hit the floor had amounted to less than six seconds.

As it began to adjust a dial here or flip a switch here something strange began to happen. Through the burning pain Madison was able to watch as Hodst’s visage began to peel away and dissipate as if burning into the atmosphere. It left behind no residue and no discernible odor, just a faint glow as each piece seemed to float away and burn up. What was left was entirely unlike Hodst. The figure before them was a full head taller than Hodst. In comparison to Hodst’s average physique, what was left behind was a monster. Though lithe, he was well built and tightly muscled. Most of his facial features were obscured by a deep hood which cast a shadow over his face, but Madison could make out a strong jaw, the faint presence black stubble across his neck, chin and cheeks, as well as thin, pale lips curled into a tight smirk. Everything else was cloaked in shadow.

His hood was attached to a jacket obviously made of leather that hung to his knees. It was obviously old. Grey and white stains marred the black surface along with burn marks, bullet holes and a generally tattered and aged quality. It looked to be over a hundred years old. His boots were similarly colored and constructed. They were also equally tattered and seemed haphazardly thrown on his feet. Leather gloves encased his hands and he still clutched the blade in one. Madison could discern little else about him from her position on the floor.

Frank was still barely conscious and had noticed the strange formation of this new figure out of Hodst. Unfortunately, he was more concerned with the fact that he was almost certain his liver had slipped out of a hole in his gut. It took the voice of this new stranger to perk his attention once more. He didn’t speak loudly. In fact his words were barely audible over the high pitched frequency still spilling the room. But there was gravity to his voice which commanded attention even from the shock filled, bleeding students. Madison could only have described his accent as European. His English was fluent and almost certain native, but his word formation included a number of oddities that could only have resulted by traveling and speaking other languages for long periods of time.

“You both are really very fortunate you know,” he began as he started to adjust a knob on one of the machines. The frequency of the play back began to lower in return. “You are the first to hear this sound in millennia. A sound so old it predates thoughts. A sound from a time of urges and desires and nothing more.”

He continues to adjust the controls and the sound’s corresponding frequency began to lower even further. Finally it began to take shape as more than a simple, massive burst of sound. The wave formations began to come together as something audible. At first it was simply strange undulating noises and strange hisses.

“And you will be the last for some time, I am afraid,” what was once Hodst continued, “But when they do, the whole world will hear. The whole world will hear and then there will be screaming and death…” he seemed to trail off as his attention returned to adjusting the sound.

He seemed to zero in on what he desired as the noise began to take an even more intelligible shape. What was once just noise now became at least describable as nonsense. It sounded almost like static filled and screeching gibberish. But with a few more adjustments it began to come together. While Hodst’s face was one of awe inspired glory, Madison was gripped by an even deeper terror than before.

The sounds were unintelligible on an intellectual level. It was clearly structured like language, but unlike anything Madison had ever heard. The violent, undulating noises seemed to penetrate beyond her ears. It echoed into her skull as a chaotic barrage. From there it seeped inside her, echoing down into her in a dark cacophony. She could not understand the words, but she could understand the intent. She could understand the desire of the words. She could understand the urge. At least in a limited capacity. The summoned forth thoughts of destruction unlike anything. Destruction of the mind and soul as well as the body. Of a complete devouring of hope. It spoke of total desolation.

Madison’s terrified eyes shifted to Frank. She searched for any sign of hope in her friend. Ten minutes ago the world had made sense. Ten minutes ago she was on the very of fame and glory in the field she loved. Now she was not only going to die, but her last moments had been filled with a sense that the at best the universe was devoid of compassion and at worst it was a maligned entity consumed only be a need to do harm. Just meeting eyes with Frank could ease the horror of these last moments.

Instead she found only a cold corpse looking back. She wasn’t sure when Frank had died, but she was certain from the look in his eyes that he had heard this sound before passing. It was the only way Madison could explain the expression of wide eyes terror. Horror was frozen on Tim’s face but the look in Frank’s eyes spoke volumes. She knew she made it without even being able to see herself.

She looked up to Hodst with that vacant, hollow expression. He looked down with a vicious smile. Obscured eyes were visible beneath the shadows of his hood which were not only cold and callous, but hinted at something unnatural. As he spoke, the tips of some of his teeth appeared sharp but she was far too consumed with the growing cancer of terror that had nestled in her stomach to notice his minor cosmetic features.

“Is he not glorious?” Hodst whispered as he crouched next to her frozen form.

He didn’t give Madison time to respond. He was uninterested in what the 19 year old college student had to say on the subject. Instead he ended the conversation by plunging the six inch weapon into her skull in a single swift motion. It ended her life instantly. It was entirely possible however that the effects of this experience would follow her beyond.

Hodst cleaned the blade on his victim’s clothing callously and rose to his full six foot height. The knife was returned to a sheath beneath his coat and exchanged it for an oblong, black box. The small box had a tiny screen and a numerical keypad and several other buttons. After several keystrokes he slipped the device into his hood and pressed it to his ear. Only a few seconds later he spoke.

“It is done. Is the doctor dead? Excellent. And the book?” his face seemed to darken at the response he received, “How?” He paused again for a reply, “I see. It is irrelevant. It is not necessary; however this does present a new challenge. I will be in touch.” With that Hodst pulled the phone from his ear and pressed the small red button to end the call.

* * *

She awoke in an unfamiliar apartment. For some reason it didn’t feel unfamiliar. It felt like home though she knew she had never been here before. It wasn’t spacious or luxurious, but it was cozy and it felt like hers. The girl slipped out of bed and let her eyes scan the dark apartment. Beside her bed was a night stand. First her eyes and then her fingers brushed over the small leather bound book that rested there. She’d had the diary for years. It seemed important at the moment and yet something else seemed more pressing.

The girl couldn’t have been more than fifteen years old. An oversized tee shirt clung to her skinny body to her thighs. The air in the apartment was cool, even a little chilly, but she didn’t feel compelled to do anything about it. Instead the tiny hairs on her bare legs just tingled as she made her way towards the window. She stopped there, looking at her own reflection in the glass. Her features were sharp and refined, even at this age. She would be a beautiful woman in a few years but for the moment she still had a childlike hue about her. All except for her eyes. They were almost hollow and even she didn’t know why.

It took the girl a moment to blink and regain her focus before sliding open the window. Frigid night air poured into the apartment as she did. A fine dusting of snow covered the windowsill and fire escape beyond. Without hesitation the girl stepped out barefoot. Somewhere she could hear a train but her attention was immediately focused upwards. The stars appeared foreign. She had always liked the stars. The night sky was something she so rarely saw in the city and any chance to appreciate them was a wonder. Tonight they hung as vibrant as ever. They seemed to burn wholes through the black cloth of the night sky. But there was nothing wondrous about them.

Tonight they felt ominous. Their arraignment wasn’t normal. They seemed out of place and chaotic. She didn’t know much about astronomy, but she could immediately tell they weren’t right. At the heart of the problem, she noticed, was a single red star that she had never seen before. It dwarfed even the other unusually bright stars and seemed to consume most of her attention. She seemed transfixed by its glow as the cold bit at her flesh.

It finally began to dawn upon her that the reason the stars were so bright was that the city was in darkness. She managed to break away from the red star long enough to turn her attention over the cityscape. It was black. Not the black of a late night. It was the still darkness of a total blackout. No apartment lights. No street lights. No stop lights. There wasn’t even a moon in the sky, just the burning white pin points of light which all seemed to be aligned around their single red cousin.

The girl watched her breath roll out into the still city. Beyond being dark it was silent. Not a single honking car or distant siren. There were no sounds of trucks or trains or any other vehicle on the road. There were no dogs barking or the sounds of bars letting out. Nothing broke the silence but the girl breathing. The city that never slept, seemed soundly in slumber beneath a light blanket of undisturbed snow.

She began to feel cold. Colder than the frozen air even would make her. She felt cold from the inside. The winter chilled her flesh, but something more sinister began to freeze deep inside her heart. The stillness didn't feel refreshing or even simply unusual. Instead it felt like the calm before a storm. One of her slender fingers brushed a bit of her reddish-brown hair behind her ear as she waited with shivering anticipation.

It came like rolling thunder. The ground began to shudder seemingly in rhythm with the girl. Her body and the planet seemed to quake with terror for the same moment to come. Horrified eyes pointed towards the sky once more as the sinister red glow in the sky began to brighten. It didn't approach or grow bigger, just its intensity increased. The brighter it became the larger it appeared to be and the more it bathed the landscape in red light. As the star turned the white snow to blood the girl sat. She pulled her knees to her chest and shivered in the snow.

The shuddering of the earth grew as it began to damage the surrounding buildings. Bricks and stones began to fall away, crashing to the street below. The pavement began to split open, fissuring with gouts of steam. It was only another moment before something erupted from the ground in the distance. It was difficult to see in the poor lighting but it looked massive and tall, swaying back and forth organically. It seemed black but perhaps it was a grayish green. It was difficult to tell with the red hue cast the star. It seemed to have millions of tiny nubs across its surface, each as large as the girl herself but tiny compared to the overall mass. They rippled and moved like tiny hairs or claws. It destroyed everything as it ripped forth from the earth, sending a shower of smoke and rubble into the air.

The girl looked on in terror as it happened again, all over the city. The massive, limber fingers began sprouting like a cancer everywhere she looked. Only after a half a dozen of them had ripped their way through the surface of the earth that the shuddering beneath her increased to a frenetic level. She could only make the first few utterances of a scream as one of the monolithic horrors tore from the ground beneath her, certainly destroying not only her, but the entire block surrounding.

It was then that she shot up in bed once more. This time she was in her bed, in her room in her father’s apartment. Down the hall she was certain her father was asleep. It was exact where she expected to be. The room was still dark, but not the artificial darkness that the city had been blanketed in. This was the normal darkness of four fifty one in the morning. Her bleary eyes focused on the glowing digital numbers. She had to be up for school in two hours; the last thing she needed was to be woken from a dead sleep by nightmares.

Her white, oversized tee clung to her skinny body, drenched by cold sweat. Her reddish brown hair was damp. She ran a few slender fingers through her thick mane in an attempt to gain control of it. The images which rocked her from slumber still clung to her. Her eyes moved about the dark room. They took in everything but looked at nothing in particular. That was until they settled on the small leather bound book which served as her diary.

For a moment she stared at the book. Sleep called to her. She wanted nothing more than to shut out the images which had so invaded her and shut her eyes until the morning came. The girl knew, however, that sleep wouldn't come until she was able to purge these memories from her mind. Shaking fingers grasp the book and pulled it to her lap.