Chapter 1 (Part 1)

—Shit…
That was the only word that crossed his mind in that moment. Joel, a young man of only twenty four years, had just been fired from the bakery where he worked. The reason? Not even himself knew; they just throw him out to the street as if he was carrying all the blame of some tragedy.

He knew there was nothing to do. Only thing left was walking back home and give the news to his grandmother: once again he was fired. It wasn’t easy to say it, and even less now… this would be the third time in the year.

—I guess I have to search for job again… —he murmured while moving along a crowded street. A sigh escaped from his lips, lifting just a little the strands of his black hair. —I’ll go to the plaza… that idiot Juan still owes me a favor —he thought, raising his eyes and showing the heavy dark circles under them.

He continued his way with the shoulders down and a hard expression, like someone who doesn’t expect much of life anymore. That was just another day in Joel’s existence, a young man who barely thought about himself: the only thing he really cared was the well being of his grandparents and his two cousins, who he considered like little brothers.

The road was getting more lonely, and with it, his mind. He remembered what he had lost: that work accident that took away his father and his uncle… and how, soon after, his aunt decided to end her life because she couldn’t handle the responsibility of raising her two children. He tried not to think about his mother; he never met her, but he was convinced she was a good woman. For anyone, that past would have been devastating; for Joel, the tears had already stayed behind. Now his family depend on him, and he couldn’t afford to fall apart. One way or another, he had to keep moving forward.

His thoughts dragged him until, without wanting, he bumped into someone. Joel got startled, but he apologized quickly and keep walking. In the distance he could already see the entrance of the plaza. When he finally crossed it, he let out a long sigh of relief. For some strange reason, that place bring him good memories; it was like whispering to him that, despite everything, he still could go on.

—Well… life is not for crying, it is for working and forge a good future —he said in a low voice, with a renewed spirit that almost made him forget his tiredness.

But life rarely goes how one plan it. And for Joel, everything was about to change.

In just one instant, time stop around him. Everything, absolutely everything, stay still. Not the cars, not the birds, not the people moved. At first, Joel didn’t notice, but the silence, an unnatural and scary silence, force him to.

—W-what… what is happening? —he murmured with a broken voice, looking around without understand anything—. H-hello? —he asked foolishly, as if waiting for an impossible answer.

Anyone with a bit of knowledge in science fiction or anime would have thought several theories, but Joel not. He passed, without knowing, through the classic stages of panic.

The first: alert state.
He was looking in all directions, searching something that move. The people stay frozen, like living statues. He dare to touch the face of a man who was stopped next to him, waiting for any reaction.

— I guess that… I’m safe —he babbled, even if he didn’t understand nothing. He took a few steps back, slowly moving away from that unnatural scene.

The second stage: interpretation.
His mind, desperate, was looking for a logical explanation, anything to not break apart.

—Sure I had some accident —said Joel, with a shine of hope in his eyes, like if he had found the answer—. Yes… maybe a truck run over me and now I’m in the hospital. —He stay silent a few seconds, processing the idea—. Damn… if that is true, we cannot pay the bill.

The worry wrapped him even in the middle of the impossible, holding tight to the idea that everything had to be a nightmare or, even worse, a tragedy too real.

And so came the third stage… panic.
Until that point, Joel had tried to convince himself in a thousand ways, but there was no excuses anymore: it was obvious that he was not dreaming. Everything that happen was real. That certainty disarmed him completely. His breathing accelerated, his legs tremble, and he ended shouting, crying and asking forgiveness to nobody in particular, like if in that way he could wake up or make everything return to normal.

Hours later, exhausted and with red eyes, he reached the last stage: acceptance.

—Well… maybe I’m trapped in some science fiction event… or I’m the only one who is passing through this and the world keep going without me… —he murmured, sitting in some stone stairs in the middle of a park. His hands cover part of his face while he was looking at the ground, confused and with the heart shrunk.

Then it happen. A shiver run through his back, like an instinctive warning that something horrible was about to happen. And it did.

A deafening roar shake the skies. Joel raise his eyes slowly, and what he saw froze him in the place: up there, in the highest, was floating a female figure of impossible proportions, at least the size of a small building. Her eyes, dark like abyss, were watching everything with indifference.

—What the hell is that…? —he babbled, standing up immediately, without take away his sight from the terrifying scene—. It’s… a woman?

Before he could react more, huge rings of light emerge from the hands of the colossal figure. They surround her body and expand so much that it looks like they cover all the city. As soon as that happen, Joel didn’t doubt. He start running, looking where to hide, while a primitive instinct was screaming that this thing mean absolute danger, a horror that he cannot face.