Apocalypse

Jay sprinted down the hill to enter the woods which he had been prohibited by his mother for a good reason . The woods is not a place for a 12 year old to wander  alone especially because of the fact that its already beginning to get dark . Why does he do this , well lets just say that Jay enjoys the solitude that the woods brings , for here , he can escape from the unending stereotyping and fast paced life of the modern society . As a kid , he may seem to be too mature to think about something like that , but since he is  pretty much on his own all the days of his life , you cannot blame the kid for being more advance than his peers who still enjoys bullying and playing silly pranks on each other . For Jay , its too tiring to deal with people so he usually go to the woods to seek the solace that it brings and calm himself .

He is alone for as long as he remembers for he is always left alone at their house due to his mothers work schedule , they rarely interact with each other let alone eat , at least dinner together . The only one that Jay can truly count is Fisher , his golden retriever who always follow him wherever he goes.

A couple of hundred meters down the hill to the woods that is also an open park but due to the lockdowns , home quarantines and social distancing imposed by the government people hardly come . Only Jay who had made this woods his backyard and knows where to sneak in it goes , together with Fisher of course .

The wind is a bit chilly in the forest for its getting dark , but that does not bother him for he has trained  in this woods for 4 years with his father who was a soldier . So Jay knows the ins and out of nighttime forest walking . Little did Jay know that this night will be a little bit different .

As he slowdown his pace to walking speed so that he will be as quite as he can be ,he noticed a path that is seemed to new . He knows every corner of this forest so he can be sure that the path he is looking at now is new. A path that is made up of dirt with scattered autumn colored leaves. He follows it but he also noticed that Fisher is nowhere to be found . He looked at his back to double check then look at the path again and shrug it off for he knows that he and Fisher will never be lost in their own backyard.

So he followed the path at a walking pace , at the edge of it , he saw a pond that is seemingly glowing of bluish white light . He can clearly see the glow for its is completely dark now and he knows that his mother will be worried but not to the point that she will search for him for he knows that she know that he knows how to get back home . The only problem is his excuse this time .

“if she ask my reasons this time …then I’ll just say that I am just obeying the social distancing that the government imposes ahahahah”- he declared out loud for no one but him is there .

He then shift his stare at the mysteriously glowing pond . The pond is quite big and so clear that you can also see the bottom through your reflection . A lots of rocks , glowing rocks and no fish or underwater plant not even moss.

Jay walk around the pond to explore a little bit further . He have been staring at it for quite some time now but still cant get enough of its glowing and mysterious vanity . It is as if magic ,  that a pond that shouldn’t be here  , now exist and it is glowing of pure white light . He wondered why he hasn’t seen it before or the other people who also go here like his dad , and the other campers .

Because he is not looking to where he was going and he is just out of focus to his destination for his eyes are fixated on the pond , he stumbled on Fisher who has just appeared as if out of nowhere in front of him which made Jay fell to the ground.

“Awww!!!...That hurt” -he exclaimed as he tries to get up while shifting his focus to where Fisher is looking . He knows this look of a dog . Its one of their instincts display when they see a stranger . Ears pointed in front , raised tail , slight and silent growling . As he finally shifted his eyes to where Fisher is looking , he saw a hooded figure in front of a big tree , who is somewhat  writing or inscribing something to it .

Jay observed for a moment without making a sound while brushing Fishers back to calm him down

“Down boy”-he would say silently

This is a method that his father has taught him or drilled in him for the past 4 years when they are out camping in the woods . But even with this , even when his father is doing it , Fisher will always charge at a slight stimulus response .

The hooded figure is seems to be an old man , an  tall old  man its seems  , for its thin stature . It is also using some kind of feather as a pen  in inscribing the tree which seems to be burning . As if every stroke of the feather pen, the tree is being burned as a form of inscription .

A moment later the man stopped and so suddenly strike the feather to the tree which crackled in flames , which was the stimulus that fisher needed to charge . The dog charged at the old man , Jay hesitantly looked away to build up his will to fight or flight but when he looked at where Fisher has gone , he only saw  his dog frozen in mid air and the old man , looking straight at him with a glowing bluish white eyes .

Jay got frightened and tried to run but he couldn't . He can not  even move a muscle at this point . His father always tells him that the woods is a dangerous place but once  you have known it , there is nothing to be afraid of . But this time is different , Jay knows every corner of this woods except for this one and a glowing pond and an old man with glowing eyes is a nightmare fuel for todays generation so , even though Jay is more mature and braver than his peers , he is very much a kid . A kid who is scared …really scared right now .

With all his trembling , the sweating , the lost of voice to scream for help , the chilly atmosphere and the predicament that he and Fisher is in , even he is trained to be man at a young age , Jay is clearly frightened . To add more to his fright , he is slowly being pulled with an unseen force towards the hooded man. As he begun to slowly suspend in mid air , he begun to scream and flail his arms and legs like crazy to try to get the ground , but the ground that he is desperately looking for hasn’t move its positions , it is him who has left the ground .

When he finally suspended and lifted up of the bush he was hiding on , the magnetic force that seems to pull him towards the hooded figure suddenly become faster and for a second he was at point A , the bush to point B , in front of the hooded figure right beside Fisher who is also suspended in mid air.

For a moment , he thought that he is going to get killed or something for these things can only be seen in the movies or at least in fictions . Which would mean that it is not real , for sure ,however since he had trained his senses to feel what is real , he is sure that this is happening for real .

The force of gravity that usually is pulling him down , has somewhat became reverse , the cold sweat he has at the bush when his dog was made a float has started to become dry due to the breeze of him being accelerated forward , but it is still there , he is still trembling yet he have ceased to flail his arms and legs . Those movements were reduced to an intense shivering that he is feeling . The chill from his spine which cools down his sweating body gives off the feeling of a roller coaster ride but the track is just going in an almost endless descent .

After that moment , Jay and Fisher slowly brought down . It took a fraction of a minute for Jay to sigh in relief and recollect himself . He is still afraid and very attentive to his situation . While maintaining his ready for fight or flight position , a crouching one , he is sensing the stare of the hooded figure whose face is still unknown.

His voice seems to be back now for he can hear his breathe out , he moved his sight to where Fisher is to confirm whether or not his dog is still alright . Fisher seems to have passed out but the movement of his belly indicates that he is still breathing , which made Jay let a mental sigh . He revert his sight to the feet of the hooded figure which is the only thing that he can see in that crouching position .

“Should I grab Fisher and run hoping he’ll wake up and sprint as well ?” - he asked himself

“No no no what if he really had passed out and   not able to wake up…it will be a burden for me and I will never out run such a supernatural force”-

“or may be I should….. AHHHHHHHHHHHHH”J - ay screamed like a kid that he should be before answering the question.

The scream is due to the hooded figure touching his head with a very bony and cold hands. Then it blocked Jay’s mouth silencing his scream with his other hand which is as bony and cold as the other

“shhhh…you don’t want the non-human to hear you here”-the old man said which seemed to not old at all , actually it’s a voice of a male on his 30s .

The man slowly take his hands off of Jay’s mouth and sat in front of Jay

“What are you doing here human child?”-the man asked

Jay was still catching his breathe for all the fright he have a few moments ago just seems to go away with that awful and uncool scream for him .

“what are you doing here in this time , human child”- the man asked again

Jay could not still answer

“you know you shouldn’t be here , this is a non – human territory , especially this place , this pond”-the man continued

“What …do …you …mean …by …non …human …territory…?”he finally answered with a question in a hesitant way , which was like he is saying a word for a sentence.

The man sighed and lifted his hood to reveal a middle aged man with silver white hair that is straight and long with wavy white tips which is like a waterfall. The man’s face seems to be some what kind as well , with soulful slightly socketed eyes , pronounced check bones pursed lips . Jay was clear that this guy is in his middle aged but he seems to be ridden with some kind of sickness which made him look like this sick .

“so humans had already forgot the division of territories huh…no wonder the 7 is trying to bring back order ”-the man answered

Jay angle his head side ways as is trying to reach his left shoulders with is left ear but not really trying

“what are you…trying to say?”-he asked in a much calmer tone the returned his head to its proper up right position

The man sighed as if he just confirmed a thought that he is brewing inside his head while listening to Jays inquiry

“Listen well human child and remember this…”the man started which made Jay straigten his back in his seating position to thoroughly listen to what this man has to say .

“when the earth is still young , when it is an open place for humans like us and the non human to commune with each other , when the time of great harmony among our different races is strong , when there is no discrimination and only the natural order holds the bond , when the time magic is strong , the world is at peace”-the hooded man started

Jay is confused for what the man is trying to say seems to be out of fantasy .

“non humans…magic…is this guy high on drugs or something?”-jay thought

The man stiffened up for he sensed doubt and skepticism from jay

“even thought you witnessed my telekinesis and this glowing lake you are still not convinced about what I have just said huh , human child”- the man asked

Jay shook his head upon that realization .There were no wires or ropes that is used when he was pulled towards the man and he clearly saw fisher being suspended in the air as well as that mysteriously glowing lake and the burnt glow of the tree where the man inscribing something before.

The man sighed and continued his story

“that time is no more for these past few hundred of years because of our kind who is so hungry for anything that is momentary … all of us were given an equal opportunity ,an equal number of resources and equally amazing gifts but we hoard more than what is give to us for we are so jealous of the mentality of the other non human races.”

Jay is now listening at the full extent of his ability , shedding away any doubt and skepticism that he has

“we are very gifted mentally for our capability to innovate but that made us so hungry for everything that we set our sights on and we became more viscous in using our resources that is being sucked dry at a very fast paced so we set our sights to the resources of the non human inhabitants of this world”-the man said then he changed his tone to a despaired one , slightly calmer and quitter voice

“for despite the lack of ability to innovate of the non human inhabitants of this world , they are very much contented and are not always in a hurry … unlike us humans ”- he added

“so the war begun”-he said which sounded fiercely and loud that it surprised jay and gave him goose bumps

“many died in that thousand year war which is not recorded in the human history for a pact is made that day that in order to honor the dead , bot humans and not humans , they will split the world in half , humans will roam the day in the cities , while the non human will roam the night in the forest and other natural establishment. It will be forbidden for any of the races to commune any more and a council of powerful magic user with oversees the balance and order”-

“so then all the sightings of any magical creature in the internet is it fake or real”-jay ask

“hmmn , some maybe are real , but since we humans are really foolish and skeptical even with our own kind , we always brush those off as hoax , but some of those things are real”-the hooded man said

He twitched and looked around in a seemingly unending darkness of the forest while jay is getting excited about the fact that just confirmed the existence of magical creature and magic itself .

“I think you should go human child”-the man said

“ehhh why?”-jay asked

“as I said before , you should not be in the non human territory…”

“huh…what… you mean this is a non human territory? then why are you here? You’re a human right?”-jay asked consecutively which made the man sighed look at jay with a glowing white eye and said

“when you remember this…go here and everything will come to light” the man said and reached his palm to Jays face closing his eyes which slightly frightened jay making him fall on his back but at the moment that he felt himself falling , he immediately pulled himself back up while reaching his hands in the air as if trying to parry the man’s reaching hands . which he thought he had in the bag but he was snapped back to reality by the blinging be ray of sunlight peering through the window of his bed

“I am back?” -Jay asked himself

“is it just a dream”-he asked again and quickly turned his head towards his door when he herded fishers bark and his mother calling for him

He thought that he might get yelled at but that doesn’t matter now for him . Yesterday feels real , like really real and he know he will be able to confirm it but what doesn’t make sense is that he cant remember how he got home so instead of trying to think hard about it , he jumped out of his bed to the door and run down stares where he was hearing the barking of fisher and his mother . The stare seems to be too bright and smelly smoky , its too early f or barbeque , jay thought as he walk on a fast paced down stairs .

When he arrived , there he saw his mother under a fallen cabinet while Fisher is barking at something outside their collapsed wall

“what is this?”-Jay asked himself in shock , shivering just like when he first encountered the hooded man , frighten in the sight of his mother trapped in under the cabinet and fierce red lizards flying at a distance spewing fire.

He slowly come to the realization that he needs to help his mother and walk towards her slowly . His mother is struggling to get out but she seems to be so weak to make any progress. A moment  later jay realized that fisher stopped barking , so he tried to look at where his dog at a moment ago , he found nothing but a pool or red liquid and fishers paw.

Jay’s eyes opened wide and saw the rest of his dog inside the mouth of the giant red lizards mouth which just outside this collapsed wall . He and his mother were shocked , they could not move and when the giant lizard eyed jay , his mother quickly acted and throw some debris at the lizards desperately trying to get its attention out of her son , she does this while yelling at Jay to run

Jay on the other hand has his knees trembling and had wetted his shorts which he still wears yesterday.

A second later the sharp scream of his mother telling him to run snapped him back to reality and tried to scream as well but he manage to stuff his hands inside his mouth to avoid the effort of his mother drawing the attention of the giant lizard to her be in vain.

He don’t want to run , that’s for a fact he looked at his mother still throwing debris , tear flowed jays eyes and thoughts like “we should have spend more time together” run through his mind . he shut his eyes to avoid looking at his mother who he had realized is about to die , so in order to avoid experiencing the same fate , he closed his eyes turned hos back and run at the back door .

He has no choice , and it’s the choice of his mom to do that so he rushed to the back door which is still intact and when he opened it , he remembered the words of the hooded man before he woke up

“when you remember this…go here and everything will come to light”

Which is true , he now saw that the apocalypses is upon them , fire everywhere , dragons and other non human things roam free as well as the trees which seems to be growing bigger and bigger while entangling any thing on their path

He knows nothing but one thing , the man said that if he remembers he must go to the lake so that is what he did , he run with all that he got to where this has started