BROCK

The brick that had just fallen out of my ceiling stares at me in the face, almost like it's smirking. Your world is going nuts. Just wanted to tell you that.

I shove my phone into my pocket and dart out of my room. "Dad! Look outside!" I yell on my way out the door. My dad comes out of his room looking confused.

"Brock, what's wrong?"

"Come on!" I urge, going out the front door. Outside, I see other people who did the exact same thing as I did. Everyone stares up at the sky, confusion and shock plainly written on their faces. Everyone had seen the headlines, and maybe even now were making the connection that this must have something to do with it.

My dad is standing next to me, looking completely and utterly blank. He looks at me. "Have you spoken with Lea recently?"

I nod, "Yeah. She and her friend had an argument. He told her that he was actually connected to the dimensions. And that he had caused all this." I wait for a response, then, as he draws breath to speak, he vanishes. My heart stills as I stare at the space where he used to be. Where all the neighbors used to be.

Everyone is gone. And the buildings around me look like they're from the middle ages. Everything clicks into place at once. They didn't all disappear. I disappeared.

My mind is working overtime in an app called panic.

I try to think reasonably. Lea is here. Hopefully close by.

"Lea!" I call out, my voice echoing among the decaying houses. There's no reply, and I call again, this time louder. Please let her be close. Please let her be close.

I hear footsteps, and turn, seeing Lea sprinting towards me. Her platinum blonde hair is pulled back into a messy braid, and she has bandages almost everywhere on her.

"Brock, how are you here?" She demands, wide-eyed.

I shake my head. "I don't even know. Suddenly everyone around me just... disappeared."

Her voice sounds even more panicky than mine. "I know what Chance is doing. He is trying to meld the two dimensions. Which means that everything around us," She waves a hand for emphasis. "Is going to come into the real world. Or the dimension. Never mind," She adds quickly at my confused look. "We need to find a way to stop him, anyway."

The gravity of the situation sinks in. How many people would die from being unable to cope with these monsters?

As if on cue, I hear a roar behind me, and whirl around it. Lea yanks a pistol out from her belt and fires three precise shots into the monster that is lunging at me. I stare at its body on the road, green blood leaking out from under it.

"What..." I trail away, struck by the size of the monster. It looks something like a tiger, but about twice the size, and looks like it came from the apocalypse.

"You get used to it." Lea sighs, and holds the gun limply in her hand.

"And you said a kid younger than you made this all?" All I can feel is sheer amazement. Who would make something like this? And why?

"Yeah. The problem is he has way more power than either of us combined. And I have no idea how to stop this."

All the wheels in my brain are churning. "If we injured him, it would probably stop."

"Maybe," Lea agrees, "But we'd never get that close. He can control these beasts, and they all want to kill us anyway."

"And there's no way to get as powerful as him." I conclude, a sense of hopelessness sinking in. What shocks me, though, is Lea perks up.

"Chance said he got his power through an artifact from a dimension. When he touched it, he created some sort of connection between them and him." She speaks slowly, and I start to catch onto what she's saying. She keeps talking, "And I might know where to find one. Come on."

Lea starts running before I realize she's doing so, and I have to speed up to catch up to her. I don't even ask where she's going, feeling the rift in the sky growing wider and wider above me. The temperature is dropping rapidly, and I can't help think that this isn't normal. Is the kid doing this too?

Lea darts through a house that looks even older than the rest. She stops in the kitchen, and pulls open a drawer. A faint glow emanates from it.

I walk closer, and look inside. An object lies inside, the source of the glow. It looks like a twisted tree root, except it looks blacker than anything I've ever seen before. Like no light at all touches it. A shiver runs through me, and the sky grows darker, reminding us of what little time we have left.