I laid on the carpeted floor at the foot of Trevor's bed. It had gotten dark outside, earlier than normal. I missed the sun- uh, the giant machine that replaced the sun some hundred years ago, already. I wanted the sun to rise the next day and everything to be okay. But I knew that 'okay' wasn't an option anymore. Neither was daytime. Eternal darkness... nope, don't like that. I could feel tears roll down my cheeks. In less than 24 hours, our world had somehow collapsed. The entire situation was extremely difficult to get my mind around. I was in shock, in disbelief. My hands were clenched into fists. I turned over onto my side. Behind me, I heard the soft snoring of Raven.

"Liam? Are you okay?" Trevor whispered from his bed. I bit my tongue. No, of course I'm not okay! "Liam?" He asked again.

I took a shaky breath, "I still can't tell if this is real or a big nightmare or a bad joke."

"Yeah, same." Trevor responded quietly. "I miss the sun, even if it was some sort of machine... it just... it's like-"

"Like a giant conspiracy theory has turned out to be true?" I finished, and managed a bit of a smile despite my quivering hands and wavering voice.

Trevor let out a half-hearted chuckle, "Yeah." A moment of silence passed before he said, "We should probably try and get some rest... We have no idea what tomorrow will bring now. I'm sure school is cancelled and it'll be chaos. Crime will rise... there won't be any order..."

"I know. I know." I sighed. "Trevor?"

"Yeah?"

"I... I saw someone get hurt today." The images of blood smearing across cement returned to me, and i shuddered. It had been at the back of my mind all day.

"I did, too." Trevor sighed.

"What happened?"

"My father was on duty, and we were at a protest... he came and grabbed me... I saw a few people get shot by the government officials... we came home and watched the news to see what had started the shooting." He confessed.

"Yeah... Sorta same thing here. Some people got shot at the protests and I- I didn't- I didn't see him but... but I saw the blood on the ground and," My voice cracked. That person was probably dead now. I felt tears roll down my checks.

"I know how it is. But we just have to be grateful that that wasn't us. That God gave us a chance at this,"

"You say that like it's the apocalypse," I let out a hoarse chuckle.

"Because it is," Trevor said sternly.

That made me more scared than anything. And I know I say that a lot, but that's because everything scares me. Especially because, while Trevor is realistic about things, he is usually a glass-half-full type of guy. Hearing him be so solemn, so quiet, so accepting that this was our fate, was terrifying. My mind began to wander as I closed my eyes and silence settled. Surely the government... or someone... would help settle things down, would help control the people and keep us safe. But what if they didn't? What if this was it? We were on our own now? And we had already been seeing the affects of the fake sun, such as global cooling. Now that we didn't even have the fake sun, things would surely begin to cool down even further.

Would the world ice over? Would we have to learn to live in snowy conditions year round? Would we be able to get water, or would it all freeze immediately? Plants would stop growing, surely, and animals would evolve to have more fur and things. Needless to say, my overthinking didn't let me get that much sleep that night.

When I awoke, I began to panic. It was still dark out. Not like, moon-light-filtering-through-the-windows type of dark, but pitch-black-I-can't-see-a-thing type of dark. How long had I slept? Had I slept through the day? Was it still midnight? It took me a minute for my memories to come flooding back. I sat up and scanned the room the best I could without any light. That was when I realized that we wouldn't even have moon light, which was reflective off of the sun, anymore. Nighttime would be pitch black now. Would we be able to see the stars? What would happen to our solar system? Was the sun gone... forever? Or had it just burnt out? The scientist had said that it had burnt out like a candle, but frankly, that was hard for me to understand. Like a candle? Was the sun a liquid now? Unlikely. Isn't space really cold? How was the sun burning in the first place? Had the sun ever been real?

I remember hearing somewhere that the sun helped keep our solar system together, like gravity. Would our solar system collapse? Would the earth blow up? That didn't seem likely, either. I shook my head out of my thoughts. None of those mattered at the moment. What should my next move be? Was it the right time to wake up? Who else was awake? I felt the spot beside me. Raven wasn't there; that meant that she was most likely already up. I stood, and peered at the bed. Although hard to see, my spidey-senses told me that Trevor was awake now, too. I made my way out of the bedroom with a sickening feeling in my stomach. The hallway lights were off. So were the living room lights. Wouldn't they have turned them on? Maybe the power had gone out. Maybe they had left to a safer place and left me here.

Did they have solar panels? Not that I knew of. Then why would the power be out? Maybe someone destroyed the power lines? Who powers them originally, though? Maybe the power plants or factories or whoever creates that energy stopped. Maybe the world had collapsed. Well, not the world, but society. ...I had to snap out of it. All of this thinking wasn't doing me any good. I carefully walked through the hallway and into the living room, my hand on the wall like a blind person would do.

"Hello?" I whispered. My voice wavered. Silence. Wait, no. I think I heard some voices from the kitchen. I carefully and slowly walked through the living room and turned into the kitchen. I didn't realize it, but I was trembling. Sweating, even. My throat was dry. Terrified. Had somebody broken in? Maybe I was wrong and everyone was still asleep? I let out a sigh of relief when I saw some light in the kitchen. Candles were lit, and everyone except for my father was there. I moved over to Mike's side.

"I see you decided to wake up... despite what outside may look like, it's already 10:00 AM." He checked the watch on his arm. He was still wearing his uniform, and I couldn't help but notice the gun holstered at his side.

"Yeah... yeah." I gulped, not knowing what to say and incredibly nervous for no real reason.

"So, what are we going to do?" Trevor asked, exasperated. 

"There isn't anything we can do." Mike said blatantly. I noticed how they both liked to speak with their hands, like moving their hands as they speak. I don't think I ever did that. My second thought was that there totally was something we could do. We could find that scientist guy and convince him to turn the sun back on. That would help ease the panic, and help keep the inevitable freezing of the world at bay. 

Trevor raised his voice (and his hands slightly, too), "Dad, don't expect us to just stay in this house in the dark forever! What comes next? Is school cancelled? Is the government going to do anything? Will other countries attack? Is the whole world in chaos or just us? I have so many questions and don't know how to react!" Oh, my, god. What he said literally captured my thoughts exactly. I had so many questions and possible conclusions and even solutions floating through my mind at all times, but I hadn't known how to put that into words. Susie (the teacher/mom) nodded her head frantically, so I knew that she had been asking herself pointless questions, too.

"Look, Trevor, we are going to figure this out. One thing is for certain; this event will unleash absolute chaos. I'm not going to sugar coat it for you. People will riot. People will rob. People will kill. My only priority is keeping you guys safe." Mike said sternly. When he said 'you guys', he looked at all of us, even me. Lowkey, made me feel good knowing that he cared about me enough to protect me like that. Also made me feel guilty. Me and my dad should be able to handle ourselves and shouldn't have come to Trevor's house. Me and my dad shouldn't be burdens to their family. I didn't want to stress them out any more than they already were. 

Trevor sighed, "Okay. I know." And walked past me with a lit candle in his hand. I stood around for a moment, wondering what to do, before turning around and following him through the darkness and back to his bedroom. His little step-sister was behind me, I could tell. 

"Move it, loser," She pushed my back a bit. It comforted me to know that she was back to her rude self. I walked into Trevor's room, and he sat on the end of the bed, a flashlight in his hands. The bright light stung my eyes slightly after being used to the darkness and low candle light. Speaking of which, I noticed he had put the candle on his side-table. It wasn't lit anymore. 

Trevor turned to look at me, Raven behind me, tugging at the back of my t-shirt, "So... seems like we are gonna hang out here for a while, just as long as Mike figures out what's going on exactly... I have Uno." He held up a packet of cards in his other hand, smiling. In that moment, I felt true peace. Excitement, even. It felt like a storm had turned the lights out, and we got to skip school and play card games and cook on the fireplace. Those were the best nights. 

"Sure," I smiled back, and plopped down beside him on the full-size mattress. 

His sister sighed dramatically, "I guess I'll play your childish games..." And then she giggled. Us three sat cross-legged on the bed in a circle as Trevor passed out the cards. 

I picked up my hand of cards and began sorting through them, "Do you guys think we will stay here for a long time? If the power is out, then won't the fridge be out, too? Are grocery stores closed?" 

Trevor ran a hand through his blonde hair as he sorted through his own cards, "We all have a lot of questions and no answers. Let's focus on something else." 

Focus on something else? How in the world was I supposed to do that? "You guys are both downers and losers. Just wait till I win this," Raven cackled, and placed a card. 

"Bettttt," Trevor grinned, placing another card. I smiled, too. Things finally felt okay. I placed a reverse card, knowing that that would give Trevor the ability to target his sister. 

"You guys are both gay!" Raven gaped in disbelief as Trevor placed a plus four targeted at her. 

"Gay? Where did that even come from?" Trevor laughed. Raven placed a card. I drew. 

"You guys suck," Raven said.

I laughed, "That was uncalled for, y'know."

"Your face is uncalled for," She spat back.

Trevor chuckled and placed a card, "Fair enough." 

We all three jumped as the bedroom door swung open. Mike stood in the doorway, his eyes wide and frantic. I could feel myself sink, a pit of worry forming in my gut. 

"We have to leave. Now." He said sternly. 

"Daddy? What's wrong?" Raven asked worriedly. 

"Protesters. Rioters. They've formed on the streets with guns and knives. We can't be in the middle of this. You guys pack clothes and I'll pack food. We need to leave now." He turned and left. 

I stared at Trevor with wide eyes. He sighed deeply, "You heard him. We need to get some stuff together."