The Two Who Were Alone

But What About Me?

It's 10am on a Tuesday morning when we hear someone outside our window. Connie and I groggily get up and listen to the idiot beatboxing. "Hey guys! Austin here, back with another video. Even though the days go by the same, I decided to take you guys with me on an afternoon stroll." Clearly this guy has been smoking something if he doesn't realize what time it is. "Recently, my views have been going down and this girl I've been talking to hasn't been hitting up my DM's that much anymore. I mean seriously, one look at the news and people start disappearing? What happened to the sunset and sunrise pics on VSCO? I swear, those bitches go feral for pics like that!" I roll my eyes. I put on my sunglasses and open the window as Connie lays in the other direction.

"Hey dickwad! Do you know what time it is?"

"Yo, is that God? Kinda thought you were all for the silent God complex, but whatever, no need to curse for you to preach." I groan.

"No dumbass, over here."

"Oh I'm sorry, where is 'here?'" Connie gets up from his position and closes his eyes.

"Where our voices are idiot!"

"Right, follow the strange voices in a fucking apocalypse! You're a smart guy!"

"Well, the voices can see you with your stupid camera!"

"Okay, now this is getting weird. Where should I go?" I give him directions to the house as he walks to the front door, grumbling. "How can I trust you guys anyway?"

"We have cheese and noodles." Connie chimes in. We hear a thump outside as we both look at Austin trip on a mailbox.

"You had me sold with noodles."

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I place the tea mugs and noodle cups next to Connie and Austin and take a seat. As they take a sip, I take a deep breath.

"Now that we are situated, you mind telling us why you were out there by yourself with no protective gear?" Austin rolls his eyes.

"I'm telling you man, this whole shit isn't as bad as they put it to be. I mean, how do you know the sky is really dangerous?" Connie and I look at each other. I let him take this one.

"You may not have experienced it yourself first hand, but both of our parents were killed from this mystery, along with my brother. Something we know for sure is that they aren't something to take lightly." Austin nods.

"Sorry about that, that must've been scary." We both nod and take a sip of our tea. "But do you know how this must have happened? Do you know if they're actual human beings?" My eyes land to Austin. I failed to mention to Connie about Veronica, didn't I? God, I'm terrible. I sigh and look at Connie.

"Indi, is there something wrong?" I gather my words before speaking.

"Remember that Hellborn we encountered in the supermarket? Well, Adam seemed to recognize it. He said the name Veronica and--"

"Veronica? Wait... she was alive?" My eyes follow Connie as he gets up and opens the drawer. Inside is a newspaper from three years ago. "She supposedly died from a car accident, but a body wasn't found. They put out a research party, but they never found her so they just assumed that she died. Adam was devastated. They dated for almost a year and didn't show any signs of distance towards him. She might have just ran away from her home in her car since her parents weren't the best. But I never would have thought..."

"Yo, that's so fucked. The dead ex back for revenge? Yikes." We glare at Austin. "Right, my bad."

"Anyway... is that why Adam really died? He really thought he could save her?"

"I'm guessing if he went out of his way to punch me." Connie's eyes go wide.

"He what?" I shake my hands in front of him.

"I wasn't because of anything bad! He just... really wanted to save her. But to be honest with you guys, I don't think they're worth saving." We all look down. These past few weeks have been rough, but I don't want to give up just yet. I take a look at Austin's camera and an idea pops in my head.

"Hey Austin, how good is that camera?" He grabs it and beams.

"The best one out there sweets! I used my birthday money for this baby." He gleams as he shows the camera off. I roll my eyes from the nicknames.

"I just had an idea. What if we were to set up the camera somewhere where there might be a lot of people? Maybe we can capture one transform and see which takes a few seconds or days! Maybe we can get some answers that way!" Connie and Austin look at each other, then back at me. They look skeptical.

"It sounds like a good idea, but what if one is to take a few days. Are we supposed to follow it?" I nod.

"That's the thing. I've been thinking about it more after Adam died. What if overwhelming stress leads to the transformations? We've seen it with Richard. He was having the biggest episode and then transformed. Maybe he looked at the sky when he encountered the little girl but nothing happened until overwhelming amounts of stress took over his body!" Connie and Austin nod their heads in agreement. Connie puts his thumb on his lower lip, thinking.

"You might be onto something. Your mom was probably very worried about your safety, so she transformed earlier, my mom was shot after she transformed so maybe for her it was a random occurrence, and Veronica must have transformed as soon as she saw the sky due to the stress she was carrying all this time." Austin looks at Connie.

"So this mystery virus wants us to stress out to the point where we are about to break so we can transform into one of those things? Yooooo." Austin raises his hands for a high five, but Connie rejects. His eyes land on mine and he speaks.

"I really think we might have something here, Indigo. Nice work." We both smile as Austin pouts. We might finally be leading to the right path after all.

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s/o to my bf and friend for helping me with this chapter!