Before The Darkest Hour

One

Maggie

It's been four days since I've been outside of the dorm house, and I'm going fucking insane. No one is allowed to step a foot out of their door, not even for a breath of fresh air, and being stuck inside with five other roommates is maddening.

"Do you think they'll have anything new to say today?" Evelyn asks, twirling her purple hair around her finger.

Evelyn is one of the only people in the house I don't mind, so we tend to stick together. In a house like this, having a team of two gets you places. Want to watch the Bachelorette in the living room? Two people in agreement pretty much overrides any of the other opinions that pipe up. And they do, often.

"Probably not. It's been the same thing all day. 'No new developments about the origin of the massive black hole that popped up in Detroit'. Blah, blah, blah. I just want to go get my own groceries. These delivery people keep replacing my ranch dressing for the cheap shit. It's not cool." I step around the couch and plop down beside her as she flips the news on despite my complaints.

A newscast woman with teased blonde hair and ruby red lipstick appears on the screen as a headline that reads 'mysterious portal that opened in Beacon Park has yet to be explained, numerous scientists stumped' scrolls across the bottom of the screen.

"Four days have passed since the portal, which is now being called a Bullet Cluster of Dark Matter, appeared and we still have no real explanation for its appearance. The government is extending its stay at home order for ten more days, and the President has asked that no one leave their homes until this phenomenon has been sorted. Please, stand by for more information as it becomes available to us."

The news cuts to a live stream of the black mass. It reminds me of that giant jelly bean art piece, the Chicago Cloud Gate, except this thing is completely black, like a massive black hole. The only noticeable difference is that it isn't sucking all of us up. Otherwise, we would already be dead.

It's still terrifying, and the fact that we're all being forced to stay inside makes everything that much worse. There's nothing to distract myself from the looming possibility that something could go seriously wrong.

Footsteps hammer down the stairs behind us, and I turn my head just in time to see Harper exiting the stairwell.

Our dorm house was nothing to brag about, but it was surprisingly roomy, especially considering six women lived here. Sometimes, I went a full week without running into the other girls. All of our schedules seemed to differ at school, so normally, only one person was trying to get ready in the bathroom at a time. To say things had become complicated since lockdown was an understatement.

"Anything new happened yet?" Harper asks between a yawn.

"Nope," I reply, my voice void of any hope.

"Fuck it then, I'm going back to sleep," Harper says, before climbing back up the stairs.

A moment of silence passes before Evelyn brings the attention back to the TV.

"Do you see that? I just can't wrap my head around any of this. I feel like I've woken up in some dystopian novel and I'm about to meet some hot guy and we're about to save the world together. It's whack."

I roll my eyes. "I bet it's just some super secret government technology and they're doing some test on the population like they did with syphilis."

"They did what?" Evelyn asks, her brown eyes widening twice their usual size.

"Uh, never mind." Just as I reach for the remote to change the channel, Lyra and Alora come down the stairs.

The two have been inseparable since they moved in. When Alora moved in here, Jezebel gave her shit for wearing glasses, as if the poor girl could help it. Lyra, being Lyra, wasn't having any of it, and gave Jezebel a piece of her mind. After that, they were stuck together like glue.

It was the talk of the house when the fight had broken out, but seeing the budding friendship between Lyra and Alora was worth the drama. Alora was coming out of her shell more and more. She even came down to drink cheap wine with us last night.

"I feel like shit," Lyra says, as she climbs over the couch, leaving footprints on the suede material. I scoff, wiping my hand over the fabric. Sometimes, people have no manners in this house, and it shows.

"Tell me about it," Evelyn replies, snatching the remote back from my hands and turning up the volume on the news.

"Are we open for business yet?" Alora asks, straightening her glasses.

"Doesn't look like it. They just extended the stay at home order. No one's allowed outside except the delivery drivers and emergency workers," I say, combing my hair through my fingertips.

It was unnerving; the lack of information, the sudden stop of any normalcy. I felt trapped, and this house was not where I wanted to be. I called my mom and sister last night, and they were safe at home, but it didn't feel right to be away from them while all hell broke loose outside.

The news anchor's sudden reappearance breaks my train of thought, and I listen as she speaks into the camera, her forehead creased.

"Breaking news coming out of Los Angeles. It seems that riots have broken out in most of the city, and people are looting and- Am I hearing this right, Frank? It seems that people are breaking into civilian homes and robbing families at gunpoint. We've reached out to the LAPD, with no response."

"Damn, that doesn't sound good," Lyra says, staring at the television.

No, that didn't sound good at all. A knot forms in my stomach. I have a feeling that whatever is happening out there is going to get much worse, but I push the thought from my head. There's no use in dwelling in the depths of my own fears.

"Is anyone hungry? I'm going to go grab some chips," I say, jumping off of the couch and escaping into the kitchen before anyone can reply.

I open the freezer door and stick my head inside, breathing in the cold air.

Calm. Just breathe. Everything is going to be just fine.