The Recollection of The Collapse

Chapter Four: The Fading Light

Edward Foster,

we spent what seemed like hours on the road. Father Sebastian sat quietly behind the steering wheel, while I had my head resting on the side of the window. It felt like we were on an endless reel looping around, going nowhere.

Sudden cloudy weather came over the sky and hid the moon. It was just a dusted walkway on the side, with a repeating pattern of a lamp post and dustbin on its side. beyond that was a wall of trees shrouded in darkness.

It was sometime around ten o'clock. At atmosphere became similar to the time on the highway. I couldn't recall if I had seen any other cars that night. A sudden buzz and a thought came to my head. "Hey, Sebastian... how did you know that my parents died?", I asked, realizing that he couldn't know that.

Nothing, there was no response, I quickly turned around and the driver's seat was empty. "Huh?", I said, as I stared down at the accelerator paddle pressed down by an invisible force. I instantly released that the nightmare was not over.

I looked back at the road, only to see a telephone pole planted in the middle of the road. The car crashed into it and with that, lunching me out of the car through the windshield. With me griping the Red Cross as hard I could, the windshield felt like paper against my arms.

I flopped on the gravel and roll on my shoulder a few times before coming to stop at my side. I flipped over onto my back and stared at the night sky for a few moments in shock. I blinked twice waiting for my head to get straight. "What...the hell?", I said looking to my side and car and the pole had disappeared.

I picked myself up steadily and got back on my feet. I looked around confused and irritated. I couldn't recognize the highway, on that hand, I wasn't even sure if this was earth anymore. "Hey!" I yelled, "Is anyone there!", I yelled again, hearing only silence in response.

Scratching my head, I wondered what to do. Just then the world answered, in form of a loud bang, coming from up the road. Without having anywhere else to go, I started walking towards the sound. And kept walking for a few moments until I heard another gunshot. Now hearing it for the second time, I realized it was of a Shotgun.

Coming to it, I found an ominous house, with a path cutting of the road and leading into a clearing in the middle of the woods. Still standing on the road, I stared at the house. I looked empty without any light in or outside of it. The addition of the silent forest gave it a spooky look.

So I took a moment to contemplate whether I should go for it. Just then another loud gunshot went off and I understood the sign. I immediately started walking towards the house. The lawn had a "House for sale" sign hammered into the ground.

At that point, Father Sebastian's words ringed in my head, about the place we were going. Well Ignoring that this was Lauren's old home. I walked up the steps and placed my hand on the door nob.

It hit me again, that irritating feeling. I looked behind me and saw the road had disappeared. Now replaced with dense woods shrouded in darkness. It was as if the world was making a point . "yeah sure, I get it", I said walking inside the house.

With nothing much to see, I made my way upstairs towards the noise of struggle. I made myself quickly through it, with a straight hallway in the middle. The first two-door were for the kitchen and the washroom, as told by the labels on the closed doors.

Entering into an open space, preferably for a living room with a single door on the side, labeled storeroom. And then the staircase ran upstairs. The noise became more familiar, for sure it was someone grunting.

As I turned around for the second set of stairs, something flew and flopped in front of me. Looking at it properly, it was his severed arm still holding onto the Shotgun. "Oh...That's not good", I said to myself, as I came around the right corner.