Age Of Salvation

Chapter 2: First Encounter

Right after we separated our faces, the lights began to flicker on and off. An eerie feeling suddenly filled the air as the music came to a cease. People began to get nervous, trembling in their clothes.

"Matthew, what's going on? Is this normal?" Diane whispered.

"I'm not sure. It might just be an electrical surge or something." I responded. However, something inside told me that definitely was not the case.

All of a sudden, a lady's scream broke the silence. She and a few others pointed up towards the ceiling as a group of dark blue spheres floated around the chandelier in a ghostly, supernatural kind of way. Everyone began to group together in the middle as the spheres floated gently down towards the group and proceeded to float towards us.

"What are these things?" One man asked aloud.

"Maybe they are a new part of the festivities." another replied.

One couple walked towards two of the spheres and held them in the palms of their hands. Other people slowly began to follow their lead, walking up to hold the orbs.

"They feel warm and...comforting." A lady stated with a smile.

Suddenly, without any kind of warning, crystals began to form around the feet of those holding the spheres. The crystals continued to grow and stretch around the screaming and terrified people until it had formed what had looked like a water lily around them. Everyone quickly backed away from the flowers as the screaming slowly faded away. All that was left was now was silence. No one moved, no one spoke, nothing. It stayed that way for what felt like forever until the flowers slowly began to crack, one after another.

"Diane...stay behind me." I said as I turned to face the crystals.

One after another, the flowers burst open as lizard like creatures began to climb out of them. Their faces were dark and menacing, their bodies scaly and greenish. The claws on their hands were fully extended and looked very sharp. They all began to surround us, licking their faces like a dog being tantalized by a juicy bone.

"Matthew, what do we do?" Diane asked as she gripped on to the back of my suit.

"I don't know, but stay close. I'll think of something." I replied, trying to keep her calm. In all honesty, I was just as terrified. I had never seen anything like this ever in my life. It was like we were stuck in someone's nightmare.

The creatures roared and moved in to pounce, sending everyone in a panic. We all scattered like the prey we had become, running away from the fearsome creatures. Some people were unfortunately caught and killed within a matter of seconds. Diane and I high tailed it towards an exit in a desperate attempt to escape the slaughtering. However, one of the creatures locked his sight on us and began to pursue its prey.

I turned to see our chaser behind us, catching up closely. "Diane, keep going to the exit!" I stopped and turned to face the creature. "Hurry!"

Diane nodded, her tears dripping off her face in fear as she removed her heels quickly and continued running.

The creature pulled its claw back and slashed at my chest. I backed away just in time to narrowly avoid injury. However, the claw tore straight through my tuxedo, leaving four large tears over my chest. I stepped forward and jabbed the beast in its eye and followed up with a right hook to the nose, knocking it down to the ground. It wailed in pain and rolled around, holding its face.

"Wow, these things are surprisingly not as strong as they look." I thought before turning back towards the exit, where I saw Diane waiting for me with a worried face.

All of a sudden, the exit doors flew open as another lizard creature busted in, pounced on top of her, and began to repeatedly slash her in her back. She howled in pain as she cried out, reaching forward towards me.

"DIANE!!!" I ran forward, faster than I've ever ran, and tackled the creature. I sat up and repeatedly punched it in the face until it looked like it was unconscious before I moved back over to Diane.

She was lying in pool of blood, barely moving. I held her by the arms and slowly turned her around.

"...Matthew?"

"Diane, you're going to be okay. I have you now. Everything is going to be okay." Tears were on the verge of falling off of my face.

"Matthew..." Diane slowly lifted her hand and wiped a tear off of my face. "Goodbye....love..." Her eyes closed slowly as her hand dropped lifelessly to the floor.

"Diane? Diane?!"

She smiled one last time before I saw the last of her life slowly fade away.

"Diane! Diane! DIANE!!!"