Day 3

I woke up to a painful headache. I looked around myself, and there was a mysterious black liquid on the floor, but there was no sign of whatever hit me. I decided to look around the house to check if everything was alright. The doors were still locked, and the windows were still barricaded. I was so confused about what had happened because the last thing I remember was a dark flame burning and someone screaming. As I was trying to come to my senses, I heard a noise coming from the cellar. I was scared, so I grabbed a knife from my kitchen and decided to check where the noise was coming from. I slowly walked down the stairs, holding my knife, as I was sweating profusely while taking deep breaths. As I was about to open the door, something grabbed my shoulder. Out of fright, I turned around, not even looking at what grabbed me, and swung the knife to stab whoever was grabbing me. Before I could stab the thing that grabbed my shoulder, the hand that was holding a knife got grabbed as well, and my knife fell to the floor. Knowing that my knife was the only thing that could protect me, I decided to give up and face whatever grabbed me. I slowly opened my eyes to see the burned head of my neighbor right in front of my face. Looking at it in all horror, the creature fell in front of me and died. On the bottom of the steps, I heard a voice, and it said, "Damn, he was still alive? Not even hellfire can kill them quickly." As I turned around to see who said that, I realized it was my friend Ice. I started crying as I ran towards him to hug him. He smiled and said, "It was scary being all alone. Don't worry, friend, I'm here. I will tell you exactly what is happening to this damned world."

We went up to my room to sit down and talk. I asked him to explain what was actually happening.

Ice sat down and started talking and explaining things about what was happening in the world.

"I came back to my old home a couple of days ago. I wanted to surprise you, but I could never do that because three days ago I woke up alone in the house, my parents were nowhere to be found, and it was just darkness outside and nothing else. I was confused because it was noon and the sun should have been still up, but there was just darkness to be seen and nothing else. I couldn't sit at home all the time; I wanted answers, so I found a flashlight, grabbed my father's gun, and went out.

As I went out of my home to check on what the hell was happening, I would come across ghouls, or, should I say, people that had been marked by the demon. You are probably asking what ghouls are. Well, they are hostile creatures that were once humans. If a ghoul sees you going out of your house or catches a glimpse of you, you will be hunted until you die. After leaving my house, I started hearing strange noises, and I got attacked by those ghouls. I killed all three of them that were attacking me. After I killed them, their chains disappeared. As I experienced a near-death experience, I felt a pain on my shoulder, and as I checked on it, I saw a burn scar, which read out the number 365. The only thing that I figured out about the number is that as every day passes, the number decreases by one. What is the meaning of the number? Well, it is still unclear.

I checked on the corpses of the ghouls and noticed something strange apart from their disfigured bodies: there was a burn scar that had an infinite symbol in it. What does it mean? I still haven't figured it out. I was scared to be all alone outside, but I wanted to find my parents, and I wanted to find out and try to understand what was happening. Being outside made me lose fear, and by killing ghouls, I started feeling relieved any time I ended their suffering because I felt like I was releasing a soul from endless torment. As I continued wandering in the middle of the darkness, my flash light stopped working. In the darkness, I started feeling safe, even though I got attacked by ghouls.

As the lights faded, I heard ghouls approaching to attack me. Since I had no light or vision of them, I gave up on fighting and decided that it was enough. I can't live like this every day because this is madness.

I closed my eyes and let myself be consumed, but once the ghouls approached, I felt a heat rising up from my body. Lamentable flames started gushing out of my arms, and they killed all of the ghouls around me. That is the day I realized that killing ghouls gives you powers. I always dreamed about having powers one day, but now that they are the only way I can defend myself, I only use them if I really need to.

Today was the day I acquired a power, which you will need to get as well. I started to be able to see in the darkness. When I got the ability to see in the dark, I started to understand what was happening. There were ghouls all around the area, and they were being held with chains like dogs. The things that were holding them were demons. These creatures weren't anything that was described in any holy book; they looked utterly terrifying with a sinister smile that was burned into their expressionless faces. It's as if the gates of hell themselves have been opened on this earth. After I realized what was going on, I started looking for other survivors in different houses, but I couldn't find anything except ghouls. I remembered in this time of chaos where your house was and decided to look and see if you were still alive or not. So I sent you a message with my phone when I was in front of your house because I figured you would have been alive since every door was locked and every window was barricaded. As you opened the door, we got attacked by a ghoul. In order to escape its long arms, I jumped back, knocking you out, and used lament flames to kill the ghoul, but instead it somehow remained alive.

That is everything that I know of."

I got speechless hearing the story that my friend told me. I laid down and said to him, I'm glad to be alive, and I'm glad that you are alive.

As we talked a little about our past and how we used to hang out as friends, we decided to rest for the day. Before we went to sleep, my friend told me to prepare for tomorrow because he wanted me to attend a ritual.

I trusted him and nodded as I fell deep into my dreams.