The End of the World

A hollowed mechanical voice echoed out throughout the world filling the ears of all who still lived. In a volume that didn't hurt your ears, yet had a unnerving tone, to which even a deaf man could understand.

" PHASE ONE COMPLETE, BEGINNING PHASE TWO OF SIMULATION."

Suddenly a screen projected in front of me, a timer that seemed like a normal countdown. I had twenty four hours until something happened. A grimace spanned my face as by all logic and reason, this meant I only had twenty four hours left to live.

My Name is Ester Laevateinn Stubenvol. Apart from the fact that I'm a guy not a girl the name is still long and ridiculous, and I only hate my mom a little for giving it to me. My mom always joked with me saying that I should be greatful she didn't name me Estrellia as she had intended and I would always reply, she should be greatful I never became one of those kids that killed there parents in there sleep for seemingly no good reason. Except I'd have a reason.

That was a good example of mine and my mother relationship. I loved and respected her, but I always gave her lip and always refuted her word because she would make some of the dumbest decisions otherwise, and no one else was there to tell her no. She never spoke much about her family, and I had no father, so it was just me and her.

My father was a German man if I remember correctly, I never actually got to know him, I think he died or something, not too sure when it happened, or how for that matter. I can't even recall seeing his face. It was so long ago I stopped caring. Did I even care in the first place?

Anyways, my mom and the man never officially got married, but she insisted I have his last name, instead of hers on my birth certificate as a sort of momento. That's how despite my last name being Stubenvol, ehile hers was Abernathy, we were family none the less.

My mother was a weird one, she wasn't a religious person, but she would sometimes act like one. She was a bit of an airhead and made some pretty stupid decisions at times, my least favorite of these would of course be my name. My mother was also a fanatic about foreign mythology, which is where she got the idea for my name, she loved plants, and she had a childish fascination with bugs.

All in all, my mother was a free spirit, and a huge weirdo, She had a horrible record of doing things on whims and she was a few cats away from the weirdest cat lady ever. Thinking back, a few more cats and she would have arguably been more terrifying than majority of the monstrosities inhabiting the world now, just in a different sense of the word. The thought made me smile, I've already saved the world once.

As a child I was teased for my name, I was bullied for being a pushover, adopted, gay, having a dead father, you name it, and I was socially shamed for it. Any time I retaliated, which was only once, it escalated into a fight and I broke one kids nose and another's arm. Apparently, I was the one at fault, even though they started the engagement. The bullies didn't stop but they learned to not get within range of my hands and feet.

I had one friend though, her name was lilly. I loved lilly. She was the nicest person I had ever met. She first introduced herself to me on the playground in first grade. She never judged me on my name and always included me in the games she would play with the other kids and people actually started to like me more, leading to me getting bullied less and less. I was happy.

She acted interested in everything I said and she saw me as a person. Playing with others was nice but the best was when we were alone. She and I were both big dreamers, and incredibly smart. We could go on and on creating stories and fantasizing, and still have more to tell. Our stories had romance and plot, twists and turns we were the creators of the most beautiful, mystical adventures, and we were there together through them all.

We fought dragons with the knights of our sacred kingdoms. We cried at the wedding of the prince and the fair Maiden that had saved his mother's life. We felt anger towards the backstabbing advisor that sold information to the rival kingdom and joy as the war was won and the advisor got the retribution he deserved. We felt anguish at the death of our allies and dread in the face of our most dangerous adversaries. We would be the commanders of an army sent to rally troops and boost moral, or disguised nobles who were tasked with finding potential spies of the royal court. We were the creators of these wonderous worlds, but what's more we experienced them as if we were one of the characters. I brought her home to meet my mother who to my surprise knew her mother somehow, and I even fantasized marrying her in the future.

I didn't care what the world thought of me when I was with her, I decided I'd be whatever was needed if that's what it took to stay with her. Looking back she completely had me wrapped around her finger, but I doubt she even realized. I would do anything for her and she promised to always stay by my side even if the world was against me. Call it childish or corny but with Lilly I felt complete.

I eventually came to find out that ignorant bliss, was but an empty promise that beautifully decorated the crumbling spire that was my trust. One day, a kid got jealous over how close we were, and ruined everything. It was a normal day, but when lilly was called by a teacher during recess, he told everyone that he had dared her to be my friend and that she was only being nice to me because he told her to and that the next part of the bet was to bully me and that I needed to prepare myself for the hell she would put me through later.

Then his stupid little ruffian friends started laughing at me, and that sparked the others, as you know children tend to do that. I was confused as to why they thought it was funny. An inside joke I wasn't invited to know. I then made the dumbest move ever, I believed the guy. The gazes, the pressure, I was falling back into my self doubt. I couldn't believe I had a friend as amazing as lilly either and my insecurities that I thought I buried with the creation of our friendship resurfaced with a maniacal vengeance. Infuriated that I had escaped their barbed embrace.

From that moment on I hated Lilly. To think that all the laughter, the tears, the heart crushing emotions we experienced together was fake. The days where we finished a story and spent the next few hours Weeping in each other's arms at an ending we created. Ignoring the pleads and screams of apologies she never needed to make. Rather, the word ignoring is wrong, her cries never made their way into my ears, not until much too late. I was so scared of the two words that could confirm my growing suspicion, the simple phrase 'I lied' I never heard her voice again I couldn't handle that reality, I denied it so strongly I refused to acknowledge her after that. In my mind I would rather end the good times and live with the memories than risk finding out they were built on lies. And with that, I had also forsaken the thought of ever finding a friend again.

My mom attempted to convince me to give her a chance and I started hating her too for a time. It was childish and irrational, but I was too absorbed in self pity and hatred to see any other possibilities. I clammed myself up and wished I could just disappear to vanish into thin air and live in my own world where no one could bother me, and nothing could touch me.

I eventually forgave my mother, but I refused to talk to others again. They had their world, I had made mine, and by no means was I going to allow them to collide.

Thinking back on my stupidity it is almost laughable really. To think after all the things I had told myself about never leaving her. I even had my chance to get her back, plenty in fact, but my stupid self didn't take any of them. I still wonder to this day what actually went through my head back then.

My world changed completely not too much later. When I was twelve, I gained a unique ability, a super power so to speak. I could turn myself invisible for a short period of time. I was at that age where you would still act like a dragon when it was cold outside and your breath fogged. Though I still do that sometimes so I guess that statement isn't really valid. I was acting, pretending to be a superhero saving my Lego city that was comprised of like two houses and three people, when I vanished. My body and clothing disappeared from view and you couldn't see me or hear me at all. This is what inevitably finished my separation from the outside world by the way.

I didn't realize I was invisible at first, all I knew was my skin turned translucent and my vision inverted colors. I cried out to my mother in alarm, but she never came. I panicked and tried and find her, eventually finding her in the kitchen. I ran to give her a hug but didn't realize the pot she was carrying. The colors were weird and messing with my head. She stumbled over me not noticing I was there and scorching water and potatoes hit the ground giving both of us some pretty nasty burns. I had it worse since I was closer to the splash area and got far more on me but it mostly hit my side. I got lucky only having some serious burns on my back that I still have scars from. We both ended up with some nasty scars on our face, but it was my mother who had to get her eye removed from an infection. That certainly wasn't a fun doctor's visit.

Over time I began to get used to my world, or so I called it and could stay there longer. When I was thirteen I could perfectly distinguish the shift in colors and was pretty confident in my abilities. I got up to a lot of mischief, ranging from stealing to cheating in school oblivious to the escalating conflict in the world around me.

There had been more frequent sightings of inexplicable activity, mutilated corpses, unusual spotting's and suspiy activity in rural places, disappearances, anything you could think of really. There were records of mysterious creatures we once though were confirmed to have never existed, wild animal attacks became more violent and frequent, and people with abilities were discovered every day. It was a gradual progression until the day of the Calamity.

In the same voice and with the same timer as just now, the world was soon plunged into an era of darkness. The sky cried and tore open as the ground cracked and splintered giving entrance to a variety of monsterous beasts. People, and creatures all over the world began undergoing spontaneous mutation and war began. Humanity, now a lose term to call those who still had a semblance of human sentiment and the relative appearance to match remaining with them, banded together to fight off the invaders.

The first day was the most bloody, religious people who had a unwavering devotion to there gods went to church that day, they called it a day of reckoning, that the world would finally be purged in fire and they seeked their creators to help them escape. They were the first to die, but I suppose that was a mercy in itself.

People who had no awakened abilities were the next to go. If you were lucky you died the same day it started, if not then you were quickly taken advantage of. The first wave wiped out most of humanity. They realized they were no longer the superior species so they began defensive actions. Forts were set up, and a new hierarchy was built, one where only the strong could survive and prosper in this new cruel world.

I was one of 'the roamers'. I refused to be apart of the new world, so I wandered with my mother. She too was a free spirit that wanted to live on her own until her death.

The advent of the invasion brought two possible gifts to a person. One was an ability, some form of inexplicable power that the individual was allowed to use. The second was a mutation, a physical change that gave augmented abilities. I had been gifted an ability before the Calamity, so I had an edge on others. When it struck I was again effected. My mutation reverted me back to the physical appearance I had when I first got the ability. In addition I gained a mysterious black portion on my body that objects could pass through unhindered. My mother had a similar experience. She gained the ability to accelerate the growth of plants and control them. She also gained green hair and flowers that were in perpetual bloom growing all over her body. My personal favorite was the rose that bloomed in her left eye. The one I accidentally destroyed as a child.

We tried to survive on our own, but we couldn't. Neither of us could fight, or rather we weren't strong enough to live on our own. I could only hide. Hide while the world falls apart, hide while they took everything I cared for.

A group of monsters had been making there way down the street and found us, or rather my mother. When she saw them coming she told me to go look for some seeds at a nearby market and come up with something for dinner. I listened because I was ignorant then, I hadn't heard them coming and I obliged.

I left in the opposite direction the group came and when I returned The house was ravaged, everything was broken and all that was left of my mother was the bloodstains on the floor. All I could find was a note that told me to never get caught.

I thought she was an idiot! We had always stuck together, I thought she trusted me not to die as I trusted her! We had run from numerous hoards like that before, but she still had to protect her son.

It took about three days to cycle through my emotions. I would cry then I would yell, then I would run from the monsters who would chase me because I yelled too loud, then I would sleep, then the cycle repeated.

I ran out of food quickly and I had no other way to get some, because you couldn't hunt really. The most common monster you could find were these small light green humanoid creatures with a putrid oder that followed them anywhere they went. You would smell them before anything else. These tasted like hot trash. Homeless people who haven't eaten in days would rather starve to death than eat that. The second most common was the taller more adult like version who were darker green in color and stronger while keeping everything else about them the same. There were insects that had grown numerous time the size and had more advanced biological weapons, and a more menacing appearance that could put anyone with a insect phobia into cardiac arrest. Wild animals became larger and more feral. Bunnies that could bite through bone, snakes that could constrict with enough force to crush steel beams. Bears the size of a house, dogs that had multiple heads. Less common than that were the large pig, human like creatures they were far stronger than the typical goblin having a brownish yellow color. Not to mention the other more dangerous creatures, or the fact that neon colored anything became even more terrifying. I of course never tasted any of these because I couldn't kill them easily, no I could kill them, I was just to scared to. Regardless, I had no interest in eating any monster after the goblin. It ruined it for me. Then again it's my fault for thinking it would be any better than it was.

The world became a live action horror film in the span of a few minutes, It was as if hells inhabitants had take over the surface and heaven had forsaken it.

The only monster an average person could kill was the basic green skinned monsters called a goblin. Cursed to forever be a child, My physical abilities were rather subpar, so even fighting these could be problematic if I didn't use my ability.

I was left with only one option left. That was to steal to survive. I would sneak into the food banks of different makeshift bunkers and book it out of there before I was caught. I had some pretty close calls but I was getting better and better at it. With all the free time on my hands and the fact that almost all power sources were destroyed near the beginning of this nightmare I taught myself how to survive. I worked towards being flexible and I taught myself how to fight.

Using anything I could get my hands on about the subject. I learned the best places to target to kill something. I learned the best ways get around my weak body. I was weak but I had the advantage that no one could see me. I lived in my own world a world of inverted colors, a world with only me in it. I couldn't afford to care for others I had made myself a promise to survive and that's exactly what I intended to do.

If someone tried to stop me I would ignore them, If someone found a way to contain me I would kill them, though this never really happened. I lost all care or sentiment once my mother died I couldn't care less about other people. They had never been more than painful reminders of my deficiencies anyways.

Time then seemed to still, I watched the world progress living in my own isolated world taking from others, and killing to keep myself safe, it all passed in a blur. The days began to merge together and my mind began to wander. I hadn't changed physically since the Calamity, and Many years had passed, but I couldn't tell how many, the days were irrelevant to me now. I had seen the forts rise and fall, I saw the creation of cities that would eventually form into a country if given proper time and leadership. I saw the fall of social order only for it to be rebuilt in the most primitive manner imaginable. And Now I sit, on this bioluminescent tree in an unknown region of a fallen country, many years in the future now awaiting my death as the second wave of monsters emerges, and the world caves in on itself. My mind has been steeled by the events that have brought me here. I've long awaited this moment. I've speculated that this wasn't the end of the horror. As humanity was just starting to adapt and conform to the new world, I wondered what was next? They couldn't do worse than the already have, nothing short of destroying the world itself would do that. All that would be left is void, a individual isolation, though I already have that, so what would I be left with? Peace?

I've already accepted my death, but I am curious, what lies beyond this world's end?