The Moth effect

'How did it come to this ?'

These words were all that Kalvin had on his mind on this not so beautiful Thursday. Though given his circumstances , one might truly wonder how Kalvin managed to get himself into this kind of trouble.

Especially ,

since Kalvin had a knick for avoiding trouble ever since his childhood.

While all his peers had gone around to cause trouble, like visiting abandoned construction sites, pulling pranks or throwing in windows with rocks (he might have had very odd friends ) he had always stood on the side lines, not wanting to cause a commotion or receive the scornful gazes of his parents.

When in high school, while the other students had gone to party's and were busy knocking each other up, he was too busy learning, not that he would have wanted to participate in their foolhardy actions.

When he had gone to college to study, quite different from some of his colleagues, though they were only a minority of the campus population, he did not deing to go clubbing and hooking up with every girl he found.

All his life, this philosophy of staying away from troublesome things had kept him safe and mostly happy.

While his gradeschool friends had gotten house arrest for their deeds, he always was the good kid in the eyes of everyone.

While his high-school peers were involved in all kinds of drama, like teen pregnancy, breaking up and failing their exams because of it, he passed with flying colors.

While he was in college, he was mostly unborthered and did not need to put in an exorbitant amount of effort into his studies like the rest of his colleges due to his past efforts paying dividends. This had caused him to graduate at the Top of his class.

This philosophy of getting out of the way of trouble, had truly served him well all his life.

Coupled with the two years of mandatory military services his country forced all its youths into and a healthy body coupled with a good head on his shoulders, should have provided him with a comfortable life.

Why then, was Kalvin Edevane, who had always stayed out of trouble, who would always think twice before doing something, who had graduated from a prestigeous university, wondering, how he had gotten himselve into the biggest trouble he had ever needed to face in all his life?

The answer to that question was simple and quite convoluted at the same time.

Simple, because his situation was caused by bad luck.

Convoluted, because he was currently facing a gigantic moth like creature about one and a half times his size with multiple razor sharp rows of teeth, that in a spiral descended into a pitch black hole that probably lead to its stomach where normally it's trunk would have been, with limbs that resembled sarrated Fishing spears with hooked tips, at their ends, ready to impale whatever got in their way and not let go, only allowing its pray impaled pray to slip further down the spears but not pull them out again.

But to try and understand how it had come to this point, one must first learn what twist of fate had brought Kal into such an awkward situation, one would at least have to know, what had proceeded this event.

***

Like most bad things tend to do, it all started on a Monday morning.

While Kalvin, a 180cm tall young man with bronze colored hair and a fit body, had been enjoying his morning, with a steaming hot cup of coffee and a quick gaze at his news feed while seated in his newly acquired city apartment, he suddenly heard the sound of a high pitched scream coming from the apartment above him.

Kalvin, keeping his Philosophy of not getting involved in troublesome matters, had strictly ignored the sounds, choking them up to the married couple above him having trouble with one another again.

'That woman probably caught her man having an affair or something similar again' ,Is all, Kalvin, though on the matter.

Even though, he was considered a new face around his neighborhood, had already heard about the couples troubled marriage from the hushed whispers, he would sometimes accidentally overhear when making his way towards work.

As he continued drinking his coffee and making himself a nice Doppeldecker sandwich, with extra cheese, as he needed it for an extra boost in Dopamin, considering the long day he had before him, the shrill sound of sirens approached from the distence, only halting, when he saw the blue light flashing through his apartments windows and reflecting of the white walls, lighting the whole room in a tint of blue.

Curious, as to what might be happening outside, Kalvin approached the windows and gazed downward to where he suspected the police cars might be parking.

From his second story apartment, it was quite easy to spot the two cars, which a three men and a women were exiting from.

The police visiting his neighborhood was usually an uncommon occurrence.

And since he was not an idiot, he quickly connected the dots and suspected what he had heard earlier but decided to ignore, that shrill scream, probably had something to do with it.

Though one might say, that Kalvin was jumping to conclusions, there really was not anything else he could think of, that could possibly warrant the appearance of the law enforcement officers, on such a cold winter morning.

Not that it had mattered if he was right or not, since he would learn of what had happened through the other residence anyways.

Contrary to his expectations, he would learn of what had happened much sooner than expected, when the police came knocking at his door.

Also quite unexpected, no, completely unexpected, came the fact, that he was questioned him about twenty minutes later, when he was just about ready to leave and head to work.

Apparently the police needed to question all the residents about whether they had heard or seen anything out of the ordinary the day before.

Apparently, the married couple living above him had been found dead in their apartment by an old cleaning lady, that would usually come at about this time to do her job, but had instead found the couples mutalated corpses.

So it was only natural that the police was already looking for a possible culprit, since there had obviously been a murder.

What was strange though, at least more strange than a murder occurring in his vacinity, was that there, as he had learned later, when he picked up on a talk between two officers that had taken a smoke break outside, were no traces of a fight.

The man was lying on the couch and the women in bed.

As if they had been killed while just lying there. Not even the slightest show of resistance being seen.

When later Kalvin would return from an exhaustimg day of work, thinking back to the events that had occurred early that day, Kalvin decided to check his doors locks twice before locking his bedroom door as well.

While he was relatively certain, that he, who had always stayed low, would not become a victim of whatever murderer had ended the couples lives, he would rather just be safe instead of sorry. If he could even still be sorry for his predicament, should he die without even knowing how.

Besides, Kalvin, though he was not an optimistic person, knew that it was quite unlikely, that the killer would dare to return to this building to kill more people.

The police afterall was already investigating the surrendings, so the murder appearing again was likely to result in their immediate capture.

And just like this, Kalvin went to sleep,

Dreaming of the events, that had taken place on this very odd Monday.

***

Seemingly well rested, Kal went out of bed.

It seems like the murderer had not come for him, since first of, he was alive and second, his front door was still locked.

Quickly, he left for the bathroom and brushed his teeth and took a shower,

after which he used his coffee machine to brew him something for the morning.

While the coofe was brewing and while slightly cooling down to a temperature, that would not singe th roof of his mouth, when drinking it, he was during his usual set of morning stretches.

He had learned, that doing so would make his limbs more comfortable and would result in a more comfortable day in general.

When he was finally finished with his routine, the coffee would have cooled down to an acceptable temperature to be properly enjoyed.

While he was sitting down, he suddenly got an inexplicable sense of deja-vu. In the next moment, he heard a set of police sirens approaching, just like the day before.

This time however, the police cars stopped not in front of his building, but instead in a more dilapidated building in the vicinity.

What had happened this time, Kal would learn of not from gossip but from the news.

Apparently, the women, that woupd usually come and clean the building once every two days, had been found mangled in her home by her son from out of city, that had planned on visiting his mother.

While such an occurance concerned him, life had to go on, as such, Kalvin went to work as usual.

Though he was quite new at his job as a programmer for a big ciber security firm and had not made many friend there, today he seemed quite alluring to his colleagues, who were quite interested in how he was doing.

Most likely, they too had gotten wind of the tripple murder in his neighborhood and thus decided, he be worthy of their valuable attention.

That they had the days before not even known his name, had seemingly not concerned them, as they treated him like they had known him for years. Though his lack of knowledge on a possible culprit or the happenings in general, mostly got rid of the information hungry vultures.

When Kalvin finally went back home after this day, that, though it should not have been as exhausting as the previous one still was, because of all the people pestering him, he watched a bit of TV before bed, checked his investments(he was not someone that would just have his money waste away in a bank) made himself a Wrap for dinner, it was his favorite meal since his childhood and he thought he deserved a reward for making it through this utterly exhausting day.

Before going to sleep, he once again checked the locks on his doors and this time those on his windows as well, while (just in case ), shoving a small drawer in front of his front door.

Afterall, there was a murderer on the lose.

***

Wednesday:

Wake up, Brush teeth, Shower, Brew Coffee, Stretch, Police Sirens...

Once again, he heard the sound of police sirens howling.

For a moment, maybe due to the comfortable sleep he was having that had somehow given him unwarranted confidence and optimism, he had thought that maybe, maybe, they would drive past his apartment into the distance to stop a bank robber stop a guy stealing an old women's bag, or to eat some donuts, his hopes had been shattered the moment they pulled into the driveway leading to the parking space of his apartment building.

Kalvin was not dumb and knew a pattern when he saw one. Someone had been killed once more.

But what he could not anticipate, was that there had been a total number of five deaths in the previous night.

Once more though, he took of to work.

This time, people once more swarmed him, trying to find out what had been going on in the place where he lived.

Though, how could he answer them if he himself knew so little about what was going on. For God's sake, not even the Police seemed to know what was really going on.

The media was in an uproar. The Ghost murders they called it. Because whomever had killed those people, had slipped past the police like a ghost and had managed to enter the apartments of the victims without any traces caused by entering.

The police faced quite the backlash for the situation.

Not because they could not solve a murder case in three days, it was completely unreasonable to expect that, when some cases are only solved after many years.

Instead it was that the criminal, no matter how often they murdered people in the same place, could not be caught.

As a response, the police stationed multiple guards in the surrounding area to maybe catch the killer should he return once more.

When Kal returned once more, he almost did not, and only with the thought of the police guarding the area did he dare to return.

Though he already had thought of looking for a new apartment, he firmly believed, that the law the would enevetably be able to prevail and manage to catch the killer or killers.

A few people were already leaving their places of residence for hotels and other sorts of temporary living spaces or in general leaving the apartment for good in the case of the people who had been playing with the idea beforehand. Kalvin on the other hand quite liked his home, knowing that he would not find anything better in the area.

Finding a well paying Job was already quite difficult, so getting a place further away from it would be annoying.

So instead of abandoning the his housing, he had instead given a call to his landlord and nagotiating a lowering of his rent as a requirement for not instantly leaving.

This had worked wonders, as his landlord, who was already suffering from this crisis would rather keep the people living there, for they were aware, that a murder occurring in their building would permanently damage its reputation and thus make it less valuable.

Kalvin, as such managed to heavily benefit of this situation by getting his rent lowered by 147$ for the coming five years.

Kalvin had made quite a good deal. Though maybe exploiting the stress the landlord was currently under had helped in that as well.

Thus, Klavin once more came back to his home for another nights rest.

Even if he generally trusted the police to a large extend, he was no fool that would put all his trust into others.

This is the reason why, in addition to the Drawer he put in front of the door, he also barred all the doors leading to his new bedroom with chairs and various other furniture he found along the way.

To avoid having any windows near him, through which somebody could enter if they really tried, (he was only on the second floor after all ) ,he had dragged his mattress to a windowless room in his apartment.

Beside those preparations, he also took an old wooden broom someone, likely the previous owner of this appartment had forgotten or abandoned and sharpened its tip into a spear with his Swiss, after detaching its brush.

Just in case, he also took a few of his sharper kitchen knives with him to his bed.

The reason he had done this, was that whoever had killed all those people clearly did not use a gun but instead some type of close range weapon probably like a knife.

Otherwise, had a Gun been used, The police would ether have found gunpowdertraces on the crime scenes or somebody would have probably heard the shot.

While if he was to be questioned why he had made all these preperations, he would without batting an eye say that he was concerned for his safety.

But the truth was, that while at first this was true, he later started to, in a weird way enjoy this prep work he was doing.

Maybe it was because it reminded him of when he went hunting with his father back when he was little or something else entirely.

Either way, he felt quite satisfied with his work.

Deep in his heart, he was even hoping that he would get a chance to meet the killer and test his preperation.

Though in his mind he knew that such a thing was unlikely to happen.

Besides, should he meet said killer, it would probably be unessecarrily dangerous. Still he decided to remain instead of fleeing to a hotel.

It seemed like he had failed his tried and tested way of living.

Maybe it was just the excitement he had not gotten to experience since he was little. Only he could know.

Till late in the night he sat there, waiting for a sound. A scream, maybe a couple of steps. Nothing came. He had guessed the murderer would have shown up by now. Why he believed this was not known to him. But this feeling is what made him stay in his apartment. It was what had compelled him to be unreasonable.

~almost midnight~

That is what his wristwatch told him.

He usually set his alarm to about 6:30 in the morning. This gave him ample time to get ready for work without stressing himself.

About six and a half Hours of sleep. Not much and certainly not a healthy dosis of sleep.

But he had dealt with worse. No one work would criticize him for it anyway. How could they when he was living in a house where a Mass murderer seemed to run rampant.

***

Thursday

One in the morning

Why exactly was he awake?

Why was he here and not in a place that was safe?

Why was his head hurting?

These were all questions that Kalvin was asking himself.

Yet he did not find an answer. He just felt his eyelids getting heavier and heavier.

In his last moments before collapsing on his mattress with his self made broom Spear and his kitchen knife in hand he wondered how it had come to this.

He had avoided trouble all his life. Yet here he was waiting for a murderer ready to fight.

***

When he opened his eyes he was in his apartment.

It was not dark around him anymore.

The sun was shining through the window with its comforting light not blinding his eyes.

He got up and went to brush his teeth.

Afterwards he took a shower he brewed himself a nice cup of coffee or rather his coffee machine did.

In the meantime he did his usual morning stretch to get ready for the day to come.

With a cup of coffee in his hand he looked out the window.

He was expecting something to happen.

Yet he did not know what exactly.

For a moment he was confused about what he had been anticipating.

'Guess no one died today. ' was all Kalvin managed to say before a realization hit him.

Someone had died.

Yes indeed.

Someone was dead.

Just who was the question.

Many had died.

By the hand of a killer.

And he had been awaiting that killer.

Not avoiding trouble like usually.

Odd.

Very odd.

Kalvin felt his mind clear up like he had been struck by lighting. Suddenly he felt the odity of his situation. Why had he been awoken by the sun and not his alarm clock. Had he not avoided the windows in fear of the killer using one of them?

Why had his alarm not sounded? Nothing made sense. When he looked down to gaze at his digital wrist watch, to his shock it showed that the time was, contrary to what the sun being up suggested, still half past one.

To his greater shock was, that suddenly a kitchen knife and a wooden spear appeared in his hands.

'Why would I carry around a Spear?' Kalvin asked aloud. But quickly enough the answer came to him.

'Of course it was to fight the killer no... to defend myself' Kalvin said aloud once more.

'How did I take a shower with a spear in my hand?' and once more.

He quickly understood however that both objects had not been in his hand the whole time. They simply appeared in his hands without any reason.

'I am dreaming ain't I?' Kalvin realized.

'So this is the lucid dreaming I have heard about. Does this mean I can do whatever I want here?' As soon as he said this, he began concentrating on making himself fly or at the very least float. Unexpectedly he almost instantly began flying weightlessly in the air, just like he had imagined.

To have a bit more space to enjoy the feeling of flight he went out of his apartment onto the private parking lot of his building, where he began flying in circles.

However just as he had gotten the hang of floating around in the air, he heard a cracking sound from all around him.

With this cracking sound the question from just before he had fallen asleep suddenly appeared in his mind.

Why had he not left the building that some killer used as his hunting ground.

Instinctively he found an answer to his querie.

He had not been fully awake.

Just like when before he went about his day, while actually dreaming without realising it, He was not fully conscious. He was capable of thought yet did not leave for a Hotel even if staying at home would clearly be dangerous.

*crack*

another cracking sound echoed through space, shaking the whole world.

From his former airborn position Kalvin quickly dropped down to the ground.

He could not fly anymore.

Like ice that was slowly cracking around him to reveal the deep water below, Space seemed to break apart around Kalvin

'What is going on?!' Kalvin exclaimed in a panic.

The feeling of being in a dream had now faded. The feeling of being in reality had returned to him. What showed behind the cracks however was not the real world, but instead something else entirely.

Where the sun had once been, there revealed itself a red glowing moon, just as bright as the sun had been. Peaking through the cracks in Space around the sun.

The sky, maybe it was its natural color or maybe only the influence of the red moon,

had a reddish hue.

And in the place where the cracks had first formed, he could see a sharp claw like object piercing through.

Like a pickaxe breaking iron out of stone, the thing that Kalvin identified as a Barbed claw was piercing the barrier again and again with practiced ease. Like a wolf tearing away at its prey.

*Crack Crack Crack*

'Seems like whatever is sepperating me from that place out there is about to completely break' Kal noticed, a hint of fear in his voic

*Shatter*

A rain of shards began to fall. While falling they divided into smaller shards again and again until they turned to dust.

It looked like it had begin to snow in Kalvins surroundings. But instead of gathering on the ground, the dust dispersed into nothingness before reaching it.

An immense feeling of dread started to overwhelm Kalvin. The barrier keeping the outside at bay had broken.

Whatever hait was that had just broken the barrier, it really wanted in and whatever it wanted, it could not be good for him.

Above Kalvin now stood a Creature like he had never seen before it barely resembled a moth or a butterfly. Grey wings that stood still, not even flapping to keep whatever this Creatur was in the air. All they did was radiate a Grey Aura that made him slightly dizzy when looking at it. It's six limbs dangling freely in the air. Each of them sarrated and tipped with a pointy tip glistening under the red light of the moon, that made them appear as if having been dipped into blood.

Seeing Kalvin with its insectoid eyes, it opened its maw full of sharp teeth and screamed.

The scream contained emotions of joy and anticipation as it stared at Kalvin drool running out of the thing that could be called ether its mouth or an entrance into oblivion, maybe ven both.

Fear ran through Kalvin and the only thing that was one his mind was a singular thought filled with emotions of dread and dispar.

'How did it come to this ?'