3

Tania woke up, sweat dripping from her face as she remembered the dream she had.

In her sleep, she was in her bedroom, her legs entwined with the blanket, messy hair covering half her face, and with the feeling of having just had the best sleep in her life. Still unaware of her dreaming, she went to look out the window like she did every morning. Everything looked normal. She then moved to take a shower, get dressed, eat breakfast, and head to work.

It was when she left the building that she realized something wasn’t clicking. Outside everything was silent. People walked and did things, yes, but they were all walking alone, not a single couple, the group of teenagers that always smoked in the park in front of her apartment before going to school was there, but they were all looking in front of them. Their gaze was lost somewhere behind the children's swings.

She decided to let it go. Maybe she needed more caffeine, so she went to her usual morning coffee place. The owner of the little business, Jess, was a black-haired woman with the darkest brown eyes Tania had ever seen, even darker than hers. She was also really short, and when Tania teased her about it, she said she wasn’t because “amongst other chinese women, I would be considered tall." She always said. Tania knew it was a lie. She saw pictures, and Jess was much shorter than her sister. She stepped into the local after the one-minute walk.

Nobody talked.

Nobody smiled.

Nobody showed emotion.

They all looked like robots.

She walked towards Jess, wanting to talk to someone about the whole situation. However, as she got closer, she saw Jess behaving like everyone else.

She turned around to leave but, when she opened the door, everything had turned to ruins. The tall buildings she loved to watch at night fell, there were burned trees, crashed cars, and everyone laid on the ground. She approached a young man to see if he was breathing. He wasn’t.

Before she could panic more, she heard Luna’s voice calling her, “Tania! Don’t move!” Luna ran as fast as she could, she almost got there, but a bullet that came from a strange white drone hit her right to the stomach, making her fall. Tania’s heart shattered into a million pieces as she screamed, “no!” then she ran to where Luna’s body was without caring about what just shot Luna.

When she got there, Luna was following Tania with her eyes. Tania kneeled and bent over to stop the bleeding. Luna put her hand on top of Tania’s hands. Tania looked at her and Luna shook her head. "It's too late."

"Why… what happened?"

Tears fell from their eyes.

"I'm sorry." Luna said.

It was at that moment that she woke up. It was five in the morning so she decided to try and sleep more. The only thing she did was grow even more nervous. She tossed and turned, and before she realized it, eight o'clock came. Luna came to visit her.

"How are you feeling?"

"Can't say that I'm feeling good but I am feeling better than yesterday."

Luna nodded as she got closer to Tania. She was wearing a yellow hoodie with only the front tucked in her black jeans and a pair of black and white sneakers.

Tania continued talking. “You’re working today right?”

“I can stay if you want me to, it’s not a problem.”

Tania shook her head. “I know it’s not a problem, but really, I just want a hug.”

So, they hugged. Tania had been worried about Luna all morning, the dream felt too real, and she wasn’t sure how to handle that feeling.

“Luna?”

Luna hummed while pulling away.

“Are you... okay?”

“What do you mean- yes well, I’m fine given the circumstances. Why?”

“Nothing just… checking up on you.”

They talked for a while until Luna had to leave. Well, she only left because Tania insisted.

“You will see me again today.”

“Alright, goodbye Luna!”

“Bye.” The green-eyed girl said as she left the room.

Tania took out her phone and scrolled through some of her social media accounts. The posts she saw were nothing out of the ordinary, that was until she came across the photography of a fallen building. She clicked on it, and the article linked to the picture opened.

It said that three drones appeared suddenly to drop three bombs, each of them placed strategically to make it fall. Killed everyone within its walls. The building was a lab where they were investigating a substance newly found on Jupiter. Sidney wrote about it before Tania took the pill. She was surprised to find that the investigators hadn’t found anything yet. In the article, it was also mentioned that the work and the substance itself all disappeared from the lab. The police don't know who did it, they have no leads except for a video taken from a distance. Tania watched it.

The drones were exactly like the ones from her dream.

Tania heard a knock on her door, “come in!” she said wiping the tears that fell from remembering Luna’s death. Whether she wanted it or not, that dream felt real. It felt like that before reading the article and after reading it.

Spencer came in with a bouquet of yellow and green flowers, just like the ones she first saw when she woke up yesterday. That managed to make Tania smile.

“They’re yours?”

Spencer chuckled. “Yes they are. Green Carnations were my father's favorites, it felt right to bring them here. The Yellow Yarrow looked good with the rest”

“I love them, thank you. It means more than you know.”

Spencer replaced the already perished flowers with the fresh ones. “I’m glad you like them.”

“Hey Spence, do you know what this is?” Tania asked while showing Spencer the video. The latter sighed. “Wait, what’s wrong?”

“Well, for starters, I recorded it and then posted it online-”

Tania cut Spencer mid-sentence. “You what?! This is your video? You were there when it happened? Are you okay?”

“Yes! I’m okay, you’re seeing me right now just fine. Or maybe I’m a ghost, you will never know the truth.” Spencer said the last part with a hand movement in front of her face, making Tania laugh a bit. “Look, I already got kind of yelled-at by Sidney, they made sure that I was okay. You don’t need to worry, I promise.” She said with a small comforting smile.

Tania nodded understanding that she didn’t have to worry about her at the moment, the chaos had passed, and Spencer got lucky she wasn’t affected by it. “Okay well, shouldn’t you be at work by now? Luna left a while ago.”

“Yes I should but-... have you had weird dreams lately? I just- I have and I don’t know. I kinda needed to ask.”

Wait, what?

“I have. How- How did you know?” Tania stammered while talking.

Spencer walked to the chair and sat, she grabbed Tania’s hands. “I had a feeling. What was your dream about?”

“It was those drones you filmed, they killed Luna and everyone after everybody went all robot on me.”

“Fuck…” Spencer whispered, almost too low for Tania to hear but she did.

“What?”

She got up, letting go of Tania’s hands, and headed to the window. “I have to show you something but… you need to not panic.”

“...okay?”

Spencer wasn’t turning around. She was trying to make a decision. Tania wanted to know so bad what that was about, but she gave Spencer time to think. It didn’t take too much. She turned around, eyes closed with a slight frown forming on her face.

She opened them and what hid behind Spencer’s eyelids shocked Tania. Her blue and brown eyes now turned black, iris and sclera both changed to the darkest black Tania had ever seen.

Her breath got caught in her throat. She didn’t feel like screaming for help, nor felt like staying there for too long. The longer she looked, the more details popped up. A dark purple smoke that almost looked black emerged from her eyes. Matching it, little spots were placed all over the black eyes.

She stared and stared into those pitch-black orbs. She couldn’t stop. Tania didn’t know for how long she had been in the same position, mesmerized, but even so, she didn’t care. A warm and calming feeling spread throughout her body. The sense of being at home was what caught her off guard, she snapped herself out of the stupefied state she was in.

After that action, Spencer talked first. “I need you to listen to me very carefully, can you do that?”

Tania felt like throwing up but she still nodded.

“We don’t have much time before he comes here.” Spencer said.

“Who?” Tania asked, her voice came out irregularly and her lip trembled.

Spencer’s eyes went back to normal, she felt Tania tenser than before so she decided to make that difficult moment more comfortable. “I can’t say his name, all you need to know is that he is dangerous and will come after you first chance, after he realizes what I did. You’re not safe, that dream you had wasn’t as much of a dream as you think.”

“Okay so, you come in here, your eyes become black all of a sudden, and now you’re telling me that some dude will come after me? Am I dreaming?” Tania said with a sarcastic tone.

“Crap, he’s coming. Yes, all I said is true. I need you to remember something, in a few days I’ll be back and act as if nothing happened here, if later you want to make sure you weren’t dreaming, I’m leaving two papers in your room, one in this drawer and the other one inside the bag with your clothes. He is going to put you to sleep in a few seconds. Trust me on this, please.” Spencer begged after she placed the two papers where she said Tania would find them.

Before Tania could say anything, she felt a sting on the right side of her neck. That automatically left her unconscious.