I Paid My Dues(edited)

I Paid my Dues

The world is dark and dreary. That phrase kept going through my head. Where have I heard it before? I couldn’t tell you. No one could. Because I am the only one here now. My friends are gone. My family is gone. The world is dark and dreary. The shadowed steads ride over the plains outside my little sanctuary. My hole in the wall, where no one can reach. Because no one is around to even notice me. The world has gone dark, and dreary.

The sun had gone not long ago. Around three years, come this January First. It began when the first fireworks were launched into the sky. Everyone thought it would be a new year; better than the rest. COVID was gone, all of its variants were gone, and our political system was getting figured out. But what did we not expect? Every nation’s nuclear warheads becoming the New Year’s fireworks. No one knows why, or how. Just a blinding flash of light and celebrations, then a loud boom thirty seconds later. Suddenly, all was quiet, all was still, and all was dark and dreary.

“We have saved the world!” was the message on everyone’s phone. I have never heard nor seen anyone or anything more wrong in my entire fifteen years. Then the broadcast started; the satellites were turned towards the sun, now a bright, bright ball seeming to shrink, grow, and warp all at the same time. Pretty soon, everyone started panicking, and the sun? All but gone. Sucked into who knows where, atomized, for eternity. The world went dark and dreary. Where had I heard that phrase?

I once again beat the wall of my hole, furious. Normally, she would come and help me, hold me, and comfort me. But she had gone too. Who? The one person who understood me. The only person, at this moment, I felt that truly cared for me. What was I to do with her gone? Do upkeep on the Sanctuary, tending the plants, feeding the herds, doing mindless tasks until my body froze lifeless? Or was I to be free, like the shadowed steeds on the plains? Animals God himself, nor Satan, created. No one knew where they came from, no one dared venture near them. Except me. Once everyone left, I could not bare to stay in that forsaken place of solitude in the sea. I just couldn’t. I began looking at it as a tomb. All the crushing weight of the Atlantic on Ireland’s coast.

The only thing known about the Shadowed Steeds was that they came from there. Far, far down in the deep dark blue of the South China Sea. As any old story goes, anyone who ventured anywhere near that place vanished. And not that they just left and didn’t return. No, people watched them. Millions watched. And just like that, gone. You blink and you miss. Only the people that kept their eyes open saw what happened, but they never spoke a sound after. They would fall, convulsing on the ground. There was no help for them. There was no help for anyone. People thought all of those apocalypse movies would help them withstand and survive a catastrophe. But no. Because something no one had ever experienced, was an actual apocalypse.

Those I was with were determined, however. We got from Nebraska in the United States to Ireland. That was all. But now, There was not a single soul left. No, not, one. Not even my own. I had grown still, and quiet. As I hang there from the ceiling of my hole, looking out across the stars, the life left in me began ebbing away. Like the tide from the shore. I closed my eyes, picturing kisses Her one last time. As I began feeling weak, I heard; a voice calling to me. One I had never heard before. I used what strength I had and pulled my body upside down so that my feet were on the ceiling. This was my first time hearing someone's voice in almost four months. Now, drop below me that descended into pure blackness didn’t seem so inviting.

Loki! The voice said to me. Using the nickname my dad used. Yet, the voice was not my dads at all. It was something...holy, and terrifying. A voice that one would never want to stop hearing, yet one that no one would ever want to hear again. Horrifying, beautiful. I felt that, well, I should listen. But that was all it ever said. Loki. Nothing more, nothing less. I looked out the entrance to the miles of Shadowed Steeds. Nothing was different, except one thing. A very, very, big one. Was looking right at me.

We only stared at each other. Neither moving. After around thirty seconds, it began walking toward me. One step at a time. Then, a full gallop. Charging straight for the cliff face my hole was set into. I was frozen with fear. Unable to move, unable to drop. I looked the beast straight in the eyes. And then it hit. Full force into the cliff, bringing the whole thing within a mile of the hole, down to the ground. And me with it.

Should I Continue?