Megan and the Invisibles

Megan Grey was the only human in the city of Philadelphia. In fact, she was the only human left on Earth. She was only 32 years old, and art was her passion – other than being a wife and mother. She knew that the world she was used to was completely gone, and she could not interact with any other human being.

It has been about a week, and she still could not understand how her life changed from being part of society to having the entire world missing. Before her world disappeared, she was married to Andrew Grey, a theater director and her high school sweetheart. Occasionally, they had their fights about his possible affair with one of his performers. Both had a two-year-old son named Jacob who kept her terribly busy most of the time. The toddler was also one of her major stressors in her life. It was a challenge for her to deal with the mischiefs, multifarious cries, and the aggressive tantrums. Megan’s prior life was not perfect. However, she would go through fire and brimstone a thousand times in a heartbeat to get her family back. Complete loneliness was her new life.

It was a crisp evening in the fall of 2023. The city of Brotherly Love was utterly deserted and severely eerie. Humans were nowhere to be found. Blood-curdling roars were the only noises that can be heard, but there were no sources. Some of the roars were loud, some were faint, and some were thunderous as if there were more than one invisible entity causing them. The roars were sporadic, and they randomly can be heard.

Behind a local liquor store, Megan was dragging an adult male mannequin to a nearby dumpster. The mannequin was dressed in a set of dirty burgundy sweat suit and a pair of brown steel toe boots. The woman was in distress as she hauled the mannequin to the dumpster. By the time she reached the dumpster, she struggled putting it inside, but she did succeed.

“I can’t believe I did that,” Megan faintly cried.

Loud sound of horrifying roars erupted a few feet away. Megan was startled. She could not see what caused the roars, but she knew where it was coming from. Her heart was racing, her palms were sweaty, and her anxiety rose to the sky. As the sound was getting louder, she gasped and ran off.

Megan never knew what created these roars. She always heard them, but she never saw these indiscernible entities. They were invisible to her. It was a daily thing that she had to encounter. Even after one week, she was still afraid to hear them.

Thirty minutes later, Megan entered a three-bedroom unit of a huge apartment in Center City. The living room was spacious enough to include a dining table. The walls and furnishings were mostly purple. The décor that stood out the most were her own surreal paintings on the walls.

On the couch, there was an adult male mannequin which was in an upright sitting position. This was a different mannequin. It was wearing dark blue denim jeans, a yellow Polo T-shirt, and no footwear. There was a strong resemblance between the mannequin and her husband based on the short, deep brown hair, green eyes, and eyeglasses. With Andrew gone, Megan felt the need to replace him with a mannequin. It was her way to not be alone. It was her way to keep her sanity.

Megan looked at the mannequin version of Andrew. She smiled and took a deep breath. “Honey, I’m home.” She sat next to the mannequin and rested her head on the shoulder of her fake husband. “I’m tired of hearing those things out there. I don’t want them to hurt me. I don’t want them to hurt us.”

Multiple of roars were being heard from the window. Even though the volume was somewhat low, Megan trembled uncontrollably. She feared that she would encounter these unknown entities. She was so afraid to be face-to-face with them. She wrapped her arms around the mannequin and bawled for comfort.

The next hour, Megan was finally calmed after that panic attack. She entered a bedroom which belonged to her son, Jacob. After she switched on the light, she sweetly smiled at the crib across from her. “Andy, I’m going to check on the baby,” she said in a stern voice. After she approached the crib, she picked up a male baby doll which was three feet long and cradled it in her arms.

The sound of a baby crying emerged in her head. Megan gently placed the doll’s chest against hers and comfort it. “Don’t cry, sweetie. Mommy’s here.” She rocked her body in the act of calming the doll version of Jacob.

A few hours later, it was shortly after midnight. Megan sat on a bench at the John F. Collins Park. She ignored the beautiful landscape gardening around her as she had her attention on another mannequin.

This mannequin was placed in an upright sitting position on the bench. It was in the form of an old woman with short, curly, gray hair. The mannequin was wearing a camel color wool-cashmere coat with a matching color fur collar. A maroon blouse can be seen underneath the coat which matched the maroon thick studded classic beret on the head. The legs of the mannequin revealed a pair of nude stockings and a pair of black hardware heel loafer.

Out of loneliness and desperation, Megan was speaking to the mannequin as if it was listening to her. “I know he was cheating on me. After all of the sacrifices I have made for him, he decided to screw an actress he was working with. It was going on for over two years. My life fell apart when I found out about her.” She turned to the mannequin as if she was seeking for answers. “Why did he do that to me? We’ve loved each other since high school.” She sighed as she looked away and down at the ground. “But I am grateful that things seem to be getting better. They stopped seeing each other. Even though we are working things out, it still bothers me that the affair happened.”

The sound of horrifying roars was being heard – again. It startled Megan and caused her to jump up with a loud gasp. “They are coming,” she stated as she was nervously looking around. She looked at the mannequin with sincere. “I can’t stay. Thank you for listening to me.” She ran off into the opposite direction of the alarming sound.

The next day came, and Megan was in a room different from the two bedrooms at her apartment. It was her art room, and it was somewhat of a mess. All over the floor, there were old newspapers with spots of paint in assorted colors. A big, wooden table had used art tools spread out. The room had her artwork all over the walls. An empty easel was already set in the center of the room.

Megan was in the process of sorting through her artwork in one corner of the room. She was comparing different paintings. She planned to decide which one to select. Finally, she grabbed one painting that pleased her. The painting was in dark colors, and it included a serpent fighting a lion. “I think this would look great at the Cambria,” she said with delight. As she proudly held onto the painting, she exited the room.

About thirty minutes later, Megan entered the Cambria Hotel in Downtown Center City as she held her painting with care. As she remained still, her eyes toured the empty lobby. She was trying to figure out where to place her painting. There were so many available spots on the wall for her to choose from. She was undecided. “Where to put this?”

Suddenly, she heard a roar from the front desk. She frantically looked at the front desk, but she saw nothing that made the sound. Gradually, more roaring sounds emerge from the front counter. They were getting louder and becoming more gruesome to her. She cried as she backed away from the blaring sounds of multiple roars. Then, more roars emerged from the main entrance. She was alone in the hotel, and she could not determine what was roaring at her. The only answer she produced was they were invisible, dark entities.

“WHO ARE YOU?” she screamed. “WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?”

Immediately after she screamed out her words, the roars stopped. She did not know what was happening. She did not know if these invisible entities went away. She was confused. She was afraid.

“Why are you doing this to me?” she whimpered.

Then, she heard soft roars in different areas of the lobby. She did not know if the entities returned to torment her. She did not understand this bizarre experience. She was extremely worried about what will happen to her. For a second there, she thought her scream warded off these invisible creatures. But why did they slowly return? To hurt her? To destroy her? Maybe to take her to see her family?

Out of fear, she dropped her painting and ran out of the hotel. In front of the building, she ran into the street. She felt her heart rate increasing and her chest being filled up with mild pain. She had shortness of breath and was overwhelmed with panic.

Without warning, an ear-splitting sound of a horn was blasting from a vista white Toyota Highlander. The vehicle violently struck Megan and caused her body to fly back about a yard away. It abruptly halted immediately after the hit. Was it possible that there was another human other than Megan?

As Megan was lying motionless on the street, a few pedestrians and motorists were carefully approaching her. The driver of the Highlander even stepped out of his vehicle to check on Megan. He kneeled by her to examine her vitals. He was hoping to witness some movement or at least get a pulse. The unfortunate incident caused major traffic on South Broad Street. Pedestrians and motorists? So, Megan was not the only human after all. She never was.

It has been one month since Megan’s accidental death. Everything seems about normal as the city was overpopulated with busy citizens. Buildings were occupied. Streets were filled with moving and non-moving cars, and traffic was endless. People were socializing everywhere. It seemed as if humans never even disappeared.

It was a brisk afternoon. At the Woodlands Cemetery, a man was standing before a headstone. His name was Roger Vance, and he was the same driver who fatally hit Megan with his car. He stood silently as he stared at Megan’s headstone with melancholy.

A young woman in her early twenties appeared from behind. She was wearing a pair of eyeglasses while she held a red rose. She saw Roger standing in front of Megan’s headstone. She slowly stepped forward as she tried to capture Roger’s attention. “Are you a family member of hers?” she innocently questioned.

Roger turned to face the woman. He gave her a warm smile as a greeting. The smile disappeared as he struggled answering the question. “No, I’m not.” He sighed. “I’m actually the reason why she’s here.” He turned back to face the headstone. “I’m hoping her family would forgive me.”

“Oh, you’re Mr. Vance.” The woman slowly approached the headstone to stand side by side with Roger. “I might be the reason too.”

Roger looked at her with confusion. “What?”

“My name is Amy Collier, and I knew them. I heard that one night… Megan killed her husband and their baby.”

Roger’s jaw dropped out of sorrow. “That’s horrible.”

“They found his dead body sitting on the couch, and the baby was in the crib. I heard that after she murdered them, she started acting really crazy.”

“How so?”

“She ignored the people around her. She functioned as if no one else was around but her.” Amy shrugged. “When people talked to her or around her, she would have panic attacks and run off. So many witnesses were saying this.” She leaned a little closer to Roger. “And get this. She even killed two more people.”

“She killed more people?”

“Yeah. One was some homeless guy. They found his body in a dumpster behind a liquor store. The other one was an elderly woman. They found her at the John F. Collins Park. Her poor body was lifeless on a bench. There were witnesses who saw Megan kill those people.”

“Was that the reason she ran in front of my car? Was she trying to commit suicide because of all that?”

“I don’t know. I heard that the guests at the Cambria hotel saw her freaking out in the lobby during checkout time. This happened right before the accident. One of the front desk clerks tried to talk to her because no one knew what was going on with her. She even left one of her paintings there.”

“Obviously, she needed help.” Roger had a thought. “But wait. You mentioned that you might also be the reason she is dead. I don’t get it. And why did she kill her family?”

Amy took a deep breath and removed her eyeglasses. “On the night she murdered her family, neighbors heard her arguing with her husband. Meanwhile, the baby was crying profusely. They were arguing about him sleeping with an actress. The husband was a theater director, and word got out that he was having an affair. Megan found out, and that was when it all began. The neighbors heard the argument and the crying stopped. And that was it. Megan started acting weird after that. After the bodies were found, it was concluded that she strangled her husband. Then, she suffocated the baby.”

“So, she found out about the affair and snapped.”

“Yes.”

“But… you have not told me why you are blaming yourself for her death.”

Amy calmly placed the rose in front of the headstone. She gave Roger heavy eye contact. “Because I was the mistress. I was the one who had an affair with her husband.”

Roger was flabbergasted after hearing the bombshell. He had no verbal response as he looked away.

Amy calmly put her eyeglasses back on. “I guess crazy things were going on in her head. Have a great day, Mr. Vance.” She smiled and walked away.