“It was late 1940. The winters were always harshest, at this time of year. The cruel work of the Nazi’s made it that much worse. Forcing so many Jewish to the Warsaw Ghetto. A teenager, at the age of 17, had lost his name. He had been branded by a simple number, upon his arm: 2024. This is the name he had decided to keep, to show his rebellion against the Nazi Germans who had taken his family, and allowed them to die; not him. He had been forced to live in this torture of an existance, but he would not stay and be a captive as they had made so many others. He ran. 2024 had freed himself, and escaped into the wilds, only to be found by other refugees. When asked how he had escaped, his eyes were wild, uncertain, yet there was a strange peace to his tone.


“The words. They kept the path stable...they kept me safe. Just as they said they would...”


“BOOGITY BOOGITY.” One of my friends-Rob- would waggle his fingers at me, and begin to laugh.


Two of the teens near the fire gave a little snicker, as I finished up my piece in our little ‘around the campfire’ story telling contest. There were eight of us out here, taking a break from the mundane life that had befallen most people in this time.


“Hey, could you show a little respect?” The blond next to me, a friend of mine named Kristi would snap towards one of my other friends, a sarcastic guy named Chris. “What? Cool it would ya, Kristi?”


His response simply elicited a huff from her. This was normal, for us. It was all normal, I guess, being we each have our own little weird things that makes us...well, us. The three of us are Artists, I guess I should be saying.. Me and Kristi are writers, Chris is gifted with a pencil when it comes to drawing (though the things he draws kind of scares me some times), though Kristi was about the same. To be truthful, Kristi- Kristina- had the entire package. She could sing, write, dance, draw, and she was beautiful. Sometimes, I wondered why she hung out with us.


“Though, Chris is right, Alex.” Kristi would turn on her seat, to face me. “That story was a little silly.” “Hey, it’s what my dad told me, about his dad...he died a year before I was born, so...I’ll never really know for sure.” I could only shrug after this, and then look into the fire. They were right, words that could come to life WAS pretty silly, wasn’t it? Yet, whenever I asked my father if the story was true or not, he always seemed to attempt to dodge the subject as stealthily as possible. “Alright, alright, enough with mocking my story.” I announced, as another chuckle fit came from Brandon and Chris, to my left. I sighed, and got up, heading for the RV. “You guys can do whatever you want, I’m going to keep writing.” I could feel eyes on my back as I walked away, though I wasn’t sure who it was, it would have to wait for another time. I grabbed my notebook and pen, and climbed up the ladder to the top of the RV, laying on my back, and looking up to the stars.


Whenever I wrote, I could feel as if something else was coming through me. Another person, speaking through me and taking control of my words, which is why I tended to speak aloud what I wrote.

“The stars were a dim light in the sky, as the sun fell over the horizon, greeting the land with a blanket of darkness.” I began, pausing, and looking at the sky. The sun was going down, finally. I guess that I wrote about my surroundings. “Calum was alone, here. Not a sound from animals, only the soft whistle of the wind to show that he was truly alive. This was one of the last few peaceful places left in the world, with all of the technology bustling, and what was left of the old worlds road ways, now overtaken by skybridges branching across most of the world. Calum sat, patiently, and waited, before glancing back to the sky.” I paused, setting my pen down, and glanced to the sky.


There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the stars were shining so brightly here, not like in the city. In the city, you could barely see anything, but here, it was so overwhelming. There were so many stars in the sky, that it felt like it was all closing around me...I opted to go back to writing, drawing my eyes from the light.. “The flickers of falling stars illuminated the sky above the brown haired man. ‘Calum,’ he started, simply. ‘That is my name. And I speak this to any being above who will listen...please, save this world from what it has become.’ The man turned, looking over his shoulder, to the bright lights of the city, and then back up to the stars. The bright streaks of falling stars were beginning to get closer.” I stopped. The wind began to tickle my neck, as I let out a small, kind breath, and looked up into the sky. I could see all the stars littering the sky, but that wasn’t what I was looking at. In between the stars, there was something there. Small black spots, that stood out like a star against the dark void of space.


My entire field of vision darkened. Stars vanished entirely, feeding to the black void, as I heard a whispering voice in the distance, and my world began to spin, suddenly feeling very nauseous. I sat up; the RV was no longer there. In fact...nothing was there. It was all dark, except for a white light, very far away from me. I felt cold stone at my feet, and began to walk towards it...I heard the whispers again, this time able to recognize them. They were my friends, back at the camp. Was I asleep? Where was this? The white light dimmed for a brief moment, as I neared it, then blazed a new with a magnificent glory, and then faded entirely, revealing a white armored being, staring me down with glowing blue eyes. Beneath the armor pieces, was a blue skin suit, as the being looked towards me.


Slowly, it raised a finger, and my throat closed up. My body convulsed, and I collapsed to the void, feeling hard rock beneath my back. I struggled to my feet, feeling my mind trying to grasp at the image before me, the white armored beast, before those same black spots entered my vision, then finally, I collapsed once more. The silent trickle of darkness into my vision as I felt my body slowly erode away into the darkness made me tired, and slowly my world faded to black.

And through it all, I could hear one voice alone. None I recognized, but one that felt so familiar, though it spoke only one statement, over and over.

“The words will set me free, and the words will free your soul.”

I awoke with a start, on top of the RV, breathing heavily. My eyes darted back and forth, and up to the sky. Everything was back. The stars were there, and the black spots were gone. I looked to my paper pad, and saw that three more pages had been filled, with my hand writing, but that wasn’t the most disturbing part. All over my left hand, every bit of it, and forearm had writing on it. What had happened to me was startling, and it frightened me. The being with white armor was something I had been thinking of using as the monster in my story, a being to reset humanity back to the start of civilization, to undo all that we had done. My hands slowly moved to my throat...I could feel a sharp pain when I touched, as I yanked away my hand. It was sore? Why? What had happened, in that dream? My hands, now shaking, drew up to my face, as I looked to my arm, reading the words there. They weren’t anything from this chapter, or anything I had ever even conceived before, as I began to read aloud. “The civilizations of the world crumbled beneath the hand of this army, the indestructible force the words had created. It all started with the stars. The dim streak across the sky gave way to the eternal darkness that was to come. ” I stopped. The writing had become unintelligble and impossible to read from there. That must have been when I woke up.


This was too weird. I needed to keep this to myself, for now, no one else would believe me anyway, so it was best to keep it to myself. I turned to the last page in my notebook, and wrote down what was on my arm, and began to clean it off. I pulled my cellphone from my pocket, and looked to the display. My phone was off? I attempted to power it on, though it remained off. Had the battery died? I sighed, and climbed down off the RV, and headed inside. It must have been late, because everyone was in their bunks. Robyn and Kristi bunked in the front, Chris and Brandon in the back, Tucker and myself in the area behind Chris and Brandon, and Sean and Tony were in their own cars.


The first thing I noticed was the stench in the room. “Ugh, which one of you two farted...” I covered my nose, glaring in Chris’ and Brandon’s direction. Then I heard the dripping sound. I headed towards the sink, thinking one of them had left the sink on, when I stepped in the puddle, infront of Kristi and Robyn’s bunk. I looked up, seeing Kristi’s hand dangling over the side of the bed.


The taste in the air was stale. Things were wrong, here, like I wasn’t where I was supposed to be. The spine tingling sensation from before slid up my back, eliciting a shudder from me, as I observe Kristi’s body. Her...corpse. No...no, that wasn’t right. Something had happened. Things had changed, everything was darker, and Kristi was...A red liquid dripped down her arm. Her blanket was tossled off of her, and a deep, jagged cut ran from her left side, up her chest, and into her throat. The sight was too gruesome for me to understand, as I shook her. “K-Kristi...come on, this isn’t funny...”


She didn’t stir. This had to be a joke, right? My friends were the type to play this kind of prank on me, no matter how disturbing it was, as long as they got their laugh. I looked to Robyn, then Brandon and Chris. They were all fine, breathing peacefully, but why weren’t they awake? I leaned down to Robyn, checking her pulse. There...was nothing, but she was breathing. What was happening, what was this? How could this be possible? I looked back to Kristi, and saw her head turn to me, and one of her eyes open shallowly, with a groan. “Nnh...” “Kristi? Oh, god, Kristi...”


“Uhn...what do you want...What isn’t funny?” The ‘dead’ Kristi turned to look at me, as everything flashed white. The blood, and damage on her dissapeared. The smell did as well. “Why did you wake me up?” She questioned, and I bolted, running out from the RV, holding notebook in hand as I evaded out into the night, moving to the open area near by, and sitting on a rock, setting the notebook down infront of me, as I buried my face in my hands. “What is happening to me?”


The wind picked up, and I instinctively reached for my notebook, to cover it from the wind. However, the wind had not picked up and moved the notebook. Simply opened it, to the next page of writing. I picked it up, and observed the words written upon the page. I had not written this, and I knew I had not. What had done this? Who, rather, had done this? It was my handwriting, but I couldn’t remember it. I flipped to the back momentarily, and the words were still there. The indestructible force the words had created? What could that mean? I looked back to the first of the pages I had not written, and began to read. “ The sky was falling. That was the most Calum could make, as the streaks became clearer, and flew above him, ramming into the city scape into the distance. Meteors had come, and struck the city, and he could only stand and stare in awe, until the plumes of fire began to rise, and he began to run. His friends, his family, what had he done? He could only see that it was his fault that this was happening, what he had wished for! The run was tiring, and painful, but not because of physical reasoning; he was in peak condition, but the things running through his mind were killer on his psyche, he had always had an active imagination. When he had crossed into the city limits, he saw the consequences of his wishes. The city was...devastated. There was nothing left, wrecked and ruined, as Calum would break into a run for his home, only to find it crouch in his door, his wife in its hands.


Holding her, the white armored beast stood, grasping her by the throat, as it slowly lifted her