Two hours was all it took for you to run. One moment, you were watching television with your mother. She was asking about you during that breakfast, wondering how you are and your work. You said it was going well, and that despite large workloads, the environment was tolerable enough. You never said something about the downsizing that happened due to people converting into them. Your mother was more worried about the sudden disappearances of your neighbors. Some said they joined the insurgents, to fight against the blinded since they have been robbed of a future. Others said they were killed and stashed away to be silenced. You, despite all this, did not care. Mother was sick at the time, and so you had to mind your budgeting of what little money you had. You almost went zero due to the medications, but you managed to survive by eating only once a day. Thank God for your resilience.
Thank fucking God for that resilience.
You heard a static as soon as you left your mother's gaze to wash the dishes. You asked if there was something wrong with the television, but nobody answered back. How strange, you thought, that rarely happens. A familiar tune plays, followed by an announcement.
"We interrupt your regularly scheduled program for an important announcement."
What happened next was a flash of moments condensed into a single second. Words weren't spoken through the announcement, but noise no possible human could make. You wonder what that was when what sounded like an amalgamation of voices screaming and barely comprehensible echoed outside of your house. You instinctively covered your ears, wondering what the fuck are you hearing. You screamed at your mother, but she only screamed back at you, joining the amalgamation of voices. You watched as green finger-like tendrils grew out of her temple, bending as if liquid in nature. These tendrils reach as far as they can until their ends burrow into your mother's eyes. Tears of crimson red trailed down her nose bridge and cheeks, as what you can only assume was her laughter was made. The door busted open, as seven of these, whatever you can call them, grabbed your mother and made their way to the door. You wanted to fight back, but you felt your head was about to split open, so you did what any sensible human would do, and hid.
Like the coward you are, you hid.
Until the screaming ended, you hid.
Until the tears stopped falling, you hid.
Until a second of eternity passed, you hid.
And then, silence.
