When Forever Ends (Part 1: A Game of Chess)

Day 1

Day 1

They came in the night. It was with no warning, one moment I was settling into bed, the next, the windows were smashed in by huge, gloved hands. I was terrified, the fear rushing through me like a rabid animal. The hands destroyed every bit of glass in the window frames, then swiftly withdrew. For a minute, everything was silent and I thought that they had gone.

Then the wall was crushed as a giant, wheeled machine tore through it and came to a stop inches from where I lay. A lone scream pierced the air, high and shrill. It may have been mine, but I couldn't tell.

From the thick fog outside they came. Towering figures clothed in a thick-looking material, armed with small cannons whose barrels glowed with an eerie greenish light.

I saw a silhouette run from the hallway and towards the giants. It waved its hands in the air and shouted at them.

"Wait! Stop!" I recognized my father's voice. "That's my family!"

"Step aside, Jack," one of them pushed him out of the way. "We have no quarrel with you." He stared at them in shock, then rushed back into the house, presumably to get my brother.

My mother rushed in just as they started firing, and threw herself in front of me to block the shots. One green sphere hit her square in the chest.

To my horror, she began slowly disintegrating. She fell in my arms and looked up at me with a weak smile.

"Go," she whispered. "Take your bag and go. And remember, I love you always."

I love you too, I replied. I wiped a tear from my cheek.

"Be strong," she croaked.

Mother, I whispered. Mother!

But she was already gone.

I grabbed the emergency bag I kept for situations like this and ran off into the night, losing myself in the Endless.

And I swore to myself, I vowed, that I would have my revenge.