The City That Slipped

It's Gone

     The greatest fear is the fear of the unknown and it was right outside the diner. Tabatha knew something bad was happening, the televisions were all static and people were dropping their glasses and running out of the door. She could hear screams that would stop in an instant and the air was visibly bending and warping like that of which radiates off of a hot pavement. She slammed open the door and hurried outside. Her red hair blew in front of her face in which she hastily brushed behind her ear. Down the road, near second street, was some weird energy that reflected a shine from the sun overhead which appeared to be eclipsing. Everything the weird energy touched seemed to simply cease to exist and it seemed to be moving slowly through the city street. She turned around to run away and saw that same energy pushing in slowly as well. They were being surrounded by it. She watched in awe as an old man that was holding himself up with a cane reached a hand out and touched the odd energy but that was all that she saw. The man simply disappeared. All traces of him, except the clattering of the cane on the ground, vanished into thin air.

     Tabatha let out a deafening shriek at the sight and sprinted around the corner of the block where she was met with that same wall of energy. The wall of energy that was erasing everything. She dropped to her knees and tears began to fall from her piercing blue eyes. What would her inevitable doom feel like? Were they dying or simply being erased from existence? What would ceasing to exist feel like? Maybe all fear and thought would leave in a snap or maybe the body had gone but the consciousness lingered on in some limbo searching for its lost body. She stared at the encroaching wall of energy and peered through its blurry veil. Within she could see something, albeit vague. She couldn't tell exactly what it was outside of a gelatinous shape that she couldn't begin to comprehend. The writhing of appendages and misshapen fingers scurried about on the other side of the wall. Is THAT what was awaiting her?

     The wall was close. She could hear the faint buzz of the energy accompanied by faint and distant screams of agony. She looked around her to see others close by, clinging to the short time they all had left. The child, no more than five years old, was clinging to her mother's chest with his head buried into her. The mom was comforting him and telling the small boy that everything would be fine, a simple lie to soften the end, whatever that may be, when it came. The husband and wife sitting knees against knees. He held her face to his, both crying hysterically, and kept repeating that he loved her and her repeating the same back to him. The businessman, undoubtedly, was mourning his loved ones. He was screaming to the sky, wishing he could have been there for them. He knew that they had already gone. Was he assuming or did he see them vanish as she had the old man?

     She couldn't help but think of her own family, how her parents were thousands of miles away. The last time she had seen them was about a year ago. If she knew it would have been her last, she would have cherished it. The trip was short, she only stayed one night, and she simply visited them out of obligation for the holiday. She wondered if whatever was happening was being broadcast on television somewhere or if it was completely unknown. A hiccup and a sneeze then nothing but rolling pastures, a simple overlooked disturbance in the stadium of chaos. No one was ever to know the difference. Or was her mother and father watching the city disappearing, knowing that their one and only daughter might as well have never been born. Nary a trace would be left of her, only the lingering memories that fade over time would remain.

     Her husband had gone out of town for a case that he had picked up. He would come back to be with her to see nothing. She couldn't help but feel a terrible pang of regret, he had offered to take her along but she simply declined. She wanted to stay and hold their home down and work on some of her orders that she received for her personal business, she received a larger order for her creative bows that had a deadline in a week. Tabatha whimpered at the thought that her husband and she had been trying for a baby and Tabatha felt like this month might have been it. she started to feel a little different, like she just knew that she was pregnant. She was also late that month but she would never know now. What future they may have had was being erased by this horrible wall closing in. He would never know if they were to ever have a child or if they would grow old together. Where was he? Was he simply in his hotel going over case documents or was he drunk in a bar after hearing some rough details on a case. He enjoyed a nice beer here and there but he only ever got drunk when he became too stressed.

     They were all staring intently at their coming doom, not paying any attention to anything or anyone around them. People were tripping over each other in a feeble attempt to give themselves more time. The wall was about fifteen feet in diameter and closing in slowly. Tabitha hastily brought her cell phone out as she began to accept her fate. She wanted to call David to tell him that she loved him. To tell him how much he meant to her. She opened the phone to see that there was no signal. She let out a whimper of a cry and threw her phone at the wall.

     The mother was backing up slowly, she was only about four feet from the wall. The businessman ran to the center, shoving his way through the small group of people and slammed into the mother's back sending her tumbling forward. The young child reached out reflexively to stop her fall and touched the wall that was closing in more every second and was gone, all dreams that child had, all of her aspiration, every laugh she was going to share with her friends and family, all vanished into nothingness like they've never been. The mother dropped to her knees and screamed louder than anything Tabatha has ever heard and ran to the wall disappearing in an instant and the scream lingered shortly after but faded quickly. Tabatha closed her eyes and held her legs close to her body while she awaited the inevitable end. The businessman was sobbing and the married couple were still expressing their love to one another, they were now pressing their foreheads together through closed eyes and were holding each other tightly. She could hear the faint buzzing grow closer and the distant screaming seemed to intensify. Tabatha also thought that she could hear something else, the otherworldly sounds of creatures, murmuring and cackling in a language unknown. She cried softly, accepting her fate. The wall was very near but she didn't dare to look. She uttered her last words, "I love you, David," and then there was nothing.