The Sun Never Came Up

The Man and the Phantoms

No one knew how many days it had been. Not even if weeks, months, or even if years had passed by. The only thing that people knew was that time . . . had become timeless . . . and the Sun never came up.

Even though the Sun never came up, the people continued living their lives normally. But that's when simple ideas such as using a flashlight to see in the dark became a part of life. Without the use of a simple flashlight, the rest of humanity couldn't continue . . . then, the riots broke out

People became angry and gangs harassed and mugged people, but nobody could ever see who they were, because only their shadows were emitted under a lonely street lamp. Windows were broken, grocery stores had been robbed, banks crashed, and other stores across the world had been looted. Soon, every single person became frightened, fearing that they would have to fend for themselves. The only thing that everyone knew was that time had become timeless, . . . and the Sun never came up.

Then, as if things couldn't become any worse, loud wails and roars shook the Earth alive, like a massive earthquake. Nobody knew what or who they were, and those that went outside to investigate were never heard or seen from again. Soon, a sound became a very important tool, so that humanity could still find a way to thrive, but outside my own home, stomps and screaming could be heard outside, however we still didn't know what these creatures were. The only thing we knew was that time . . . had become timeless . . . and the Sun never came up.

I was born on July 6th, 2003. and still. . . nobody could pinpoint the exact date when the night had become forever, and life became still. But I believed that it happened sometime near the end of December in the year 2016. I was thirteen at the time and news reporters interviewed scientists as they rushed to find out why the Sun hadn't come up, peering over thousands of towns and illuminating the beauty of Earth. Humanity began to survive like this for three more years, and I was sixteen at the time, but then . . . the suicides began.

Many people felt that life . . . was simply not worth living anymore and the only way to fill the emptiness of that void in their soul was suicide. Occasionally, I could hear the thump of a corpse by jumping off of a building or stabbing themselves, and even shooting themselves with a gun. And that's the way life had been ever since.

I had been living inside an abandoned two-story house. The walls were peeling, and it smelled musty, but still . . . it was home.

I had been living by myself but since I had no idea how to cook anything. I would usually sneak into a grocery store and steal some food from the place. This was relatively easy because the lighting was dim and I usually wear a poorly made mask from cardboard.

I've never really had any suicidal thoughts unlike the rest of what is left of humanity around me. Sure, life felt empty sometimes, but ...the only thing I could come to is...acceptance.

Mostly, I would look at the window of the house before I went to a crappy made sleeping bag and only one time I saw some kind of pale creature like a corpse except it only had one arm and no legs, just... dragging its torso across the street, a few yards away from the old house. I've seen other creatures too, but all of them, except for that one being, were all just large, dark silhouettes . . . nearly fitting in with the forever midnight sky.

After a while of staring out the window (this time, not seeing anything outside in the dark), I slowly crawled into my sleeping bag and tried so hard to close my eyes before a pounding came upon the, old wooden door of the house. I tried to ignore it and covered my ears, but every three seconds, the pounding had gotten louder. Finally, there was one pound so loud that it nearly shook the entire house. I feared that the creature or figure would soon bust the door open, I crept over the door and looked through the peephole, and to my surprise, there was no one there. Confused, but relieved, I slowly crawled back into the sleeping bag, but then the pounding came back again.