incandescent. | leo valdez

z e r o

0. MY SUMMER GETS A LOT STRANGER

Wind rustling the palm trees, a salty breeze that tousled my hair, the rhythmic crashing of the waves. All of these noises would normally aid me in falling asleep, but tonight I wasn't affected by the ocean's spell; it was almost sunrise and I hadn't slept a wink.

I let out a heavy sigh and took off my earbuds, closing my laptop to take a much-needed moment to stretch my arms. I'd been sucked into a spiral of watching strange YouTube content. I think I might've started with some viral DIY video, but now I was viewing a video about caring for pet lizards. I didn't even want a pet lizard.

After letting a yawn escape me, I propped my elbows up on my desk and stared out my window. The sky was a deep, cloudy mass that glittered with stars, obstructed only by several palm trees and dim street lamps. A comet streaked across the blanket of dark velvet and I smiled softly.

"I wish I could have a good summer," I said to the comet, suddenly stirred by some childish excitement. Squinting into the star-speckled inky blackness, I remembered the lengthy list of chores I hadn't done. "Or maybe just an interesting one." My aunt Mariel would be here soon to supervise me while my parents attended their friend's wedding in the Philippines.

They did have one unforeseen oversight. Their flight abroad (planned months before the Incident) was yesterday, giving me some time before my aunt's arrival. She had some work-related things that needed clearing up, meaning she couldn't be here until tomorrow afternoon, leaving me alone in the apartment to enjoy my last day of freedom. My laptop was almost taunting me, a reminder of what I couldn't do while grounded. No phone, no laptop, no leaving the apartment (except for throwing the trash out), and all household tasks were to be done by me. My gaze fixed itself once more on the sky that was now approaching dawn.

Wait a second.

Confused, I tried rubbing the sleep from my eyes, only to be met with the same scene.

There was something in the sky. A rather bright and fiery thing. And it was getting closer.

Was this the apocalypse? Were we about to be wiped out like the dinosaurs? If it was anything along those lines, I knew what was coming would be inevitable. So I pulled open my window, carefully removed the window screen as I did whenever I needed to sneak out, and dropped down into the bushes that lined the perimeter of the apartment complex. I lived on the first floor, but the building is a little elevated, making it more difficult to climb back inside. I added that to the expanding catalog of things I'd overlooked when making this decision.

A lot of people would've thought that to be a foolish choice. I did, too, but it was becoming a bit late for second thoughts. However, there was some desperate part of me that needed answers. Because out of the tornado of theories I had swirling inside my head, I knew the one that would be the most probable. Over the span of my life, I'd seen a lot of strange occurrences. The oddest of all of them, I recalled, was probably when I was twelve and I saw a boy around my age on the beach engaged in combat with a burly biker guy. That was strange enough on its own, even without the added weirdness of the bronze weapons. Oh, and the massive hog that was swept up by a giant wave. Can't forget the hog. And the fact that I was the only person in the crowd of onlookers who saw that and not a gunfight.

I often thought about that day and wondered if I was going crazy. As my bare feet hit the pavement and crossed the asphalt of the road, I thought that might be a viable possibility.

KA-BOOM!