Flashback...
"Lucien, hey ,co say hello to your little brother."
That voice was like a nightmare that never truly faded.
The day everything changed.
He was only five years old.
Lucien clutched his toy as he stood near the door. Across from him stood his father and mother, and beside them was a boy taller than him, probably twice his age, maybe more.
"Lucien, this will be your new elder brother from now on,"
"Co on, don’t be scared. Say hello."
His mother’s soft, gentle voice echoed in his ears.
Tears welled up in Lucien’s eyes as he walked forward unsteadily toward the strange new boy.
"Bro... big. brother?"
Lucien called out quietly.
Both his parents nodded.
Then, finally, Lucien smiled. The other boy smiled too.
They laughed together.
Who would have known...
What the future would bring.
****
Present day..
"No matter what I did, it was always wrong."
Lucien’s voice was low, his eyes misty as mories flooded his mind.
"Whenever I tried to do sothing good, it was always twisted into sothing bad."
"It’s like you all only saw the worst in ..."
"...the bad I never had."
He paused.
Then he laughed.
"But the past is the past."
Lucien straightened himself.
"Since you all saw as soone terrible..."
"...then I beca it."
"And sohow, you all seem to enjoy seeing like this."
He scoffed. "Rubbish."
Lucien stood up and walked toward the wall-length window of his office.
Looking down, he saw the bustling city below cars moving to and fro, towering skyscrapers, massive billboards flashing endlessly.
It must be noisy down there, he thought.
But he felt nothing.
"What a boring life..."
Lucien sighed and shook his head.
The dandy son, famous for indulgence and pleasure, had grown tired not just of his problems, but of the world itself.
"I just wish sothing fun... sothing exciting... would happen."
He took a sharp breath.
"Well... this is the real world."
The fleeting thoughts vanished.Since he couldn’t change anything, he might as well enjoy it to the fullest.
Just as Lucien’s mind drifted
BOOM!
Crack crack!
A violent tremor rippled across the land.
Lucien froze.
"An earthquake?"
The words left his mouth instinctively.
CRASH!
The window shattered violently as the entire building shook.
Glass shards flew everywhere, slicing into Lucien’s body. Pain exploded across his skin but his mind was even more stunned.
A terrifying wave of energy washed over him.
From the horizon, a dark fog rolled in, fast, overwhelming, consuming everything in its path.
Grawlll!
Graaa!
Chommm!
Horrifying sounds echoed from outside as the ground continued to shake.
Lucien staggered, his head buzzing violently.
Though his clothes absorbed most of the glass, sharp pain still stabbed into him. Before he could react
BANG!
The residual force hurled him off his feet.
Lucien slamd hard into the wall.
His breath was instantly knocked out of him. His airway burned as he struggled to breathe, chest tightening violently.
As he fell, his phone slipped from his pocket, skidding across the cracked floor and landing several feet away with a dull clack.
The shaking intensified.
Lucien’s vision blurred.
His body gave out.
Darkness swallowed him whole.
---
Ring. Ring.
Ring. Ring.
A familiar ringtone dragged Lucien back from the void.
"Argh..."
He groaned, struggling to open his eyes.
His head throbbed violently. His body felt impossibly heavy, as if a boulder pressed down on him.
Click.
Lucien reached weakly and grabbed the phone from the floor.
"Thank goodness you picked up... you’re alive."
A deep male voice ca through the phone, quiet, hurried, restrained.
"Where are you?"
Lucien’s eyes widened, the voice seed familiar.
"Dad?"
When was the last ti this man had called him?
Sothing was wrong.
"Yes listen,"
"Sothing terrible has happened."
His father’s voice trembled.
"Your mother... she...she beca a beast."
"A literal man-eating beast."
Lucien’s heart clenched.
"She attacked the maids."
"So of them were already like that."
"They... they ate them."
His father’s breathing grew ragged.
"And after a few minutes..."
"So of the dead stood back up."
"They looked like your mother and the maids but their eyes were black."
"Their expressions... animalistic."
Lucien’s head throbbed violently.
"Dad calm down."
"Are you sure about what you’re saying?".., Lucien asked..
"Lucien, where are you?".., his father hurried asked.
"The world has changed drastically."
"How could you not know?"
Lucien swallowed hard.
"I... I don’t rember much. I was in my office. There was an earthquake.I think I lost consciousness.There’s no one here now."
A sigh of relief escaped from the other side.
"Good."
"Stay there for now."
"Be careful."
"The company building is probably full of them."
Lucien felt a cold chill crawl up his spine.
"They aren’t human anymore."
"They attack anything they see."
Lucien’s heart pounded.
A joke?
No...
His father was serious.
"Dad..."
His hands trembled. As he asked
"If what you’re saying is true..."
"Why isn’t the military handling this?"
"Why is the world still standing?"
"Are you. ".., He hesitated.
" hallucinating?"
Silence.
Heavy breathing filled the call.
"Lucien..."
"Check outside your window."
Lucien looked around.
His suit was covered in dust.
The office was destroyed.
Half the window was gone.
Cracks ran across the floor.
Fear crept into his chest.
No this was more than fear.
This was shock.
He struggled to stand, teeth clenched, body trembling.
Step by step, he reached the shattered window.
And froze.
Smoke filled the air.
Buildings lay in ruins.
Cars wailed endlessly.
The sky burned red as the sun stretched across the horizon.
And beneath it all
The stench of burnt flesh and blood.
Lucien’s pupils shrank.
Below, creatures road the streets.
Calling them human felt wrong.
They were beasts slow, blood-soaked, tearing into screaming people.
Bodies fell.
Screams echoed.
"Da... dad..."
Lucien’s voice shook.
"Is this..."
"...the end of the world?"
On the other end of the line, his father closed his eyes.
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