*BOOM*-
"God damn it Micheal! I said a little gas to get the fire going!" I yelled, watching my friend roll on the ground laughing at me.
"Oh calm down Chris, you're only missing an eyebrow... or two."Kim says while trying to stiffen her laughter. "And if you ask me I say its an improvement"
" well excuse me, but I'm not to fond of being on fire." I say dusting off the few embers
Micheal finally catches his breath " Sorry bro, I really didn't expect it to be that big." he says with a grin.
" Its alright, no real harm done. Besides, I've had worse."
" yeah, like that time you made out with that trap!" Kim says.
"Screw you, I was drunk and it didn't help that you two decided to dump me off on 6th street!" I reply, causing both of my friends to laugh even harder.
"Well guys, as much as I would love to kill Chris with embarrassment, its getting late. I'll catch y'all in the morning." said Micheal as he walked to the tent.
"goodnight" Kim says to him.
"You better sleep with one eye open ya bastard." I yell at him. To which he gives me the finger. I laugh it off.
"Hes right, its late." Kim says." you coming?" she asks as she gets out off of her log.
" Nah, I'll be there in a bit." i say with a smile.
"Okay, good night. Don't let the vashta nerada bite!"
"Damn it Kim! you know I hate those things!"
" yeah, why else did I say it" she says with a playful smile and walks to the tent .
" yeah yeah, love you too Kimmy" I say.
As I sat there poking the fire, my eyes wander to the tent with my two best friends. Best friends. Hell, I consider them my family. We've helped each other through personal highs and lows. The death of Micheal's father when he was 12, Kim when she broke her leg and lost the scholarship, they helped me when both my parents died and I had nowhere to go. We looked out for each other, we were a family.
If you have never been out in central Texas at night away from the cities, you would soon realize that you can see more of the night sky than you would imagine. I looked up at the stars and sighed. " I hope something exciting happens this week. " i quietly say to myself. Unknown to me was the shooting star that passed overhead along with the clouds rolling in.
Finally exhaustion sets in and I get up and douse the fire. That's when I noticed something off... there was no noise. I couldn't hear a single cricket, or cicada. there was no wind yet there was a large cloud formation filling the sky rather quickly. Something was coming, and it was coming soon.
I rushed to the tent and poked my head inside, " Micheal! kim! get up, we need to leave. Like now!"
" Wha-whats wrong ?"
"I don't know, but something is about to happen and I don't want to be caught in the middle of it. I need you guys to trust me, just get dressed and head to the jeep. "
Micheal says "Okay man, I trust you just give me a sec."
" Alright, just hurry!"
As Micheal and Kim step out of the tent, a bolt of lightning stuck the ground across the clearing from the tent.The resulting flash of light and noise knocked the three of up to the ground. That was somewhat expected for a strike so close, the weird part was, where the lightning had struck there was a small orb of light. floating about four feet off the ground.
We just sat there in shock as we stared at the light.
" wh- what in the world..." Kim says as the orb begins to slowly move in a circle around our campsite.
The otherworldly sphere started to go faster and faster. Soon there was nothing but a wall of bright light surrounding us. We held each other close, in a vain attempt to protect each other.
Then, just as soon as it had begun. It stopped. We all looked up at it just in time to see it wink out of existence, then explode into what can be best described as a black hole. This thing was easily 20 feet in diameter, it had a thin ring of light around it. And it sucked, literally. Within seconds it was sucking everything from rocks to loose tree branches and all of our camping gear. struggling to get away from this abomination we held onto each other and headed for the trees. Micheal made it to a tree first then pulled Kim and myself closer to it. We were almost to the tree when it seemed like the worst was almost over. Boy were we wrong, the vortex strengthened and started pulling harder. So hard that our feet were being lifted off the ground, pulled towards a sure death.
That's when my grip failed. As I started to loose my grip Micheal reached out and caught my arm.
" No, you are Not dying like this! You still owe me that fifty bucks!" He yelled through the cyclone, pulling me back to the tree.
Just as I was close enough to grab a hold of the tree again, a rock the size of a baseball flew by and stuck Micheal in the arm.
"Ahhh! Fuck, no! " Micheal cried in pain as he lost his grip.
WHACK!
"Oww what the fuck?" I yell as something hits my head. Looking at the ground I see what hit me... a boot.
"Up here moron!"
And sure enough, there was Kim suspended upside down in a net of vines, sans one boot.
“So are you gonna give me a hand or just stand there?" she asks, impatient as always.
“Well, it’s good to see you too Kimmy, you did always have a knack for giving me headaches." I tease, climbing up the tree.
"Well you know me, I get pleasure from other peoples pain Christina." Kim says, unamused by the nickname I gave her.
“Okay, point taken." I say as I started cutting away at the vines.
“We thought we lost you." Kim says while trying to pull herself out of the network of vines.
“So did I," I said, "what happened after... after I ... left?"
“Well," Kim says," after you were sucked in the tree started to give way. So both Michael and I were pulled in with the tree. Next thing I know is I'm falling out of the sky and land in this tree then you showed up."
"Well you're alright, that's what’s important eh?" I ask.
"Yeah, you're right… for once." she says with a smirk. Once back on the ground we shared a hug. “Thanks for coming Chris."
"Hey, you know me. I'm a sucker for lost causes." I say, to which I promptly get punched in the shoulder.
“Heh, I can just feel the love." I say, rubbing my sore arm.
"Anyways, we better get moving. I don't like this place, and we still need to find Michael."
"Yeah, let’s go. I think he fell that way." Kim replies. Pointing further down the lake shore.
As we walked along the shoreline we noticed allot of our camping gear made it here as well.
"Hey, why don't you go ahead? I'll hold back and see if there's anything left that's still usable." says Kim.
"Sure thing, just be careful. I don't think were in Texas anymore." I tell her.
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"Kim, I don't know if I can do this. Write what happened next that is." I say. Staring down at the paper. Fresh tears welling up.
"Yes you can, what’s done is done. And do you really think he would want you to be sobbing over him?"
"No, I guess you’re right." I say.
"I’m always right, now come on. We don't have all day."
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After about two hours of walking in the humid and mosquito infested lakefront I find something that sends a chill up my spine. Blood. And a lot of it. It looked like something big was dragged from the water into the forest. Following the trail, I pulled out my machete that I found. Ready for anything. Or so I thought.
Taking care to be as quiet as possible I look for signs. Anything that would indicate what may have made the blood trail.
I never would have imagined what I saw… it was Michael or at least what was left of him.
The only real way I can distinguish the mangled corpse in front of me as my friend is from his hair color and the remnants of his clothing. His hair is matted with the blood from his face, his ribcage was nonexistent. His limbs are all had bite and claw marks on them.
The sight of my dear friend throws me into shock. I slowly walk over to the remains, kneeling down by his body, unable to avoid being in his blood as well.
"Michael..." I whisper as reality slowly sinks in and the tears start coming in a steady flow. Falling onto his body.
There were no words to describe the pain. My best friend for twenty years, laying before me in pieces.
All the memories together, all the happy, all the sad, rushing through my head. Gone. A third of our little family is gone. He did everything he could to try to save me and I wasn’t able to even try to save him. He could never blow up our campsite again and I could never repay him that $50 I owed him.
Getting up I walk a few feet away and start to dig, using the blade of the machete to dig in the soft dirt. The more I dig, the emptier I feel. Whatever killed him killed a piece of me with him.
Placing him in the shallow grave I hum a little tune, letting the tears run down my face...
Youtube Video
It’s dark when I make it back to where Kim is. A little known fact was that Kim is a top notch survivalist. She has actually made a lean-too built and has a fire going along with a few small fish cooking.
"Hey, looks like someone was busy." I say as I come around a tree.
‘Oh shit… she’s pissed,’ I think as she turns around and walks, well, more like stalks, towards me.
SMACK!
"Do you have any idea how long you were gone?! I was about to come looking for you two..... Chris where’s Mike?" she yells at me then starts looking even more worried.
Without raising my head I answer her, “h-he didn't make it."
Kim's eyes widen and her whole body tenses up as she now begins to notice the dried blood I wasn’t able to wash off.
“What do you mean 'He didn't make it'?"
"Kim... I'm sorry. But Michael is gone. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but he’s not coming back."
I could see the pain in her eyes as she processes the new information. There are a few minutes of silence that feel like eternity before my friend says anything.
“There is fish on the fire. Help yourself." Kim manages to whisper, looking at the ground with her body still tensed as she walks to the shelter, not bothering to eat her own meal and she was never one to pass up any type of edible food for any reason.
Walking over to the fire I sit down and just stare across the lake, thinking about what the mysterious figure said while in the void. Kim's quiet sobs heard in the background.
protect them... what did she mean by that? who was I supposed to help? As I ponder what I was told, something catches my eye. Across the lake was something, massive.
"What in the world..." I whisper as the behemoth lumbered through the forest. knocking over trees and sending birds fleeing in the night.
The only way to describe what I saw, was that it was a bear. A giant blue bear that seamed to be made out of stars.
“I don't think were in Kansas anymore...” I say as a wolf howl breaks through the night air.
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Canterlot Castle
"Sister, Are you sure they are the ones?" Celestia asks, stepping off of the throne.
"Yes," said Luna." they may not be what you wanted, but they are the best option we have. The only one in fact."
"For Equestria's sake I hope you are right dear sister. A storm is brewing and once it breaks, we may not be able to send for help again."
" Do not worry, they will be all we need." says Luna while taking her place on the throne, preparing for her night court.
Please Faust, let me be right... prayed Luna as the moon began its ascent
