'I'm home' she yelled over the sound of the rain. She kicked off her shoes that landed with a wet plop. 'Honey its almost dinner time do you know where Kav is?' Cassidy looked to the clock that sat on the table next to the door and its dreadful arms said five o'clock… dinnertime. 'No mom I don't know where Kav is' she said her voice cracking when she said his name. Still in the hallway and still drenched she began to weep knowing something went wrong. Her moms face popped out from the kitchen 'oh honey, your soaking go get out of those wet cloths and into something dry. Supper is almost ready, dad and Kav are not home yet but they should be soon enough.'
Cassidy winced at Kav's name and slowly made her way up into her bedroom. She closed her door behind her and stood in the center of her dull room. A blue room filled with a bed, dresser, bookshelf, mirror, and lamp.
She stripped off her waterlogged cloths and slipped into a warm and baggy sweat suit. The suit was a dull and worn and the color was gray. This outfit she wore almost never, in truth she despised it…but today she felt like wearing it. She walked over to the mirror in her room and looked at her self. Her shoulder length blond hair was soaked. Her face was dripping wet, she picked up a towel that had ended up in her room and wiped her face and dried her hair.
She stood there drying and looking into the mirror. Looking into her dark blue eyes, almost as to find the answer why did this all happen. Why did this have to happen? Why did Kav have to join that gang? Kav is most likely dead she thought and a few more tears spilled from her eyes. She turned and threw the towel to the ground and began to walk towards the door. However, when she reached the door she stopped and looked over her shoulder. Spanning over the entire length of her shoulder blades was her brother's name. She found comfort that his name would be with her and walked out the door.
She made her way into the dinning room where her father and mother sat eating their meal without concern of where their son was. When she sat down her mother slid her a plate of food. On the plate was a roast of some sort and vrish, a local vegetable and the roast was probably grox meat.
Her mother stared at her for a few seconds 'honey are you wearing Kav's sweat suit?' her daughter looked into her eyes and nodded. 'Okay then, glad you found it, its large enough to keep you warm.' Again, her daughter just nodded. Her mother said no more and continued her conversation about one of their neighbors and how rude this neighbor was by never talking to them and just staring at them when they tried to talk.
She tried to eat but all she could think of was her brother. She was horrified that her parents still made no action to find out where their son was. She managed a few bites here and there but that was all she could muster. 'Can I be excused?' she said with a fragile sounding voice. Her parents stopped in their conversation 'of course honey, oh I hope your not coming down with something.' Her mother said. She rose from her chair and left her parents to finish their meal.
She reentered her dull room, walked over to her bed, and sat. She sat there for what seemed hours but in reality only a few minutes just thinking about what might have happened. After thinking of a few gruesome thoughts, she felt like she was going to throw up. She stood up to go to the bathroom to get a drink of water. She took one step and froze. A shriek pierced her head and she clamped her hands to her ears to block out the sound. A sudden pressure enclosed on her head and she wavered. She took a step back and plopped back down on her bed. The pressure increased and she screamed aloud before finally blacking out.
Images passed like a slide show in her head. Horrible images of disgusting creatures with multiple arms that ended in talons or blades. A few images passed showing some of the disgusting looking insect creatures holding organic looking guns. Their skin was a hardened exoskeleton that shined from being covered with blood. Human bodies were piled at the feet of the creatures. Some were cut to pieces others had limbs missing or deep gouges all over their bodies.
The pictures faded and she was suddenly standing in a large area with no structures. There was no grass everything was just black. She heard a scream and saw a person running towards her. It was her mother! 'Mom!' she shouted she took a step forward to run to her mother but froze in place as she watched a horrible event unfold in front of her.
A large black and red beetle like figure stood up and towered over her mother. It had four arms. Two held a large vile looking gun the other two ended in large glistening scythes that were as big as she was. The creature threw its large head back and roared. It took a step forward and swiped at her mother with one of its devilish blades. At first, nothing happened and her mother kept running. After a few steps, the top half of her mother fell and the legs kept running. Cassidy screamed the loudest she ever had.
'Cassidy run!' she heard and turned to see her father running towards her. 'No! Dad run away!' but it was too late and the large beetle saw him and swung its gun around to point at him. With a sound that reminded Cassidy of breaking glass, the gun fired. She saw that as the rounds pass her, they were oddly shaped crystals. She watched the crystals slam into her father. The first round tore his left arm off, the second ripped his right leg off at the thigh, the last round tore into his chest, and it exploded in a mess of gore. She slumped to her knees, and closed her eyes and waited for the feeling of the blade cutting into her or the crystals ripping her to shreds.
Death never came. She heard gunfire but it was not the odd glass breaking glass sound it was more of a whine. She opened her eyes to see men surging past her all wearing suits. She had seen these suits before but she could not remember. Then it hit her these were imperial guard suits. She smiled thanking the government for creating such an awesome fighting force. She watched as the men fired their weapons into the giant beetle. She watched as bright red lasers burst from the barrel of their guns and cut into the beetle. The giant creature roared but it was not a roar of pain.
Cassidy turned her attention to a rumbling that came from behind her. What she saw made her sick to her stomach Bounding at her and the guardsmen were thousands of bug looking organisms all with razor sharp claws and hideous looking guns. The organisms that had guns fired as they charged. She heard screams of pain and looked to see small worms burrowing into multiple guardsmen.
She made her self stand and began to run through the mob of men. All around her the guards dropped. Grotesque wounds caused by those worms. Flashes of chitin passed her and the bugs themselves were running within the group of men. Creatures half the size of men darted through the guardsmen. Lashing out with their deadly arms and firing directly into men with their guns. Limbs and heads flew into the air. She saw an unfortunate guardsman hit with a green liquid and his body melted within seconds. The ground she ran on became slick with human blood.
After a few seconds, she finally stopped running as she noticed that they were all dead. Every guardsman lay dead or dieing at her feet. The swarm of bugs though still pushed forward filled with bloodlust. Ahead of the swarm she saw why, people tons and tons of people were running from the swarm. The bloodbath began as the horde slammed into the mass of civilians. She began to cry as she watched the merciless slaughter. The sound of killing was blocked out by the sound of gunfire.
She wept more openly as she knew that these guardsmen were going to die as well. However, this time the sound was more intense more focused sounding. At some points, the whine would be drowned out by sharp cracks. She watched as the wall of fire mowed down the mass of creatures. Some fell with multiple holes burned into their bodies. Some exploded from the amount of fire that was poured into them. Her ears were then assaulted by the sounds of explosions. She stared in awe as large blossoms of fire erupted in the midst of the bugs.
Through the intense fire, she heard shuffling next to hear and turned. In horror, she screamed as a bug the size of a man launched itself at her. At the last second its head exploded showering her with blood and brain matter. Behind the dead bug was a large figure lowering its gun. The figure was huge at least a full meter taller then her. As the figure approached, she noticed he looked like he himself was encased in carapace but it looked much harder. Its color was a blue-gray and on the knees and shoulder was an emblem of a wolf.
The figure walked up to her and looked down at her with fearless eyes. The figure's face as old and leathery looking and a scar ran from the right temple down to the left side of his chin. His hair was jet black and was cropped short. She looked past him and saw men that were encased in the same color armor rush buy firing their thundering weapons. Among them were normal sized men that wore guardsmen suits but these were a different color then the Atargatis's guardsmen. Their uniforms were black with spots of dark red. Each of the men's faces were focused, not a questioning or cowardly look among them.
'Cass you need to wake up now' her eyes widened, as she knew this voice she turned back to the giant that stood in front of her 'Kav?' she questioned. The giant nodded and she began to cry. 'Cass listen to me you have to get out of Teris now! Try and get mom and dad to go to the capital city do whatever it takes but just get them out of Teris.' His voice was strong and confident 'why?' she cried out 'something is coming and if you don't get out of Teris you will die so please listen to me and get out.' he pleaded desperately she nodded and a single tear fell from her eye. The figure stepped forward and wiped the tear from her face with a large armored finger and then she was embraced by the figure 'Cass, please wake up I don't want you to see this anymore'
Cassidy awoke on her bed screaming at the top of her lungs.