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December 7th, X777

STRANGE CREATURE SPOTTED BY FISHING BOAT OFF THE COAST OF FIORE!

A smile danced across her lips as Lucy Heartfilia ran a finger over the newspaper heading. The filmy, oddly horrible quality picture beneath the text showed a massive dark figure in the waters beside the mentioned fishing boat. It was nearly ten times the length, and the article quoted the fishermen swearing over and over again that they'd seen a face in the water. Apparently, it had bulbous milky white eyes.

Her own dark eyes saddened as she fingered the date for a moment; the date marked the newspaper as one that had come out a mere twenty-four hours before everything had slid southward on Doomsday Avenue. She'd thought the news had been amusing at the time, when it had been blasted over every news station. She'd laughed it off with everyone else, calling it a hoax.

Now...with the creatures that filled the streets and slaughtered anything in their path, Lucy fully believed that the soulless-eyed creature was out there, swimming beneath the surface of the ocean. If the dead could walk, then maybe they could swim, too.

Shaking her head, Lucy tossed the newspaper over her shoulder. At least there were no Vhalisvina in Magnolia. She hummed under her breath quietly as she meandered up the empty, desolate street, noting the ruined car she ducked around. It had finally burned out after being on fire for several days.

The Vhalisvina - or Vhalis, as Lucy liked to call them for short, though she had no idea where the name had come from when she'd given it to them - had been throughout Magnolia in the beginning, but many had either finally died off or left, lured by loud survivors that sometimes passed through. If there had been one thing Lucy had been really, really wrong about before the Fall, it had been the fact that she'd never really thought the world would end. Zombies wouldn't exist, the world wouldn't stop turning, and humans were much more clever than the movies gave them credit for.

Of course, Lucy had been wrong. Exhibit A: the Vhalis. Exhibit B: the world had definitely come to an end, with only a face here or there to reassure she wasn't alone. And even then, she'd not seen anyone in a very long time. Exhibit C...well, no, Lucy supposed they'd gotten the last part right. The world had fallen to pieces around them as dozens of meteors struck the planet, and people had stood there with their phones out taking pictures.

At least the phones still worked, Lucy thought to herself as she rounded a street corner, giving her own a quick check. She gave herself credit for that though. At least, in her area. She'd been the one to restore the generator that ran the electricity in her apartment building, and while there was never any signal, it let her keep an eye on the time and gave her a flashlight. And she had heat, which was important at this time of year.

A sound behind her had Lucy freezing. She snapped her head around, narrowing her eyes. While she was proud to say there hadn't been any Vhalis in her area for at least three or four months, it didn't mean they couldn't return. Much to her relief, however, the sound had been a stray cat, which blinked warily at her before bounding off. Lucy was impressed it had survived this long.

Heaving a sigh, Lucy continued on her way with a shake of her head. She walked swiftly down the street, fingers curled around the straps of her backpack as she hoisted the heavy thing higher on her back. She'd stocked up on whatever she could find in surrounding buildings, but her heart had begun to sink when she'd realized there wouldn't be anything left before long. Lucy was hitting the point where she'd have to leave her section of Magnolia in order to find more.

And it was cold. Lucy shifted her grip so she could fix her coat instead. December was far too cold to have to adventure further out from her original starting point. She supposed she could head south, to Hargeon. It wasn't much warmer there, but a few degrees made a huge difference, and there could be other survivors, which was appealing in itself.

Lucy was lonely. Being by yourself when you had to always look over your shoulder...when you'd not seen a single other breathing soul for months...it was exhausting. She missed hearing the sounds of laughter through walls, the stamping feet of children over her head. She missed going to see the store and seeing happy people, sad people, angry people. Lucy missed regular life, and she knew without a doubt that regular life would never come back regardless of what she longed for.

Lucy hesitated when she heard another sound that made her suspicious. She looked back over her shoulder again, studying her surroundings with care. She prided herself on being observant, contributing that skill to the reason she was still breathing when the Vhalis had taken over Magnolia in those first few months.

She shot for the side of a building when something unnatural stumbled out of an alley a short distance away. Lucy swore softly under her breath, pressing her back to the brick wall as she slid around a corner. She peered around it, studying the creature warily. Vhalis, she confirmed with one look.

Vhalis were a plague on her world. She didn't know where she'd come up with "Vhalis," but it fit the creature she now looked at, with its sickly colored skin. From the light yellowish color of this one's skin, she'd guess it had only been dead a few days, maybe a week at most. Its bones had begun to jut out against its paper thin flesh, and its eyes were still intact. Thick black liquid had begun to drip from its nose, matching that which leaked from the death wound to its throat. When it opened its jaws, yellowed, blunted teeth only confirmed her thoughts. It wasn't yet fully formed.

Lucy was disappointed. It appeared there'd been another survivor in Magnolia until recently.

She watched it lumber along, shockingly swift and graceful. She knew that the longer it remained a Vhalis, the more frightening it would become until its skin turned an ugly rotten black and stuck to a skeletal body that barely looked human. She shuddered at the idea of becoming one herself. It disappeared behind a store across the street, and Lucy sighed as she darted out, heading home.

She moved faster than she had been before, eager to get away from the Vhalis. Where there was one, there were more, especially if it had been recently turned. Something had killed it; the wound had looked like a bite wound, one meant to tear its throat out. Humans might do crazy things when when they were backed into corners, but the Vhalis were worse.

When she reached the street she lived on, Lucy was half-jogging. She immediately started for the part of the building that wasn't blocked by several ruined cars, which she'd hijacked when things had gone so wrong. She'd ensured their owners were dead or gone before doing so, of course, knocking on the respective doors and receiving no answers.

She clambered up the fire escape, glancing back to ensure that nothing was following her. She was relieved to see there were no signs of any Vhalis. She slid through the window that she always used to get in and out of her apartment, then closed it quickly and quietly behind her. She checked the lock, not sure why she bothered. Maybe it was the fear that some other human would kill her for the supplies she'd gathered. The Vhalis just smashed through. They weren't too intelligent in their desperation and would be more likely to slam through a wall than find a door or window.

Lucy dropped her bag with a quiet thud and rolled the strain from her shoulders. Her apartment was just as she'd left it; perfectly clean and safe. The only sound came from her humming refrigerator, which she dragged her bag over to. There were a few frozen things she needed to preserve, though she left one out for dinner that night. She winced when she'd finished, studying her meager findings. She'd be moving by next week at this rate.

Lucy fought the urge to bury her fingers in her hair, upset by this. She couldn't even guarantee that she'd find supplies elsewhere. She'd seen the smoke billowing up from massive fires that had sparked here and there. She'd even put out a few in the building, sparked by someone who'd left something on the stove. Lucy had no idea how much of Magnolia had burned down. Just in that first night alone, there had been so many fires.

Lucy paused, considering what had happened to result in the life she lived now. She remembered the meteors, watching as they streaked down from the sky. She'd been in awe, staring through her window. She'd been amazed by their beauty and had nearly forgotten the tea cup cradled in her fingers. People had gathered out front of their apartment building, oohing and aahing over how lovely the reflections of the falling stars were in the nearby canal.

When the first meteor had struck the earth, it had been on the other side of town. People had been confused. But when another had hit only a few blocks over and sent debris flying, forcing the world to rip out from beneath their feet...well, Lucy considered herself lucky that the building hadn't collapsed entirely.

She'd not joined in the chaos, figuring it was best to stay indoors as everyone else tried to run to escape. Where they'd thought they were going was beyond Lucy. Why bother running? You couldn't escape the end of the world. It was here, and there was sure as hell no fixing it.

A flicker of sadness flickered through her as she considered that, shutting the fridge. Lucy tugged her hands through her golden hair. She would never let herself hope that life would someday go back to normal; not with so many dead and gone in her near empty hometown. But maybe they could make a new normal. As long as it didn't include the damn Vhalis.

As she meandered back towards her living room, Lucy recalled the singular time she'd gone to check out one of the spots in which a meteor had struck. It had been the one closest to her - the one that had truly sparked fear in the citizens of Magnolia. She'd been bored and curious, which was an absolutely terrible combination if she was honest. She'd taken nearly half a day just to get there. This had been partially because of the Vhalis creeping hidden through the town.

It had struck a town center that had been adored by Magnolia's citizens. She still shivered when she remembered the sight. The meteor had taken out the entire town center. The shops lining it had been annihilated by the force, windows smashed and buildings crumbled on the ground. Some had even been turned to ash, as if whatever had struck the ground had lit a fire that had roared high and wide for hours. She supposed it was possible; dozens of fires had raged that day.

The signs of fire had scared her more than anything else had thus far in her apocalyptic adventures. There'd been something unnatural, something different about the charring and patterns left behind. They'd radiated heat weeks after everything had settled, as if the thing that had created them lived nearby and kept heat around. And, to top it all off…

There'd been no meteor left to actually look at. No rock. Just an empty crater where something shockingly massive had brought the world to its end.

Lucy hadn't stayed long and had even made it home before dusk.

Lucy dropped heavily onto her pristine couch, relieved that her home was just as she'd left it. People had spent days looting after the Fall had taken place. She'd heard people breaking into every apartment on the floor above hers. She'd barricaded herself in her bathroom every night, her most expensive and beloved possession beneath two layers of clothing. The necklace was a precious one, given to her by her mother before her death, and it looked expensive enough that Lucy knew there were many who might have wanted it.

Her mother had urged her to believe in things that couldn't possibly exist for so long before her death. "Just because you don't see them doesn't mean they don't exist," Layla Heartfilia had told her one evening, eyes bright with excitement as she fingered the necklace Lucy wore now. She remembered how Layla had run her fingers through Lucy's soft hair as she spoke. "They guide our everyday lives. Just because you don't see them, Lucy, doesn't mean they aren't there. Trust in them, for they are good, and they don't intentionally cause harm as they work."

Whatever the hell that had meant. Lucy still didn't know. But then again...she supposed her mother had taken a turn for the worse merely a few weeks later, when illness had rampaged through her body and ravaged it until nothing but a corpse lingered. Lucy liked - well, she didn't like to think as such, but she believed now and then that her mother might have been a little delirious at the time. Especially now that she had seen the Vhalis for herself. Just as her mother had said, there were things out there.

But they certainly weren't good.

It was still dark when she opened her eyes. She glanced at the alarm clock, confused. She never set the alarm for fear of the Vhalis, but she still used it for time, and that alarm clock was blinking a very definite three-thirty at her. What was she doing awake then, when she'd gone to bed as tired as she'd been from her supply run the previous day? She rolled over, settling back into sleep.

But when a grunt from the next room touched her ears, Lucy was off the bed in a flash, hiding beneath it instead. Gooseflesh rose along her arms as mere seconds after she'd done so, the door creaked open and something crept in, inhaling deeply with another grunt. Her body quaked as she stared in horror at black feet. Vhalis.

Why was it here? How the hell had it gotten in?

She didn't dare move as it crept onto her bed above. She shoved a hand over her mouth to help hide her soft, fearful panting as the bed creaked and sank down where it knelt. The Vhalis was sniffing, noting the warmth of the mattress and the scent it had picked up. Finally, it moved again with a hiss, and Lucy turned her head to the side to look, tears burning in the backs of her eyes.

A head slowly slid into view over the side of the bed. Thick black liquid dripped from its dead, white eyes, which stared blankly at her. A delighted, wicked snarl left its lips and Lucy finally let herself scream. She hurled herself out from under the bed as the Vhalis screamed, too.

She shot to her feet and sprinted for the cracked door. She slammed it shut behind her. The Vhalis bounced off it with an enraged scream that had her shuddering in fear. Frantically, Lucy scrambled to find something - anything - to barricade the door with, but before she could do so, the Vhalis was slamming through it. A cry left her lips when it nearly bit her shoulder as it ripped its way through the wood.

Lucy abandoned the idea of imprisoning it and fled for the kitchen, her hand snatching up a kitchen knife. Lucy whipped around to face the Vhalis when it finally scrambled through shards of wood, tripping over itself in its haste. It didn't seem to notice or care that it was covered in splinters. Lucy impatiently wiped tears from her face, not wanting them to blind her.

She wasn't sure if there was a way to deal with the situation at hand. She had never heard or found a way to deal with the situation before her. The Vhalis were immortal as far as she knew, and would happily rip you to pieces. Lucy found her hand shaking violently as she lifted her knife and braced herself. The Vhalis darted forward with a cheerful shriek, excited to find new prey.

The world was ripped apart. Lucy was so stunned by blinding heat and light that she nearly stabbed herself when she hurled her arms up to protect her eyes. The floor vanished from beneath her and she plummeted as a roar deafened her ears. Even the Vhalis was screaming as it fell, too.

Lucy hit the ground so hard she saw stars dancing in the air. The breath was driven right out of her chest. She wheezed and gasped, forcing herself to roll onto her stomach and look for the Vhalis with haste. Her face paled, and she barely noticed the blood trickling down her cheek from a scratch, when she saw that it had landed nearby. It was slowly clawing its way upright, screaming furiously. Black bled from wounds on its rotting flesh, and it looked as if the left side of its body and face were scorched black. She was burned, too, in some places. She ignored the sting of those burns when the Vhalis lunged, hurling her body backwards to try and avoid its grip.

Lucy wasn't blind. After months of survival, she was very keenly aware of the massive crater that had formed in the center of her apartment building. And she was more than aware of the thing shifting in the center of it, too. She felt dread curl in her gut, even as her gaze remained on the Vhalis as she scrambled back. She had no idea what it was, but it couldn't be good. Especially given what had happened the last time she'd seen something fall from the sky.

Her only weapon against the Vhalis stalking towards her was gone, and Lucy scrabbled backwards over the splintered wooden floors, ignoring the sting of wood lodging in her soft palms and fingers. The Vhalis slammed onto its hands and knees and snagged her ankle in its tight grip, dragging her towards it. Lucy struggled to get free, kicking and screaming as the Vhalis lunged with bared teeth, aiming for her throat-

There was a roar as the ceiling over her head caved in. The Vhalis vanished, crushed beneath the debris, and Lucy flung herself out of the way just in time. She threw her arms over her head to protect it until the roar stopped. Only then did she peer out, heaving for air. Her eyes wild, Lucy checked to make sure the Vhalis wasn't going to come for her again, and finally let herself focus on the other situation at hand as silence fell.

Lucy didn't give herself more than a moment to rest, lifting a shaking hand to wipe at her aching eyes as she heaved herself upright. She was trembling, and she could barely think straight. She wasn't sure what had happened, but she didn't have the time to think it over, for the thing in the crater erupted in fury.

It screamed in a way Lucy had never heard before. She was stunned. It sounded like a hum, almost, so high-pitched it hurt. She could have sworn the world rocked around her for a moment. Lucy blanched, fear creeping through her veins like acid. She pressed her back to the nearest wall, impressed the building hadn't collapsed in on itself yet.

Fear bled away, however, when she realized what she was looking at.

It was a man. A very angry man with odd pink hair that stuck up at odd angles and an even odder choice in ancient-styled clothing. But a man nonetheless, and one who appeared alive and as human as she was. Her breath hitched at the realization, and as if he'd been capable of hearing such a sound among all the creaking and snapping of rubble falling around them, his face snapped towards her.

The rage on his face was terrifying, but it went up in smoke, replaced with shock. He gaped at her as she gawked at him. It was as if she was the last thing he'd expected to see. As if a human being stuck in the middle of a disaster he'd created was an impossibility he'd not considered. For some reason, that angered her and she began to glower. He had ruined her shelter - her home. Everything she'd ever had, any semblance of normalcy in this hellish existence was gone, because he couldn't pick a better place to annihilate.

Lucy opened her mouth to tell him off, some distant voice in the back of her mind screaming that it was a terrible idea to piss off the thing that had just fallen from the sky, but he spoke first.

"Who are you?"

Starting out with some wild excitement!

"Vhalisvina" is pronounced "vahl-ee-vee-nah," and "Vhalis" is "vahl-ee." I can't remember where it came from. I think Bubbles and I simply came up with it? I don't think it's an actual word. On another note, they were initially similar to the creatures from SD, but I wanted to make them more unique and zombie-like, so here we are.

I hope you enjoyed, and I'm excited to see people looking forward to this! :)

Thanks to reviewers (mayth2008, galactiaconstella, uhhzy, marn-marn, Straw Heart, MPrime, and TheAngelicPyro!) as well as those who favorited and followed!