Orion laid awake in his bed. Purple light filtered in through his blinds, lightly illuminating the walls and corners of the room.
Sleep avoided Orion, or perhaps he avoided sleep. Either way, he was awake. And he was afraid. He closed his eyes to check the countdown again.
[NEXT EVENT: 2:13:48]
Orion felt his stomach turn. It had been nearly fourty six hours since the countdown had started, and Orion still had no idea of what would happen when it hit zero.
Orion and Andrea had spent nearly two days in Orions apartment, eating sparsely and making small trips to Andrea's apartment for supplies. They had had fully raided the limited items from her fridge, and scoured her room for any items that might be useful. Orion was hoping to find medical supplies, but Andrea didn't have any.
The pain in his side was still prevalent. It made sleeping rather difficult. Even in his soft bed, he tossed and turned. He had offered to sleep on the couch, but Andrea had denied him. She claimed it was smart, that if something got into the apartment while she was sleeping, it wouldn't be able to see her.
It was sound logic. Paired with the moss Orion had left at the foot of his front door, the pair had a pretty impressive defensive line.
[NEXT EVENT:1:58:23]
Orion turned to his window. The blinds were down, stopping him from watching the central tower. It was a strange habit to have, but he nearly found comfort in watching the purple light.
Perhaps it was the sense of guidance it offered. For as confusing and terrifying as his situation was, he had a clear goal. He needs to get to that tower, and he needed to escape.
[NEXT EVENT: 1:39:56]
Orion had spent the last two days with Andea. They had nothing to do, no tv to watch, no games to play. And so they talked, and when they didn't talk, they just enjoyed the safety that the other offered.
It was a type of relationship he hadn't had before. Mutual dependence seemed like the right way to describe it. Orion had needed people before, and he had been needed, but never before had their been such a mutual necessity for company.
There was a strange comfort in that too, a reassuring warmth that came from understanding one's place and function.
[NEXT EVENT: 1:25:49]
Orions side ached again. He winced, pressing his hand to the wound. He cursed himself, reprimanding his previous lack of care. He had no medical supplies in his apartment, and he lived on the fifteenth floor. If something had gone wrong, he could've easily died. He never really thought about it before.
In fact, Orion never seemed to think of much before this all started. The more he reflected on his past, the more he realized he had been lacking.
He hadn't gone out in over two months, hadn't seen anybody aside from his mom in god knows how many. He only worked and slept, he made no room for anything else.
Orion suddenly felt very wasteful. He was twenty three, but he didn't feel like he had been living the life of a proper young adult. If he had died the night this had all begun, or even now, what would his life truly amount to?
[NEXT EVENT: 1:03:24]
Orion sat up slowly. He wasn't prone to deep introspection, and he wasn't sure he wanted to be. A bit of sorrow began to take form in his chest, overwhelming the fear and confusion he had been feeling recently.
He sat on his bed for a long while, too tired to stand, yet too contemplative to rest. It was a grey zone, one that demanded he do nothing for a moment, commit to no action. Be free, if only for a bit.
He had never had any time to really think about his life, and what he wanted. But now, without work, he was given all the time in the world. But that left the question, what did Orion want?
[NEXT EVENT:58:21]
Orion opened his eyes, stress building in his stomach. They were in the final hour before whatever 'event' was coming occurred.
Orion had spent many hours trying to theorize on what would happen. Would it be beneficial? Or more likely, how would it harm him and Andrea? There was no real way to know.
Orion had also tried to piece together what was causing the event, and if it was the same thing that had been causing all of this. He wanted to think of it as some strange natural disaster, but that didn't seem right. Was it perhaps some strange sort of military issue?
Or did it have something to do with the stars. Orion pulled his blinds back again, and looked up at the arrangement of lights in the sky. In the past, he had been prone to finding constellations in the night sky, and was rather good at it.
But in this sky, there were none. The stars had changed position. What could that possibly mean?
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.
From the front door, a rhythmic but panicked knocking came. Orion bolted out of bed and ran towards his front door. He found the room empty, only then realizing that Andrea was still invisible.
"Andrea?" He called out.
"Right here." She said from a few feet away, causing Orions eyes to see past the veil. She looked at the door, concern plastered on her face.
Orion found himself scared to move, as though some invisible chain had wrapped itself around him. What if it wasn't a person? What if it was a deception?
Andrea seemed glued to her spot too, her fists balled up. She took a small step forward before stopping.
"How do we know it's-"
She was cut off.
"Help! Please help me there's something in here!"
The voice was terrified, panicked. Hurt.
Orion charged forward. Grabbing the doorknob.
"Orion wait!" Andrea screamed. It was too late.
The door swung open. And Orion had been tricked. A tall figure, human shaped, stood in the doorway. The thing was made of porcelain, nearly like a mannequin. The joints of the mannequin exposed a cooper strcuture beneath, like an animatronic. But the most terrifying thing about the creature was the mouth.
It was human, it nearly looked as though someone had edited a photo of a human mouth onto the porcelain face. Then the beast spoke.
"Help! Please help me there's something in here!"
Orion threw himself away from the door, but it was too late. The beast reached out and grabbed his head. Orion tried to break out of its grasp, but it was too strong. Orion could hear a strange ringing inside his head, and there was a sharp pain so die his left eye.
Suddenly, a fist cracked against the beasts face, creating a small crack in the porcelain and easing the beasts grip. Orion slipped out and fell to the floor.
He panted, amazed to have escaped death once again. But something was wrong. Orion reached up and touched his left eye. Where it was supposed to be, there was nothing. Only skin. Orion looked up with his one good eye, and terror grabbed him in full.
The beast had his eye.