For two hours, Lucien had sat in darkness doing nothing but listening to his own breathing. The power had gone out without warning, like a tired old man lying down to rest, The phone service had disappeared to, no calls, no service, nothing, just an empty icon at the top of his screen that refused to change no matter how many times he refreshed it.
At first he laughed nervously thinking it was normal, Lagos blackouts all the time. Networks failed. Generators would soon roar back to life. Life would continue like it always did. But this time felt different, the silence was too complete, too heavy, like the city was holding its breathe.
He sat on his bed in his small apartment in Mushin, his back against the wall, his knees pulled close to his chest, staring at his phone as if it might wake up and explain everything. I mean it's a miracle he hasn't shit in his pants at this point.
Outside the usual Lagos noise were missing, no shouting conductors, no loud music, no generators, no horns, no arguments, even the dogs has gone silent, it was as if someone has pressed the mute button on the entire city
Lucien glanced at his phone on his bed, it has spoken to him just two hours ago, he remembered the the faint voice it had said things he didn't understand. "helps us rebuild....or watch it burn." since then nothing, no more whispers, no more signals just silence, and that scares him more than anything.
Rumours had been circulating before now, on social media before the network died, in markets, in buses, in churches people whispered about strange lights in the sky, about animal behaving strangely, about dreams that felt too real, about scientist warning of something big they couldn't explain.
Lucien had seen those videos, he laughed at some and ignored most of them
"People just like drama". he had told his friends.
"Every year there's always some end of the world story".
But now, sitting alone in the dark, he wished he had paid a more attention.
He stood up and walked to his window, pushing the curtains aside slightly.
Outside, the street were empty, a few people stood in small groups, talking in low voices, some looked up in the sky, some stared at their phones. A woman sat on the ground with her hands on her head. A man paced around arguing loudly with no one in particular, the street light were off, no shop light too, just moonlight and the distant stars. The city that never slept, had gone blind.
Lucien's chest tightened as he whispered "This isn't normal". but no one answered.
He returned to his bed and sat down slowly, his mind replaying the voice he heard earlier, what did that even mean?, he rubbed his temples, trying to pushed the memory away, maybe he was imagining things, lack of sleep could do that, fear could do that. Still, he couldn't forget the way his skin crawled when he heard it.
Minutes passed as time stretched and twisted in the darkness, every second felt longer than the last, his breathing became shallow, his palms sweaty, he realized he was scared, not the normal kind of scared, but the kind that sits deep in the stomach and refuses to leave.
A distant sound broke the silence, at first, he thought it was thunder, low, rolling, far away, but the sky was clear, no clouds, no rain, the sound came again, this time louder, the ground vibrated faintly beneath his feet. Lucien stood slowly, his heart began to race.
"What is that?" he whispered.
From the other buildings, people began to appear at the windows and doors, some pointed, some shouted questions, but no one answers, the sound grew closer, deeper, like something enormous was moving,
Then the first explosion hit, it didn't sound like anything Lucien had ever heard before, it was't sharp, or quick, it was massive, like the sky itself had been torn open, the building shook violently, dust fell from the ceiling, his window cracked, he fell backward onto his bed, before he could recover, another explosion followed, and another, a building collapsed, fear slammed into him like a wall.
"Oh, God," he whispered. "Oh God, Oh God..."
He ran into the hallway, people were pouring out of their rooms,some were crying, some praying,some where shouting into dead phones, the emergency lights flickered once and died. darkness swallowed everything, only firelight from outside remained, the building creaked dangerously.
"Everyone out." someone screamed,
Lucien joined the rush down the stairs, his shoulders brushing against strangers, his heart pounding so hard it hurts, a women fell and two men helped her up, but no one stopped, there was no time.
Outside, Lagos was no longer Lagos, smoke covered the streets, fires burned where shops had stood, flames pouring from windows, cars crashed into each other without drivers, people ran in every direction, some carried bags, some carried nothing,.
The air smelled of fuel and burning plastic, sirens wailed briefly,then went silent, above them, the sky hard turned dark red, glowing faintly like open wound, Lucien stood frozen, unable to move
"This is it". he whispered.
"This is what they were talking about."
Another explosion threw him to the ground, pain shot through his shoulder, he cried out in pain, around him people screamed and scattered.
A building nearby collapsed in a cloud of dust, through the smoke, he saw strange shadows moving where no shadows should be, shapes twisted in the air, Lights flashing inside the clouds.
His heart nearly stopped, this wasn't an accident, this was something else, something impossible, something wrong.
As he struggled to his feet, a faint voice whispered,
"The world has entered the final phase"
the voice continued weakly, "Marked ones will rise,"
The the voice vanished, Lucien stood shaking staring blankly beyond space, everything he feared was coming true.
High above Lagos, the clouds begun to split, Purple-black light leaked through massive cracks in the sky, shadows moved inside them, huge, watching, waiting.
Lucien slowly lifted his head and looked at the broken city around him, fires, screams, smokes, fear. His old self was gone.
The rumours had been warnings, the blackout had been the beginning, the silence had been the last moment of peace humanity would ever know.
Somewhere deep inside him, something stirred, something powerful and dangerous had awaken. As the sky tore itself apart, Lucien understood the truth: The Apocalypse had not arrived suddenly, it had crept in quietly, switched off the world, and then pulled the trigger.