Something was released into the air, it isn't safe anymore

Part 1:

I woke up this morning as I usually do, by myself, fan facing directly at my bed making my mouth dry. I quickly grab the leftover water bottle I was drinking the night before to rid my mouth of the awful feeling. I hate how it happens to me every morning but I can’t ever seem to not sleep without the fan since I moved down to the basement. My mom was really against me staying down here at first because there was so much junk still down here from the last people who lived here before us. Scrap pieces of construction materials, boxes and crates that were doing nothing but collecting dust and mildew, and the fact that the AC system wasn’t connected down here, but I liked the isolation.

After I rubbed my eyes and started to actually wake up, I doom scrolled in bed for the next 15 to 30 minutes until the yelling and loud banging of my parents fighting upstairs forces me to get up. They have always fought, ever since I could remember, they would fight. Nothing ever physical, but my dad would come pretty close a couple times. For some reason they thought that if they couldn’t see me in a room, or thought I wasn’t awake I wouldn’t be able to hear them, but I could. Ever since we made the move to this house it seems to have gotten worse.

I open the door from the basement staircase that is connected to our kitchen. As soon as I do, they go quiet. I hesitate at the doorway for a moment to allow them to collect themselves enough to make them feel like I didn’t hear them arguing. My mom is the first to speak to me as I walk towards the fridge for another bottle of water. 

“Hey hun! Did you just wake up?”,

She says as she slyly wipes tears from her cheek, her words come out scratchy and forced, not that she didn’t actually care about the words she was speaking to me, but forced in the way that she was not as happy as she was making herself out to be. 

“Yeah.”

I answer her with a cold tone because I know that she isn’t in the mood to talk right now, and neither am I. My dad doesn’t speak to me much, he never talks much at all anyways unless it is to argue with my mom about whatever it is he find irritating about her that day. I don’t know if it’s because he too doesn’t want to fake a smile or speak in false tones when he sees me, or if he really just doesn’t want to speak to me. It's whatever. We’ve always had that kind of a weird relationship though so I don’t really notice. 

“Well hey!” My mom snapped into an even more forced expression, “Your dad and I were thinking that since this is the summer before high school that you would want to go out and find some clubs to join over the summer to help you find some new friends! Do you want to come with us around town to see what clubs are looking for new members?”

I take a drink from the water I had grabbed and start to peel a banana for myself, 

“I already told you mom, I don’t want new friends, I can keep the ones I have now.”

She tries almost everyday it seems now to, “break me out of my shell” as she would say, but I’m just not in the mood to make new friends again since we move houses basically every year since I was a child. I finish peeling the banana and start to make my way back down to the basement, not even making eye contact with them as I head back down the stairs. My mothers eyes start to gloss over but she pushes those emotions down and yells down the stairs to me, 

“OK sweetie! Just let us know if you need anything while we’re out! Me and your father are going for a drive!” 

I give her a thumbs up behind me without looking to let her know I received her message. Her and dad are going to continue their argument in the car while they leave me to myself.

As I finish the banana and throw the remains in the trashcan next to my desk, I sit down at my computer and think to myself for a minute. 

Why did I act that way? Why won’t I let them into my life anymore? Is it because every time I do I end up more and more disappointed in them? Maybe I should go ask if I should go with them.

But before I can even start to head back up the stairs I hear the door slam as the car engine starts and they drive off. Just then I get a notification on my computer.

Aye man ur back on already? I couldn’t sleep much last night so I’ve just been waiting for sum1 else to get on. Wanna run a few games?

The message was from Tucker, my friend back home. Since me and my parents moved from our hometown in Maine to the upper side of Manhattan for my dad’s new position, me and Tucker have kept in touch through games we play online together. I message him back and hop on call with him and we play games for a few hours just talking.

“So your parents are still hating each other huh? You think they’ll ever get a divorce dude?”

“Nah, my mom is the type to stick it out for me to keep me happy, she thinks they hide it well but you know. Maybe when I’m out of the house they will? I mean they already sleep in different beds and when they talk it’s almost never not a fight.”

“Yeah sorry man. I wish you guys didn’t move so that you could still come over whenever they get like that. It doesn't feel the same when all we get to do now is talk on here.”

“Tell me about it.”

We play more games and talk more about how different things are since I moved away. It’s only been a few months now but to me the time feels longer. It’s like the moment we left, I entered a whole new planet where the hours turn to days, and the weeks turn to months. After playing more games with Tucker, we got off and I continued playing on my computer to distract myself. A few more hours passed and then I heard my parents finally returning home from wherever they went. I get up from my desk and climb to the top of the stairs but I don’t open the door, I just listen to hear what they are saying to each other now.

Their voices are quiet but I can tell it is another fight again, not sure exactly what but then I start to hear a faint hissing sound. Like gas started to leak from somewhere in the kitchen. Then as if someone had just burst into our house my parents both let out a ear piercing scream. The hissing sound grows louder and louder with each scream they let out. I hear what sounds like water or mud start to make its way to the edge of my door. I’m frozen with fear. 

Is someone in the house? 

Are they killing my parents?

Are they going to kill me? 

Just as I was about to try and open the door to put my thoughts to rest, I saw a set of fingers grip the bottom of the door frame by my feet. I stumble back. The fingers don’t look human, they are a dark green, sludge-like texture and they seem to be dissolving with every second that passes. As I back away what looks like an eye starts to peer through the door frame, squeezing itself through the crack at the bottom like clay being molded to the frame of the door. That is when I finally noticed what it truly was.

“Ton… Tony you have to lock th…the door. Don…don’t let the air in.”

The voice sounded short of breath and distorted but I could tell it was my mom. I yelled back at the figure not believing what I saw,

“WHAT HAPPENED? WHAT IS GOING ON? IS SOMEONE IN THE HOUSE?”

She spoke again, this time her voice was less strained and more desperate, it truly was my mom.

“Don’t let the air… in. Don’t breathe it in. Lock the door and seal it shut. I love you sweetie…. Please do this for me baby.”

With tears streaming down my face I start to see some kind of gas start to leak into the room from underneath the doorframe. I start to run back down the stairs, fearful of seeing my mom become this… this thing, and terrified that whatever is happening to her could be happening to me next. I make it to the bottom of the stairs and lock the second door, I then start to seal the door with whatever I could find from the leftover junk. I did all I could to make sure that the door was sealed and then I sat back and waited. I waited in the corner of my room, furthest from the door waiting to see what would happen next.

After a while all I could notice was the silence. Nothing was getting to me, no air was coming through, and the sounds of pain and agony coming from upstairs disappeared. I was alone. I could feel it. I used to lock myself down here to get away and feel alone when they would fight but this feeling was different. I am alone.

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Minutes passed that turned into hours. The silence grew louder and louder with every second that came and went. I manage the courage to get up out of the corner of my room and start to assess the situation.

What was that? Are my parents really dead? Is it safe for me to come out now?

Still unsure of what was happening, I went to go on my computer and try to find answers. I searched up “how to know if your house has a gas leak” and “signs and effects of a gas leak”. None of my searches described what I had just witnessed though. Just then I received a message on Discord again, it was Tucker.

Dude are you alive? Is this happening where ur at too? The whole town here just went completely insane! There’s some kind of toxic gas floating around in the air, it came in from the North side of town and me and my parents barely made it back home to board ourselves up. Plz tell me you guys made it too.

I hesitate for a moment before I respond. Toxic gas? Like a military weapon? Is this a terrorist attack? No it can’t be, I live miles away from Tucker, there is no way this could be an attack on that big of a scale. I joined the call with Tucker to explain what I had just witnessed.

“I’m ok, I think, but my parents…I think my parents are dead.”

I hear Tucker gasp as in the background the sounds of his parents scrambling to make phone calls and secure their house can be heard.

“What did you see? How did you survive? We were out at the market when we saw the gas from a distance, people were mesmerized by it at first until…until they started to just melt…”

Melt? Is that what my parents' fate was? 

I calm myself and tell Tucker the whole story of what just happened in my house. We both decide that we need to keep calm as much as we can and I tell Tucker to go and help his family stay safe and that I can take care of myself, for now.

“I’ll message you later tonight, since I’m sealed off in the basement I should be fine, just let me know if you hear anything on your end OK?”

Tucker assures me that he will and he will try to get me help anyway he can. I leave the call and start to go to any news outlets I know that could be covering this. Surely enough, it’s all over the news. Some sites are saying it was an attack from a foreign country, and others are saying it could be a result of global warming, melting ice caps and releasing fumes into the atmosphere. Every site I click on though has a different answer for what this toxic gas could be, but there is no clear answer.

I give up on looking at news sites and start to search online forums. At first all I could find were more people like me, scared and confused and just trying to process the things they were witnessing.

One user posted on reddit saying that they were out at a peewee football game in Texas when the clouds turned an ominous dark shade of red and descended on the field, all the children were basically reduced to mush in seconds and their family was only able to survive by taking cover in a storm cellar.

Another person said that they were out at the pier in California when the gas came in and they just made it to their car and stuffed the vents with wet towels to keep the gas out, but they hadn’t responded in a long time after saying the windows in their car started to crack.

Finally someone else said that they survived near Oregon and said they saw something in the clouds. They said it looked like stars peeking through the dense, dark mist of the gas but knew it wasn’t the night sky since it was the middle of the day. They also said that the lights moved as if they were watching and observing them, like a spotlight trying to keep track of a moving target. They ended their post by saying that the lights began to get closer as more and more people were reduced to slop. With the final words of the post saying, “I think it is something trying to help, I have a mask, I’m going to investigate further.” That was posted less than an hour ago.

So is this person saying there is already help on the way? If that is the case then why have none of the newscasts said anything about a rescue organization?

Just as I was trying to make sense of this all, I came to realize myself that if I truly did seal the door to my house and kept myself safe, there is a limit on the amount of fresh air I have currently in my room. I went back to my computer to try and search up anyways so I could get fresh air to myself without leaving this room, but just as I did a huge beam of light started to peer in through the window that was connected to the basement.

I grabbed a chair and got up close to investigate. I was blinded at first but then whatever was emitting the light started to move away and my eyes began to focus on the source. I stumbled back on the chair practically falling over from what I saw. It was some kind of…thing, I don’t know what words to even use to describe it but this “thing” was as tall as the light post lining the streets, it had a metallic body with blue fluorescent lighting pulsating through its main body and floating dangling legs just above the ground. Its limbs curled up next to itself, but it would reach out and extend them like the tongue of a butterfly.

From what I could see it had no distinctive features except for the main light source which acted as its eye, that was where the source of the light was coming from. It was scanning the streets of my neighborhood, not going out of its way to search homes individually, just the streets. After I collected myself and got back on the chair to take a closer look I noticed it wasn’t alone. Many more were following the same path as the first one I saw, some scanning roofs, some scanning the backyards, it looked like they were in groups and were only looking in the one area their group was in charge of.

In the distance I saw a final group, but this group looked different. They were all the same as the other things I saw before, but they did not have a glowing eye like the others, they instead had what looked like a tool that could change shape, and right as I took notice was when one smashed a hole in the roof of a house down the street and entered through the roof, just then I heard a loud thud strike my house. Sweat started to run down my face, my mouth ran dry and my legs went numb with fear. I’m not alone anymore.

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Quickly I ran to my desk to turn it off so as to not emit any light and I grabbed a hammer from a spare toolbox that was left down here. I went back to the corner of my room and put my hand over my mouth to make as little noise as possible.

What the hell are those things? Is it the military? Is this new tech designed to help in emergency situations like this?

My thoughts raced in my head all the while whatever was in my house made its way in, rumbling with a low and deep humming sound that did not sound human. I knew now that this thing was not here to help and I knew that I couldn’t be found. It stormed through the house upstairs, not walking, but it made a lot of noise as if it was ripping apart the house as if it was searching still.

What is it looking for? Is it looking for me?

The sounds abruptly stopped right at the top of the stairs. Just then I could faintly hear another sound that I could only describe as microwave heating up, and just then my heart sank.

“Hello, is anyone here? It’s safe now, you can come out.” That was the sound of my dad, but I knew it wasn’t him. Why would he not call out for me specifically? Even then, how could it possibly be him? I heard him hours ago thralling in pain and then abruptly going silent along with my mom. While the voice sounded exactly like him, from the echo that travelled down to me I could hear the faint ringing that made it sound like a tape recording, it sounded mechanical.

“I’m just checking to make sure everyone made it. Whatever that was has passed, if you can hear me it’s safe now.”

I’m again frozen with fear. This thing is mimicking my dad and trying to lure me out. If it thinks there are more people here, why not just break down the door and find me? What kind of sick and twisted game is this? 

My thoughts turn my fear into rage as I tighten the grip on the hammer I had in my hands, ready to storm up there and beat the hell out of whatever this thing was. If this thing had anything to do with what just happened to my parents, using my dead fathers voice as a luring tactic is beyond fucked up. I contained myself though and remained silent, trying my best to not move a muscle as to not be discovered. 

If this thing is trying to lure me out, maybe it hasn’t detected me yet, maybe it can only detect movement.

After more silence, the thing produced a high pitch screeching sound that almost made me want to vomit the way it rattled my whole body. I winced and went to cover my ears as the pain started to grow in my head. Then suddenly another loud thud struck the house and the whole house shook in one quick motion and then, more silence. I couldn’t hear anything coming from upstairs now and from what I could see from sitting on the floor looking out of the window, those things were nowhere in sight. I gave it a few more minutes before I got up and started to move around again. I got back on my computer to see that I had 4 new messages from Tucker.

Dude are you there? My parents said that there are some kind of monsters outside in the neighborhood.

They just broke into our neighbors house, they came in through the roof and just took them all! We’re locking ourselves in the bathroom rn.

They’re in our house now man. My dads freaking out. He went out with his gun but all we heard was him scream and he hasn’t come back.

He just told us its safe, I think he got whatever those things were. Me and my mom are going to go check if he’s hurt.

I message him back as fast as I can.

Tucker!

Tucker answer me! R you ok???

My messages go through but there is no response. I call him on Discord to see if he’ll pick up but the call never connects. 

This can’t be real.

I think to myself. I have to find some way out of here and try to find help. If those things come back here I’m sure they will find me next time. I look up more and more things on the internet seeing if people have survived and if whatever is in the air is gone yet, but there's nothing.

Almost no new posts have been made, and all the ones that are new are people describing the same experience Tucker and I had, a loved one that they thought died from whatever this situation is, speaking to them and telling them it's safe, and after that they never post again. I started to panic and I’m realizing now that the air in my room is starting to get stuffy, I know I can’t stay here anymore. I grabbed my hammer and ripped a piece of my blanket off and wet it with the water from the bottle I had brought down here before. I tie it around my head and cover my nose and mouth and prepare myself to open the door to my room. I take one last gulp of air that I could and tear apart the makeshift seals of the door and make my way up the stairs.

When I make it to the top and I see that whatever gas was released into the air wasn’t there anymore, the hue of the dark red mist still lingered somewhat throughout my house but not as thick as it looked coming from under the door earlier. I still keep my mask on just in case. When I looked down at what was at the front of my door though I completely lost it.

I was standing in this sludge of just grey and green puss that stuck to my shoes like gum on a sidewalk. The smell was indescribable, rotten garbage mixed with chemicals and the slight scent of burnt charcoal. I thought maybe this was some kind of leftover residue from the gas as is the hue I noticed earlier until I saw my moms wedding ring laying in the middle of it all. What I was standing in was the remains of my parents, reduced to this substance.

Without even thinking I took the mask I had made off and threw up all over myself and fell to the floor sobbing. Just as I did though I panicked and surely thought I was to come to the same fate as they did just now since I was breathing whatever was in the air, but nothing happened. The gas was truly gone, it was safe for me to breathe now, but why? Just as I started to compose myself I heard a sound from outside.

I armed myself with a knife now that I grabbed from the kitchen and pointed it at what used to be my front door, now caved in. But it wasn’t one of those things, it was a girl.

“He…hello? Please. Please, I need help.”

She was walking around outside in my front yard holding her stomach and walking with a limp. She couldn’t see me yet but something about her brought me comfort. Comfort that I wasn’t alone.

End of Part 1.