Some small build suddenly appears in a certain room with an odd facial expression. As if following a routine, the little creature opens up a fridge and begins to observe its contents, while switching its facial expression once laying eyes on to something else. 

The small build seemed to become impatient, “Daad.”

Something that the little girl didn’t expect, there was no reply to her call, getting confused she called again, “Daaddyy?”

Wanting to understand why she isn’t getting any reply when calling for someone, she went out of the room she was in, heading where she believed the answer should have come from. Staying completely silent now, she slowly approached the door of the room where she’s planning to go in, unlike she remembers, the door was slightly more closed.  The little girl proceeded to push the door a little bit to get a better view of what it is happening in the room.

While the door slowly came open, she saw that the person she was calling for was still sitting in the same place as when she last saw him. The man was sitting quietly, motionless staring a the screen of his phone that was sitting comfortably in his hands. 

Realizing, that the little girl stood there just staring at him in confusion for a bit longer than she should have had, she pushed out some words, “Daddy, are you okay?”

Facing this unfamiliar situation, the little girl felt confused and slightly scared, but despite what she felt, she pushed herself closer to the man. Taking each step closer to him seemed to make her feel more uneasy, each little bit of what was going on right now just increased her confusion.

While reaching out her hand to lightly grab the man, she quietly said, “Hey?”, with a worried face, she finally touched him.

As if hit by a jolt of electricity, the man snapped out of his paralyzed state and blinked his eyes a couple of times. After looking around with his eyes, his stare locked on the little girl who was still holding her hand on him and looking with worried eyes.

“Uh… Whatcha doing there, sweetheart?” a gentle voice comes out of the man’s mouth.

Almost as if they had switched places, the little girl stayed completely paralyzed in confusion. But soon after the man’s question, the little girl teared up and attacked him with a hug.

“You scared me, you dummy Daddy!!”, loudly with a little bit of sobbing pushed out the little girl, while squeezing the man with full force.

“Oh… uh”, at a loss of words, the man wasn’t sure what to say and just embraced the hug, “Everything’s alright now, sweetie, nothing to worry about...”

After several minutes of hugging the little girl whispered something in his ear, “Daddy… I’m hungry...”

Hearing the little hugger’s hungry plead, the man picked her up and carried away, “Let’s go make some foodies then sweetheart.”

While being carried like a little princess, the girl was giggling with excitement and seemed to have forgotten all about what happened before. When entering the kitchen, he put the girl down and start thinking of what to feed her. 

Following their usual routine, the man began, “Choc-o’-chips?”

“Nu-uh.”, the girl denied.

“Pizza?” he continued.

“Hmmm, nope.”, giving it a second of thought, the girl denied.

“Then maybe butter and toast?” he started thinking harder of what she might want.

“Nope, nope.”, once again, the little girl denied.

“Grrr, you little rascal, what do you want to eat then?” the man asked in a joking manner.

Wating for exactly that question, she practically exploded, “WAFFLES!!”

Surprised by the sudden demand, the man opened his eyes wider. Just a second later, he smiled at her and patted her head.

“Alright, sweetheart, we can eat waffles for breakfast; we’ll just need to head out.”

With all her excitement, the little girl jumped up, “Yeii!”

“Alright, alright, silly, we need to get ready really quickly since we woke up so late. We might just be able to make it in time for the breakfast special. Head to the room and put the clothes I left for you on the chair, alright, angel?”

“Yup, yup!” the little girl dashed away to her room whilst expressing all of her excitement and happiness.

Understanding that it’s his turn now, the man rushed to his room and got dressed. Verified that he had enough money for his purchases, the parent went on to check if the girl is all done. When her room came in his view, he saw that the little girl gave a hug and a kiss to one of her stuffies. These actions always made the man feel so warm inside, forgetting about any problems that surrounded him.

“Let’s go then sweetheart, the waffles might just run away if we take too long.”, the man was talking in a playful manner.

“Oh, no, they won’t! I’ll eat them all!” proclaimed the little girl as she zoomed out of her room.

Both being as ready as they could be to go out and eat waffles, they got out of the house and rushed straight into the car that was standing near the entrance of the house. Sitting the little girl down in the back seat and making sure her seatbelt was holding her tightly, the man got comfortable in his seat. Now that both of them were ready for the ride, the man started up the car and made it move forward.

While driving through the forest that surrounded their house, the man noticed a weird flashing light in the sky. Enveloped by curiosity, the man paid close attention to it with squinting eyes. Growing more and more confused by what that might be, the man was not able to take his eyes away from the flashing light.

Out of nowhere, a deafening explosion appears, terrifying the ones’ in the car. Not receiving any time from the sudden scare, they just receive an increased dose of it. Barely giving them any window of reaction, everything outside of the car begins to flip over. Both of them get thrown around the vehicle within those split moments of fear.

…

“Cmon’ move it, you fatass! We don’t have a lot of time here!” some aggressive voice begins to speak.

“Fuck you! I know! I know!” a deeper sounding voice filled with desperation responds.

A deafening explosion appears, completely silencing their thoughts, forcing them to move faster than they were already, right after that, followed by multiple loud sounds assisted with screams.

“Fuck!!” two voices yell out of their lungs as they lose all their nerves.

One minute after all the noise subsiding, the people who rushed to arrive there, finally came to the scene. They are at a loss of words as they stare at a crashed car. 

“Ugh, can you hurry up already?”, some annoyed girl displays her impatience.

“Yeah, yeah, I”m coming already.”, a boy replies to the question.

“I warned you to start getting ready a half an hour ago, you never listen to me.”, the annoyed girl continues.

“I forgot, okay?” the boy takes a pause, “Sorry...”

Receiving that answer, the girl rolled her eyes and turned around to start walking in a certain direction. Understanding the sign from her, the boy decided to follow her in a swift manner, catching up to her and matching her speed. Both of them continued to walk straight for a while, after which they turned left on the next street corner. They were finally met with a hill that they knew would need to be faced and defeated. 

Having to walk such a steep hill made them really exhausted, luckily they had some water packed up for their small trip. They were heading to a building that was on top of the hill, overlooking the whole town of Rustwood. There wasn’t much to overlook, though since it was a small and cozy town; quite far from being classified as a big city. The majority of people knew each other, which was a relatively easy task since the population didn’t even reach 300.

There still happened to be a handful of people that were not familiar with the community, and some people even tried to stay away from those people, fearing that they might pose some threat. It was not a justified fear; nothing bad has happened within the small town; people tend to be afraid just for the sake of being afraid.

Both of the teens are already nearing the door of the building and are able to look inside through the transparent doors. By being the one that put most of the effort in rushing to the building, the girl entered inside first, leaving the boy some steps behind her. 

“Hey, wait up! Do we really need to rush so much for this?” said the boy, while trying to manage his breathing because of the exhaustion.

“Yes! Cmon’, move it!” the girl ordered him in an aggressive voice, causing the boy to get startled.

Not wanting to get her even angrier, the boy stayed quiet while increasing his pace, quickly entering the building and evading the few people in his way as he attempted to follow the girl’s lead. Even though the population wasn’t very high, the building seemed awfully busy today.

While rushing forward, the boy overheard a person talking on the phone, “Please, calm down, sir. Can you tell me where? Alright, don’t worry, they are on their way. Stay on the ph-”

Moving farther away, he was not able to hear the person talking anymore. Slowly, a feeling of uneasiness began to fill his body as if something seems wrong today; with worried eyes, he overlooked the girl in front of him, thinking if she has noticed the same. 

“Hey, sis?” the boy called out the girl he’s chasing.

“What?” a mildly annoyed voice came from the girl.

“You said that Triss had an accident, right?”, ignoring his sister’s annoyed tone, he continued.

“Yeah. So?” the girl continued expressing her annoyed way of talking.

“What accident was it exactly?” curiosity enveloped the boy.

“Oh… well, apparently she was riding her bike, and some crazy person crashed into her when running. And, for some reason, he just continued on running right after that, leaving her on the ground.”, explained the girl.

“Okay, nevermind then...”, he stopped his continuous attacks of questions.

Finally, feeling the relief of not having to answer any more questions, the girl sighed and kept looking forward, figuring out the way she needs to go. The number of people did seem quite unusual to her, but for now, that to be ignored as there was somewhere she was rushing to. 

All they had left is a few meters until the room they were heading to; getting closer to that room got more difficult because of people being in their way. Arriving at the doorway of the room, the girl stopped, forcing the boy to do the same, confused because of not paying attention around him, he looked past his sister.

The whole room was filled with people, mostly injured ones, with some people having a friend next to them. Now it appears as the cause of the rushing in the hallways was explained, but a different question arose. 

“What’s happening?” the boy asked what was one everyone’s mind that day. 

Two siblings sit next to each other as they rest from their long day of stress; sleep seems to be slowly taking over them despite being in a sitting position. It seems as if nothing has happened because of the calm and silent atmosphere. The only sign of something happening was in the minds of those who went through the recent occurrence. 

Just as suddenly as the storm of people getting hurt appeared, just as quickly it all went away. Inexplicably, the majority of citizens of a small town got into some accident and got hurt, some of these accidents were caused by another person, but others just suddenly seemingly for no reason. Confusion and fear have entirely taken over the tiny town, nothing like this has ever happened, and that’s been keeping everyone warry of people they aren’t familiar with.

There was already a certain division of communities prior to this, but now the people that no one knew much about were receiving the guilt of people getting hurt, despite there not being any proof. Regardless of what was on people’s minds, everyone was glad that the crazy stuff had stopped and that no more reports of accidents were appearing.

Somehow the two siblings managed to finally reach their deep sleep and taste the sweet dreams surrounding them. Silently enjoying their rest after all the exhaustion, they completely forgot that they were in a hospital to see their close friend.

…

Slow, but strong footsteps echo in a hallway as someone passes through it; being the only source of sound, each step feels like a loud explosion. These explosions quickly echoing through the hospital, woke up someone tightly sleeping.

“Oh, shit!” just as suddenly as she woke up, just as suddenly the words came from her mouth.

Confused by the scare, she looked around, only to realize that the room is empty, but her little brother is still sleeping. Giving out a small sigh, she assumed that it must have been just a dream since her brother hasn’t reacted at all. Feeling relieved, the girl leaned back against the chair and started thinking about the day she just went through. So little seemed to make sense; at first, it was just to see her friend, but in the next second, she was taking care of people.

Due to the lack of staff, the people who didn’t get hurt were asked to help; luckily, while there were a lot of accidents, it wasn’t serious for most people, maybe just a scratch or a small mark. But since so many got hurt, each person was checked for any head trauma and received a quick psychological test along with other things. The real problem wasn’t that people got injured, but the way they reacted to finding out in what kind of situation they are in.

All these thoughts were racing through the girl’s mind, nothing seemed to make any sense, and it all felt like a dream. She wanted to break away from it for at least a moment and play with her phone, but after searching her pockets, the girl realized that the phone was not with her. There was too much exhaustion on her mind to feel angry, so she decided to sit back and think where she could have left it.

…

“Are you sure you can do it?” some woman quickly said.

“Yes, of course, anything I can, I will, just tell me what!”, with honest sounding voice spoke a girl. 

Taking a small pause to think, the woman growled a little bit and then sighed, “Fine, what the heck. Make sure you ask their names and these ten questions, write down their answers, and if they are willing, ask for their dates of birth.”

After finishing, the woman extended her hand over to the girl to hand her a folder filled with paper pages and a single pen.

“Yes, ma’am!” expressing the tension she’s under the girl agreed.

“Good.”, the woman gave a small smile, but it faded after she looked at something to her left, “Alright, I got to go now, good luck!”

Being completely aware that she has to move now, the girl went to the first person she saw and asked in a nervous voice, “Hey, excuse m-”

Not even getting to finish what she was going to say, some man pushed her really hard and was holding tightly, scaring her. When trying to get away from this person, he started touching her quickly, confusing the girl even more. 

“H- Hey, get off!” the girl yelled, feeling scared of the man’s actions.

That yell seemed to help attract people’s attention and in return, caused the man to let go and dash away from the scene. The girl was left completely dumbfounded by what just happened, but looking around her and hearing the loud voices around her, forced her to focus on her job. Confused as she may have been a second ago, there was no time for any of that, stress is filling everyone, and now she has to do her best and help with resolving it.

Meanwhile, the girl’s brother is just walking around analyzing what people are doing; he is completely enveloped by curiosity. He did not possess the same kind of focus as his sister did; instead, he enjoyed flowing around the world, pretending that he isn’t a part of it. Unfortunately, no matter how distant he might feel from this world, he still needs to eat and is feeling hungry right now. 

It seems as if he is familiar with the hospital’s layout and is heading directly to the only wending machine in the building. On his way to it, some man appeared from behind him, he seemed to be in a rush and shoved the boy to the side and continued to run. At first, neither of them realized, but the man dropped something on the ground.

Only when the man was not visible anymore, and the boy had recovered from the sudden push, the phone came into view in front of the young teenager’s eyes. It seemed a little bit familiar to him; he grabbed the phone and looked at it carefully. Just before getting to think, it sounded like loud cursing was coming from the direction the man ran to.

The boy wanted to commit an act of small revenge because the man being so rude to him; the boy ran to behind the wending machine right after taking the phone. Fast footsteps were approaching, stabbing some fear in the boy’s mind. Regret started to appear, but before he decided to get out of his hiding place, some loud noise appeared, scaring and causing him to shrivel deeper in the corner of the wending machine.

It sounded as if two pieces of hard metal were smashed together. Tens of minutes pass by with complete silence, but the fear still lingers inside of the boy, forcing him to stay down in the corner, clenching the phone in his hands.