Godless Domain

Kade sat in silent reflection, thinking about the history that had shaped him into who he was. A reminder to himself of the things he lost, and the mistakes he made—mistakes he would never repeat again. The price of those errors had been too much to bear, but in a world where life and belief were always in the balance, mistakes were inevitable. The key was to ensure they didn't happen again. The same mistakes that set him on this journey.

Before the apocalypse began, Kade had been nothing more than an average teenager. A normal person with a normal life, dealing with the usual ups and downs—nothing out of the ordinary. School was just one more part of that routine.

It all started on a typical morning, the kind that seemed so ordinary at the time. Kade woke up to his older sister Selene's voice shouting at him from the hallway. Selene had inherited their mother's looks: brown hair, piercing green eyes, and a height that barely reached 4'5". She was beautiful in her own right, but her beauty was overshadowed by her behavior. Spoiled, loud, and perpetually annoying, she seemed to exist just to get under Kade's skin.

"Wake up, sleepyhead! Mum made breakfast, and you need to go to school. Not like it'll help a dumbass like you," Selene mocked from the other side of the door, her voice sharp with the usual early-morning annoyance.

Kade didn't even bother to respond. He'd long since stopped trying to engage with her nonsense. Half the time, he wondered if they'd been switched at birth. How could someone five years older than him be so… different? There had to have been a mix-up somewhere, right?

With a groan, he rolled out of bed and started to shuffle past her toward the bathroom. But not before giving her a parting gift. Nothing said good morning like a well-timed rip of gas, just to annoy the hell out of her.

"You disgusting dog! You dirty—" Selene started her usual tirade, but Kade was already halfway into the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind him to drown out her words.

A quick freshen-up later, he wandered into the kitchen, where breakfast had already been set. His father, Ronan, sat at the head of the table. The man looked rough—his stubble heavy, his eyes dark with exhaustion. He must've pulled another all-nighter. The construction sites he managed had been hit by some strange seismic activity recently—earthquakes, vibrations—causing delays and throwing his projects into chaos.

Ronan wasn't exactly a conversationalist. He wasn't one for family breakfasts or spending much time at home, especially now. The only reason he was even sitting here was to ensure his family was alive. Most days, the man barely touched his food, even though Elara, his wife and Kade's stepmother, was a fantastic cook.

Kade often found himself silently thankful for Elara. If it weren't for her, Ronan would've worked himself into an early grave, trying to bury his grief after Kade's mother passed away. They were all suffering in their own ways, trying to deal with loss in their own way.

But if there was one thing Kade could give his sister credit for, it was bringing Elara into their lives. Kade's dad wasn't easy to love after Mum's death, but Elara somehow made it work. It was strange—he never really acknowledged it out loud—but Kade did feel something like gratitude for her.

Breakfast was as silent as usual. There were no attempts at conversation; Ronan's focus was clearly elsewhere, and Kade didn't feel like trying to break the tension. Once he finished eating, he grabbed his stuff and left. Whatever air of joy Elara tried to infuse into the morning just couldn't penetrate the heavy atmosphere that Ronan carried with him.

Kade wasn't about to stress about it. He was too young for that. He had a whole life ahead of him, or so he thought.

As he walked down the street toward the end of his road, he ran into Zane—the little troublemaker. Zane, always ready to cause a ruckus, stood barely 4 feet tall, but his presence felt larger than life. He had the ability to make a mess out of anything. Kade called him a "mut," but really, he was the kind of annoying friend everyone secretly loved to have around—just the kind of headache you didn't mind because he was your headache.

"Yo, Kade! Man, did you see the new girl in class?" Zane was already on one of his usual rants about girls. Kade barely cared, but he humored him anyway.

"Yeah, whatever." Kade gave a halfhearted shrug. Girls weren't high on his list of priorities.

"Don't give that half-assed response, how can…" Kade slowly drained out nonsense coming from Zane as they made their way to school.

By the time they arrived at school, things seemed like they were going to be... well, standard. Nothing unusual. 

Nothing extraordinary. 

Then as if in divine protest of my beliefs, the earth beneath my feet shuddered, a deep, rumbling sound that seemed to vibrate through the very bones of the world. It started as a small tremor—barely noticeable, like someone had dropped a heavy book on the floor. But then it grew. The walls of the school creaked in protest, and windows rattled violently.

I looked over at Zane, who stopped mid-sentence. His eyes widened, and he grabbed onto my arm. "Yo, you feel that?" he asked, his voice suddenly sober, stripped of all the usual bravado.

"Yeah, I feel it." I didn't know why, but I suddenly felt uneasy. It wasn't like any tremor I'd ever experienced before. This felt... wrong.

Before I could even react, the building jerked, a violent shake that knocked me off my feet. I grabbed the nearest desk to steady myself, and Zane was already diving under the table, looking like he had just seen a ghost.

People started shouting, running, and pushing past each other to get out of the classrooms. The overhead lights flickered, casting long shadows across the room, and I could hear the faint screeching of metal somewhere in the distance. The ground shook again—stronger this time—and I could feel the floor beneath me crack, like it was about to split open.

"Everyone out! NOW!" The teacher screamed, his voice barely audible over the noise of the quake. His face was pale, and his hands were shaking as he tried to get the class to move.

We didn't need any more encouragement. People stampeded out of the room in a frenzy. I didn't know if it was fear or just survival instinct kicking in, but I wasn't about to stand around and wait for the building to collapse.

I ran out of the classroom, Zane right behind me, and joined the crowd of students pouring into the hallway. The walls were cracking. Chunks of plaster fell from the ceiling. But there was something else... a low, almost mechanical humming sound coming from somewhere deeper within the school. It was faint, like an engine revving up—but it was growing louder with each passing second.

I pushed my way through the crowd, looking for a way out. I wasn't sure where I was going—I just knew I needed to get out of there. My chest was tight with anxiety, and the further I went, the worse it seemed to get.

Then, just as I made it to the exit doors, the ground shook again. This time, it was so strong that I was thrown forward, slamming into the door frame. I stumbled back, trying to regain my balance, but before I could react, the building... shifted. It felt like the entire structure of the school had tilted. The floor beneath me dropped away, sending me crashing to the ground.

The doors in front of me exploded open—literally blasted off their hinges—sending shards of glass flying through the air. I shielded my face with my arms as the world outside erupted in chaos.

And then, I saw it.

A massive crack in the earth had appeared in front of the school. It stretched across the entire road, a jagged wound in the ground that seemed to pulse with an unnatural energy. The ground trembled again, but this time it wasn't just an earthquake. It was something... worse. Something that I couldn't explain.

People were screaming. Some were trying to run away, but others were frozen in place, too stunned to move. Zane grabbed my arm, his grip tight. His eyes were wide with panic.

"What the hell is happening?" he shouted, his voice barely audible over the cacophony of chaos. "This is... this is insane!"

I didn't have an answer. I didn't even know what was going on. All I could do was stand there, dumbfounded, watching as the world seemed to fall apart in front of me.

Another rumble shook the ground, and this time, it didn't stop. It just kept going. A deep, growling sound rose from the earth itself, and then... it happened.

The crack in the ground widened. Something huge began to rise from the depths of the earth—an enormous, dark shape that emerged from the fissure, towering over the school like a beast from some ancient nightmare.

I could see it now—its glowing eyes, its massive form covered in twisted, spiked armor. It was like nothing I had ever seen before, and it was staring right at us.

"RUN!" I screamed, pushing Zane in the opposite direction. "Get the hell out of here!"

But no one moved. No one could move. They were all too paralyzed by the sight of the creature.

And as for me? I didn't have time to think. I didn't have time to process what I was seeing. My heart was racing, my breath short, but I knew one thing—.

Something was happening, and we were all caught in the middle of it.