The Greatest Secret (Narration)

[cordibus]

Sleep comes peacefully for everyone, despite the progressing countdown. Whatever fears or worries they might have had evaporate as their eyelids close at the setting sun.

Just as the clocks strike midnight, they are awakened by a sudden noise and a strange headache resonates right to their skull. Through the waves of pain, a voice speaks out to them.

This charade cannot continue. You know that too, don’t you? Those visions...They weren't normal. Come with me and I will show you something...

A strange creature comes out of their very bodies, looking at them for a few seconds before grabbing them by their arms violently, somehow separating their spirit and body and flinging them right into the walls of their buildings into the night sky.

As the vision changes, everyone falls towards a building in Green Valley. The small brick house, covered in numerous flowers, is typical of the green-filled residential area. The night is quiet, peaceful. The flickering lamp post nearby is the only annoyance. After being violently torn from their body and now being unable to move, most will quickly realize that this is a shared vision...yet the question remains: Why were they were brought here?

Then it happens.

...This must stop. My other self...will you die or fight back?

Hundred of dark forms emerge from the ground, oozing out an almost chemical-like darkness that causes the nearby light sources to dim then fizzle out completely. The color around the creatures begins to drain, fueling their now glowing yellow eyes, which quickly become the only true source of light. In unison, they circle the building and suddenly begin to scream and as the color drains from the building as well, the fuel makes their claws and teeth grow and become visible.

Can you feel it? The injustice perpetuated in this world...

As the creatures circle the doors, the plants around them completely drain of color and begin to rot. The screams become louder and a voice in pain echoes from inside the building. A man knocks on the door from within before he unlocking it and running out of the building, clutching his head and screaming. His hands have begun to melt into nothingness and the color from his body is quickly draining.

Survival, however, is an instinct that is hard to deny. It doesn't take too long for him to realize what he's done and the screams escalate from pain to utter terror as he bravely decides to push the door closed so that they can't go in. He screams to someone inside not to move. The shadow beasts circle around him as he begins to panic, trying to use the nearby shovel as a weapon. Even as he does so, the flesh has melted so much that his hands are nothing but bone. The attack is a feeble one and as his feet get the same treatment, he falls to the ground.

The shadowy figures echo his cries and begin to claw violently at him, tearing him apart. What is left of flesh wounds open, leaving the pavement stained with blood, the only contrast to this lack of color. This does not go unnoticed, and the slowing breaths of a man's last pitiful attempts at life cause his worried wife to come rushing out of the house as well, despite his protests. The creature next to you laughs.

.....Did you think it was like this? Was this horror what you imagined it could be?

She has a gun, but it is completely useless against them. As it gets knocked out of her hands, she screams her husband's name even as she is pushed into the window of the house, pieces of glass sent shattering into a hundred red-stained shards.

...The violence is incredible, isn't it? Can you feel your heartbeat even in this form?

With a pathway to the inside of the house opened up, the creatures waste no time slithering into it, their forms moving almost like snakes. The building begins to twist into an odd form as walls rearrange themselves, the outside brick walls becoming inside, folding like paper origami.

The screams of children are heard at one point and then...complete silence. The place crumbles from the changed weight, electrical sparks form and the house begins to burn in dark grey and black flames. The shadows begin to combine to form one giant monstrous blob, continuing to drain the nearby color and energy, becoming a large snake with no eyes and a mouth made up of razor-sharp teeth...

The world will slowly die if nothing is done. You are trapped in paradise.

Before others nearby can come outside and the damage can continue, the sound of sirens can be heard, getting louder and louder. A single firetruck arrives and figures emerge from the back.

Ahhh here they come again...creepy aren't they?

As the vision continues, the figures move towards the fire hydrant, but have no hoses - instead they raise their hands upwards as a geyser of water and color lights up the sky, which covers the entire house in one fell swoop. A few of them jump at the creature and pelt it with axes in complete silence as the monster screams - the voices of the men, the woman and the children echoing in its last breath. When the water clears and retreats back into the hydrant, the horrible creatures appear to be gone. The firemen waste no time, taking strange items from the fire truck.

Behold...the city's greatest secret!

It quickly becomes apparent what they are doing as they start to arrange the site to make it look like the aftermath of a normal fire. The woman's charred body is moved to seem like she tried to jump outside instead of inside. Some of the fireman move their hands as pieces of the house is moved back by what appears to be telekinesis. Plants grow back in areas that would normally be undamaged by a fire.

A few of them kneel close to the decaying man as his body is cleaned up. As the vision continues, his body is reassembled until it looks like a lifeless but undamaged husk of flesh. A fireman then takes a hose, which is revealed to be more like a flamethrower than a hose, charring the body with its flames before throwing it back inside the building in an almost indifference.

Time to go back...before it's too late...

At that last comment, the firemen stop in unison. They begin to point towards those seeing this vision, and fire emerges from their hoses. Yet, as the heat begins to shoot towards them, the dreamers are pulled back to their homes, flung into their bodies with such violence that some may even fall from their bed. But even as they look up, their hearts racing, the thing that emerged from their body is still standing there, almost mocking them.

I am thou....thou art I! Your mind is trapped, but I can set your soul free. My other self, will you die, or fight back? The day to Awaken...is NOW!

It laughs one final time before disappearing.

The time on their watches has gone back to an hour before night has fallen. That's right...they haven't even gone to bed yet. Have they been daydreaming? Barely any time has passed...

Then a new message shows up on the APPLENET program...