"Shattered Memories of Days Gone"

It’s been three days since the world has been in total discord. And, since everything had gone down, Jack and I have been surviving. Something terrible has happened and we’re still not sure what’s going on. We have been walking around the city for what seems like weeks - in search of a safe place to hide for a few days. We walked through endless, empty neighborhoods, one after the other. These neighborhoods, which were once alive and full of life, memories and people, were now empty and mere shadows of what we once knew - just a few days prior. Occasionally, I would see a mysterious shadow in a window as we walked past the houses, looking out in despair, with what seemed like a slight glimmer of hope. As time goes by, the houses seem to warp as if I was in a dream – a really bad dream. But, I knew we were awake – as no dream has ever been this real.

As we reached the outskirts of the neighborhood, we finally reach the city. But…it’s odd. The silence is deafening. What once was a bustling city, full of people, cars, noise and the definition of life…gone. Weird. “What happened here?”, I mumbled to myself, partly not wanting to find out what the answer to that might be. A tear falls from my eye and into a puddle on the ground - causing my reflection to ripple as I look into it. “Let’s split up – see if we can find anything. We’ll meet back here,” Jack says. “Okay,” I replied as Jack walks off into the distance, looking for any signs, any answers for what may have happened. I’m walking down the road, trying to get a glimpse of any signs of life – anything. Anything at this point would be a welcome sight. Then suddenly, I see gray smoke begin to pour down the sky from a distance. Thick with despair, I could feel the fear rolling through the air.

As the smoke began to disperse, I started to make out images of people - people running in every direction, trying to get away from an unseen force - something I have yet to encounter. As the smoke began to get closer, I began to make out a figure running toward me and saw that the face looked familiar. I realized it was Jack, coming back to find me. Jack grabbed my arm – hurriedly exclaiming, “Rain, we have to go. Hurry, he’s getting closer! We gotta go – now!”. Without question, I took off running in the opposite direction from which everyone came. We ran…and ran…and ran, for what seemed like forever. My legs trembled, and it felt like I was running in sand with each step.

As I ran for my life, I could feel the clasp of my heart locket begin to come apart and the necklace slipping from my neck. Before I could grab my heart locket, it falls to the ground. “I have to go back for my necklace,” I tell Jack as I begin to slow down. My heart began to pound a million miles per hour as I ran back to look for it. I retraced my steps and dropped to the ground, searching feverishly in the grass as I felt around - desperately trying to find it. My heart locket, which I had gotten from my mother when I was five years old, now worn and tarnished, was all I had left of her. It held a photo of me on one side and a photo of a boy within the other half of the heart locket.

There’s an inscription under my photo – “Rain”. Under the boy’s photo is an inscription, but the inscription is worn and unreadable - from years of wear. Flashes of my mother came back, as well as memories of me as a child, living the happiest moments of my life. As I searched for my locket, the thought of losing it, or anything else for that matter, was unbearable. My heart dropped as I remembered how much it meant to me. I couldn’t lose it as I had lost too much already. Then suddenly my hands came across a cold, object - in the shape of something which felt familiar. “My necklace!”, I said as I grabbed it. “C’mon!”, said Jack, as he helped me up. I got up and put the necklace back on as we ran down the street.

We came to a building and looked around the corner. When we thought the coast was clear, we ran to another building – being very careful not to be seen. As the smoke begin to clear from the air, a man in a black cloak, covering half of his face, suddenly appears down the road. He looks up slightly, revealing eyes glowing red and a scowl, hidden deep within the cloak - menacingly following my every move. He steps forward, walking at an increasing pace, before breaking into a run. Next thing I know, he grabs a car with his bare hands and lunges it in my direction. I jump out of the way, barely dodging the attack as the sound of crunching metal and car alarms go off when the car hits a wall. I turn to run down the street as he raises his hands toward the sky – a red glow pulsing from them. He brings his hands down with full force onto the ground, then street begin to crumble.

I see a red car and run toward it, hiding behind it. As I peak through the window, I get a glimpse of him steadily walking toward me as he gets ready to release a red bolt of electricity. I run just in time, as the car is hit with a powerful bolt of energy - disintegrating it into nothingness. As, I run down the street, he raises his hands and red electricity shoots from his palms. Every step feels hopeless. As I stop, feeling as if I can run no longer, familiar pictures begin to run through my mind.

Images of my family, once happy and full of joy, flashed, like millions of reflections in a mirror – shattered but still embedded with shadows of broken memories - slowly fading away into the darkness of existence. Somehow, someway, I just knew I had to do something. I could suddenly feel and unstoppable courage mixed with unfamiliar rage coursing through my body. My eyes begin to tingle – glowing electric blue. “I’m done running”, I said. I rise in the air, blue light emanating from my hands – looking at them in surprise at my newfound powers. I then turn to the man and feeling the fear leaving from my body. My eyes raised with intent. “You’ve already taken everything away from me, I’m not letting you take anything else.”

I flew forward, quicker than lightning - coming within less than an inch of him. Then, he quickly pressed the heart locket on my neck. I stopped in an instant, as the locket began to glow a bright red color. Everything began to go in slow motion. Time began to stop. The air felt so thick and heavy, I could hardly move. She was frozen in the moment and began to flicker, in and out, like a hologram, until finally fading away – disintegrating bit by bit. When she disappeared, the heart locket fell to the ground. Jack, having watched from afar, slowly walks over and picks up the locket, holding it delicately in his hands – turning it gently over in his hands as if it were a precious jewel, something dear and close to his heart.

The man’s cloak fades away into thin air as he walks over to Jack, revealing a normal looking guy – except his eyes are glowing blue now, instead of red. Interestingly enough though, he looks a lot like the boy in the photo within the locket. “I hate playing the bad guy”, he says with a slight smirk, walking up next to Jack as he holds the locket, “but it was the only way to get her to realize her true power.”

Taking a deep breath, Jack sighs. “The simulation training exercise is over. Her mind force has entered back into the locket, but don’t worry, her physical body, is safe back at the lab, where it will be returned to her. Our physical bodies are also still at the laboratory and we need to return back to them quickly. We needed to use our holograms for the training in order to ensure her safety. But, I think she’s ready…”, he says, as he looks forward into the distance, with an intent stare – tainted with a hint of uncertainty.

“It’s time, we must not waste another moment,” Jack says, shaking his head, “we must go back now. The time locket will now be activated.” Jack pulls a time-watch shaped locket from around his neck, and pushes it, and it begins to glow with blinding green light. The street, cars, buildings, people and everything that was once around them begin to flicker, as if they were in an old film. “The evil forces are getting stronger. And, they’re coming with everything they got. We’ll bring her back in physical form when the time comes. And she’ll be ready this time. We al,l will. You two are among the last few of our only hope. We must find the others,” he says, as they both flicker in an out until they too disappear - to a different place in existence, ready to take on the battle of their lives...