Red Skies- Book One [[ DRAFT ]]

Chapter One

Something was wrong. Cherry stared at her bedroom ceiling, coming back to her senses after a night's rest. She had slept normally, and she didn't remember any of her dreams. The clock by her bed said it was morning, but the light in the room seemed far too dim for the supposed time. Cherry sat up in bed and rubbed her eyes, focusing on her surroundings.

Today was June 8th, a day after her 19th birthday and a week after she graduated from high school. She was starting to feel like an adult, and it was uncomfortable. Her mother was in a rush for her to start packing, she was sure it'd take another year to get Cherry moved out. Not that she minded all that much, though. Her mother was quite emotional about her little girl moving away. Cherry, on the other hand, was quite excited to finally live alone. Although the idea of spending hours packing made her nauseous- she had quite a few belongings and knew it would be a long and tedious task. She had gotten into a good school, one with good opportunities for her to pursue her writing career. She didn't have any connections with friends who were going or really very many connections with her peers in general. But she was excited nonetheless.

Cherry was an author. Not a professional one, but a good one. She loved writing horror and science fiction stories- it gave her this release from the real world and she was in control. She often spent time daydreaming about her characters and possible ways to make a story. Her mind was constantly busy coming up with plot twists and scenarios, and she always carried a notebook with her so she wouldn't forget these ideas. This was partially what isolated Cherry from her peers- she was always in her own little world, and had trouble socializing with her classmates because their interests and conversation topics were quite boring to her. But she was leaving that all behind. She would finally start packing today. This motivated her to get out of bed and start the day.

The dim room was due to the fact that the blinds were closed. Cherry smiled slightly- her mom would sometimes come in and close the blinds for her on weekends, especially during the summer, because the sun would rise much earlier and she liked to sleep in. But Cherry noticed that the dim room had a reddish glow to it, and decided that something was definitely off. Along with the fact that a lot of her possessions appeared to have fallen off shelves and onto the floors. She slowly sat up and got out of bed, catching a glimpse of her wild and curly dark brown hair. She walked over to the window, and drew back the blinds, and let out a gasp. She staggered backward onto her bed, eyes wide and mouth gaping.

⚫

A man sat at his desk, tapping his fingers anxiously. He watched the camera feed flicker on his computer screen, the bright light coming from the device illuminating his face in contrast to the dark room around him. He was the only one left in the office, left to watch the experiment and be able to quickly contact someone in case something went wrong. He chuckled under his breath. There was no way they could screw this up now, if anything went wrong- well, it'd be catastrophic. His stomach ached- he hadn't eaten his lunch yet. He'd been keeping an eye on the experiment all day and had only had McDonald's early in the morning. He heard a man's voice begin to count down from ten. Finally, I hope I can get a break after this. Gotta pick up the kid from school soon-

The man's countdown reached "one", and the large machinery in the testing room began to whirr. All of a sudden, a huge rumbling noise blared through the computer speakers. The man swore loudly, startled. His eyes widened at the computer screen, as he saw the machinery light up brighter than the sun and everybody in the room seemed to vanish. He felt the building begin to shake and crumble. He ducked under his desk, mumbling a prayer and closing his eyes tightly. Then everything went black.

⚫

The sky was red. Dr. Phoenix Acker peered out his window. He'd been up all night, but lost consciousness mysteriously between 3 in the morning and 4 in the morning. Acker stared at the crimson sky in wonder, trying to think of the cause of the abnormality. He paced around his room, mind feeling unusually blank, pulling his short messy brown hair back into a mini ponytail. His gray eyes darted around the room while he tried to reorient himself and figure out what had changed. He stopped in front of his computer system, then looked back out the window. For whatever reason, the saying "Red sky at night, sailor's delight...Red sky in the morning, sailor's warning," popped into his head and he checked his watch. 6:03 in the morning. Warning for what? Bad weather, wasn't it? He thought, almost laughing at that coincidence, and then something in his brain clicked. Acker had to call somebody, and fast.

⚫

Cherry got off the bed and stared out the window again at the blood-red sky. The houses across the street were crumbling and some were completely collapsed. Her window had a crack in it that wasn't there before, and it basically looked abandoned outside. How long was she asleep...? Her phone said it was June 8th, indeed, so she had slept only one night. She didn't wake up at any point during the night, but obviously, her neighborhood had suffered some sort of earthquake or weather-related phenomenon, and she had slept through it. Cherry dressed quickly and left her room.

"Mom?" She called out into the hallway. Her father wasn't home- he was out of state for work business. Her father was a scientist- she didn't know much about his job, but it was very important. The house was eerily quiet. She checked her parents' room, and the bed was unmade but the room was empty. She checked the closet, too. Nothing. Cherry crossed the hall to the guest room. The window was shattered and glass was all over the neatly made bed. A lamp had fallen off the nightstand. Nobody there. She walked out into the hallway, trying to figure out where her mother had gone. Maybe to check on the neighbors? But wouldn't she have woken her up? She didn't know. She walked down the hallway and into the kitchen. It was the worst in there.

The drawers were all open or they had fallen out. All the windows were broken, and it looked like a tornado had swept through there. The living room wasn't much better- cluttered, picture frames face down on the carpet, glass everywhere. Cherry tiptoed through the mess to avoid cutting her feet, pulled on her sneakers, and dialed her mom's phone number. She then heard her mom's phone ringing in the other room. For no particular reason, she ran towards the source of the ringing even though she knew her mother wouldn't be there. The phone was in the nightstand drawer in her parents' bedroom. She then tried her dad's. It went straight to voicemail. She started to feel panicky. She called everybody in her contacts, and nobody answered.

Okay, she thought. I woke up, and it looks like some tragic natural disaster swept through my neighborhood, but I slept through the night. Nobody is answering their phone and nobody seems to be around. Cherry tried to think of anything she could do but realized she could only start small. She went back to her room and threw some items into a large hiking backpack- her laptop and charger, phone charger, headphones, notebook, planner, water bottle, hygiene items, a sweatshirt, and a change of clothes. She made sure to grab some food on the way out.

Cherry stepped outside, not bothering to lock the door behind her. She knocked on the doors of every house on her street, but nobody answered. She walked in the direction of a convenience store a few blocks away from her house, stopping to knock on the doors of everyone in her neighborhood. She checked the news app on her phone, but there was only yesterday's news. Not even a small story. What is going on here? She thought to herself.

She reached the convenience store, and the large window was completely shattered. She had to admit, the red sky and the rough and damaged-looking buildings were giving her some really good story ideas- it was almost cool, actually.

But she shouldn't think like that.

Cherry stepped inside the store and saw that shelves were knocked over, merchandise was strewn across the floor, some drinks had spilled as well. She walked around, stuffing undamaged bags of chips and candy into her pockets- she made sure to grab some food from home, of course, but her mother rarely bought junk food. She rounded a corner and saw a figure lurking in the shadows, rustling with something. It looked up at her, and she began to back away.

The creature stood up and walked toward her, and she screamed.