I N V A D E R S **also being trashed and rewritten soon**

||Chapter 2-New World||

We were standing on a rooftop overlooking a decimated city, but something was off about this city, it just didn't feel natural. Maybe it was the strange humming in the air. Maybe it was the offset glow coming from the ground. Maybe it was just paranoia.

"Winston please, please don't do it! We'll find another way!" I heard myself sob. 

The crowd that had gathered behind me were chattering like birds in panicked voices, but they did nothing to stop the man on the ledge. He was standing  with his back to me on the edge, about to jump. He had midnight black hair and when he turned back to look at me, his peculiar pale green eyes threw me a wink from under a ridiculous fedora. 

"Don't worry," He said, "cats always land on their feet." 

He tipped his hat and stepped off the ledge.

I screamed.

  ⦁☓☽☓☾☓⦁  

I woke up with a start. My heart was pounding and my palms were sweaty as I recalled my dream. Pinky Potato was purring contentedly beside me, not seeming bothered by my outburst. Wait, why was he here? Then I remembered, and it stabbed at my heart like a shard of glass. Memories came back like a landslide and I didn't want to believe it. I didn't want to accept the truth. I squeezed my eyes shut and pinched my arm, hoping it all a very bad dream, but of course it didn't work. 

I inhaled deeply and counted. 1...2...3.... I stopped breathing on four. Something was wrong. Something was just not natural. I exhaled and sat up, looking around the room.

Thump-thump. Thump-thump. Thump-thump.

What the hell is that? I thought incredulously.

The noise seemed to be coming from behind me. I turned, but saw nothing... except the cat. The thumps continued, getting louder until they were almost overpowering as I lowered my head to the cat. 

It was Pinky Potato's heartbeat.

"What. The. Hell?!" This time I said it out loud.

The cat simply stared at me calmly with pale green eyes. Why were those eyes so familiar? I closed my own eyes and pinched myself for the second time that morning. I slowly took account to all my senses. They were being overloaded with information. Impossible information. 

When I opened my eyes, I saw that the room was bathed in golden white sunlight that streamed in from the gaping tear in the wall. Everything seemed very vibrant. All hues of blue around my room seemed to pop while other colors faded into the background. I could pick out a single speck of dust on the ceiling above me. Shards of glass were scattered across the floor and a small spider sat next to a broken flower pot. I couldn't believe my ears when I heard the tiny spider legs pitter-patter across the slanted wood flooring. Instead of hearing silence, like I had expected, I heard much more. I stood up slowly, and listened. In the wall to my right, I heard a tiny mouse huddling in a small burrow with her all of her mice babies. My sense of smell was incredible as well. For example, I knew that approximately one mile away, there was a rotting carcass of a bird on the side of the road. 

 I crouched and  quickly cleared the glass shards on the floor. The mirror from my dresser was face down on the ground, and when I lifted it up to see the damage, I couldn't believe what I saw in the reflection.