Apocalypse Awakening

Chapter 3: We Are All Outsiders

As John's twisted body and tentacles lay lifeless, Layla mysteriously appeared at the men's restroom door. Surprised, she observed Sean standing over John, a bloody mirror shard in his hand.

She had checked outside to ensure no one else had transformed and hurried to assist Sean, only to find he had already handled the situation himself. Sean stood calmly before John, gripping the bloodied shard, an unexpected decisiveness in his actions.

Layla was taken aback by Sean's efficiency. She had given him time alone with the monster to gauge his potential, hoping he'd demonstrate high capability. However, Sean's performance exceeded her expectations.

Sean glanced up at Layla, his grip tightening on the shard, his nerves taut. Recognizing her, he relaxed slightly. He didn't understand her surprise, nor did he think he had done anything wrong.

His actions, though seeming spontaneous, were the result of prolonged thought and determination to kill the monster for self-preservation. He had committed fully to his decision.

Only after confirming the monster's death—its shattered heart no longer beating—did he stand up and discard the shard. His heart pounded heavily with relief and lingering tension.

Layla clapped slowly as she entered, her gaze on Sean somewhat peculiar. "You did well," she said.

“I…” Sean's voice carried belated nervousness. “Did I kill someone?”

“No,” Layla reassured as she approached, applying a medical patch to his wound. “The situation isn’t over yet. You’ve only delayed the crisis. Your anger, even against these creatures, has a suppressive effect...”

Sean's head throbbed intensely as he grappled with the aftermath of the killing, the explosive headache, and the bizarre revelations, feeling utterly lost.

"Why are you two whispering so much?" A laughing voice suddenly broke the silence. Sean turned and froze in shock. John was rising from the ground, his torn flesh and punctured wounds miraculously healing, tentacles retracting into his body. He walked over to the sink, washing his hands and joking, “We always thought you two had a story back in school. Was I right?”

Sean listened, feeling the world turn surreal. His recent terror and desperate fight seemed like illusions. Warily distancing himself from John, Sean looked at Layla, who was casually explaining, “It was too noisy inside, we couldn’t hear each other.”

John joked as he dried his hands, “Come on, let’s go back. You’ve been gone so long, you should drink as a penalty.”

Back in the private room, their classmates indeed teased Sean and Layla to drink. But to Sean, everything seemed bizarre. His classmates were overly friendly, with occasional resentful glances. Even John seemed more amiable, albeit still somewhat pretentious.

Layla, after chatting briefly, excused them from singing, claiming she and Sean had other plans. The classmates looked on in surprise and envy.

Once in her black SUV, Sean felt the envious stares of his classmates. The situation seemed eerily normal.

“What’s really going on?” Sean asked as they drove through the neon-lit streets, cold night air streaming through the open window.

Layla, smoking a cigarette, replied softly, “I can’t explain everything, only give you the answer. Everyone around us, in essence, is no longer human. Your friends, your family, they've all become different beings. They still wear their old faces, have memories and identities, but they are twisted monsters...”

“Usually, they disguise themselves, living normally around you. But when the city turns malicious, you see their true forms…”

At that moment, as if an electric current surged through his brain, Sean thought of his mother's cold gaze and the city's pervasive strangeness. “Then we...” He opened his mouth, as if to say a lot, but couldn't form a coherent question.

“This world has changed and forgot to include us...” Layla seemed to know what he wanted to say, a mysterious smile on her lips, “We are not from here; you and I are both aliens...”

Sean didn’t know what to say. After a while, he took the cigarette from Layla's mouth and put it in his own. Normally, he didn't smoke, but now he needed something to calm his chaotic mind. He found it hard to accept what Layla had just said; it was too terrifying, too crazy. He would rather believe that he was insane and everything he saw was a hallucination.

Watching Sean cough from the cigarette, Layla couldn't help but smile, “I know it's hard to accept. Everyone who just wakes up feels like you do, preferring to believe they’ve gone mad rather than accept such an absurd reality. But you can't deny, maybe you've always sensed the abnormality of this world.”

Sean choked severely on the mint-flavored cigarette but continued smoking. He wondered if he had indeed sensed the world's abnormalities early on. Or was it himself who was abnormal? Four years ago, after his parents' divorce and his family fell apart, his brain seemed to break down that summer. He was overwhelmed by intense panic and dizzy spells, unable to think clearly.

He went to the hospital, but nothing was found. His parents and even doctors thought he was faking it for a while. He couldn't express his pain to others and had to confine himself to his bedroom for four years, learning to focus his attention.

He read books and played games, or just sat in his chair all day, learning to adapt to it all, to control the perception distortion brought on by intense fear. Finally, after four years, he decided to rejoin the world. And now someone tells him that the world has been changed by some unknown force into something completely alien?

“Okay, I know you have many questions in your mind, but there's too much for a newcomer like you to understand right away,” Layla said, smiling. “Let me take you home first. I need to prepare to properly introduce you to this world and how to survive in it.”

“Go back?” Sean suddenly felt a strong aversion. Thinking of his mother's cold eyes and everything he encountered on the streets, he felt a chill.

“Don't be afraid,” Layla noticed his nervousness, smiling, “Solving John has slightly eased the world's malice and rejection towards you. But it's only temporary, in a day or two, maybe even a few hours, that malice will return, even stronger than before. Not just John, everyone you meet might want to kill you.”

Hearing her words, Sean tensed: “Then what should I do?”

“Relax,” Layla smiled. “Just wait quietly as if nothing happened. I’ll come back for you.”

“Relax?” Sean felt absurd, “In a world full of monsters, you want me to relax?”

Layla laughed at his response, “In a world full of monsters, what else can you do but relax?”