Through Their Eyes

When the Sky Collapsed

The ground trembled beneath Emby’s feet, and the trees surrounding the cabin creaked and groaned as though they were alive. A low vibration filled the air, resonating deep inside her chest. Suddenly, the forest and cabin dissolved into darkness, and she found herself standing once more in the cavern from one of her visions. The cult encircled an altar, chanting louder and more frenzied than before.

Skylar lay upon a stone, her body twisted with pain, blood pooling beneath her. The fissures in the cavern floor widened until a monstrous claw, dripping with black ichor, clawed its way to the surface. A colossal being, neither man nor beast, surged upward, its many forms shifting in and out of existence. Its voice was a chorus of whispers and screams all at once.

“The veil has broken. The world ends tonight.”

The cult fell to their knees in ecstasy. Skylar’s body convulsed violently, her mouth opening in a scream that was not her own. The creature’s essence poured into her, warping her bones and stretching her skin until she was no longer recognizable. Her eyes became pits of endless black, and her body was overtaken by something ancient, something sinister.

Emby reached out, screaming Skylar’s name, and for one fleeting second; behind the void-filled eyes Skylar looked back at her. A tear slid down Skylar’s cheek as though her true self was still fighting inside.

“Help me…” Skylar’s voice cracked through the monstrous growl, faint but real.

Emby, without hesitation, rushed forward, clutching Skylar’s hand. Emby without a doubt had somehow managed to get herself to Skyler.

A searing pain burned through her veins as shadows lashed around her wrist, but she didn’t let go. Together, the two girls fought against the binding presence of the cult’s magic. The earth trembled violently, stalactites raining down like spears.

The cult roared in anger, redoubling their chants. The air thickened until breathing felt like drowning. Emby shouted words she had read in her long nights of studying old journals, counter- rituals whispered by seers of centuries past. For a moment, the beast faltered, its form shuddering like smoke in the wind.

But it was too late.

The cracks in the earth spread like wildfire across Fright Wood, devouring houses, swallowing the screaming townsfolk. The church collapsed, the cemetery split open, and the graves of generations spilled into the abyss. Beyond the town, cities burned, oceans boiled, and the heavens split apart.

Skylar and Emby clung to one another, their hands locked even as the shadows wrapped tighter around them. Together they cried out, defying the cult, defying the darkness, defying the inevitable. The beast roared, shaking the very fabric of the universe, and the cavern walls exploded outward. The world above fractured like glass.

The girls fought, but their voices were drowned out by the end. The cult screamed in triumph as the sky collapsed. Everything in Fright Wood from the townsfolk, the forests, the oceans, and the very stars was pulled into the void.

In their final moment, Skylar turned to Emby, her voice soft and human once more.

“I’m glad you found me. We can still stop this.”

And then everything came crashing down, consumed by silence and eternal darkness .

But is this really the end…