Secret Meanings and Different Worlds

The smoke was endless, free-floating across the broken sky. The dark orange of it was like a thick blanket draped over the once beautiful city. A city I once knew as home but soon became a long-forgotten memory of a far better world. The bright neon lights that hung above the crowded streets and busy sidewalks which collided together in a giant square that everyone knew and loved. Sadly, most of my memories from that time were lost like the innocence glow that hung deep within my eyes. All that is left of them is the remaining chipped blocks of a torn to shreds city. A day that seemed completely usual, just a normal one except that it was once filled with streamers and cake, was the start to this new normal world that was destined to fail. A party as big as those told in old storybooks, so full of smiling faces and people dancing around each other. Though the only difference was instead of a large ballroom, the party was held in the lush green of a backyard. The yard could only be described as enchanted as the young teens ran chasing a dark, long-haired girl while screaming in delight. Shortly after the cheering changed and became a happy tone as they all began to sing the classic song as they sit in the middle of the long picnic-like table. All thirteen of the candles were brightly lit as everyone waited for the girl to make her wish and blow the flames out. A small breeze helped her blow them out as someone got ready to cut the cake, but before the cake could be cut a loud siren could be heard along with a bunch of shadows covered the sky. Hands flew up to their ears trying to cut out some of the noise, but then the explosions happened. Sounds of crumbling buildings and violent shouting of others as people stormed the streets wondering what the cause of the destruction was. 'I was left alone after. Everyone who was there just disappeared. All that was left was one slightly crushed, slightly unwrapped present. That was all that was left of them.' I don't remember much about what happened after, I only know what people have spoken about that day. Their gloomy faces and tired eyes, ones that hold so much more than just exhaustion, are what's left of the true horror that happened. They would speak of people raising from the ash as something less than human. Telling us stories of how the ash froze their faces into ones filled with agony and how they would appear anyway but alive. Most people gave the same description of these ash-like creatures; their shoulders were boney and would shake and rattle as they slouched. At first, most thought they were harmless, but that changed very quickly when some unlucky person came unto one of the monsters. It was over quick, the once human sunk it's thick claws along with its teeth into him. People claimed that an orange glow flew out of it and into the unlucky soul. It is believed that he soon turned into one of those creatures. It was because of the lack of information that we began calling them the Unknowns. 'Fitting, I suppose. The perfect thing for monsters that we don't know or understand. The perfect name.'