Asteroids are getting closer and closer to Earth. Less than 10 minutes are left until impact.

  Connor pointed his hand upwards. “Dad, look up!”

  His dad looked up. “Oh no, this is bad…” He looked towards his house and screamed, “ETHAN, HURRY UP!”

  Ethan didn’t hear them. He was far away, but his dad screamed loud enough to be heard. He was just lost in his thoughts.

  “What... What’s going on?” Ethan was shaking. “What am I supposed to do?! I… I can’t move.”

  A blue figure was approaching Ethan’s mother. Ethan’s mother was in tears and unable to move just like Ethan.

  The blue figure rose his right hand, which had one long spike. He pointed it towards Ethan’s mother.

  Ethan looked over since he heard someone walking in the kitchen. It was the other figure. It was walking towards the blue figure. Ethan looked back and saw the blue figure pointing a big spike towards his mother’s chest.

  “No... No…” Ethan was confused. He didn’t know what was going on. He wanted to go in and help his mother, but he couldn’t.

  A moment of silence rose.

  But it was broken by the screams of Ethan's mother.

  Ethan's eyes were wide open.

  The blue figure had stabbed Ethan’s mother in the chest. As the blue figure took its spike out of Ethan’s mother’s chest, the other figure from the kitchen jumped towards the blue figure and they both fell back into the same cloud they came out of.

  Ethan fell on his knees. He slowly moved towards his mother.

  Tears started to come out of Ethan’s eyes. And at this moment, he heard the screams of his brother and father. He looked back and started walking towards the sounds.

  Connor was running towards the house and saw Ethan come out.

  “Are you okay?” asked Connor.

  Ethan looked into Connor’s eyes terrified.

  Their dad came up to them. “Are you deaf? Where's your mother? Don’t tell me she’s not ready yet!”

  “She…” Ethan started talking, “died.”

  “What?!” Connor was confused. “What do you mean?!”

  “She died!” said Ethan again.

  “What do you mean she died?!” said their dad as he ran towards the house.

  Connor repeated his fathers words. “What do you mean she died!” He grabbed Ethan’s shoulders. “What’s going on?!”

  Ethan didn’t know how to explain what happened. “We have to go.”

  Connor grabbed Ethan harder. “Go? Without our mother? How could she have died—”

  Ethan removed Connor’s hands from his shoulders. “She died, okay? It’s over. Some figures came out of the cloud looking thing and one of them stabbed her. We have to go before the asteroid hits.”

  Connor looked at Ethan’s face. He saw that his brother was not lying by his expression. But he couldn’t believe what he just told him.

  They both looked towards the east as a few smaller asteroids had already fallen to Earth and caused explosions.

  Their dad came out of the house, shocked, and looked towards his sons. Connor looked back at his father, and by his face, he understood that something bad had truly happened.

  Their dad pointed towards Turtle Lake and screamed, “CONNOR, ETHAN! GO! LEAVE MY BAGS OUT OF THE BOAT TO REDUCE WEIGHT AND SAIL FASTER,” said their father as he was tearing up. “I… I’m going to stay here.”

  “STAY HERE?! ARE YOU CRAZY?” screamed Ethan.

  “I’m not going to leave her,” responded their father. “I don’t know how I can live without her.”

  Connor was heartbroken, but he understood his father’s emotions. He grabbed Ethan and dragged him towards the boat. They left unnecessary bags and sailed to the other side of the lake.

  Their dad waved back and went back into the house, trying to hide his tears from his children.

  Ethan looked back, shocked. He couldn’t hold his tears back.

  As they were halfway across the lake, the main asteroid hit the Earth. It sent strong shockwaves across a huge area.

  “IT HIT THE EARTH!” screamed Connor as he pointed towards the impact.

  “Oh no... This is bad.” Connor saw how fast the shockwave was coming towards them.

  “ETHAN, DUCK NOW!”

  The shockwave hit their boat and flipped it. Both Ethan and Connor fell into the deep lake.

  Connor came up and located the boat. He grabbed it and started looking around for Ethan. He couldn’t see him, so he went underwater. He saw Ethan sinking deeper and deeper into the lake, so he went to rescue him. Ethan was knocked out. Connor grabbed his hand and helped him get to the boat.

  He flipped the boat and pushed Ethan into it.

  He looked back towards his father. The house was fully destroyed. There was fire in the impact area, thick smoke, and the sounds of emergency services.

  Connor checked Ethan’s pulse. He was still alive. He held back his tears and sailed towards Ironville, the city across Turtle Lake.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Ethan woke up after a few minutes. He looked back and saw the destruction the asteroid caused.

  Connor heard Ethan wake up. “Don’t worry about it,” Connor said as he looked at him. “Can you tell me again how our mother died?”

  Ethan looked back at Connor. “I can… When I went into the house to search for Mom, I saw her in the backyard garden picking up gnomes. I went towards her, but as I was about to enter the garden, a weird blue circular cloud appeared and a figure with a human-like shape was thrown out of it, crashing into the kitchen. Then after a few seconds, another one came out. That second one was the one that killed our mother. He had something that looked like a sword on his hand and stabbed it into her chest. Then the one who fell into the kitchen went towards the other one, and they both fell into the cloud again.”

  Connor was confused by this story, but looking at his brother's face, this story must have been the truth. But no matter what, now for sure he knew that both of his parents were dead because of the shockwave, so he had to move on.

  They arrived in Ironville and the first thing they did was go to the police station.

  Connor was talking to the police to check on their parents' house to see if they somehow survived. Meanwhile, Ethan was sitting back, lost in his thoughts.

  But Ethan’s phone vibrated. Someone had messaged him. He grabbed his phone and checked who it was.

  Lila Harper | 10:54PM

  Are you alright? Me and Ryan arrived at my family house in Ironville. Everything’s alright for us. Message me back as soon as you can.

  Ethan smiled, knowing his friends were alright. He went out of the police station and called her back. She answered almost immediately.

  “Hey Ethan, is everything alright?” said Lila quickly.

  “I’m fine. Me and Connor are alright…” He stopped for a second. “But… my parents. They... died.”

  There was silence from the other side of the phone.

  “I’m so sorry for your loss,” Lila said softly, not knowing what else to say.

  “Thanks... I’m in Ironville as well, so if it’s okay with you I’ll visit you guys tomorrow,” said Ethan.

  “You can visit us anytime you want Ethan. See you soon then.” Lila hung up.

  Ethan went back in, and Connor was coming back at the same time.

  “They said they will start to search our house, in case they somehow survived,” Connor said to Ethan as he was walking out of the police station.

  They both called a taxi and checked into a hotel. They picked a small room on the second floor. It was a 2-bedroom with a small kitchen corner.

  Night came quickly and they both prepared to sleep.

  Ethan couldn’t sleep. Every time he closed his eyes, he would see the death of his mother in his head. He tried to think of good things. like visiting Lila’s house tomorrow. but it was not enough to sleep.

  He tried to sleep one more time, but this time he was woken up by the screams of a familiar voice. “ETHAN, ETHAN, HELP ME!”

  Ethan stood up quickly as this voice reminded him of someone. He looked towards his brother’s bed and Connor was not there. He didn’t think much of it and went out quickly. He saw his mother out in the field, on her knees, screaming for help.

  Ethan walked towards her. “Mom?”

  “Ethan... I love you,” said his mother. “When you were born, our family was happier than ever. Your father wanted you to be strong, and I wanted you to be smart. I always remember the day when we told Connor that he would have a little brother. He was so happy, running all around the house.”

  Ethan was tearing up. He moved forward to hug his mother, but he heard deep breathing sounds from behind. He looked back and saw that blue figure again. He was walking towards Ethan.

  Ethan fell on his back, crawling backward. He started breathing heavily.

  The blue figure reached over Ethan’s mother. “ETHAN, ETHAN, HELP ME!”

  Ethan couldn’t move again.

  Ethan’s mother suddenly stopped crying and with a serious face looked at Ethan. “Are you going to let me die again? Do something. Don’t watch!”

  Ethan’s heartbeat rose again as he saw his mother getting stabbed a second time.

  Suddenly, he appeared on his bed, confused. It was a nightmare. He looked over to his brother's bed. He was still sleeping.

  Time passed. Ethan and Connor were watching TV. But Ethan was still being chased by the fact that he did nothing to defend his mother. He decided to go visit Lila and Ryan. Maybe that would help Ethan relax.

  “I will go visit my friends, if that's okay with you?” Ethan stood up and picked up his red jacket.

  “It’s okay,” responded Connor to Ethan while still looking at the TV. “When you come back, can you buy some chips?”

  “Sure.” Ethan went out.

  As Ethan got out of the hotel, he sent Lila a message that he was coming to visit.

  Ethan got to Lila’s house and knocked on the door.

  Ryan opened the door.

  “Ryan really stayed here for the night,” thought Ethan to himself. “I hope he hasn’t done something with Lila. Even though he said that he is interested in science, not girls, I still think otherwise.”

  “Ethan! It’s you! How are you, buddy?” Ryan went for a hug, but Ethan ignored him.

  “I’m fine. What about you?” responded Ethan.

  “I’m fine as well. Come in!” Ryan moved to let Ethan enter.

  Ethan greeted Lila’s parents, and then he and Ryan went into Lila’s room.

  “Hi Ethan,” said Lila as they walked in. “How are you, after everything that has happened to you…”

  “I’m okay,” responded Ethan, as his eyes were looking for hints that Ryan hadn’t spent the night in this room.

  Luckily, he realized that Ryan had slept in the guest room which relieved Ethan.

  “Hey wanna see a project of mine?” Said Ryan to Ethan “It’s the one I have been working for past semester.”

  “Sure, I would love to see it.” Ethan touched Ryans shoulder, because he felt guilty for not hugging his friend earlier.

  Ryan grabbed black cube from his desk “Look at this. This looks like a normal cube right?” Ryan was pointing towards the cube with left hand and shaking the cube with right hand “Now look at this!”

  Ryan pressed the small red button on the cube. Suddenly the cube transformed into a small usable handbag.

  “Wow..” Ethan reached out with his hand to touch the bag, but Ryan didn’t let him “That’s amazing dude! How did you fit that bag into that cube?”

  “Well, It’s not amazing yet. There are still some flaws and it’s work in progress” Ryan adjusted his glasses “I do not plan explaining how this works. First of all you wouldn’t understand. And secondly I don’t plan to share my blueprints with you.”

  Ethan spent half of the day with them. They all had a wonderful time, constantly laughing. As evening came, Ethan decided to go back home.

  “Visit us again!” said Lila as Ethan was leaving.

  As Ethan approached the supermarket to buy chips for his brother, he realized that he had left his wallet at home. So he went to the closest bank to withdraw money.

  “Oh, that’s a long line…” said Ethan to himself as he walked into the bank.

  He stood there for almost 30 minutes, waiting for his turn.

  “Number 367, please come to Block #4,” said the AI voice on the speakers.

  “Hello, I would like to withdraw money from my bank account,” said Ethan as he arrived at Block #4.

  Ethan grabbed his money and went back to the exit. As he was putting his money in his pants pocket, two men suspiciously walked into the bank. Ethan didn’t think much of it. But after a few seconds…

  “EVERYONE GET DOWN!” screamed one of the men. “THIS IS A ROBBERY!”

  As soon as Ethan heard that, he got down instantly.

  “I’ll go check their vault,” whispered one of the men to the other one. “And you will steal everything these people have on them.”

  Ethan tried his best not to move. That was the only way to survive. He tried not to panic. Suddenly, he heard the thief who left behind, talking with someone, so he looked at him.

  “Give me everything you have. Right now!” said the thief. But he looked back as he heard someone calling, “What was that sound?”

  He walked back and saw a woman who had 911 dialed on her phone.

  “As I remember, we told you to get down. Not to call the police,” said the thief as he was raising his hand to point the gun towards the woman. “Are you trying to be the hero? Heroes die!”

  Ethan saw that the woman had a child with her. The face of that child and the mother... he got lost in his thoughts. He instantly saw his mother in her. And that child reminded him of himself. He was scared, just like Ethan.

  Ethan wanted to help. But again, he couldn’t move.

  At this moment, he got flashbacks of his nightmare.

  “Are you going to let me die again? Do something. Don’t watch!”

  End of Chapter 2.

  In the next chapter, see how these events will unfold. Will Ethan let this woman die? Will someone else stand up for the woman? Will Ethan follow the tips her mother suggested?

  Find out next time!

  Estimated release for the next chapter: 5/24/2025