THE ECLIPSE

Thousands have come out today to view the solar eclipse, including Jeffrey and his parents and siblings. It’s a special occasion because his part of the world never gets to see it, and when the meteorologist announced a few weeks ago that the solar eclipse would take place today, he and his family stocked up on snacks and beer and cleared their schedules. Almost every roof in the neighborhood is topped with people sitting in lawn chairs, awaiting the event which should start in a few minutes. Jeffrey brought his best friend, Joshua, over after school, since his parents don’t care about the eclipse. All of them have their glasses ready to watch. 

“Thanks for letting me watch the eclipse with y’all Mrs. Geiger!” says Joshua, as he passes Jeffrey’s mother a cold beer from the cooler. 

“Of course! You know you’re always invited to our home.” 

Jeffrey puts on his protective glasses and pulls up a chair next to his friend. “I can’t wait for the eclipse! I can’t believe we get lucky enough in our lifetime!” 

The darkness creeps in; everyone gasps and applauds as they gaze up at the alignment. Jeffrey can’t stop staring, and the more he gawks he can swear a smile appears on the shadow. 

A high-pitch scream alerts him and his family. Across the street, the husband of the Murphy household is on top of one of his daughters, clawing away at her stomach like a savage animal. Mrs. Murphy and the other daughter jumped from the roof and ran into their home. Everyone is screaming and running away. 

The world has become completely dark. Jeffrey can’t see anything anymore. His father guides everyone inside the house through the window and tells them to remain calm. Muffled screams and banging are heard through the walls. Jeffrey tries to fathom what happened. “Did… did Mr. Murphy… kill his daughter? We just saw that… right?” 

His mother tells him to be quiet and calm while rubbing his hand. “We don’t know for sure, but that’s exactly what it looked like.” 

“What is happening?” one of Jeff’s older sisters asks. 

“I’m scared!” shouts another sibling. 

The father starts shushing everyone. “Try to remain calm,” he says.

A loud knock on the downstairs door wakes Jeffrey out of his thought—a replay of the murder he witnessed. The knocking persists. Jeffrey’s father grabs a crowbar and leaves to investigate. Jeffrey tries calling the police, but there’s no signal in the attic, and it’s the same for everyone else. The attic becomes silent once his father’s voice is heard.

“I told you to go away! I’m not going to say it again!” he shouts. 

Jeffrey hears people crying for help and begging to get in. He takes a peek out of the attic window; it’s still dark as an abyss, minus the lights shining from people’s homes. He searches the different houses, his heart rate raises seeing the carnage in each window. The Murphy house is covered in blood and broken windows, and someone is getting beaten to death on the second floor of the Thompson residence. A woman tried running out of the Ruiz house, but was snatched back inside, and the door was slammed shut. He can’t stop staring until a gunshot breaks his nerves.

“Dad!” his sister screams. 

Against their mother’s wishes, everyone runs out of the attic and goes downstairs. Jeffrey is the first to reach the last step, in shock to see his father holding a gun aimed at the front door. 

“D—Dad…” Jeffrey walks toward him but stops when blood seeps out of the bullet hole. “You… killed somebody?” 

“I told you all to stay upstairs with your mother!” his father yells. 

A strange round, black object comes out of the hole, followed by another, then many more. 

“What the hell?” Jeffrey walks backward to the staircase. 

Black bat wings grow out of the spheres along with tiny arms and legs. His father shoots at them. One of them flies toward him and cuts his face, and as his father screams in pain, the tiny creature enters his mouth. 

“No! Dad!” Jeffrey cries out.

 His father doesn’t say a word, just stares at Jeffrey with black eyes and points the gun in his direction. He pulls the trigger. One of his older sister’s falls down from a shot to the forehead. Jeffrey and the others run up the stairs to escape their father. Another shot goes off, Jeffrey’s friend, Joshua, screams and tumbles down the steps. He glances down at his friend, whose final goodbye is a cry for help as he’s gunned down. 

His brother pulls him up the stairs by his shirt. “Come on, we gotta run!” 

Jeffrey and his siblings make it back into the attic. He and his brawny brother push an old dresser over the attic door. “What the hell was that? Dad killed — wait… where is Mom?” Everyone quiets their breathing and listens. The sound of teeth chewing fat and bone gets louder. Jeffrey grabs an old wooden plank, as does his brother, and they both walk in the direction of the nauseating noises. 

“Be careful,” whispers his sister. 

Loud banging from the other side of the attic door follows them to the dark corner. With each step his heart races, and his brother’s shaky breathing makes it worse. Footsteps stomp toward them. Jeffrey backs away, holding his weapon high. His brother runs ahead and before he could swing his plank, a hand reaches through his chest. The weapon falls out of Jeffrey’s numb hands. His sibling’s screams along with the banging on the attic door pound his head. His brother’s limp body is thrown in their direction. Now, Jeffrey stares into his mother’s eyes. 

She lunges toward him, knocks him off his feet. 

“Mom, stop!” he cries as his mother punches him. 

“Die! Die!” she growls. 

In between punches, he sinks his fingers into his mother’s chewed up arm and pushes her off. He picks up the wooden plank and hits her in the back of the head. With a heavy heart and tears streaming down his face, he hits his mother with the plank over and over until it breaks into pieces. Her blood stings his eyes, yet they won’t shut. 

Jeffrey holds his head in his hands and cries over his mother’s dead body. “I’m so sorry.” 

Holes form in her body. He crawls away, then staggers to his feet. A black sphere shoots out of her body and lands in front of him. “Run!” Jeffrey jumps over it and breaks for the window. It’s slightly open; perhaps his mother opened it to check on the noise, but he shouldn’t think about that right now. 

Wings grow out of the sphere. Everyone moves quickly out of the window. Jeffrey grabs a rusty rake before exiting and makes it in time to shut the window on the winged creature. He guides his siblings to the side of the house where there’s a shed they can climb down from. 

Glass breaks. The monster flies toward them. Jeffrey leaps out of the way, unfortunate for his sister who started climbing down. The creature crashes into her face and crawls in her ear. Jeffrey jumps down from the roof and meets up with the others. “We need to go. It got her!” He warns. 

Distant screams and cries make it difficult to find a safe place to go. His brother’s poor health won’t allow him to go any further. Jeffrey doesn’t want to leave him behind, but his sister needs him and running feet are getting closer. Jeffrey and his sister continue forward, their brother’s screams fading in the background. They reach a part of the neighborhood he hasn’t seen before. Neither have phones to shed a light in this dark space and use dim light a few feet away to guide them. 

A putrid smell stings Jeffrey’s nostrils. His sister complains about gagging. The scent strengthens the closer they get. Faint whispers bounce off the walls and the air is warmer than usual. 

“I had to. I had to do it. I had to. I had to do it…” 

Jeffrey keeps his sister behind him as he peeks over the wall. A man sits down on the ground next to five people, naked and nailed to the ground, candles surrounding their bodies, and red symbols on the walls. Jeffrey grips the rake in his hand, tells his sister to stay put, then creeps toward the strange man. 

“I had to. I had to do it. I had to. I had to do it…” 

Jeffrey pokes him with the rake. “What… what did you have to do?”

The man jumps up and faces Jeffrey. His face, covered in scratches and open wounds, makes Jeffrey want to vomit. 

“I had to… to save my baby.” The hideous man looks down at something small wrapped in a blanket. “She is my everything. They… they said I could bring her back. I had to… I just had to do it.”

“Do what?” Jeffrey yells. 

“To call it.” The deranged stranger brushes his fingers against the symbols on the wall. “All I had to do was… I kill — sacrificed them! They told me I had to. I didn’t mean to… kill her.” 

Red clouds Jeffrey’s vision. He yanks the man up by his collar. “What? You caused all of this?” He pushes him to the ground. 

“I had to!” whines the stranger. “I had to repent for my mistake!” 

“You bastard!” Jeffrey stabs him in the torso with the rake. “You caused all of this!” 

“No…” he gasps for air. “If you… kill me. You won–”

Jeffrey pushes the rake in further. “You’ll pay!” 

The hideous man’s bloodshot eyes turn gray; an orange glow peeks out of the darkness. Jeffrey gazes up at the sky, relieved to see the alignment finally coming undone. 

“Jeff! Jeff!” His sister calls out. She runs up to him and gives him a tight hug.
“The sky, is it over?” 

Jeffrey nods and returns her embrace.  

“What happens now?” she asks.

He releases her and walks out of the valley to get a better look at the sky. “I don’t know if anything good can happen after all of this.”

She picks up a book covered in blood. “The pages are soft and leathery.” 

“It has to be that lunatic’s bible or something,” Jeffrey scoffs. 

She gasps and drops the book, cries and falls on the floor, scurrying away like a scared child. 

“What? What’s wrong?” Jeffrey hurries to her. 

“You… you made things worse.” 

Jeffrey picks up the book and flips through the pages. He questions how he could have exacerbated the situation if the sun has returned after killing the man who claims to have caused the eclipse. Sketches of the alignment are followed by pictures of the ritual on the floor. The person performing the ritual must close the portal after the dead becomes fully human again, or the summoned god will roam the Earth for eternity. The final page depicts a humanoid figure stretching over the sun. Underneath it is a horde of tinier humans with their hands in the air. 

Crimson casts over everything. The book becomes ash in Jeffrey’s hands. Up in the sky, red and black eyes peer over the sun. 

THE END