When What's To Come, Arrives, Or Does It?

They stood together and watched the sky like drunken toddlers on a rampage. Eyes darting every which way frightened by the slightest movement and jumping at every sound, allowing their excitement and fear to build, distorting what was really happening.

A paranoia like never before, began to set in. Each person, swearing that coded messages were being sent to them through telekinesis. They were able to hear voices telling them to keep an eye on the cloud formations, warning them that there were secrets being relayed in the stars and they needed to be aware and present, so not to miss it.

Rumors of strange beings visiting and abducting neighbors and even eating their family pets ran rampant through their little town, although they hadn't witnessed any of it first hand.

By the end of the day it was all over the news. Everyone was talking about the end of times and the signs that were warning us of what was to come.

But, what was to come?

With such big questions, where could they go to find answers, who could be trusted to tell them the truth?.

The sudden flashes of light sparked at least a dozen memories in her mind.

She remembered the stories she and her brothers had been told long ago while sitting on their grandpa's lap. He would gather them into the sunroom and lay his bible open wide. With a voice of a southern baptist preacher he'd say, "no, they won't be obvious about it", and she and her brothers would gather closer, like moths to a raging fire, nervously watching as the nub of his cigarette bounced precariously on his bottom lip. "No, my darlings, they will sneak it up on you, like there was nothing out of the ordinary going on. That's when they got you. No fussing and no fighting, like fish jumping freely into the boat. All that's left for them to do is filet and fry ya up. Mark my words, we're next on theie food chain." Then he would jump up and shout, "gobble, gobble, gobble till there's nothin' left of ya...hehehehe."

Grandma would give him her best disapproving glare and hush him, "now Mike, stop it! You're gonna give these younguns nightmares."

And she was right.

We would lay in bed, frozen with fear in the darkness, staring out the window, expecting at any moment, them brain sucking green creatures would be zapping us into the unknown, planning on doing the unthinkable to us. I mean, grandpa used the bible, it HAD to be true.

Our dreams, turned nightmare, had become a doorway, an easy entrance for Satan. Our minds were now his safe passageway into the hearts' and soul’s of the innocent, granting him the ability to release his demons without resistance, onto the unsuspecting and ignorant humans.

We were sheep, ripe for the harvest and with just a little more fear, we would be seasoned to perfection. Just the way they liked us.

We awoke abruptly to grandma screaming, "Mike, get over here and help me, please...Mike, ahhhh!"

There was scuffling and the sound of glass breaking followed by an eerie silence that consumed the room, making our ears ring.

When we finally made our way downstairs, we noticed that the front door was missing and had been strewn across the floor and was sticking out of grandma's antique glass cabinet, but grandma and grandpa was nowhere to be seen. The house looked like a tornado tore through it, nothing was in its place and it seemed as if we were not alone.

We stepped outside to find the sky was a strange color of yellow and the clouds were so dense, we couldn't tell up from down. It appeared mirrored, like the reflection on a deep dark lake, hiding its secrets beneath the murky surface.

We felt like prisoners in a snow globe.

As we stood frozen in place, a dark, ominous, all consuming shadow blocked out any source of light. In the distance we heard crying and then a voice that sounded like grandpa's. "Gobble, gobble, gobble...."

She awoke in a panic to a hollow knock on the door.