(CONTINUATION OF THE STORY FROM ELIRA'S PERSPECTIVE.........)
My father was one of the unlucky ones who didn't make it out. We'd been hiding in our house for almost a whole day—which, let me tell you, felt like an eternity when you're listening to God knows what happening outside.
Dad decided he needed to check what was going on out there. He crept up to the door, trying to get a look through that little peephole. You know the kind—makes everything look all distorted and weird.
But the second he got close, this Reaper thing walking by—way too close to our door—just... sensed him. It seemed to had some kind of affinity for living people. The creature stopped dead and turned toward our door.
Dad got it immediately—if this thing figured out we were all in here, we were screwed. He started frantically gesturing at Mom and me, basically telling us to shut up and stay quiet. We got the message real quick, holding our breath like our lives depended on it. Which, you know, they did.
What we didn't know was that these bastards can actually sense life forces. Because apparently regular senses weren't scary enough for whatever cosmic joke was playing out.
Dad went for another look—he needed to know if it was safe or if we should try to move—and the Reaper just slashed right through the door with its scythe. Caught him square in the chest.
I wanted to scream, but Mom had her hand clamped over my mouth so tight I thought she might leave bruises. Dad was on the ground, gasping and choking on his own blood, but somehow he managed to point weakly at the creature's face - or what passed for a face. No eyes, just this nightmare mouth that looked like it belonged in hell. The thing had a twisted human-like body carrying this short scythe, and it was completely focused on Dad.
So there we were, frozen in absolute terror, watching this thing harvest my dad's soul. I was shaking so bad I could barely think straight. The creature was making these awful sounds as it tried to consume Dad's soul, completely focused on what it was doing.
As the creature gripped my father's neck and began sucking his lifeforce, I don't know what came over me - this burning rage just exploded inside me. I couldn't stand watching this thing shattering my universe. I wasn't thinking clearly at all. I shoved Mom's hand away and stumbled toward the kitchen, fury making my whole body shake.
My hands were trembling with anger as I grabbed the knife. I wasn't being brave or heroic - I was just so fucking pissed off that this creature thought it could take my dad from us. When I got close to that thing, I started swinging wildly, driven by pure rage more than any kind of plan.
I got lucky - really lucky. The knife caught the thing's arm in the assault and it screamed in pain, dropping its scythe. I was still panicking, just grabbing at anything, and somehow ended up with the scythe in my hands. I don't even remember making the decision to use it - I was just letting myself consumed in rage and managed to hit the creature with its own weapon.
The Reaper staggered and basically turned to dust, like something out of a really messed-up fairy tale. And here's the weird part—Dad's soul somehow snapped back into his body. Talk about a moment that messes with your head.
Looking back, I realized something important: the thing only sensed Dad when he got right up to the door, and it didn't immediately come after Mom and me when we were further back in the house. These bastards had a pretty short detection range, which explained why it took getting that close for it to notice us at all.
He opened his eyes, and I kept asking if he was okay, but let's be real—the guy had just been slashed by a supernatural death machine. The wound was too deep, too much blood. He looked at me one last time and closed his eyes forever, leaving me and my mum behind in this doomed reality.
Four days later—four days of us barricading the door with whatever we could find and living off whatever food we had left—a rescue group showed up. Your typical post-apocalypse crew: pistols, spears, bows, swords. Because apparently when the world ends, we all go back to fighting as we thrive to survive.
That's how we ended up in Hollowvale. A bunch of people symbolizing hope who decided to not to give up against this alien threat and build walls all around in the four directions and made us call it our new home.
Rex listened to the story with this look like he'd never heard anything like it before. "Wait, hold up," he said, "I had no clue any of this went down."
Mom and I just stared at him. Because here's the thing—Rex was supposed to be around during this whole worldwide nightmare as witness just like us and the others but it seems to be not...