full image - Repost: An SUV is parked in the middle of the road. People keep going in, but no one comes out (from Reddit.com, An SUV is parked in the middle of the road. People keep going in, but no one comes out)
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The SUV rolled up a little after 1:00 in the morning. I remember because I had just docked my wireless headset on its charger, leaving open the Valorant main screen on my computer, when I headed downstairs to grab a drink. After I popped a can of Fanta Strawberry and downed a few swigs, I glimpsed the time on the oven's clock and saw it was 1:01. I had work the next day, but luckily my tech job allowed me to make my own hours so long as I submitted my commitments on time. Still, it was getting late, and I was ready to get some shut eye.To give you some context (since I realize my routine may come across as somewhat foreign), I'm a 25 year old man living alone in a two-story house off in suburbia, but close enough to a major city to land a high paying, work-from-home tech job. You may be wondering (1) how I could afford a down-payment on a house at my young age, and (2) why I would opt to take on a mortgage over paying rent, even if I could afford it. The short answer to (1) is I got very lucky in the stock market around 2020 / 2021. As for (2), there's kind of a few answers. First, rent has gone up. And I mean way up around where I work. Of course, at the time I bought my house (late 2021), the moratorium on rent had only recently lifted in the US, and rents weren't quite skyrocketing yet, but I saw the writing on the wall. I used a large chunk of the money I had saved and put a down-payment on a house I felt was reasonably priced and locked in a sub 3% interest rate literally 2 months before they started to increase. The other reason(s) I chose this neighborhood specifically was because of the community. We had an HOA (Homeowners Association) that granted certain benefits like public amenities and armed security patrols that made me feel somewhat safe—or at least in principle they made me feel like the other members of my community valued peace and order. And most of my neighbors were also young or middle aged and worked in tech (only most of them had spouses or full on families). Still, to give you an idea how close knit we were, around a quarter of the households in our village were active in several discord communities that we made for the purpose of communicating with one another. We further striated the chat groups into specific cul-de-sacs, of which mine, called "Sac 3", contained all but one adult from our 7-house semicircle. I was just starting to climb the stairs back to my room when I heard music playing outside. There had been a party at the Rec Center between Sac 4 and Sac 5 earlier that evening, and since the little parking lot in front of it only had a 15-car carrying capacity, our two-way road had basically become a one-way from all the vehicles parked roadside. I figured it might be possible there were just some tipsy stragglers who were taking the party home with them, but two things made me think otherwise. First, our HOA enforced a strict midnight curfew on the use of the Rec Center, so unless the stragglers had been hosting an afterparty tailgate in the middle of the road at 1 AM, it probably wasn't stragglers. And two, the music wasn't normal music. It was… circus music. At least that's the best way I can describe it. The music had that bumpy percussion-line bass with exotic whistling winds and upbeat chimes which combined to create a tune that was at once nostalgic and ominous.I turned back from the stairs and maneuvered to the window, poking at one of the blinds. Some small part of me actually thought I might see some broken down Cirque Du Soleil bus, replete with smoking clowns and shapely trapezists. Instead, I felt something grab my heart when I looked out at a completely empty side-street, and a single, lone black SUV parked in the center of our large, circular dead-end. I must have stared at the vehicle for an entire minute, conjuring scenarios of what could possibly possess someone to park in the middle of a random middle-class neighborhood in the dead of night with no headlights, no brake lights, just idling there, and playing some creepy ass clown music loud enough to alert the entire cul-de-sac to its presence.I figured it couldn't be anything good, but just as I was readying to go back upstairs and grab my phone to call security, I saw a few shadowy forms emerge from a line of conifer trees about forty meters from my house. As they approached, I noticed they were a group of teenagers: two boys and a girl. They seemed to be in high spirits, with one of the guys pushing the other one playfully, then the girl responding with a scolding gesture. The three teens burst out laughing, all the while continuing toward the SUV. My house is located in the middle of the cul-de-sac pack, and the SUV was turned so the driver's side door was perpendicular to my house. I bring this up so it makes sense when I say that I didn't see the teens get into the vehicle directly; instead, I merely heard the sound of the side-door latch clicking open, then the door slamming shut a few seconds later. During that space of time, a bluish-green light poured out from what I assumed were LEDs or Christmas lights set up inside the vehicle. I waited a few seconds, and when the teens didn't emerge from the other side, I sighed and let the blind fall shut.At that point, I thought I had it all figured out. A group of High Schoolers were out late at night doing some ding dong ditching or playing some kind of game and simply didn't care about the fact that everyone else was trying to sleep. Fair enough. I was a kid once. Well, I suppose in a way I still was, but I was also a homeowner… and a worker. And I needed to sleep.I took the half-drank can of Fanta with me upstairs and closed the door to my bedroom. The only light was the one emitting from my monitor which was still on the Valorant homescreen. I took another sip, then clicked out of the game and was about to turn off the PC when I realized the circus music was still playing. Surely they had left by now, right? Right? I padded the distance to my window which overlooked the cul-de-sac and scouted for the SUV. Sure enough, it was still there. I groaned, realizing this would become something more than just a minor inconvenience. Then I saw one of my neighbor's living room lights turn on. It was Kevin and Stacy's house.The Discord, I thought and hurried back to my computer, opening the website and signing in. I clicked into the "Sac 3" group and saw four unread messages. Before I read through them, I slid my headphones on and shuffled my Lindsey Sterline playlist—anything to drown out the creepy circus music.\Note that legal names have been changed for the sake of anonymity.*Kev (Pilot): Hey, anyone up?Clark: I am.Kev (Pilot): You see that van outside?Burnette House: Just woke up. What's that music?Clark is typing…Clark: Yeah. Did you see those people get inside? Kev (Pilot): What people?I reached out and began to type.Me: Hi everyone. I guess we're all up now. Kev, there were three teens that just got into the back of the SUV. I thought it would leave, but it seems that's not the case.Clark: Yeah, three teens and that other guy.I hesitated. Other guy? I had been watching the SUV almost non-stop since it arrived, or at least I thought I'd been…Me: Clark, when did you see another guy get in?Clark: A while ago. I first saw the SUV around 12:45, but the music was already playing for like two or three minutes before I checked, so it probably rolled up even before that.Me: Okay, that makes sense. This guy, a man I'm guessing, did you see what he looked like?Clark: Not really. I saw him a bit when he passed by the streetlamps, but he was wearing a black hoodie with the hood up, so I couldn't see his face. (Assuming a man but you never know)Kev (Pilot): So you're saying that there's some hooded person and three teenagers in the back of that van?Clark: Yeah, I guess so.Burnette House: Okay, I see the SUV now. If Clark's right, it's been there for over thirty minutes. I'm going to call security. It's Wednesday so Rob should be the overnighter. He'll deal with it.Tom "The Reverend" Jones: Lisa and I are here. I think calling security is a good idea. Let us know what they say, Mark.I got up and walked back over to the window. All of my neighbor's lights were on now except for Clark's house—which was located at the end of the cul-de-sac, closest to the main road—and the Vanderbilt house which was two down from me on the right, opposite Clark. It made sense for Clark's house to be quiet. He was a twenty year old Community College student who lived with his grandmother. He moved in with her when his parents died in a car wreck a few years back, and his siblings, a little older, had already moved out. He was a sweet guy, and the youngest in the groupchat. But the Vanderbilts… Rachel and Tom had six-year-old twins, Clayton and Lucy, who I'm sure would have woken up by now. It was surprising they weren't online yet. I went back to check the messages.M&J: We're up now. Has this music got anyone else spooked?Stacy (Pilot's Wife): Definitely. I've never liked the Bee Gees. Bee Gees? I took off my headset and listened. It only took a few seconds for my ears to adapt once again to the circus music that was playing through the airwaves.Me: Don't you mean circus music? I hear a whole marching band out there.Clark: To me it sounds like creepy Lofi music.Lisa Jones: It sounds like some kind of shamanic tribe music to me.Burnette House: Bad news. I can't reach security. I let the line ring for two minutes and decided to cut it. I don't know if Rob's sleeping on the job or what, but it seems like we're not going to be getting any help from security.Tom "The Reverend" Jones: Damn it. Well, I guess we'll just have to call the cops. This whole thing is really starting to piss me off.I grabbed the Fanta can and downed the rest of it, then leaned all the way back in my gaming chair so I was staring up at my ceiling. None of this was making any sense, and the situation was developing too fast to process it. A hooded figure and three teenagers… Could it be a drug plug? I guess, but why idle in the middle of a cul-de-sac? Why play the music? And why did the others claim to not be hearing circus music? I could understand if they mistook it for something similar—but lofi and tribal music? That had the completely wrong mood and cadence and instrument grouping. I crushed the can in my left hand, then heard the Discord AI announce, "HSS Tom is typing" followed by ping. When I adjusted my seat upright, the same notification went off two more times in quick succession.HSS Tom: Guys pleas helpHSS Tom: Rachel is confusedHSS Tom: She's trying to leaveI sprung from my chair and ran back to the window. The Vanderbilt's house was now fully illuminated. I saw the moment their front door opened and Rachel stepped out in her nightgown, holding the hands of Clay and Lucy who were wearing matching purple and pink footie pajamas. Tom was yelling, not out of anger, but out of fear and confusion. "Where are you going!? Rachel, answer me! Where are you taking the kids? It isn't safe out there!" But Rachel continued her march, swinging her kids arms as if they were on their way to an amusement park. She turned and asked them something, to which the kids both responded, "Yeah!" in unison, their little bodies rocking with the force of their eagerness. Tom chased them out, stepping in front of them again and again, but Rachel, holding tightly onto the kids hands, just kept navigating around him.It suddenly dawned on me how useless I was being. I grabbed my phone off the desk then sprinted downstairs and charged through my front door, exiting onto the porch. Kev was already out there next to Tom, while his wife Lucy was waiting inside by the door. "Hey!" I yelled and tore off after them. Rachel was now only ten meters from the van, and Tom was starting to physically restrain his wife. He grabbed her from behind and pulled, using his whole force to keep her locked in place. "Honey, please. Let's go home."Rachel didn't even acknowledge her husband. Instead, she reached out toward the SUV. And that's when I heard the sound of the power windows activate. I realized then that the SUV's windows were tinted to the point of being completely blacked out. It dawned on me that whoever was inside could see me, but I couldn't see them. I figured that was about to change, that whoever was driving was going to reveal themself, but the window only budged a centimeter—enough to give us a direct line to the source of the music.It went off like a concussion grenade. Tom, Kev, and I all dropped to the ground as the music went from 10 to 100, then 1000 in no time flat. It was so loud I couldn't hear anything else, even after I covered my ears. It was like the music had transformed into millions of invisible locusts that crawled into my ears and were now swarming my brain. I rocked along the asphalt. In my disoriented state, I could hardly see anything other than a blurry series of frames: Rachel and her kids approached the van, unaffected by the weaponized music. The van door opened. A lightning-like flash of piercing blue-green light lit up the night sky. Then it was gone. Then they were gone.I'm not sure how long we writhed there, but it couldn't have been more than ten seconds. Once the music had relented, returning back to its normal volume, I regained full control of my senses. I barely had time to use them, though, because the second I was able to get back onto my knees, I saw Tom stumble up and wobble over to the SUV. He fell onto it, grabbing the pillar trim with one hand and bashing his other, weak fist against the side door window. "Give them back," he said in an even tone, clearly still enervated. "Give them back, you sick fucks.""Tom," Kev and I called in unison as we stood up. "Give them back!" Tom yelled, his voice becoming gruff with anger. "Give my wife and kids back! I swear I'll kill you. I'll fucking murder you! You hear me?" He volleyed his fist against the window in tandem with his threats.I looked over at Kev who met my eyes. We seemed to be thinking the same thing. There was no way we'd be able to pry Tom off the SUV now, but we also didn't know who was inside or how armed they were. We didn't even know if we could get inside the car. The windows didn't only look tinted, they seemed heavy, as if they were bulletproofed."I know," Kev said to me. "You stay here, make sure Tom doesn't get himself hurt. I'll go find something to break us in.""What about the cops?" I replied.Tom, who was already five paces closer to his house, turned back and said, "If they haven't called them already, I will."I looked around at the different houses. There was a woman's silhouette, which I couldn't quite make out because of the angle and lack of light, that was standing in the doorway. I checked the other houses. Moses, who lived in the house to the left of mine, was on his way over to us when Kev redirected him, yelling something about getting a weapon. There was no motion coming from the Jones or Clark house.I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone, opening the Discord app. While it loaded, I circled the SUV, checking for any details that might be useful. The first thing I noticed was it didn't have a license plate (which wasn't all that surprising considering the circumstance); the second detail was more unexpected. The SUV had only one point of branding: a Mercedes-like logo embedded into its front grill. I say "Mercedes-like" because there seemed to be something off about it, but I couldn't really tell what it was (I'm not a huge car person). When I took a step back, the whole vehicle seemed kind of off, as if it was some kind of really poor knockoff of an SUV. Its wheels were missing hubcaps and the tires were treadless; the tail lights were comically large, despite hardly any light emanating from them; and it didn't have any windshield wipers. It was almost as if the SUV wasn't meant to drive at all."Ptuh," Tom spit on the driver's side window, then raised his foot and kicked the side mirror, breaking the plastic visor off. I went over to him and put my hand on his shoulder. He was leaned over, panting. "Kev and Moses will be back in a minute with something to break us in. Don't worry, we'll get them back, Tom." I reassured.He glared up at me, and for a second I thought he might punch me in the face, but it seemed my words hit him with a delay—either that or he saw something in my expression that softened him—because he squeezed out a few tears and said, "Thanks, Will."I looked back at the SUV and wondered what the hell could be going on in there. None of this made any sense. If it was a kidnapping, why stay? If it wasn't a kidnapping… What was happening? I didn't linger on the possibilities long. Instead, I finally got around to checking my phone and saw I had 15 unread messages. I scanned through them to see what I'd missed.M&J: Why is Rachel going out there?Stacy (Pilot's Wife): Kev is going out to help.Tom "The Reverend" Jones: That's it, I've had enough. I'm calling 9-1-1.Burnette House: I already have them on the line. Giving the dispatcher the details now.Tom "The Reverend" Jones: Just saw this. I guess two reports is better than one. Just glad we got through at all.M&J: You guys see that? What happened to them?Clark: They all just dropped all of a sudden.Clark: Why wasn't Rachel affected?Clark: Guys?M&J: Fuck this, I'm going out there.Mark Jones: Cops ETA 7 minutes out. Tom "The Reverend" Jones: GoodClark: Hey, anyone see that over by the Burnette's house? Their lights keep going in and out. I heard the sound of footsteps approaching at fast speed and nearly dropped my phone. "Hey," Kev called out. He had returned with Moses, who was holding two bats slung over his shoulder. Kev was holding a glock. "The cavalry has arrived."Tom perked up. "Want one of these?" Moses asked him and held out a bat."Damn straight," Tom replied and grabbed it."Cops are on their way," Kev said."I know, I saw the—" I paused mid sentence, feeling a chill run down my back. No, not a chill of fear, a literal chill. I looked up and felt a breeze pour down like rain from directly overhead. The wind increased, as if a helicopter was descending down on top of us, but when I looked, there was nothing but the maroon sky and stars, with a tinge of amber along the edges from the circle of lamplights surrounding the road. "You guys feel that?" I asked, my unkempt hair waffling in the wind."How could we not," returned Kev, who was also staring up into the Heavens."Fuck it," Tom muttered and pulled the bat back behind his head, readying for a swing. "Ready or not, here we come, fuckers" Tom said right before flexing all the muscles in his arms, back, and neck, driving the bat toward the side window.But it never reached its mark.If the sky was an ocean and the air, water, we were hit with the equivalent of a tidal wave. The seismic force of the gale slapped down on us like a large hand, pushing us outward and several meters away from the vehicle. All I heard was a loud pow—followed by whooshing and whirring as the windstorm normalized into a constant pressure concentrated around the van and dispersing outward. I looked for the others and saw them scattered in every direction. Moses and Kev were lucky enough to have landed on soft grass, but Tom... was lying on his back at the edge of the street.I pushed through the wind, which I'll simply call a tornado at this point, and crawled over to Tom's body. The first thing I saw was the pool of blood which was collected into a gash in his face so deep, it looked almost like a miniature flooded ravine. The tornado was disturbing the blood, causing red specks to fly behind his head. I gagged, feeling acidic fluids surge up into my throat. I surmised that the bat must have come flying back and caved Tom's face in before flinging him back onto the road.I started backing away. A greater man than I would have hauled his body back to his house, or at least his yard, but the picture I conjured up of his blood leaking all over me made me gag. Instead, I turned tail and ran as fast as I could to the nearest house, which happened to be Tom's house. The front door was wide open. I barreled in and hooked around the corner to look out the window, then patted my pockets for my phone. It wasn't on me.From the window I watched Stacy and A.J. helping their husbands back into Moses's house. They must have run out there when they saw the wind hit us. Speaking of which, it was howling through the front door. The grass was nearly flattened. The lamp posts were rocking but somehow still lit. Creaking boards and branches could be heard everywhere.I sat down underneath the window, feeling shock work through my body. Tom was dead. That fact alone took up most of my mental space. The rest of my processing power was put to use trying to come up with my next move. Should I run? Now would be as good a time as any. But what about my neighbors? Soon the cops would show up. What if this is all resolved in just a few minutes and I was the one guy who ran away to save his own life? How would that look? Forget how that looks, I reprimanded myself. What about "doing the right thing"? I tried to consider what the "right thing" was, but my mind was blank. It was like that little moral circuit in my brain had blown up.I waited under the window for another couple minutes, deciding that it wouldn't hurt to wait until the cops arrived. It should be any minute now anyway. However, before they got there, I noticed that the door was no longer slamming against the front of the house. The whistling sound abated like a tea-kettle taken off the heat. And the pressure in the air dropped like a feather, until everything was quiet. The tornado had passed.I got up and went to the door. Tree branches were slung everywhere, along with a barrel-shaped trash can and one of the lamp posts which had been uprooted and crashed into Kev's Rav4. The only thing that looked untouched was the SUV. And then it hit me. The SUV had caused the tornado. In retrospect, that fact must have seemed obvious, but everything had happened so fast, I didn't even consider it until now. But if that's true… Just what the hell were we dealing with?I heard the back door to Tom's house slide open, and someone stepped inside. I froze in place, listening. The footsteps were coming closer at a regular walking pace. I turned around and saw a man—middle aged, brown hair, wearing a t-shirt and underwear—who I had seen in the neighborhood but didn't know the name of walking toward me with a grin plastered across his face. A part of me tried to speak, to ask the man something, while another part of me was already halfway down the yard, and the last part of me, the part that won out, did nothing but stand there, feeling his heart speed up in his chest. I was out of my own body, watching this man, who never even acknowledged me, walk straight up to my position on the front porch, then continue on right past as if I didn't even exist; as if nothing existed except his destination.I turned around, and the sight I saw melted my last bit of sanity. Dozens of people were walking toward the SUV from every direction. Moms and dads with their kids, elderly folk, teenagers, single adults, even an infant still learning to crawl slithered through the grass between Lisa and the Burnette's house like a worm: everyone giddy and excited for whatever awaited them in the back of the van. I heard several gunshots ring out from Tom and Lisa's house. My stomach dropped, and I backed up a few steps so I was inside the door-frame. Then I saw probably the only thing which could have made me go outside in that moment. My phone was laying on the grass maybe ten steps in front of Tom's porch. For whatever reason, my mind tunnel visioned on it. I looked back outside and saw the collection of moth-like people, all flying toward their source of light—the circus music which was once again in full effect. Most of them had passed by my house already, and I saw their backs as a kind of shield from the SUV. I stumbled out onto the deck, looking left, then right, then I jumped down the stairs and ran a suicide to my phone, grabbed it, and made it back into the house around the same time beams of blue-green light started to shoot into the sky. Somehow my phone wasn't even cracked. I turned it on and read through the messages.Lisa Jones: I saw it, too. Is everything okay in there @ Burnette House?Tom "The Reverend" Jones: You guys should wait for the cops. Don't do any hero shit. I don't know what they're packing, but it looks military to me.Lisa Jones: Hello? Mark? Abigail?Clark: Holy shit what was that? Is there a tornado?Clark: Anyone there?M&J: Hey Clark, it's A.J. I have Kev and Stacy here, too. No one knows what happened.Clark: I see movement down the street. Clark: A bunch of people are walking toward my houseClark: Hello? Anyone else seeing this?I was pulled back into reality by the sound of another volley of gunshots, this time near my house. I looked up and saw the Burnettes: Mark and Abigail, pulling Lisa Jones toward the SUV while their son, David, followed from behind. I watched in horror as Lisa tried to fight back. Her punches were limp like the rest of her body. Probably they had beaten her or maimed her in some way. I went back inside and frantically searched for some kind of weapon. Anything that might give me an edge. I stopped by the kitchen and picked out the largest steak knife I could find, then ran up to Tom and Rachel's master bed and searched their closet for a gun.Nothing.As I ran back downstairs, I saw a red and white light flash against the floor, in contrast with the ever-present blue-green light emitting from the SUV. The cops had arrived. There were four cruisers in total, and I'm sure after they saw the scene, more would be on the way. They parked right alongside Clark's house in a staggered formation, blocking off the road, and one of them began issuing commands from a bullhorn."This is the police. We have you surrounded. Everyone put your hands up and move away from the vehicle."I watched as another clump of ten moth-people entered into the SUV and shut the door. The only ones that remained outside were the Burnette's, still hauling Lisa's body across the asphalt, and the inchworm infant who was still working through the grass. I realized I was white-knuckle gripping the knife and lowered it to the ground, then hid inside the doorway, just enough so I could peek my head out and keep track of the situation. Me: Clark, you still there?I sent to the group-chat, then slid my phone into my pocket and watched as the police, armed with AR-15's, spread out and slowly closed in on the van. "I'm not going to ask again. Let the woman go and place your hands in the air. Now."Mark and Abigail didn't even flinch. I braced for gunshots, but when they came, it wasn't from the police. There were three quick shots off in the distance, near Moses's house. The cops mistook the shots as coming from the van and returned fire, spraying it down with lead. I saw Mark fall, but Abigail continued on with David behind her. Lisa had stopped moving. They reached the van a few seconds later and opened the door. Abigail picked Lisa up and forced her inside, then got in herself, only closing the door after David was in.The van, which had taken multiple mags of bullets, didn't appear even the slightest bit maligned. From what I could tell, none of the windows shattered, and I couldn't even discern a dent, not even the tail lights or tires were damaged. It was as if the whole vehicle was coated with a thick sheet of diamond. The cops closed in and reissued their command."Come out with your hands up. There's nowhere to run."What happened next seemed like something out of a Sci-Fi film. The SUV, which had remained stationary the entire night, lifted off the ground a whole foot. It literally levitated. Then it turned so the front of the car was facing my house (the back facing the cops) and dropped with a metal-like thud. All of the cops halted, training their sights on the SUV. After a few seconds, I heard the click of the hatchback's lock release, then a scarlet-colored line of light emerged onto the ground and expanded with the opening of the trunk. The cops each held different angles into the now-opened SUV. Almost immediately, I heard the sound of one of the cops yelp, then start gagging. It was the cop who was standing behind the cruiser closest to the SUV. I heard his gun drop onto the ground, then I saw him lift off the ground and start floating toward the SUV, as if a large, invisible tentacle had grabbed onto him and was bringing him to its mouth. "Fire!"The police opened fire on the SUV. I saw bursts of white light emit like firecrackers from the muzzles of the assault rifles all over the back-half of our cul-de-sac, spotting out the cops who were like photographers taking pictures in a Darkroom. The sea of blood-red light tinted everything with a demon-like corruption. I heard another yelp, then two more cops were raised into the air. A group of flashes near Kev's house were suddenly stunted as the cops were smashed together, then lassoed up and yanked into the trunk's mouth. The scene lasted maybe half a minute, then the last assault rifle was silenced. I saw one of the remaining cops try to make a run for it. He had gotten into the driver's side of the cruiser and was backing out when I saw the front windshield explode into fractals. The cop lurched out of the hole and glided like a jet into the red abyss. Then it was silent. The hatchback closed. The dominant lights were the blinking red, white, and blue of the cruisers. The last bit of motion, which at first I thought was an injured cop attempting to crawl away from the bloodbath, was actually the infant who had finally made his way to the side of the SUV. He waited on the ground in front of it, expectant, and sure enough it opened for him. I watched him grab onto the bottom trim and pull himself up onto the floor, his little legs kicking out behind him, the whole scene illuminated by that aquamarine iridescence. Then at last he managed to slide inside, and the SUV's door closed on its last customer.I was transfixed. I was completely and utterly blown away. I was terrified but also mesmerized. What in the Holy name of Christ had I just witnessed? I took my phone out and looked down at the screen. Clark had responded.Clark: Still here. Cops arrived. Do you think we should make a run for it?Clark: Haven't heard from you. I've started recording this. Not sure what's going on, but people should know.Clark: Fuck, I'm going to get out of here. Taking my grandma and trying to escape out the back.That last message was sent four minutes ago. Right after I read it, I heard a creaking sound coming from near Clark's house. I looked up and saw the four police cruisers sway, then rock as if something was grabbing and compressing them. All of their flashing lights broke and the metal started to warp. Then, like four ballistic missiles, the cruisers shot up into the sky. I wasn't able to see where they went, because the other lamp lights, which by some miracle had lasted this long, shattered in spontaneous fashion. Then all the house lights went out. In a single moment, any vision we had was blown out like a candle, leaving only the light glaze from the full moon which was just enough to make out silhouettes.What I heard next was the most terrifying thing I'd sensed all night. It was the sound of the SUV's doors opening. But this time, there was no light. No green-blue flash. And I hadn't seen anyone heading toward it. Something in my gut just knew that this time someone or something was coming out of the SUV. And there was only one reason I could think of for why it might want to do that. Me: Clark, something's coming for us.I sent the message right after I slammed the front door shut. It was hard to see, but I could definitely make out at least two forms near the SUV. They appeared humanoid, but too tall and lanky to be human. They moved fast, their abnormal forms leaning over and running on all fours toward Clark's house. I couldn't see if they were coming after me, too, but I didn't take the chance. I tipped Clark off, then picked up the butcher knife and headed to the back door. I had only just snuck out when I heard a noise which I couldn't quite place. It had a fluid pitch, somewhere between the high-frequency of a cicada song and a low dog moan. Then I heard several clicking sounds. It seemed like the monsters-aliens-whatever were moving away. I was confronted again with what the "right thing" to do was. For all I knew, everyone was still alive in Moses's house. Though I doubted it. And Clark, he and his grandma were trying to escape. I should help them, shouldn't I? There's no way that they'll be able to get away from these things. I looked down at my knife, which was only a glint of silver in the darkness. My heart was beating fast. I still had my phone. Could I do something with that? I peeked out of the shrub I was hiding in. There was a line of trees behind me, then the park, then another cul-de-sac. If I ran all out, I could make it to the nearest Casey's in five minutes, then be in town ten minutes after that. On the other hand, Clark was forty or more minutes away from anywhere useful in the direction he was likely headed. Even with his head start, he wouldn't make it.I tried to think, tried to process some piece of information that would put what was happening into perspective. I mentally walked back to the beginning of the night. I was just trying to enjoy some video games before another long day of work. I was thirsty, got a drink, and then…The music. I listened, but there was no music. For the first time in the night, there was perfect silence. And then it hit me. The SUV. It's unmanned. I fought against the idea. It was certain death, I knew that. But if there was a chance I could save Clark and his grandma, I had to take it.I cut through the back yard and went around the side of Tom's house, sneaking as best I could. When I made it to the front, I pulled out my phone and typed one last message. I wasn't sure if these creatures were monitoring our communication network, but in case they were, I wanted those bastards to turn around right away. No delay.Me: I'm going to steal that SUV, then get the fuck out of here.After I sent the message, I threw my phone onto the grass and closed my eyes, picturing all of the things in life I wanted to do but never built up the courage for. There were many. So many. But that didn't matter now. I counted down from 3, then sprinted for the driver's side door. It was open.I heard the creature's calls get louder as they came running back toward me. I shut the door, and suddenly everything was quiet. I tried looking into the back, but there was a divider separating me from whatever was back there. Probably for the best. The seats felt like some kind of silky leather, and it was hard to stay upright without sliding all over the place. There was no armrest console, no pedals, only a dashboard which looked like some kind of futuristic synthesizer. I wasn't even sure how I could see it, since I couldn't discern a light source, but somehow I just "knew" it was there."Okay, let's see…" I said and pressed one of the keys at random. Three seconds later, I heard four objects crash to the earth behind me. At first I thought I had caused a meteor shower, but when I looked in the partly-broken side-mirror, I saw it was the cop cars, now a fourth the size and smashed to bits.Then I saw the creatures returning. They were fast and looked very, very angry.I hovered my finger over a few of the other keys and dials, trying to see if I could make out what they did, but there were no markings. I took one last look out the window—the creatures were practically at the door—and said "fuck it". I slammed all of the buttons like I was playing Smash Bros.The only thing I remember about the night after that is the feeling of compression. Like I was being shoved into a tiny packet—maybe similar to how a contortionist feels to fit into a small box. Then there was a blip of white light and everything after that went blank…The next thing I know, I'm waking up behind that Casey's I mentioned, next to the dumpster. It was probably 6 AM, and the overnight shift worker found me shirtless, pantsless, and wearing a single sock that had a huge hole in it that my big toe was poking out of. I was groggy, fatigued, and at first I didn't remember much about what happened the prior night. The guy called an ambulance which took me down to the hospital. Apparently I was dehydrated, so they got some fluids into me, and it was while I was on a bed that a couple cops approached me asking about the previous night. The memories were starting to flood back at that point, and I told them what I could recall, but their mutual looks of doubt told me I likely wouldn't be getting anywhere with them.It was at that point they informed me that a huge tornado had worked through the area, destroying most of my neighborhood. Cops had responded to a routine disturbance call and were unfortunately caught in the storm. There were a bunch of casualties. I asked for names, and they listed off pretty much everyone except for Clark, who was missing. Then they said something very odd… "Their bodies were found in the wreck near their houses."I contemplated this for a moment. Their bodies were found near their houses. "Are you sure?" I asked. "I mean, are you sure it was their bodies?""Yes," said the officer, "I mean we haven't done DNA matching, but we've gotten positive facial ID for most of them."I stayed in the hospital for another two hours, then was released with a couple sets of clothes donated from the police department so I wouldn't be wandering around naked. I walked to the nearest McDonalds and ordered $25 worth of food, devoured it on the spot, then started to get in contact with some relatives who might be able to help me out.I didn't even go back to my house once. The insurance payout would be enough, supposing it would come through. But even then, there was something far more pressing on my mind. I already knew that what I had experienced really happened, despite what the official story was. And if that was the case, there was only one person that could truly corroborate my story.***Clark, it's been a couple weeks now. If you're still out there, I'm writing this from an undisclosed location somewhere in the States. I'm not sure if I was able to help you get away. It seems your grandmother didn't, as they found her body, and I'm sorry about that. But you being missing tells me you might still be out there. I don't know what happened in that SUV. I don't know what that button mashing did, but I'm here. Still here. At least for now. I say "for now" because the past couple nights I've been waking up to a strange sound coming from outside my apartment. At first, I couldn't tell what it was or if I was dreaming it, but it's clear to me now. It's circus music. I think they're looking for me. Maybe they're looking for you, too.Whatever they are, I just want to find them, before they find us. And we're running out of time.So let me know.
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