Chapter 527

The digital clock displayed 3:00 AM. Sleep was a lost cause, as usual. He moved to the window, peering out at the quiet Paris night.

Another night was wasted in a life he didn't want. A failed footballer, never going to be as good as his older brother. Living under his brother's shadow was getting unbearable.

He heard a noise outside, a screech that wasn't animalistic in its making. He looked, there was something… off.

Something moved behind a car parked in front of his home. It looked…humanoid. Antoine opened the window slowly, making sure the wooden window wouldn't be loud.

He was trying to look behind the vehicle. He was only in shorts. A man stepped into the dim light, the moon above the only source of visibility.

His eyes weren't normal, though. Symbols—foreign, unknown—glowed within them. Antoine stepped back, breathing was loud.

This had to be some kind of prank. Right? It was his mind playing tricks on him. He'd take a long, nice nap once the sun rose.

A thud shook the room. Something hit the outside wall of his home. He had to get a knife or two.

The thought that there were intruders trying to get in his home made him mad, even if they turned out to be drug addicts or simply teenagers looking for a fight, he would hurt them either way.

He went to his kitchen and got the biggest, longest blade from the block. The wood was cold, but that's a stupid thing to worry about when some people are trying to get into the house, he thought.

Antoine felt something he didn't expect: adrenaline, his body finally waking up and pumping it in big amounts, now that the sleep drugs weren't strong enough to numb him anymore.

There was another thud. They were relentless, and that scared Antoine. They're really committed to whatever it is they're trying to do.

He looked outside his kitchen window. The moon's glow illuminated three more people, each with those same symbols burning in their eyes, a dark yellow that didn't fit in those people's faces, it just felt off to him.

He should just stay quiet. Antoine was confused and angry. He's tired.

They're here to destroy everything, he could feel that in his very blood, and he could never let them do that. He gripped the knife.

Then his father appeared next to him, yawning, holding his handgun. He always knew exactly when and how to come in and save him, since he was a boy.

He wanted that gun more than anything now. "Antoine. Are you up again? What are those things?

They are weird, like those people on TV the other day." His father was sleepy, he's never awake at this time, the drugs making his father lethargic for years now.

This all started ever since the injury that ended his football career a couple years ago. Antoine took a deep breath.

He's glad his dad is up and right there with him now, at least. "Dad, look at their eyes, they're just standing there doing nothing."

"Something is really not right with them. We should probably get out of here." "We could, son. But they haven't made a move yet, no reason to panic."

He's never going to understand, Antoine thought. Not while his head's a complete mess like that. "Why is there one of those symbol freaks behind our car, kiddo?"

Another hard impact shook the house. He could see three more of those symbol freaks outside his kitchen window now.

They were slow-moving, he's seen drunk people get in a fistfight in the pub his older brother brought him a few times. Drunkards had faster reflexes, it seemed.

His dad stayed silent and just kept staring at the three in the kitchen window. Antoine wasn't as calm as his dad was.

How could he? This wasn't his house, and his dad worked very hard to keep everything safe and in working order. It was his legacy, not his son's.

Antoine opened the back door and walked to one of them with the knife held tightly in his right hand. "What do you want? Leave. This is my dad's home. Leave now!"

One of them tilted its head; the symbols in its eyes started moving like letters in an alphabet soup, forming some kind of dark geometry, circles, triangles, and squares.

Antoine took a few steps back and dropped the knife on the ground. "No," he said, getting on his knees and putting his hand on his chest.

He could feel his heart skipping a few beats. "Dad!" His father just stood inside, not even acknowledging Antoine screaming and yelling right outside.

He could only make a few loud grunts now, he couldn't call for him again. One of the beings made a violent, almost primitive motion with its right arm.

Antoine's head moved up and he saw the stars in the night, beautiful. The sky went red and he felt himself ascending as if he had the ability to fly.

His house went quiet after a few seconds, there was not a single thing left there for his dad to destroy now, so they would just move to the neighbors' homes.

At least that is what they are supposed to do next, he was sure of that now. Antoine flew above the neighborhood where his childhood friend Lucas lived.

He knew they would reach his house next; Lucas didn't even lock his doors most of the time. That dumb idiot thought he was going to be a star.

Antoine saw as two of them walked through the front door, not making any noises. He could sense his friend and it made him emotional.

He couldn't have it. But the sensation only lasted a second or so, and it changed into another thing. This wasn't him; this wasn't his body.

Antoine tried to warn him from above. It was futile; no sounds came out, he had no mouth or vocal cords to do so now.

"Lucas!" He managed a sound; it was something, even if just a little, but Lucas didn't hear him. Lucas emerged from his bedroom, baseball bat in hand.

He didn't even try to go for his dad, who is in a coma and needs a respirator to breathe and oxygen every minute, and won't live without those for longer than ten or fifteen minutes anyway.

"What do you freaks want? Are you thieves? Leave, just leave. Nothing is worth losing my life for, man.

And there's nothing you'd really want in this god-forsaken house, anyway." One of them lunged, but Lucas swung the bat, making solid contact.

It was a nice hit. Lucas was very good with baseball when they were both just starting high school. The creature stumbled back.

Lucas looked shocked that a direct hit did next to nothing. The freak's eyes flashed, and it continued to walk forward without feeling any kind of pain at all.

It made no sense. Lucas swung again, striking the head. Antoine felt a sickening crunch this time.

The being didn't stop advancing on Lucas. Then he had an idea, why did it have to be after such a horrible head-cracking sound? Why not before?

Antoine, in his newfound state, charged at the entity. As he got near one of them, a strange reaction started happening with their bodies.

It didn't work with the first one he tried, and that one ended up hurting his friend. His head moved up to the ceiling as his throat was slit open.

Lucas went up like he did earlier. The symbols changed to blood-red now in their eyes. Lucas couldn't be dead, no, please.

He's seen a lot of friends and acquaintances fade in and out of his life, but none of them, literally none, had died like this. This felt wrong and sad.

He went after the second, a few feet from him. His ethereal energy started reacting again, the reaction he wanted started.

He went faster and with more strength at the one that murdered his best friend. Their eyes were almost matching in the symbols that appeared on them.

He could tell even without a body, which he so desperately needed to be in right now. A dark figure grew out from the middle of their chests.

Antoine felt an energy so raw and vile pulling them both up from the ground, the monster screaming an inhumane scream, the first one they've made that was more than just a low moan.

"You cannot stop it," it said. "You have no body; you will perish," said the other one who took his best friend.

Both stopped, floating a couple inches above the ground, trying to say something before he went for one of them, not even listening to them anymore.

Antoine wasn't physical, but his spiritual energy moved them and took one far, and out of the area. That thing was in shock.

It looked around like a lost animal, lost in the vast darkness around his childhood town. The one he had managed to pull far from his friend looked at Antoine and smiled a crooked smile.

It showed a full mouth of rotten teeth. "Don't you understand, human? This is happening everywhere on your planet."

It was using its disgusting, loud voice now. "We don't need food; you'll need that, we are simply going to replace every single human with what you see before you now.

No reason for us to use these," he said, showing the hands in a demonstrative manner, and shaking its hands from left to right. Antoine knew there was not much time.

These monsters must reproduce at incredible speeds for them to show up like this, it must be some other power at work too, some technology they developed in just a matter of a couple of hours.

He had to think. He tried to ram it. He failed. The monster made a low, gutural moan.

It was trying to move but getting pulled down to Earth by its new body's mass. It struggled on the ground like a worm.

Antoine tried again, sensing a window to cause an effect; its energy flared with it, almost mirroring his moves. The symbol language in their eyes moving erratically.

The creature couldn't be that resistant. He's always known his soul was stronger, just no way of proving that, or trying to convince people about it, until now.

He went after it again, but they grabbed him this time. Their yellow-orange eyes meeting his very energy—what was left of him.

"Why fight this? Your planet is dying, Antoine," the creature spoke, "This will save it. It'll end up doing what no religion was ever able to."

How did it know so much about humanity, and so much about his life, all in a few minutes? He wanted to hurt this monster more than anything.

Nothing worked now. It had more power. A thought crossed his mind, what if this creature's new shell has some human memories? Was this possible?

Antoine decided not to waste this one chance and tried talking to it. "No. It is my planet. I am just one man, just one boy."

"This isn't salvation," he tried speaking without the aid of a mouth. "It's murder. An invasion." "But if we destroy your bodies now, what difference does it make?"

Antoine was starting to grow tired; there wasn't enough power in his spiritual form to take one more of those creatures, he couldn't protect the innocent.

There must be millions of them. Millions of victims on a single night. The thought made him even angrier than before.

"What's going to happen once there's none of us left?" The creature got up now, making a strange move with its legs as it went.

It made noises that resembled someone who hasn't really gotten used to the way human legs work. "Extinction. What you all fear the most," it answered.

"Once you're all gone. We will simply vanish, cease to be." The creature in the shell had grown calm now. Why did it want to talk?

He wanted to hate it. He had to fight that urge. Antoine felt exhausted. But something didn't add up.

It can't be that simple. It isn't. There must be some trick, these monsters don't die in one go, or just wait for humans to expire.

The thought makes no sense, there is still one big hole in that narrative. "Why… us?" He didn't see any good or bad in that, it's just another question for this creature.

The being stopped a few feet away and looked at him, the orange light of its eyes looking at what's left of his very being. A feeling of understanding passed through Antoine now.

That's the last bit, he just knew it was; they wouldn't have been so keen on talking about everything so honestly if it wasn't the thing missing in that puzzle. "You," it started.

Antoine braced for the impact of another hurtful and cruel fact, another sentence or two about the inevitable fall of everything and everyone.

This wasn't just a single bad night anymore, it hasn't been since Lucas went away. "Us? What?" He's just confused by these new emotions.

He can't make sense of that anymore, of any of what's going on right now. "Your physical forms," it said.

"Once all those things go to us, there is nothing left for us to live on. We have no need to keep trying." They said in perfect unison.

All pointed to Antoine this time. "We don't take what's good; we only want the lost souls." They were lying. "No. You just killed Lucas."

"You murdered my friend. My best friend," he said, "You took a good man, he had done no wrong. None. Why him?"

He wanted to scream, cry, do anything in that dark void, anything other than this feeling of pure dread. All three stared at Antoine.

It felt too long for any more words to be said now, and it made his mind go on edge even further. "We are saving you, we simply don't need a physical shape."

"Do you understand, young human?" He was starting to calm down; this had to be the end now, and his head hurt as he moved slowly away.

"Can you tell them this was needed?" Antoine couldn't say a single thing, or do anything else, they couldn't get it through their head how bad, how painful this was for him.

He wasn't even in a coma, or just lost a limb and can have a normal, decent life still. All those beings stopped moving as soon as Antoine was at least thirty feet away from them now.

The one on the right raised its head to the moon above, the other ones started laughing and yelling, loud. Antoine managed a few steps further before they moved again.

The symbol eyes stopped doing their dance of circles, triangles and weird writing and lines for the first time and just went black. There was not even a single spark, dot or anything remotely close to their yellow patterns.

They fell slowly to the ground, dead and gone. Antoine's heart couldn't handle this at all, why does the one that took Lucas have to be the one that survives the night?

Why did the worst one have to make it? Antoine's consciousness felt more powerful as that happened, more powerful and alive, yet nothing made any kind of sense at all now.

What's going on now, and where is the second body from Lucas' home going to show up in? His consciousness expanded.

Antoine's form, a mix of pure thought and pure raw emotion now, saw the entire globe at the same moment in a weird flash. There was still chaos happening.

There were not enough of the ones that survived to do any real damage, there were way too many for a small number of creatures to deal with.

That must mean that one will take what feels like one or two hundred to him to finally get done with this madness. It was finally all over.

There wasn't any more suffering. And no more humans in shells trying to take their last breath either. Just a quiet peace fell on the Earth in that single instant.

The few millions that are gone, are going to die with some sort of decency, that's more than enough right now. He was moving far from the Earth at an incredible speed now.

He wanted to tell his dad or his brother or someone else how bad things had gotten. But this couldn't happen now.

His time to do or feel anything had passed now, it's simply over, and there is no time or opportunity left. He moved in silence.

Antoine felt himself drift, for a lack of a better word; he went far from what remained of his neighborhood, city, his planet and into a nothingness.

There wasn't even a way of getting an exact feel of how long he spent floating aimlessly, his life with friends and all of the good memories didn't really cross his mind or his thought anymore.

None of what has been there with him from his childhood did at all, all went black.