PS Home Horror Stories 3:Home Apocalypse

A rumbling noise that of a jet engine booting up was heard in the distance.  The ground shook slightly.  He took her by her hands and looked into her eyes.  “Whatever happens, I will be here with you.  I love you.”  He said loudly to compensate for the hum of the noise.

The sounds of screams close by broke up the loud hum.  They knew it was time.

He pulled her close to him, held her head so her face pressed into his chest.  “Close your eyes, don’t look at anything.”  He said trying to calm her as his fingers gently brushed through her hair.  She closed her eyes and tears pushed their way out of the corners, they soaked through his shirt.  It was a shirt she had gifted him some time ago when the Lockwood Gift Machine had been introduced.  They barely knew each other at the time but she liked his eyes and his laugh and when she added him to her list she knew that he had to have this shirt.  She sent it to him while he was offline, she liked doing it that way so it would surprise the person when they signed on.  She raced to her machine hoping that he didn’t have it already, she wanted to be the one that gave it to him.  Luckily, he didn’t have it…actually, he didn’t have anything from it and that was his first gift.  One of their first memories together.  He wore the shirt with pride, even wore it when they went out on their first date.

She pressed closer against his chest and remembered the times they had spent together.

Her friend, Janie, ran up to them.  “The Konami dance space is gone.  Everyone in it is gone too.”  She frantically said while running her hands through her hair.  “I got out just in time, but I don’t think Dave made it.” Dave was her best friend, they had dated a couple of times but it never worked out so they remained good friends.

“Oh, Janie, I’m so sorry, hun.”  She turned to face her but still in his arms.  The buildings in the background blinked on and off and pieces of them started falling.  They were disintegrating.

“We have to go to our Harbour Studio, I heard someone say that that will be safe…the only place that won’t be touched.”  Janie said.  “We should still be able to make it.”

“Okay, I will invite you both when I get there.”  She opened up her PDA and tried to use the Navigator but a message said:  Cannot use the Navigator at this time.  “I can’t jump there.  The Navigator is shut down now.  We’ll have to run to it.”  And with that they all ran towards the entrance of the Studio Apartments.  Pieces of the sidewalk broke apart around them and flung into the air; a blinding white light burst from the cracks and holes.  Other people were running now, some hand in hand as if they were other lovers.  Some of them were naked as the clothes began disappearing from them.  Someone screamed as they were sucked into the sky and became nothing, their screams stopping suddenly.

Looking over her shoulder she saw the Bowling Alley appear to collapse in on itself then it was gone.  Janie was still running beside her but her boyfriend had stopped and was staring at his hands.  His shirt she had cried into was gone and his fingers were bending backwards as if they were breaking.  He looked up at her and yelled for her to run.  He tried to say I love you but couldn’t finish the sentence as he was sucked up into the sky and imploded into a ball of white light.  She cried and yelled for him but Janie grabbed her and pulled her to the only building that wasn’t being affected.  They reached the door and ran inside.  “Take me to your Studio.”  Janie took her hands and placed them on her face to make her look at her.  She rubbed her tears away with her thumbs.  “We’re safe here, just take me to your Studio, hun.”  She shook her head then turned and ran towards the staircase.

Something caught Janies eye and the sounds of the screams and buildings breaking up were gone as an overwhelming, deafening silence took it’s place.  She turned and standing behind her, in the corner was a dark, misshapen figure.  An old man with horns curling from his head.  He stood there slightly hunched over and swaying his arm from side to side.  A cold chill ran up her spine and as she was about to turn around and run he arched back and screamed.  His mouth dropped and inhumanly opened.  His arm that was swaying stretched out and grabbed her by her shoulder.  She gasped and tried to shake it off but it began to wrap around her like a snake coiling around it’s prey.  It wrapped around her chest and waist and began to circle around her thigh.  His hand pushed it’s way up her skirt and tickled her sweet spot.  Then it thrust its way into her.  It climbed through her insides, she could feel it passing by her organs till it made her cough and choke when it reached her throat.  It pushed its way out of her mouth.  The hand turned around, its knuckles cracking, and grabbed her hair.  It pulled on it till the roots gave and bloody clumps of it released.  It tossed them aside.  Then pulled her body closer to him, pushed her into his gaping mouth, uncoiled his arm and swallowed her whole.  Then he vanished.

She didn’t know that Janie wasn’t behind her till she was half way up the stairs.  She called to her but only silence answered.  She waited for a few seconds then went to her Studio alone.  She cautiously opened the door and entered.  All her decorations and furnishings were still there just the same she had decorated it years ago.  She calmly walked into the middle of the room and listened.  Noticeably the sound of the sea gulls was gone as if something had plucked them all out of the sky.

She looked around her little Studio apartment and reminisced.  The first time she had loaded into Home, this was the first place she saw.  This was the first place she decorated and whenever she won a reward she would come here to see it.  She would invite her friends here for get-togethers.  Mostly they would just chat.  She had fun here.  This was the first place in Home she saw and this will be the last place in Home she will see.  And she was content with that, she just wished she didn’t have to do it alone.  She turned to her door, wanting to peek out to make sure Janie wasn’t out there but she noticed something.  Something was a bit off with her picture frames.  The pictures that she had placed in them were gone and replaced by something else.  Pictures of ladybugs.  A single ladybug dangling on a leaf, each seemed the same but in various positions on the leaf.

“How odd,”  she said aloud but in a whisper as if she was scared someone would hear her talking to herself.

Then they disappeared.  The pictures were gone leaving a blank frame.  She turned around suddenly to see her vase with a rose in it vanish.  And then other things vanished, small things, ornamental items.  Just poof, and they were gone.  Bigger items began disappearing.  Her cabinets, her couch, her bed and her tables.  One by one everything in the Studio vanished till she was the only thing left there.  The rumbling noise had returned and was getting louder and louder.  She ran to a corner and squatted down.  She put her hands to her ears and began to cry.

Her shoes popped off of her feet into nothingness.  Then her skirt and shirt.  Then her hair.  She sat there bald and naked, huddled in a ball as the floor boards in the Studio broke apart and flung into the air.  Everything around her became a bright white light and then she was gone.  And there was nothing.

End.