1.2

Harold Sturm was your average college student working towards his masters. He did decent, part-time construction work to pay off his loans, had a girlfriend, and was relatively content with the way things were. Needless to say, when the sky itself flickered, as if some primordial toddler was playing with a light switch, he knew just as much as anyone else: which is to say, nothing at all…

#####

My name is Harold Sturm, Harry ‘The Storm’, as my friends called me, stupid nickname I know. I stand at a fairly standard 5’10, with dusty brown hair and a fairly well muscled frame, toned from years of working out and months of part-time construction work. My grey eyes are intense, not angry or demanding, but having the ability to bore into your very soul. At least, that’s what the people who’ve stared at them tell me.

And honestly? I’ve been having a bad day. It’s pretty late in the afternoon and I’m currently sitting among a group of friends, having been dragged by my girlfriend Amber to an impromptu Christmas party, thrown by some of our old friends from back in undergrad. And after a long day’s work, this was just about the last thing that I needed.

But having my friends around me gradually lightened up my day. With quite a few people milling around the room, I looked around my little isolated circle. My girlfriend, Amber Liddle, was sitting down on my left, cuddled up against my side.

'I did pretty well for myself', I found myself smiling as I looked over at her. Amber had shoulder length auburn hair, with wide-rimmed glasses that accentuated her sparkling green eyes. She was smart, about as smart as anyone I had ever met, majoring in Business Management, with a minor in Accounting.We had first been introduced to one another in our freshman year of undergrad, where our mutual hatred of our Calc III professor helped us bond.

Further left of her was Robb Curthose. He was a bit shorter than I was. With black hair, black eyes, and a twinkle of mischievous humor. We’ve gone into a serious exam nervous more than once, only to come out laughing at whatever stunt he had pulled that day. He’s pretty cryptic about what his home and work life are, but I think he’s working at some local construction firm.

Finally, there’s Amanda Spring, who despite her name, is the most dour of our friend group. As long as I’ve known her, she’s had long, cascading black hair, thrown back over both shoulders, and reaching all the way to the base of her torso. Black mascara, lipstick, the works. It makes her intimidating to most of the people that meet her, so she tends to stick with the three of us.

“HA! I told you she would fall for me.” Robb grinned at the rest of us, and seeing the instinctive roll of the eyes from Amber and I, turned back to Amanda, “riiiight?” With a wink and some suggestive raised eyebrows from Robb, Amanda sent what could only be described as a death glare in his direction.

The afternoon went on like that, a pretty happy gathering, however impromptu it may have been to begin with. The hosts called everyone out to watch the sunset, and sitting with my friends, it was a sight to behold. The idyllic life, with not a worry in the world-

Then the lights shut off.

#####

This wasn’t some prank, of that I was sure. The lights in the house had turned off, but somewhat more distractingly, the sky itself had flickered out, like a lightbulb on its last dregs of energy.

The first thing I heard were screams, some of pain, idiots who had tried to move in the abject darkness, and some of terror, of having the very world we knew ripped out from before our eyes. I beat back a scream of my own, and grabbed Amber to me. ‘Didn’t they say that the sun would be exploding millenia from now? So what the hell is this?’ I thought, shaking myself out of a mystified stupor. I moved closer to Amber, and then she jolted, a scream, and then she fell limp into my arms.

In terror, I felt for any sign of life, and found a faint pulse and light breathing. Sighing in relief, I steeled myself against whatever monster that might come barreling out of the darkness. Some hellhound? A twenty foot long death adder perhhaps-

The fatigue hit me like a truck, confusion was replaced by an artificial feeling of sleepiness that forced me away from consciousness.