Bayler Shrike took a long moment to enjoy the rain on his face. It was motion and sensation after so long trapped in that dark, still grave beneath the rubble. The fact he was only wearing a hospital robe, with nowhere to shelter and dry off, vaguely registered before he dismissed the concern. Little things like that didn’t seem to touch him anymore.

In a way, the Mortal blessing made him numb. It made fewer and fewer things worth worrying about. Either something killed him or it made him stronger.

When he looked down, there was a girl staring at him. She was young, maybe sixteen, with a tiny joke of a knife in hand as she sidled towards him. If he was charitable, he could pretend her arms were only trembling because of the cold.

“I’m not going to hurt you.” Bayler was surprised to see that she flinched back when he spoke, but then he remembered what he must look like. It didn’t help that his voice sounded hollow and scraping, a ghoul’s voice. “I’m not a monster, I’m just having a hell of a day. By the looks of it, you’re having a rough time yourself.”

A hiccuping little laugh of relief, almost a sob, lifted her shoulders as it burst out of her mouth.“Medicine. I need- My brother is sick. A monster bit him.” The knife lowered with every word she spoke. Seemingly less because she’d decided to trust him, and more because the thought of her brother dying left her too panicked to focus on anything else. “I need you to get out of my way.”

“So that you can dig through the rubble with your bare hands?”

She stared him down, unwilling to admit that was her plan, but daring him with glaring eyes to say she couldn’t.

So instead, Bayler offered a third way. “Is there a vet nearby? They’ll have the same drugs.”

Her eyes went wide. It was night and day, “Oh. Yes! Yes, there should be a few streets down, I can-”

“We.” Bayler corrected, clambering down from his perch atop the rubble.

“No. No, just because you’re human doesn’t mean I trust you. Why do you care, anyway?” The skepticism and fear came rushing back in to her face, furrowing the little bridge of skin between her eyebrows as her eyes fixed on him, a piercing blue gaze.

He shrugged. “You left your brother somewhere, right? A safehouse? I want in.” That was the reason, sure, but lying under it was the simple fact she was the first human he’d seen today. The first human he’d seen in three years. Some part of him was worried if he let her run off into the night alone she’d be the last, too.

Hefting his lantern, he added,“I’ve got a light.”

“Fine. But stay far away from me.”

Together they slogged downriver, bits of the hospital bobbing past as mist wreathed over the flowing water. Everything Bayler remembered of the city was washed away, or else had become rocks in the stream, the water frothing white as it rushed over fire hydrants and the bases of lampposts.

The whole time, Bayler was waiting for something to come slinking out of the shadows. His lantern should have been drawing monsters out of the woodwork, but the streets were oddly quiet, leaving him unsettled.

There was a strange sense that the city was askew, tilting over as it sank deeper and deeper into blue-green floods. The lights were out. It was a small thing to say, but in a city this size, the lights were never out; always there was a window lit in one of the skyscrapers rising into the horizon, or the reflections of the streetlights against the clouds above. Now, instead, the stars were crystal clear in an expansive, clear night sky.

They found the veterinarian dark but not empty. As they opened the empty frame of the broken glass door, a chorus of barks and growls exploded out, cages rattling within.

“Oh god. They just left them here?” Lauren took a step forward and stopped abruptly, reeling back from the smell. Frightened animals left in their own filth for days produced a unique bouquet. One that made Bayler grab the walls for support to keep from doubling over.

“Keys.” It was such a palpable odor that it actually burned his eyes. “We need to find the keys.”

Together they braved into the tiny space, covering their mouths and noses. Dogs threw themselves against the bars of their cages, howling, yipping, whining.

“Where are all the cats?”

“You don’t know? They all left. All of them, all at once. Nobody knows where. People were saying it was the end of the world.” For a brief second Lauren’s voice was mocking, and then the lightness of her tone sank, getting a little quiet and a lot more bitter. “I guess they were right.”

“I’ve been asleep for a while.” He rustled through the cupboard underneath the main desk, finding nothing but papers and crumbled dogbiscuits.

“Well, you slept through the apocalypse, then.” She called, slipping through a door into the back room.

A second later, he heard a gasp, a stumble, and then her voice again. “I- I found the keys.”

When he got there, she was plastered against the wall, doing everything not to get her shoes in the puddled gore spilling out from the corpse that lay, headless, against a row of filing cabinets. An impressive fan of blood was painted across the wall out from the severed stump of the neck, suggesting that the head had simply… exploded.

Grimacing, Bayler prodded the corpse, half expecting something to emerge. When nothing burst out he bent down and snatched the keys from the body’s belt, tossing them to Lauren.

Behind them, the dogs started to howl again, a full chorus barking out the sounds of panic, whimpering and shrieking.

“I’m going to step outside.”

Sure enough, there was the sense of being watched as soon as he stepped through the broken frame of the doorway. There was another presence in the night. He swung the lantern about, eyes sweeping the gloomy cityscape. “You might as well come out!”

“Promise me you won’t run.”

The back of his neck prickled, and he looked up.

A massive spider made of glass clung to the wall behind him. Its body was colorless and transparent, so that he could see right through its skin, down into its belly. Encased within was a woman in white robes, lying with her arms crossed, like Snow White in her coffin. Blonde hair spilled out around her beautiful face in a halo of gold. She looked like a saint at rest.

“Bayler Shrike.” He heard the voice inside his skull, speaking without words. It was like he was remembering her speaking, without it ever happening, the words simply appearing in mind. “You are an interesting individual.”

He snorted with laughter. It was just too much. This day was too strange. “Well, you’re the damn weirdest thing I’ve ever seen.” The spiders glass mandibles glistened with a faint trace of green, a dripping venom, and its eyes were red as rubies.

A dog shot out of the vets office, bounding away with its tail tucked between its legs. Inside, Lauren was throwing open cage after cage.

“Girl! Find the back exit!” He shouted, taking a good step back from the spider. She looked up, catching his eye, hearing the seriousness in his voice-- and then she went back to opening cages, throwing them open as quickly as she could. Bayler grimaced. She was too nice for this apocalypse.

“I will not hurt you.” The spider’s voice was like the ringing of bells, charming and melodic. “You must have questions. Strange times have taken hold of your world, and I am here to provide answers, guidance. I am here to see you grow into warriors.”

“Well, isn’t that convenient.” Out of the corner of his eyes he was watching Lauren finish with the last of the cages, clutching her hand from where one of the dogs had bit it. She was headed for the medicine cabinet now, fumbling the keys, smearing blood across them.

“It is a small compensation for the trials the Powers will put you through. They have sent monsters to test you, and me to guide you. This is their fairness.” A sour note chimed among the musical, clipped tones; it seemed that even completely alien races understood sarcasm. “As for me, I saw the same happen to my own world. I would like to help.”

“How generous. Be sure to tell them thanks.” His eyes met Lauren’s for a split second as she shoveled pill bottles into her arms. She shot him a thumbs up, and moved for the back door. “Look, I’m not doubting you. I’m just really needing some proof, right now, that you’re as friendly as you say.”

“Then ask me a question, Bayler Shrike. Any one question.”

It didn’t even take him a split-second’s indecision to know what he wanted to know. “What happened? Why did everything go to hell?”

“When a mortal dies, their soul is carried to the afterlife. So also with worlds. When a planet like your Earth dies, its ruins fall into the Afterlife of Worlds, a vast and all-devouring sea we call the Abyss. And it drags its occupants, be they thousands or millions, with it.”

"Even worlds must die. All days shall be numbered."