“Jay, when’s the last time you put on deodorant? You smell like sweat.” My 11-year-old niece Gigi asked me with a look of disgust. Gigi is a short, pasty-skinned brunette with insatiable energy. She always liked to play, but she could also control herself and was pretty smart.

“I haven’t gone outside so I don’t need it!” I replied, shrinking a little. I lifted my arms and took a whiff.

“That’s why no girl is ever going to come to your room.” she hummed in a warm tone. She bouncily slunk back to the living room.

My name is Jay. At the time, I am currently a NEET. For those of you not familiar with the culture, I was what you call unemployed and not in training or education. The opposite of that was the successful guys who made lots of money, got all the girls and had loads of friends.

Jeez. When did little girls become so hurtful? I thought, stung by what she said. I sat up straight and stretched my back in my chair. I was typing away at the computer, looking through some articles on cyber security. I did, after all, want to be a software engineer. It seemed like a cushy job. But these days my motivation didn’t last. I’d probably end up clicking away from the page soon.

I gotta remember to put my hygiene first. It’s been a while since I’ve gone out. I should probably order one of those beeswax deodorants on Amacron. Those are good for long-lasting scent relief.

I had a basic plan for my life, a goal, if you would. To live as comfortably as possible. I was 25 years old. I had dropped out of a computer engineering degree after a bunch of sleepless nights filled with pizza and video games. After investing my life savings into getting that piece of paper, I was flat broke. Okay, there might be about $50 left in my bank account. But I was saving that for a few light novels with my favorite waifu.

Shia-tannnn!!

I had an idea to strike it rich after I dropped out of school: my own social media site where other NEETs would hang out. Strength in numbers, right? And the best part was: no normies allowed. For a whole year, the vision of having it become hugely popular all over the internet sustained me as I put in 8-10 hour coding days, learning all kinds of things from scratch like managing servers and getting a website up and running. All the while, ignoring my dad and brother who thought I should at least apply for the local burger joint down the street.

A bunch of energy drinks and all-nighters later, the project was live! I put it all over social media. It got a few likes and comments! A few people joined to complain about the normies in their life. It was starting to feel like a little community! But on to the important part… money.

“Okay, if I get 100,000 daily visitors to the website and I have 6 ads running on each of the important pages, I’ll make enough to not need a real job!” I yelled proudly, doing some number crunching on a calculator.

Soon after, I ended up with close to 100 users, but without me creating fake accounts the website was going nowhere, really fast. And so the dreaded reality started to hit me. I wasn’t going to make it as an entrepreneur, and I might have just wasted a year of my life to even try.

Why can so many people do it, but not me? I let myself sink into my chair, feeling dejected. “I’m going to have to work my life away after all…”

It was 11:54 PM. I clicked the X in the web page and switched to doing my usual Raddit rounds. Looking at memes and popular content that people shared on the web. Scrolling through endless pages and upvoting a few that I liked. I was content doing just that. I mean I had a roof over my head, good food, a mom that would cook for me, and a fast PC. That’s all I felt like I really needed. I got bored of Raddit and opened up one of my favorite RPGs, ChromeE3x. A very popular self-starter survival game.

I looked around my room. Two cans on my desk, still half-full of cola. A bag of chips I’d stolen from my brother’s room but hadn’t bothered to eat. My PC, Posters of my favorite animes on the wall. Even cutouts of manga pages on a bulletin board. And an empty canvas with some paint tubes littered the floor. I wanted to try my hand at painting. Maybe people would buy an art piece of mine. Maybe.

And my calendar was there too.

August 14, 2021, it read.

My eyes were fatigued from looking at the monitor of my computer for hours. For a minute, I had a nostalgic daydream about my university life. I shuddered. My time at school sucked, since I was always alone. I decided to fantasize about being rich and popular instead.

I felt myself relax. My gaze became heavy and I started to sink deeper into my chair. And that’s when the first sign of it hit me.

A vision so powerful it looked like a memory took over my eyes. It was me and I was in my house. But there was a blinding white light on one of the walls in the living room, shaped like a door. And outside I heard the sound of deep thunder in the sky. Then I saw myself extend my hand towards it and finally place my hand on it. The walls of my house began to crumble. The rumbling was powerful and I could hear the glass ornaments my mom had on display clash in place, ready to fall and break at any moment. Paintings fell from the wall. I grabbed onto the couch to keep my balance and not fall as well. It all happened in a flash.

I immediately stood up in my chair. All traces of fatigue gone and my heart was beating so fast I felt as though I had somehow narrowly avoided death. But none of it was real. My vision had suddenly become much clearer too, as adrenaline coursed through my veins.

“Was that really just a daydream?” I whispered aloud. I saw my hands shaking slightly and I tried to calm myself down by breathing mechanically.

It’s late. Maybe this is my body’s way of telling me to hit the sack. I soon thought nothing of it and carried on browsing the internet.

The next day my brother Mario asked me if we wanted to go fishing. Mario was a 26-year-old muscular guy with black hair, who was slightly shorter than me. Very creative, outgoing, and fairly intelligent. He had always told me it’s best to go in the morning because that’s when fish like to eat, so we’d be more likely to get a bite on the rod.

“Let’s go, bro. I’m really feeling like fishing. I found the best spot too. We can stop by Wallshop and get a box of worms.” my brother Mario said.

I gave in. We got in his car. We stopped by Wallshop to restock on lures and sinking weights to make sure our hooks would reach deep enough in the water. And we grabbed one of the last few boxes. I opened the lid to make sure and a pink wiggly worm popped its head out of the dirt.

An hour later we were at the stream, the only ones here. We each had our own rod, and my brother had set the hooks for us, since he was the expert. Mine was a regular “J” shape and his was a fake fish. My hook kept getting stuck on the nearby tall grass and plants and moss. Meanwhile my brother was flawlessly throwing the hook back and forth, reeling it back slowly back as he did so that the lure would appear to be swimming.

I felt bored. All we talked about was the old MMORPG we both used to play, ScapeRunes. That’s pretty much all we had in common.

Our rods were as gentle as the water rocking the line. Finally, a tug on the line.

“What’s it looking like, master fisherman?”

“Could be a monkfish… hmm, a swordie!” he said, referencing the virtual fish we used to catch.

It caught him off guard and he immediately steadied himself so as not to lean too far forward. The tug bent his rod so much he could tell the approximate size of the fish he was contending with as he yelled, “it’s a big one, dude!”

“I don’t think you have the fishing level required! Better release it before it pulls you in!” I joked.

Both hunter and prey struggled hard. The fish shot up and quickly slammed itself back, taunting us. Mario released the line to let the fish think it would escape and then locking it again to pull it even more towards our side. Finally, a weird flat fish emerged out of the water, gasping for air, and my brother lowered it on the grass.

After our initial excitement died down, my brother started feeling philosophical. “How do you think the fish feels?” he asked, trying to get the hook out of its mouth. “You know, being taken out of its home and feeling like it will never go back. Not to mention, suffocating.”

“That’s what it gets for being a fish.” I said, shrugging. “But yeah, I honestly can’t imagine what that must be like.” We spent around one more hour there, unaware that this fish would be the last one we caught and then finally called it a day.

“I didn’t catch anything.” I sulked, walking back to the car.

“But at least you were there to witness my greatness.” my brother coyly reminded me, winking.

I asked him what about him could possibly be so great, and he tried to trip me as we were walking.

We were almost home again. I was in the car staring out the window as the trees flew past me.

“Hey bro, do you have work tomorrow? If not, mind stopping by a Gameshop with me and getting something?”

“Of course I have work…it’s gonna be just another Monday.” he said.

I sighed.

Yeah… just another Monday.

Monday came around.

I was at my chair typing away. I was in a heated online argument with a random person on Raddit about an anime. My brother was in the room next door in his fancy work-from-home job.

I listened in, hearing his boss yelling and wanting him to finish something by Friday of that week.

“Awful. Simply awful.” I thought, shaking my head. I would hate to have deadlines again. In university, it was one deadline after another. But this was different. This was a power from on high dictating that you had to have something done by a certain time or your paycheck would be gone forever… that’s way more important than school.

My brother took his hour lunch break. He popped out of his room and into mine for a chat.

“Yo.” He said.

“What’s up?” I replied half-heartedly, still staring at my monitor.

“Don’t forget me!” My niece Gigi popped in as well, hearing my brother was on his break. “I heard you guys were on break, so I thought I’d do my niece-ly duties.” she said, sticking out her tongue. That could only mean she meant to annoy us.

I ignored her and turned to face my brother.

“You really gotta stop working extra hours for them, bro. You’re supposed to be done by 5:30 aren’t you?” I asked Mario. “Why are you agreeing to work until 8 pm today if you’re not getting overtime?”

“You’ll understand when you get a job.” He retorted. “It’s not like I want to do this.”

“But you have to lay down your boundaries or you’ll always be taken advantage of.” I explained, munching on some Dritos chips. I felt very wise. He should listen to me.

“Why should I listen to a NEET?” he scoffed.

Just then my mother and sister knocked on the house door. My niece got up to open it for them.

My sister Flo was the oldest one out of all of us siblings, at 28 years old. She looked like an older version of my niece, taller with semi-long reddish-orange hair.

“We went shopping!” Flo exclaimed. “You wouldn’t believe all the beautiful jewelry we saw today!” By the way, my sister’s job had gone remote. So she was living here, too.

Yay…

“Jay, Mario, Gigi. Help out with the bags.” She said, setting down the groceries on the table. My mom was a brunette who looked very good for her age. She was shorter than my sister, but slightly thicker from age.

“Mom, what’s on the menu tonight?” I asked excitedly.

“You’ll see. But it’s going to be very yummy, that’s all I can say.” She replied.

“Hell yeah, sounds good.” I added.

“Aw, no! Tell us now!” Gigi exclaimed impatiently. She was a really picky eater. She probably wanted to make sure it was going to be something she liked, so she could whine ahead of time if it wasn’t.

After unloading all the groceries from the car on the table, I helped put some of them in the fridge. My brother returned to working. My sister and mom were chatting away, and my niece was on her phone playing a game.

We had a habit of eating separately. It’s not that we weren’t close as a family, but each of us liked to watch our own show. I enjoyed anime, especially the isekai genre. Those were shows about a character, sometimes dying or by some turn of fate, being transported to another world. My brother enjoyed action shows. He loved the type of movies where things are getting blown up, and some secret agent is trying to solve a crime. My mom, sister and niece come in a set. They all got together and watch historical Chinese dramas.

That night my mother made a nice dinner. The definition of home cooking. I remember it so well because it was the last time I’d eat it again. Slow-cooked beer chicken with seasoning, baked potato with sour cream, and some veggies. I also ate a ton of nuts as part of my fitness regimen.

Everything was normal up until this point.

Unfortunately, everything I knew to be normal would soon come to an end.

It started to rain. At first a light drizzle, that we could faintly hear rolling along the windows and walls of the house. But soon, it began to pick up. Within a few minutes, the drizzle turned into crashing waves that hit the house with great force. The howling of the wind was easily heard.

“Turn off the A/C, quick.” my brother shouted from his room, not wanting our newly fixed air conditioning unit to be short circuited in a power outage.

Lightning flashed. A thunderous crackle exploded in the sky.

Gigi let out a scream.

I ran to turn off the A/C. After receiving the confirmation beep from the thermostat, my family and I huddled together in the living room. Intense storms were not unusual in Florida, especially if a tropical storm or hurricane was expected, so we were not worried. Instead, we pondered if the storm would knock off the electricity for the night. More than anything, I desperately hoped it wouldn’t knock out our internet connection.

Another thunderclap, this time gentler and deeper. The rain began to settle down, reduced to a relaxing sprinkle. We all let out a sigh of relief.

“Looks like we were worried for nothing”, I said, probably feeling the most relieved out of all of them.

“Dude you looked like you were gonna piss yourself”, my brother said, reaching for a cup to fill with water.

“Shut up. It’s just that a few days ago, I… had this bad feeling, and this storm just reminded me of it. That’s all.”

I was referring to the vision I had at the computer.

But in that vision, I had been alone and there was a brilliant white light on one of the living room walls.

For some reason, I couldn’t stop shaking.

“What’s wrong with me?” I grumbled to myself, trying to regain my composure.

Then as if wanting to get away from the scene to convince myself of its absurdity, I turned towards the hallway to my room… when I saw it.

My eyes turned to meet a white light shaped like a door on one of the walls. I felt all the color drain from my face. My body went numb and I suddenly felt weak, so much so that I nearly tumbled.

It was just like the vision. No, it couldn’t be, I thought.

It can’t be.

“What is that?! It looks like a door.” Gigi pondered aloud.

“It’s not that bright. But where is the light coming from?” Flo asked.

My body suddenly felt ill. The dizziness became nausea, and I threw up a little out of fear.

Struggling to hold myself up, I fell to my knees with a hand pressed against the floor to keep myself from falling completely. My mom rushed to me, asking what was wrong. My brother also picked up the slack, looking for a bucket in the laundry room for me to use.

I didn’t care that this was happening to me. I only felt one thing. A gripping fear. A need to keep everyone away from the weird light.

Gigi got curious and went to touch it, perhaps as if to see if it would go away. I quickly regained slight composure for a second and warned them.

“Don’t touch it!” I managed. “It’s going to destroy the house!”

“Jay, maybe you should see a doctor or something.” Flo said, with a look suggesting I was out of my mind.

I took a deep breath. My nausea was starting to subside. The white light wasn’t showing any signs of disappearing. It just stood there motionless. At first, it didn’t seem like a big deal to anyone but me, but Flo and Mario started getting curious too. They all tried to look for a source of the light. It had to be coming from through the window facing it. From our neighbor’s house… somewhere. But there was nothing to find. No source.

Finally, my brother turned to me.

“What do you mean it’s going to destroy the house?” he asked, nervously. His eyes were glued to the light, as if he was afraid to look away.

Still on the floor, I explained to them the vision I had two days ago. How in my vision, after reaching for it, the house began to crumble from its structure and there was intense shaking in the ground, like an earthquake. My brother was not amused.

“Jay I swear if this is your idea of a joke it’s not funny.” he said very menacingly. When my brother was scared, he would turn to anger toward those around him.

“You think I would joke about this? Just when we paid off the house?” I barked back.

“All we need to do is not touch it, then. Right, Jay? Let’s all try to relax.” my sister said, negotiating peace.

We all agreed and stood silent for a while. Each of us tried to piece together what this meant. They seemed to believe me at least a little. It was clear this white light was not coming from anywhere.

But it wasn’t before long before Gigi pointed something out.

“The light got brighter!” she called out.

It didn’t seem that way to me, but the more I stared at it, the more I tried to believe what she was seeing. Were her eyes just more sensitive because she was still a child? I pondered.

But within moments, the truth became apparent. It was getting brighter. The light was accruing luminosity at a rising pace. Silently, it was going from a faint shadowy light to something straight out of an industrial head light.

“What do we do? Jay, is this still like in your vision?” Mario demanded, with a fearful look.

“The vision didn’t last for very long, but I do remember it being really bright.” I replied. “But still, nothing happened until I actually touched it.”

We couldn’t ignore it. A light that had come out of nowhere, sustained by nothing, was becoming so bright, it was hard to look at. The light soon extended to parts of the living room, making the entire room much brighter.

What do I do?

“If we don’t do something we’re going to become blind soon. It’s too bright to even look in that direction.” Mario said, cupping his hand over his eyes.

Finally, we agreed to leave the house.

We started scrambling to get our valuables, our wallets, the car keys and anything light to save that we could take with us.

And just as soon as we did that, the light disappeared. The ambient light of the house returned to normal, and it only took a second for our eyes to adjust.

Then we felt it. Shaking from underneath the subfloor of our house. Powerful vibration that shook the entire house. Objects toppled over and made a mess. Paintings fell and broke their glass frames, scattering all over the floor. The blender, the microwave, all fell from the kitchen countertops. We all screamed.

“Everybody get outside!” Mario urged.

And then the walls started to crack. A crack I will never forget. The ceiling was looking to topple over. There was no escaping; we were too far from the front door. There were too many of us. And then again there was that door-shaped white light on the wall. A white light that grew rapidly. And engulfed the entire living room.