The Apartment I

“Oh, shit,” he said, looking at his hands. The dust drained through his fingers like water as he processed what just happened.

It didn’t make sense. He’d worked with this talisman dozens of times, this one should have been stable.

Looking out the window, the smoke rose in the distance. It didn’t seem to be getting any closer.

Not yet, it’s too soon, a voice in his head muttered.

Hey Bob, Damian thought to the voice, it’s not your turn yet. You wait.

The grumbling acknowledgment from the voice in his head would have to do, he would never get a clear agreement.

Damian looked back at the dust on his fingers. The wind took away what was left in his hands, and any evidence that the statue ever existed was gone.

Alright, he thought. The Breach hasn’t shifted closer yet. Everything should have still worked, so why–

BAM BAM BAM went a pounding on the door. “Damian? Dame? You in there? C’mon dude, open up.”

Ash was at the door. She must have felt it, too.

He stood to let his friend in, but a rumble in the floor threw him off balance. He hurried to the door and opened it. Her eyes filled with surprise at this new tremor.

“Did you feel that?” Ash said she rushed past him to the window to look outside. She eyed the smoke in the distance. “It’s not getting closer. I don’t underst–”

The building shook again, hard enough now that it took their full concentration to remain standing. Damian’s belongings began tumbling to the floor. His favorite plant cracked apart with more force than physics should allow.

Damian and Ash struggled to stay up. Their knees buckled as more items began to slam to the ground. They collapsed, unable to resist the strengthening gravity.

“I can’t–ungh, I can’t get up,” Damian said.

“Me either,” Ash struggled to suck any air into her lungs.

Purple began to envelop everything around them. To call it a light, or even a darkness, would not do justice to the way this color overtook the world around them. Every floorboard, every broken piece of plant vase, every speck of dust was imbued with a deep energy of purple.

And then it was gone.

“Fuck,” Ash said, standing up and brushing herself off.

“What were you doing, before you came over? What did you see?” Damian asked.

“Remember that owl statue, the little one I picked up last year at the fair?” Damian nodded, anticipating where this story was going. “It just, it just turned to dust, Dame! What the fuck? I’ve never seen that this far from the Breach.”

“Same. My statue went to dust. I must have used it every day this week, and it worked fine until today.”

It’s here, it’s HERE! Bob whisper-yelled in his mind. It’s TOO SOON!

“Quiet, Bob, it’s not your turn,” Damian said aloud as he joined Ash at the window. Ash raised an eyebrow at this, then continued scanning the ground.

“It doesn’t look like any cracks have started,” Damian said, inspecting the roads.

Ash peered carefully between broken window panes, in case the rumbling returned. Then she saw it. “There! Look over next to the 7-Eleven. On the ground.” A deep, violet-black crack ran from the center of the street and into the store.

Of course it’s on the ground! Where else would it be?! Bob thought, frantic now.

Damian sighed. “Ash, it’s Bob’s turn. He’s getting pretty freaked out, we’re going to have to do this now instead of tomorrow.”

“Yeah, okay,” Ash said. “Do you think it’ll still work here? Or should we go further out of town?”

Damian snapped a spark, the first magic his dad had taught him. It sputtered and cracked — hardly the sharp pop that was the usual. It wouldn’t be enough. Damian grimaced.

“Pfht. We’re going to have to move. I don’t trust this. Go grab what you need. Can you be ready in 10 minutes?”

“Yup. Don’t forget water,” Ash jabbed as she headed back to her own apartment. On their first solo casting trip together, Damian had one job — bring hydration. He forgot. She hasn’t.

“Yeah, yeah,” Damian said.

He moved through his apartment, gathering up supplies. Most of their needs for this run would be pretty basic — water (obviously), snacks, that kind of thing — they shouldn’t even need to be leaving, if it weren’t for the Breach leaping forward. Why did it move? And so fast? He wondered. It didn’t usually take jumps like this, the nearest break was still smoking over five miles away.

Unraveling is unpredictable, Bob muttered.

Once he had gathered things they might need, he grabbed his pack and left. In the hallway, he locked the door … unlocked the door, went back in, grabbed the water bottles, swore a little, and left.