The Wicked End

It was a typical hot and sunny day in southern California as Davanee Lewis walked down the street with one of her very good friends, Zack Baker. The two had decided to go out to lunch with the rest of their friends, and, considering the two were neighbors, walked home together. But, while the two were normally chatterboxes that never ran out of anything to talk about, it had grown eerily quiet between them when they were about halfway home.

Sighing, Zack shoved his hands into his pockets, kicking an idle rock in front of him before picking his head up and looking over at Davanee.

"...Do you ever think about the Rapture?" he asked as the pair continued their walk. Davanee, thrown quite off-guard, glanced up at him with a questioning stare.

"The what?" She knew what it was he spoke of; she just couldn't understand why he was asking such a silly question.

"You know...the second coming of Christ, the rise of the Anti-Christ, the end of life as we know it..." Zack trailed off, his cheeks reddening as he began to feel quite silly himself.

"Why would I?" Davy questioned. "You know I'm not into that religious stuff. I just don't think about things like that, and frankly, I don't think you should either."

"Why not? Why shouldn't I think about it?" Zack persisted, digging his hands further into his pockets.

"Firstly, because it'll never happen, and secondly, because it's just a bit morbid don't you think?" Zack nodded his head in response to Davy's answer, and then just left it at that. The rest of the way to the pair's houses was quiet, and it wasn't until they had stopped outside Zack's parent's house that they spoke again.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Davanee," Zack said as he pulled her into a hug. Breathing in his scent, Davanee sighed before letting go.

"Yeah, see you." Turning, Davanee headed further down the street to the next house, where she lived with her parents. Though she and her small group of friends were all very early twenties in age, they still lived with their parents. Two of them, Brian and Jimmy, had tried to get an apartment of their own once, but after a few months, things didn't work out. The rest never really tried the same.

Johnny, the youngest of the group, was too much of a homebody to want to move away from home. He loved his parents, he loved the house he grew up in, he loved the neighborhood. Nothing outside of his front door was desirable enough for him to want to move out. Not even a girl.

Matt, the largest and gruffest of the group, never went anywhere because all throughout high school, he had lived across the street from a gorgeous girl in his classes, and considering both his and her bedroom windows faced the street below, would never hesitate trying to peek into her window to see if she was changing. And, after everyone graduated and others moved on, he never got around to leaving his home.

Jimmy, the tallest, lankiest, and most-assuredly craziest of the group, had had too many financial hardships while growing up and after high school graduation that he would never be able to afford to live on his own. Which was why Brian, possibly the handsomest and most charming of the group, tried to get a place with him. They were best friends, and Brian always wanted to help out Jimmy in any way he could. But there was no way he could afford paying for an apartment on his own.

Zack, perhaps the most boyish (slightly due to the baby-face he had), on the other hand, wanted to get out of his house and out of Huntington as fast as he possibly could. The only thing holding him back? His friends. They were too dear to him.

And then there was Davanee...

Waking up the next morning, Davanee couldn't help but think that her room was more stifling and soaked with heat than necessary. Sitting up, she rubbed at her forehead, pushing her sweat-soaked hair back and out of her fact. It was humid, which was very uncharacteristic of the area she lived in. It didn't rain very often, so there was relatively no time that it was ever humid.

Rolling out of bed, Davy crossed the room to open her window in hopes that an early morning breeze might sweep itself into the room. But the wind never came. Outside it was eerily quiet, not even a light brush of leaves. And all that escaped into the room was more heat.

Stretching, she walked down to the living room to gaze out the back door at the thermometer. Eyes widening, she was shocked at what she read: one hundred and three degrees. Glancing at the clock on the wall, she noticed it was only just a little past six in the morning. Taking in the fact that it was only mid-October, Davy felt slightly disturbed. Never in her twenty-two years of living in California had it ever been that hot in the morning.

Sighing, Davy shrugged it off, blamed global warming, and headed back upstairs to take a cold, refreshing shower. After doing so, she stepped out of the shower with a towel wrapped around her body, and everything seemed only hotter than it had before. Dressing herself, Davy headed back down to the living room to check the temperature again. One hundred and ten degrees; it was only six-thirty. It had risen seven degrees in just under half an hour. Davanee was even more confused than before.

Thankful that at least she had an air conditioner to cool off with, Davy sighed and flopped down into the chair that was positioned in front of the device, quickly turning it on and basking with a lazy smile in the rush of cold air that draped over her. But only a few short minutes later, hot air began blowing un until the air conditioner rumbled and gave out a shudder, dying altogether. Sighing in agitation, Davanee closed her eyes, a smile slowly coming to her lips as she remembered that Brian's parents had a massive in-ground pool in their backyard, with sparkling, cold, blue water.

Hurrying up to her bedroom, she dug through her dresser to find her teal-blue bikini, pulling the two pieces on and adding a tank top and pair of shorts. Getting a large towel from the bathroom, Davy headed down the stairs, slipping into a pair of flip-flops before heading out the door over to Zack's house. Both of her parents were at work, which meant she had no car. Zack, on the other hand, did, so that was where she was headed.

Strolling down the sidewalk to his house, Davy walked right in knowing Zack was still asleep and that his parents, like hers, were off to work. She jogged up the stairs, taking two at a time, and then made her way down the hall to Zack's room where he was sleeping on his stomach, sprawled out with one arm dangling off the edge of the bed. Davy stifled a chuckle as she watched him: the comforter was pushed down to the end of the bed, showing him in only a pair of boxers. From where Davanee was she could see a glistening layer of sweat on Zack's skin, only further proving that it was unnaturally hot outside.

Getting on the bed, Davy straddled Zack's waist and began lightly pushing on his shoulders.

"Zack," she cooed, shaking him a little in hopes he would wake up. Groaning, Zack tried to roll over in his sleep, though he couldn't go very far considering she was on top of him. "Wake up," Davy demanded playfully, poking his back.

Zack mumbled as he opened his eyes. He blinked a few times, tiredly, and Davanee rolled off of him, sitting to the side where he could see her. "What'd I do, sleep till three again?" he questioned as he yawned.

"No, it's only about seven," she answered him, sitting back a bit. Davy watched him nod slowly before he pushed himself up into a sitting position.

"It's hot out," he stated before looking out the window.

"Yeah I know. It's really weird. I woke up an hour ago and it was a hundred and three outside. Can you believe that?" she asked. Zack just stretched and yawned again.

"Global warming," he answered with a shrug, almost as if he didn't find the situation odd in the slightest.

"I was thinking we should go to Brian's; I'm sure he's gotta be out in the pool with it being this hot."

"Good idea," Zack replied with a grin, pulling on a shirt that was lying on the floor and getting his swim trunks out of a drawer in his dresser. Retreating to the bathroom, Zack got ready as Davy waited for him on the bed.

In no time at all they were in Zack's car, headed across town to Brian's only to find that Davanee's prediction was correct. Brian was indeed in the pool, and so were the rest of their friends. Quickly, Zack and Davanee stripped down to their swim suits and jumped in, letting the cool water wash over them before they surfaced.

"So...this weather is a bit strange," Brian said quite blatantly after the small group of friends had enjoyed a bit of horsing around in the pool. They had all settled down and were down to the point where they didn't dare leave the water in fear of how hot it was, as it was almost midday.

"Do you think it'll keep getting worse? Because I might die of heat exhaustion," Johnny said with a chuckle.

"It will."

Everyone looked down to one end of the pool, where Zack was leaning against the wall, water coming up to his shoulders. No one could decipher the sound in his voice, but they knew that the way he had spoken was a bit odd. He didn't sound like Zack at all.

Looking up from the water, Zack's eyes caught everyone else's stares. "Just you wait and see," he continued. "If you think this heat is weird, you're really in for it."

"...How do you know that?" Davanee asked. His behavior was very peculiar, because until that point Zack hadn't spoken a single word to any of them. "Zacky?" she pushed when he didn't reply right away.

"I can feel it. Can't you?" he asked, and he watched as his friends all looked back and forth between each other before looking back at him, shaking their heads. "Well, get ready for it. Things are changing, and they're changing fast. Everything is going to be different soon.... You'll see," he said, speaking quietly, almost menacingly. The way he was acting reminded Davanee of The Exorcist, where the little girl was possessed by an evil spirit. Judging by the looks the guys were giving each other, she knew they felt the same way.

And as days went by, they would soon learn that Zack was only too right.

The following night, Tuesday, as Davy was sat at her computer in one of the upstairs rooms, she noticed the sun was not blinding her like it normally did during sunset. Being that the only window in the room faced the ocean, to the west, the sun would always set in her direct line of sight through that window. And as much as it always bothered her, it didn't feel right that it wasn't happening. Curious, Davy stood up and walked to the window, looking for the setting sun. Much to her surprise, it was all the way to her left, in the south.

But, as weird as that was, it didn't even being to break the surface of what was to come. Davanee had a growing feeling that Zack knew more than what he was letting on, that he knew many things that none of the others did. And that was what scared her most.

Come Wednesday, Brian, Matt, Zack, Jimmy, Johnny, and Davanee had all gathered at her house. It was a usual routine for them to be at one of the houses most every night. They were all lounging on the deck in Davanee's back yard, talking about any and everything, as they always did.

Suddenly, the light changed overhead, and Matt looked up. Seeing what he saw, his expression changed to one of confusion. He didn't know how these things worked, but he knew that whatever was going on...wasn't right.

"Guys, whatever you do...don't look up," he warned them all hastily, looking down to the ground immediately. "Better yet, why don't we just go inside?" Standing, he turned to go back into the house. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Davanee begin to look up in the sky, no doubt in as much confusion as he was. "Hey!" he barked, gaining her attention before she had enough time to ok. "Don't do it...trust me."

Gulping, as whenever Matt shouted it made her a bit scared, Davanee stood and followed him back inside along with the others. Gathering in the living room, everyone watched as Matt went around to every window, quickly shutting the curtains and casting the room in shadows before he took a seat in one of the chairs.

"Why didn't you want me to look?" Davanee asked as she took a seat on the couch between Johnny and Brian.
"Solar eclipse. If you look at one straight on, it can cause eye damage. Blindness," Matt explained quietly as the others, save for Zack, stared at him in confusion.

"How do you know that?" Jimmy asked.

Matt shrugged. "I dunno. Just do," he answered, looking over at Zack. Davanee watched as they exchanged glances, though she didn't know what they were supposed to mean.

Before anyone else had time to comment on the situation, the room became impossibly darker, all forms of light fading away from the outside world. An uneasy feeling in her stomach, Davanee stood and went to one of the windows, pushing back the curtains and looking out at the street, making sure not to look up at the sun. She could see others in their houses doing the same as her, some even coming out to see what the cause of the street's darkened state was. The eclipse had started.

Hearing a noise over her shoulder, Davy stepped back from the window seeing that someone had turned on the television; the news was playing.

"It appears that we are in the middle of a solar eclipse. This is a strange phenomenon -- astronomers have reported that the next predicted eclipse was set to appear sixty-four years from now. What is even more peculiar is that information has been received from European and Asian nations, stating that they, too, are experiencing this same eclipse as we speak. It seems impossible because eclipses only occur over a certain area of the earth at a time," the reporter announced, and Davanee could read the confusion in his face through the screen as well as she could had he been seated there in the living room.

Later that night, she would receive a call from Jimmy, telling her to go outside and look at the moon. Lunar eclipse.

"What the hell is going on?" Davy asked herself as she watched the moon fall into a red shadow before becoming completely dark. Back in the living room she turned on the news again.

"...and not only had a solar eclipse come unexpectedly earlier today, but now we are experiencing a lunar eclipse. Astronomers are baffled at the wonder of such a thing. Never before in reported history have a solar and lunar eclipse occurred during the same 24-hour period..."

"Well, that's odd," Davy's father said as he and his wife sat on the couch, watching along with her.

Odd was an understatement. Now, not only did Davy have a feeling that Zack knew more than what he was telling, but she felt that whatever it was, Matt was in on it, too.

The world seemed to be falling into madness. Davanee knew something was going on; as each day passed, another of her friends would seemingly fall into a state of awareness. They'd give each other looks all the time, as if with just those looks they knew what the other was thinking.

Thursday was strange. From the time the sun had risen, to the time that it had set, it was blood red. The entire world was cast in an eerie red glow. And that was the day Johnny seemed to be included in whatever it was that Matt and Zack seemed to know. He would look suspiciously at Matt most of the time; he gave the same looks right back.

Friday was just as strange. Davanee didn't know for sure, but if she had to guess she'd say not many people left whatever building they were in the moment the wind storm picked up. The day was completely calm, until all of a sudden a strong set of winds came in from the north, swirling about as if in a tornado. It kept up for a good hour, and then, as soon as it came, it was gone. That was the day Brian fell into the same oddities of the other three. The looks...always the looks.

Davanee went to bed Friday night in hopes that whatever it was that was going on would end. She couldn't tell if it was just her own self going insane, or if what was happening was affecting more than just herself. But she knew something was up, and she wanted it to stop. She wanted everything to go back to normal.

Waking up Saturday morning, it seemed, was easier for Davanee than it was for the sun. It never rose, and the entire day was spent in darkness. Twenty-four hours of night.

Her parents were confused. Everyone was confused. Never before had the sun never risen. The moon hadn't come out either; it seemed even the stars had forgotten to sparkle.

And, finally, Jimmy succumbed to whatever secrecy was going on between the boys. And like Matt and Johnny, Brian and Jimmy shot dangerous looks at each other as well.

Davanee should have taken heed from Zack's words. "Things are changing, and they're changing fast. Everything is going to be different soon.... You'll see."

She should have known right then, from that day forward, that nothing was going to be the same again.