Nox and Luke carefully navigated the streets, their footsteps soft on the cracked pavement. The air was heavy with dust, and the scent of smoke lingered faintly in the distance. Despite the daylight, the world felt eerily quiet, as if even the sun hesitated to shine too brightly on the devastation around them.

  "How did you know?" Luke suddenly asked, breaking the silence.

  "Know what?" Nox shot back, his voice low, as though he too felt the weight of the world pressing in.

  "That the blue monster wouldn't harm us," he explained, his voice still carrying a hint of disbelief. "And what's your name?"

  "Nox," Nox said simply, offering no further explanation, though the word seemed to carry more weight than just a name.

  "Nox? What's that?" Luke asked, his brows furrowing in confusion.

  "My name," Nox sighed, his breath catching slightly in the air that felt colder than it should have been.

  "What kind of name is that? I've never heard of it before," Luke said sheepishly, his voice uncertain, as though he was afraid he might offend his saviour.

  "I was told I was born on a moonless night, when the sky was engulfed in darkness," Nox explained, his tone distant as if the memory was something older than just a story.

  "So your name has something to do with the dark?" Luke asked, his voice filled with curiosity, the question lingering in the quiet air between them.

  "Nox means 'Darkness'," he replied softly, almost to himself.

  'Darkness,' Nox thought, 'maybe it wasn't just the night that made them name me that,' his mind drifted. He glanced around, his eyes narrowing. The atmosphere seemed thicker here, as if the remnants of the disaster clung to the very air.

  Around them, smaller monsters scattered through the ruins. They were creatures Nox had seen many times before—harmless, skittering from one shadow to the next. But something was different now. Luke had seen enough to realize that not all monsters were out to harm them. He observed them with a sense of cautious wonder, his face scrunching as though he was still trying to make sense of what he had witnessed. The soft padding of the creatures' feet on the broken streets was the only sound.

  Out of the corner of his eye, Nox saw a few of the monsters glance up at him, their eyes reflecting the faint glow of streetlights as they nodded in his direction. The gesture was familiar, comforting even, but Luke didn't seem to understand.

  'Why is he acting like he knows them?' Luke wondered, his confusion mounting as he followed Nox's lead.

  "So?" Luke decided to prod again, his voice louder this time, his curiosity too strong to ignore.

  "So what?" Nox sighed, glancing around. The streets felt endless now, the wreckage and decay stretching on without end. A part of him regretted offering to take the boy home. The weight of their situation was pressing on him.

  "How do you know which of those things are dangerous?" Luke asked, his voice edged with both awe and a hint of desperation.

  "You won't believe me anyway," Nox chuckled darkly, a sound that felt out of place in the quiet.

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  "Man!" the boy exclaimed, waving his hands around in a mixture of disbelief and frustration. "Look around! Yesterday, I wouldn't have believed monsters were real!"

  "I've always seen them," Nox whispered, his voice barely audible in the stillness.

  "What?" Luke's mouth fell open in shock. "You're joking, right?"

  "Why were you even outside?" Nox sighed again, his eyes scanning the empty streets. There was a strange hollowness in the air, as if the city itself had given up.

  "Uh..." The boy grew sheepish, looking down at the cracked sidewalk beneath his feet. "I saw so many people posting about these things," he scratched his face nervously. "And my blog wasn't doing well."

  "So you decided to film the streets?" Nox shot him a puzzled look, his eyes narrowing. He couldn't help but feel the weight of Luke's naivety.

  "W-well, I might not look like it," Luke quickly raised his arms defensively, "But I actually just qualified for the Nationals. I can fight." His voice trailed off, and for the first time, Nox saw the uncertainty flicker in the boy's eyes. The competition he had worked for, poured so much effort into, might never happen now. That realization seemed to hang heavy between them, an unspoken sadness that neither of them addressed.

  As they walked on, they noticed destroyed shops, windows shattered, and the faint smell of burning debris in the air. The houses they passed were still, their curtains drawn tightly, and every once in a while, the faintest sound of a cough or a shuffling movement betrayed the presence of someone hiding inside.

  At some point, Nox found himself wondering how much of the destruction had been caused by the materialized monsters and how much had been the result of human chaos.

  'How easily our society is crumbling,' he thought, his gaze drifting over the shattered remnants of what had once been a thriving street.

  A distant scream broke through the silence, sharp and frantic. Nox tensed, his hand instinctively moving closer to his sidearm. It wasn't just monsters that posed a danger now. A group of humans was looting a nearby store, their faces twisted in greed, oblivious to the destruction around them. Nox couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt for the store owners, though he wasn't sure if they were still alive.

  As they neared a main street, Nox felt Luke tighten beside him. Despite his earlier bravado, it was clear that the growing horrors were beginning to take their toll. The sight that awaited them was enough to freeze the blood in anyone's veins. Corpses.

  The first body Nox saw was slumped against a broken wall, a pool of blood spreading out across the pavement. His heart sank, and without thinking, he grabbed Luke, pulling him toward a nearby wall and pressing them both against the cold concrete. The air felt suddenly thick, like it was closing in on them.

  Though Nox had encountered monsters before, the carnage around them was different. The main street was littered with bodies—some half-eaten, others clearly victims of blunt force trauma. It looked like chaos had unfolded here. Then, Nox saw them—a pair of monsters locked in a brutal battle. One of them resembled a massive snake, covered in jagged, spiny scales, thrashing violently as it hissed. It was as big as a bus. The other creature, with its fast movements, was just as terrifying.

  Nox's breath caught as his eyes locked onto the second monster. His skin went cold.

  "Let's go," he whispered, urgently pulling Luke to retreat, but the boy didn't move.

  "I think they're still alive," Luke whispered, pointing toward an overturned car. Beneath it, a woman and two children lay motionless, their bodies partially covered by debris.

  The woman had a police uniform, though it was tattered and torn. She lay with her body across the two small figures, trying to shield them. Despite the stillness, the woman would occasionally flinch as the snake-like monster crashed to the ground nearby, sending tremors through the earth.

  Nox felt a sudden surge of guilt, but also fear. He wanted to help them, didn't want to leave them behind, but the second monster was too terrifying to ignore.

  "Stay here," he whispered to Luke, pushing him behind a ruined wall for cover.

  Taking a deep breath, Nox surveyed the area, his mind racing. He wanted to let Luke play the hero, but he knew his own advantage—he'd grown up with these monsters. He wasn't as fazed by their fighting as Luke would be. He often saw these creatures before they materialized, and before that, they didn't affect humans or their surroundings.

  'Some of those humans could have just been collateral damage,' Nox thought as he glanced regretfully at the bodies. 'The snake must have attacked them, started feasting, and then the other one arrived and they began to fight.' His mind quickly mapped out the situation, planning a route that would keep him out of the monsters' line of sight. Time was running out.