The Harvesting of Sol Valen

           The bomb exploded in a brilliant flash of white. For a split second there was no sound, but then a deafening roar erupted from the center of the flash and grew until it reverberated throughout the entire valley. The buildings, streets, and the countryside beyond were all consumed in the wave of fire and smoke that bellowed forth from the center. Invisible radiation traveled just as quickly but moved out far beyond the fire and smoke. From a bird’s eye view, one would see a giant mushroom rising slowly above the white peaks of the surrounding mountains.

            Sol slowly regained consciousness.  First, before his mind had awakened, he heard strange sounds: familiar voices he had known since childhood, wind rustling through leaves, water gurgling in a brook, and the shouts and chaotic noise of war all seemed to echo through his head in turns… or was it all at once? It was hard to separate the sounds… they molded together into a singular great buzz that seemed to Sol as the sound of life itself, and then… there was nothing.

            Perhaps it was the absence of noise that woke Sol. A fuzzy whiteness blurred his vision. He blinked once; he thought he could make out the dimmest of outlines among the dense white fog all around him. He blinked again, and the shapes slowly took form. Sol sat up and rubbed his eyes. He looked around… where was he? The great fog covered all of the land as far as Sol could see, but in the fog he could make out the dark shapes of buildings. …Yes, here was the tavern Sol had just exited from twenty paces behind him. And there was the bakery to his left, and the back alleys where he had conducted his illicit business deals…. Excited, Sol looked up to his sides the see them dim outlines of street lamps lining the cobblestone road, though no lights illuminated from them. So, he was still in the city! Perhaps the fog was smoke from the explosion… although strangely enough, Sol could not smell any smoke… or, for that matter, anything at all. A strange stillness was in the air.

            “Hello!” Sol called. Only silence answered him.

            “HELLO!! IS ANYONE THERE??” he shouted. Only stillness, and the echoes of his urgent call bouncing off the unseen mountainsides.

            Sol slumped forward and buried his head in his hands. Could it be possible that he was the only survivor? No, he was out in the open… it was much more likely he was….

            He sat there for what seemed to be a long time, unmoving. No sounds or smells came forth through the white fog, and in the stillness Sol reflected. He had spent his entire life using the people around him, scamming them and taking their money. Never before had he thought twice of leaving even his closest friends behind him. Now he longed for fellow humans not for their purses, but for their companionship. And yet there was no sign of life in the milky fog around him. For the first time in his life, Sol was truly, utterly alone. EDIT He let out a soft moan of despair.

            It was at this moment that something appeared. No sound or smell alerted Sol to its presence, but instead Sol distinctly felt it… something faint and sinister. He looked up, but there was nothing but white fog. …Wait… no, there was something there, barely discernible among the whiteness… a faint, black spot in the distance. When Sol focused on it, the sinister feeling grew. He knew not why, but Sol was wary of that faint spot; more wary than of anything else he had ever encountered in his life. Sol slowly raised himself up, took one last look at that sinister dot, and turned to walk away.

            But when he turned his head, it was there too, only closer. He squinted his eyes to discern that the dot was in fact a small rectangle that looked much like a distant black door.

            Fear erupted in the pit of Sol’s stomach. Every fabric of his being compelled him away from the distant black spot. Panicked, Sol turned to his left and began to run, but halted almost immediately when the blackness was there, too, only larger. Cold sweat broke out over his forehead as he turned around again, only to find the blackness there as well, but closer. Hysterical in terror, Sol turned yet again, and there it was, now only a few dozen paces from him. Every time Sol turned his head and redirected his vision, the sinister darkness was there, seemingly looming forward to engulf him, coming closer with his every attempt to get away. Sol turned around a final time, terrorized, then froze.

            In the white fog, there stood the black door. It loomed directly in front of Sol, and was close to three times his height. The doorframe was hewn from the blackest of stone. Two slabs of gnarled, black wood made up the two halves of the door. Strange inscriptions were carved onto the wood in intricate patterns spiraling towards the center, were a black metal doorknob carved into a goat’s head stared fixedly through Sol.

            He was paralyzed. Sol dared not to move. He stared back at the door, transfixed. Deep down in his gut, Sol somehow knew where this horrible door led. And for the first time in decades, Sol believed in something he had not considered since his adolescent years.

            Sol knew he could not run away. The door loomed before him, its shadow engulfing Sol. With no other options left, Sol fell to his knees. He clasped his shaking hands together, bowed his head, and weeping, he prayed to God for forgiveness. Sol prayed with more earnestly and urgency than he had ever felt in his entire life, and his tears flowed down from his face and hit the ground like rain. Please God, he prayed, Please God, please… save me.

            A terrible screech erupted all around Sol at once, and in blind horror  Sol saw the goat’s head violently turn, and the black doors fling open. There was no time to act, or even think. Dark tendrils erupted forth and surrounded Sol, clasping onto his skin, so cold they burned him. Screaming, Sol was drawn in through the doorway into the blackest of all blackness that lay beyond. He was falling, falling, falling… and as the tendrils pulled him downward Sol saw his hopes, his dreams, his ambitions, his joys, and all the good things he had ever felt violently rip up out of his chest and leave him as he plummeted downwards, forever downwards, into that cold and black abyss.