It should be a normal day at church. Families gathered around for their regular Sunday Mass to pray and learn about the words of their God. People should be smiling, happy that they get to be with their fellow community members. But people were tired, scared, and unsure of what the future would hold ever since that dreaded day.

  David kept looking at his wristwatch. Looking over the date to see how long ago it was. December 10th, 2016. Less than a month since The Cascade had happened. Even when the catastrophe happened on the coast of Florida, the effects reached as far as David’s rural farming town in Baja California Sur, Mexico. Turning his familiar world upside down for the worst.

  Some people remembered that day differently. Some saw a bright teal light in the sky, which violently swept the globe. David was inside when it happened; he didn’t see the light show. But he remembered the screams that came from all around him as well as the ones inside of his head that spoke of the dark beyond.

  However, the person truly affected by The Cascade was Miranda, his younger sister. Mutated by the unholy magic that blanketed the planet, Miranda was forever disfigured. Most of her skin along the left side of her body was replaced with dark green scales, which had a ceramic texture and would periodically bleed, while her left hand became a hooked claw like that of a crab. Meanwhile, both her eyes became pitch black, which seemed to suck in the light around them. The poor girl looked nothing like a human, but more like a reptilian humanoid hybrid from an old pulp fiction novel her father used to collect as a kid.

  Miranda couldn’t bear to show her face or hand in public. Though if she had to go out for social gatherings, she would tuck her left hand in her shirt while her body was covered in rags to hide her horrendous condition. Even during church, under the roof of the house of God, which should be welcoming to all. She felt like an outcast, an abomination in God’s light. Miranda sat in the corner, alone, and away from any prying eyes. A stranger in her own home, a monster under cloth that not even Jesus would embrace.

  David despised the treatment she was given. He always knew her as his sister underneath. But deep down, he understood why people were scared. He couldn’t blame them. The world had gone mad overnight, and no one truly recovered from it even a month later. Every conflict, every struggle, was nothing compared to what happened during The Cascade. A family feud ended when all the cattle in the field stared at the sun and screamed for hours until they all became blind. Rivalries between shopkeepers were put to rest as roosters crowed in the middle of the night and mysteriously died in the morning with their throats missing. The strangest was when the statue of the Virgin Mary cried tears of blood the week after The Cascade. Creating pools of blood overnight, as it kept crying nonstop. It only stopped a week ago, but the blood stains near the foot of the statue were hard to remove. Perhaps, even impossible.

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  Their world changed, and their petty conflicts became nothing more than insignificant dribble compared to the true nightmare. A new, unknown chaotic world. One brought about an event no one had control over. Not when animals had gone crazy or when people became something other than human.

  He hadn’t slept for days. Ever since The Cascade, David felt as if someone was watching him and his family from every window. A malicious pair of eyes scrutinised him at every turn. Something was out there. Everyone knew the feeling of being watched, but couldn’t admit there was a problem. If there was something at the corner of their eyes, it was just the wind or some sort of Cascade Sickness. A phenomenon he made up to explain the strangeness people see or go through after the event has happened.

  ‘David,’ his mother whispered before nudging him. ‘You are glancing at the window again.’

  He shook his head, bringing him out of his imposed trance. ‘Sorry, ma. Thought I saw something.’

  She gave David a nod, understanding that he was a bit on edge. ‘Just focus on the sermon. I promise everything is okay.’

  ‘But what if something is out there?’

  ‘There isn’t.’ His mother calmly whispered back. ‘Look, nothing is standing out of the window, and once this is over, we can both walk outside to see if there is anything. Will that make you feel better?’

  Finding comfort in his mother’s assurance. David agreed with a simple nod. He wanted to believe that his mother would bring an end to his irrational fear that had plagued him for over a month. And when the Mass came to an end, David held his sister’s right hand as they walked outside to find nothing.

  David sighed in relief, happy to find nothing. Miranda thought her brother was being weird again and kicked rocks around out of boredom. Happy with how it turned out, their mother asked them both to follow her back home to help out with chores.

  However, as they head back home. David noticed something hiding in the alleyway. A tall figure was hiding behind the dark corner and staring directly at him and his family. Despite fear rushing through him, David shook his head and ignored the figure in the alleyway. The world may have gone mad, but David refused to go mad with it. What he was seeing was an illusion, a trick of the mind. Or at least, he wanted to believe the figure was not real.