Chapter 1: The Shift
Scene 1: The Disruption
Eve Moreau didn't believe in destiny, but she felt it crawling over her skin as she stepped out of her apartment that night. It was a humid summer evening in Manhattan, 2018, and the air carried a restless charge. She had been chasing the threads of a story—something big, something sinister—but tonight, for reasons she couldn't explain, she felt watched.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket. She glanced at the unknown number and ignored it. It had been happening all week: missed calls from nowhere, voicemails of static, and once, a faint whisper she couldn't quite make out.
As she crossed into an alley shortcut, the world shifted.
Not gradually. Not with warning.
One moment, she was stepping over a puddle. The next, she was falling—weightless, suspended in a void that pulsed with waves of colorless light. No sound. No air. Only an impossible vibration deep in her chest, as though her atoms were being rearranged.
She tried to scream, but there was nothing to hear it.
Scene 2: Waking in the Unknown
When Eve opened her eyes, she was lying on something coarse and unyielding. The world was grey—a barren, desolate expanse stretching endlessly in all directions. The sky was a pale smear of ash, and the air tasted metallic.
She sat up, her heart pounding. Around her, others stirred.
A man in a tattered leather jacket groaned and rolled onto his side. His face was sharp and shadowed, his eyes flickering with confusion and wariness. "Where the hell…?" he muttered.
"Are you okay?" Eve asked, her voice hoarse.
He didn't answer, just scanned the horizon like a caged animal.
Nearby, a young woman with streaks of violet in her hair clutched her head and swore loudly. "This is some bad acid trip," she muttered.
Before Eve could respond, a sudden, deafening crack split the silence. The ground trembled, and she felt the vibration in her teeth. Something was moving out there, just beyond the veil of ash.
Scene 3: The Horror Begins
It started as a shadow.
In the distance, a shape coalesced, shifting and bending as though it didn't quite fit the dimensions of reality. It was humanoid—almost—but too tall, too distorted. Its eyes glowed faintly, like embers in the dark.
"What the fuck is that?" the violet-haired woman whispered.
The group huddled instinctively. Eve counted six of them, all strangers, their faces twisted in varying degrees of fear and disbelief.
"It's not real," one of them stammered—a man in a business suit, his tie askew. "It can't be real."
The creature took a step closer, and reality itself seemed to ripple around it. The air grew colder, and a low, guttural sound filled the space.
"Run!" the man in the leather jacket shouted.
They scattered, their footsteps echoing on the strange, glassy ground. Eve ran until her lungs burned, but the landscape offered no shelter—only endless desolation and a growing sense of dread.
When she looked back, the creature was gone. But the unease lingered, like an invisible hand pressing on her chest.
Scene 4: The First Clues
Hours—perhaps days—passed in a haze. Time felt wrong here, slippery and unreliable. The group convened around the remains of a shattered building, its architecture alien and unrecognizable.
"We need to figure out what's going on," Eve said, her journalist instincts kicking in.
The leather-jacketed man, who introduced himself as Damian, grunted. "Figure it out how? We're in the middle of nowhere, and there's no food, no water, no nothing."
"Don't you want to know why we're here?" Eve shot back.
Damian hesitated, then nodded.
Violet-haired Juno shrugged. "All I know is I didn't sign up for this. One minute I'm at a concert, the next… this."
Another man, older and grizzled, spoke for the first time. "I've seen things like this before," he said cryptically.
The group turned to him.
"You have?" Eve pressed.
He nodded slowly. "Not exactly this, but… experiments. Government stuff. Time travel. They're always messing with things they don't understand."
"Time travel?" Eve repeated, incredulous. But as the words left her mouth, fragments of memory surfaced—flashes of the void, the vibration, the sense of being torn from one world and thrust into another.
It wasn't just a theory. It was the only thing that made sense.
And yet, it didn't.
Scene 5: Tensions Rise
They sat in a tense circle, the ruin's jagged walls casting eerie shadows in the pale, diffuse light. The silence stretched, broken only by the occasional crunch of shifting rubble underfoot. No one wanted to speak first, but the questions hanging in the air were suffocating.
"What if we're dead?" Juno blurted, breaking the stalemate. She hugged her knees, her violet hair falling into her face. "Like, this is some weird purgatory or… or hell or something."
"That's ridiculous," Damian snapped, his voice sharp and low. "We're breathing, aren't we? We're alive."
"Are we?" Eve interjected, her tone cooler but no less intense. "Because I don't know about you, but this sure as hell doesn't feel like Earth anymore."
The older man, who had introduced himself only as Malik, leaned back against the rubble. "She's right," he said. "This place… it's not natural. You saw that thing out there. Whatever it was, it doesn't belong in any world I've ever known."
"What was it?" the suited man asked, his voice shaky. He had been silent until now, his pallor and trembling hands betraying the thin thread of his composure. "It—it looked at me. I swear it looked at me, but there were no eyes. Just…"
"Stop," Damian growled. "Talking about it won't help. We need a plan."
"A plan?" Juno scoffed. "Like what? Build a house out of rubble? Hunt invisible monsters for dinner?"
"Enough," Eve said sharply, cutting through the rising bickering. Her voice carried a weight that made even Damian pause. "We need answers first. And I think Malik might be onto something. This feels like… an experiment. Or worse."
Malik's lips curled into a grim smile. "I've seen some shit in my day. Classified stuff. Things that make you question the laws of nature. But this…" He trailed off, shaking his head.
"Someone brought us here," Eve said, her journalist instincts churning. "The question is, why?"
Scene 6: The First Sign
As the debate raged on, the sky above them darkened. No sun, no stars—just a deepening void, as if the very fabric of the atmosphere was bleeding out.
Eve was the first to notice the sound: a low, rhythmic thrum that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once.
"Do you hear that?" she asked, standing abruptly.
The others froze, their bickering forgotten.
"It's coming from underground," Damian said, crouching to press his ear to the fractured surface.
"That's not the ground," Malik corrected, his voice tense. "It's in the air. Like… like it's alive."
The thrum grew louder, and with it came a strange sensation—heat and cold, surging through their bodies in waves. Juno screamed, clutching her head. The suited man staggered to his knees, gasping for air.
Eve felt it too, a crawling pressure under her skin, as if something was trying to burrow its way inside her.
"Move!" Damian shouted, dragging Juno to her feet. "Whatever it is, we can't stay here!"
But as they stumbled into the open, the ground erupted.
Scene 7: A Glimpse of Madness
The explosion wasn't fire or debris—it was light, impossibly bright and searing, yet it cast no shadows. From the fissure, a shape began to rise.
It was human-shaped, at least at first glance, but its edges shimmered and rippled like liquid mercury. Its face was a featureless void, and its limbs stretched unnaturally as it moved.
"Nope. Nope. Nope," Juno muttered, backing away. "I'm not doing this."
The creature turned toward them—or perhaps it didn't. It had no eyes, no discernible features, yet every one of them felt its gaze, piercing and absolute.
"It's scanning us," Malik murmured, his voice barely audible.
"What?" Eve asked, her pulse hammering in her ears.
"It's not attacking," he said, his eyes locked on the figure. "It's… observing. Studying us."
The creature tilted its head—or something approximating a head—and the thrum intensified.
Then, as suddenly as it had appeared, it was gone. The fissure sealed itself, the light extinguished, and the silence returned, heavier than before.
Scene 8: The First Connection
Hours passed. Maybe longer. The group huddled together, too afraid to separate. Eve's mind raced, piecing together fragments of memory and the strange sensations from the shift.
"Does anyone remember… anything?" she asked cautiously.
Juno shook her head. "Just flashes. It's all jumbled up. Like… like I was dreaming, but I wasn't."
"I saw a city," Damian said. "Burning. Empty. And a clock… no, a tower. There was a tower, but it was wrong somehow. Twisted."
Eve's breath caught. She had seen the same thing—an immense, spiraling tower rising from the ruins of a dead city.
"That can't be a coincidence," she said, her voice tinged with urgency. "Whatever that tower is, it's important. Maybe it's where we need to go."
"You're assuming there's a 'where' to go," Malik said grimly. "For all we know, this place could be infinite. Or a trap."
Damian stood abruptly, brushing the dust from his hands. "Trap or not, staying here is suicide. We move at first light—if there's light."
Eve nodded, her resolve hardening. Whatever this place was, whoever—or whatever—had brought them here, she wasn't going to sit around and wait for answers.
Closing Scene: The Watcher
As the group prepared to rest, a shadow passed over them, unnoticed.
Far above, beyond the ash-filled sky, something watched. Its presence was vast, incomprehensible, and ancient. It had seen this play out before. And it would see it again.
Chapter 2: The Host
Scene 1: The City of Shadows
The air stank of decay.
Eve clutched her jacket tighter around her, her boots crunching on something that might have once been glass—or bone. The ruins of the city loomed around them, skeletal buildings wrapped in strange, fibrous growths that pulsed faintly in the dim light.
"Are we sure this is Earth?" Juno whispered, glancing nervously at the strange vines snaking along a toppled bus. "Because it sure as hell doesn't look like it."
"It's Earth," Damian said. His voice was steady, but his grip on the rusted pipe he'd picked up as a weapon told a different story. "Just… not the one we left."
Eve squatted to examine the ground, brushing aside the ash-like dust to reveal a web of tiny tendrils beneath. They recoiled from her touch.
"These things are alive," she murmured, recoiling in disgust.
"No kidding," Malik said, his eyes scanning the horizon. "The question is—are they watching us?"
Scene 2: The First Sign
The group moved cautiously through the ruins, their senses on high alert. Every creak of the decaying structures, every gust of wind, felt like a threat.
Eve paused at the sound of a faint scuttling nearby. "Did anyone else hear that?"
"Probably just a rat," Damian said, but he tightened his grip on the pipe.
"I don't think rats survived this far into the apocalypse," Malik muttered.
Juno crouched, pointing at a small hole in the wall ahead. Something was moving inside—something small and fast. Before anyone could react, it darted out.
At first glance, it looked like an oversized insect, its carapace glinting in the dim light. But as it skittered closer, Eve realized it wasn't like any insect she'd ever seen. Its legs moved with unnatural fluidity, and its body pulsed faintly as if breathing.
"Don't touch it," Malik warned, pulling Eve back.
The creature paused, its tiny head tilting toward them. For a moment, it was still. Then, with a sickening squelch, it split open, releasing a swarm of smaller, writhing creatures that surged toward them.
"Run!" Damian shouted.
Scene 3: The Horror of Hosts
They sprinted through the ruins, dodging crumbling debris and the relentless swarm. The creatures moved like a tide, flowing over obstacles and merging into one larger, undulating mass.
"This way!" Malik shouted, leading them into a half-collapsed building. The group scrambled inside, barricading the door with whatever they could find—chunks of concrete, rusted beams, and a shattered vending machine.
For a moment, there was silence. Then came the scratching.
Eve backed away from the door, her chest heaving. "What the hell were those things?"
"Parasites," Damian said grimly. "I've seen footage of creatures like that—genetic experiments, deep-sea organisms. But nothing like this."
"They're more than parasites," Malik added. "You saw how they moved. That wasn't just instinct. That was coordination."
As if in response, the scratching stopped. Eve's stomach sank as she realized the creatures were no longer trying to get in.
"They're not giving up," Juno whispered. "They're waiting."
The silence was worse than the noise. Malik approached the window, peering cautiously outside.
"They've gone," he said, though his voice held no relief.
"No," Damian corrected, his eyes narrowing. "They've just found something else."
Scene 4: The Survivors
The group emerged cautiously, their makeshift weapons at the ready. The streets were empty, save for the strange tendrils that seemed to grow thicker the deeper into the city they ventured.
"This place gives me the creeps," Juno muttered.
"It's not just the city," Eve said. "It's the silence. Where are all the people?"
"Dead," Malik replied bluntly. "Or worse."
"Worse than dead?" Juno asked, her voice trembling.
Malik didn't answer, but his grim expression said enough.
They reached what appeared to be an old marketplace, its stalls long since abandoned. Eve noticed strange marks on the ground—drag marks leading toward a partially collapsed subway tunnel.
"Do you see that?" she asked.
"Looks like someone—or something—was dragged down there," Damian said, gripping his pipe tighter.
"Maybe we should keep moving," Juno suggested, taking a step back.
But before they could decide, a low voice called out from the shadows.
"You shouldn't be here."
The group whirled around to see a figure emerge from the ruins. It was a man, his face gaunt and pale, his eyes sunken with exhaustion. He wore a patchwork of tattered clothing and carried a crude spear tipped with jagged metal.
"Who are you?" Eve demanded.
The man hesitated, his gaze flickering between them. "You don't belong here," he said finally. "The creatures—they'll find you. They always do."
"We noticed," Damian said dryly. "Who are you?"
The man sighed, lowering his spear slightly. "My name's Caleb," he said. "And if you want to survive, you'll come with me. Now."
Scene 5: The Truth About the Creatures
Caleb led them through a labyrinth of ruins, eventually guiding them into an underground shelter. The walls were lined with salvaged materials, and a dim light flickered from a makeshift generator.
"How long have you been down here?" Eve asked as Caleb locked the door behind them.
"Too long," he replied. "But not long enough to forget."
"Forget what?" Juno asked.
Caleb hesitated, his hands trembling slightly. "The creatures," he said. "They're not just parasites. They're… evolving."
"Evolving into what?" Damian asked.
"Something smarter. Stronger. They're learning how to hunt us better. They've already figured out how to control us."
"What do you mean, 'control'?" Eve pressed.
Caleb's expression darkened. "The hosts. When they take over, it's not just the body. They get into your mind. They use your memories, your voice, your face. You wouldn't even know until it was too late."
A heavy silence filled the room as the weight of Caleb's words sank in.
"And that's why there aren't more survivors," Malik said quietly.
"Exactly," Caleb said. "You can't trust anyone out there. Not even the people you know."
Chapter 3: The Enemy Within
Scene 1: A Host Among Us
Eve jolted awake, her heart hammering. For a moment, she wasn't sure what had woken her. The shelter was silent, save for the faint hum of the generator.
She glanced around. Caleb was slumped against the far wall, asleep with his spear across his lap. Damian sat near the entrance, his back straight and his eyes scanning the darkened room. Juno was curled up in a corner, murmuring softly in her sleep.
Everything seemed normal—until Eve's gaze landed on Malik.
He was standing near the exit, his back to her, his shoulders hunched. At first, she thought he was just keeping watch. Then she noticed the way his head twitched, jerking unnaturally to the side. His hands flexed, fingers curling and uncurling as if he were trying to grab something just out of reach.
"Malik?" she whispered.
He didn't respond.
"Malik," she said louder, sitting up.
He turned slowly, and Eve's breath caught in her throat. His eyes were wrong—too wide, too bright, with a faint, unnatural glow. A viscous fluid dripped from his nose and mouth, and his lips curled into a twisted smile.
"Eve," he said, his voice distorted and hollow. "You should be sleeping."
Eve scrambled to her feet, her pulse racing. "Damian!" she hissed, but Malik lunged before she could finish.
Scene 2: The Fight for Survival
Malik's body moved with inhuman speed, his hands clawing at Eve's throat. She fell backward, the impact knocking the air from her lungs.
Damian was there in an instant, slamming the pipe against Malik's head. The blow should have knocked him out, but he barely flinched. Instead, he turned on Damian with a guttural snarl, his movements jerky and unnatural.
"What the hell is wrong with him?" Damian shouted, dodging another attack.
Caleb was awake now, his spear raised. "He's a host!" he shouted. "Get away from him!"
"What do you mean, a host?" Juno cried, backing into the corner.
Before anyone could answer, Malik—or whatever was controlling him—let out an ear-splitting shriek. The sound was unlike anything Eve had ever heard, a high-pitched, guttural wail that seemed to vibrate in her bones.
"They're calling more!" Caleb shouted. "We have to kill him now!"
Damian hesitated, his pipe raised. "But it's Malik—"
"It's not Malik anymore!" Caleb roared, thrusting his spear forward. The weapon pierced Malik's chest, but the creature controlling him didn't falter. Instead, it grabbed the shaft of the spear and yanked it free, sending Caleb sprawling.
Eve grabbed a chunk of rubble and hurled it at Malik's head. The impact dazed him just long enough for Damian to land a solid blow to his knees, bringing him down.
"Go for the head!" Caleb shouted.
Damian hesitated again, his face twisted with indecision.
Eve didn't wait. She grabbed the spear from where it had fallen and drove it through Malik's skull.
The body convulsed once, then collapsed, lifeless.
Scene 3: The Aftermath
The shelter was eerily quiet. Eve stood over Malik's body, her hands trembling. The spear was still lodged in his skull, dark fluid pooling around it.
Juno stared, her face pale. "That… that wasn't Malik."
"No," Caleb said grimly, retrieving his spear. "Not anymore."
Eve turned to Caleb, her voice shaking with anger. "You knew this could happen. Why didn't you warn us?"
"I tried," Caleb snapped. "But you didn't give me much time, did you?"
"What was that thing?" Damian demanded, his voice hard.
"The parasites," Caleb said. "They don't just kill. They… merge. They take over the body, use it as a host. And once they're inside, there's no going back."
Eve's stomach churned. "So Malik… he was already infected?"
Caleb nodded. "Probably before you got here. The first signs are subtle—twitches, headaches, maybe a fever. But once they take full control…" He gestured to the body.
Juno's voice was barely above a whisper. "How do we know it won't happen to us?"
Scene 4: Paranoia Sets In
The group buried Malik outside the shelter, though Caleb warned them it might attract more creatures.
Inside, the atmosphere was tense. No one spoke for a long time.
Eve broke the silence. "We need to check ourselves. Make sure none of us are infected."
Damian scowled. "And how exactly do we do that?"
"There has to be a way," Eve said. She turned to Caleb. "You've dealt with this before. How do we know if someone's a host?"
Caleb hesitated. "Sometimes, you can't. Not until it's too late."
"That's not good enough," Damian said, his voice rising. "You're saying we just sit around and wait to turn into one of those things?"
"There are tests," Caleb admitted. "Symptoms. Physical changes. But they're not always obvious. The only real way to be sure is to kill the host before they turn."
The group fell silent, the weight of his words sinking in.
"So we just… watch each other?" Juno asked, her voice trembling. "Wait for someone to start acting weird and then what? Kill them?"
"That's exactly what we do," Caleb said.
"No," Eve said firmly. "We don't just start killing each other. There has to be another way."
"Good luck finding it," Caleb said. "In my experience, trust will get you killed faster than any parasite."
Scene 5: Discovery
Caleb swore under his breath as he knelt beside the pack, studying the writhing mass of parasites. "This isn't right," he muttered. "They don't usually do this. Not this fast."
"What do you mean, 'not this fast'?" Damian asked, his voice low and sharp.
"These things—they need a host to multiply," Caleb said. "Without one, they're supposed to die off. But this…" He gestured at the black sludge, his expression dark. "This isn't normal."
Eve's stomach churned. "What are you saying? That they're adapting?"
"I'm saying we have a bigger problem than I thought," Caleb replied. He turned to Damian. "We need to burn this, now."
Damian nodded and grabbed the pack, careful to keep the opening sealed. As he carried it toward the door, the chittering grew louder, more frantic, as if the creatures inside sensed what was coming.
Juno watched from her corner, her arms wrapped tightly around her knees. "This is insane," she whispered. "We're not going to make it. These things are everywhere, and now they're… they're changing."
Eve crouched beside her, trying to keep her voice steady. "We'll figure it out. We just have to stay ahead of them."
Juno shook her head, tears welling in her eyes. "Ahead of them? Did you see what happened to Malik? We didn't even know he was infected until it was too late. What if—"
A sudden shriek cut her off, loud and piercing, echoing through the shelter like a warning bell.
Damian froze at the door, the pack still in his hands. "What the hell was that?"
Caleb's face went pale. "They've found us."
Scene 6: The Siege
Before anyone could react, the walls of the shelter trembled, and the faint hum of the generator faltered. Shadows flickered in the dim light, and the shriek came again—closer this time, joined by a chorus of inhuman chittering.
"They're swarming," Caleb said, his voice tight with fear. He grabbed his spear and turned to Damian. "Get that thing out of here—now!"
Damian pushed open the door, but as soon as he stepped outside, a writhing mass of parasites surged toward him, their translucent bodies glinting in the pale light.
"Damian!" Eve screamed.
He barely managed to hurl the pack into the swarm before slamming the door shut. The parasites collided with the door, their tiny bodies making a sickening, wet splat against the metal.
"We're trapped," Juno said, her voice trembling.
"Not yet," Caleb said. He shoved a metal rod through the door handles, reinforcing the barricade. "They'll get through eventually, but we've got time."
"Time for what?" Eve asked.
"To figure out how to kill them," Caleb replied.
Scene 7: The Plan
The group huddled in the center of the shelter, the sound of scratching and chittering growing louder by the second. The parasites were relentless, clawing at the walls and doors, their numbers growing with every moment.
"We need fire," Caleb said. "It's the only thing that works. The heat disrupts their regenerative ability."
"How?" Damian asked, his eyes scanning the room. "We don't exactly have a flamethrower lying around."
Caleb gestured toward the generator. "We can rig it to overload. The heat and the spark should ignite the fuel, and if we time it right, it'll take out everything within twenty feet."
Juno's eyes widened. "Including us."
"It's a risk," Caleb admitted. "But it's better than waiting to get eaten alive."
Eve looked at the others, her mind racing. "There has to be another way. What about the tunnels? Could we use them to escape?"
Caleb shook his head. "The tunnels are worse. The parasites nest there. If we go underground, we'll be walking straight into their territory."
"Then we fight," Damian said. He grabbed his pipe, his expression grim. "We hold them off long enough to set off the generator, then we get the hell out of here."
Caleb hesitated, then nodded. "It's a long shot, but it might work. We just have to be fast."
Eve glanced at Juno, who was trembling but nodded resolutely. "Okay," Eve said. "Let's do it."
Scene 8: The Assault
The parasites broke through the door first. They spilled into the shelter in a writhing wave, their translucent bodies glinting in the flickering light.
"Now!" Caleb shouted.
Damian and Caleb charged forward, their weapons slamming into the swarm with brutal efficiency. The parasites' bodies squelched and splattered under the blows, but for every one they killed, three more seemed to take its place.
Eve and Juno worked frantically at the generator, their hands slick with sweat as they twisted wires and adjusted knobs.
"Almost there," Eve muttered, her heart pounding.
"Hurry!" Damian shouted, swinging his pipe in a wide arc to keep the parasites at bay.
Finally, the generator sparked, a small flame flickering to life.
"Get back!" Caleb yelled.
The group retreated as the flame caught, spreading quickly to the fuel canisters. The heat was intense, the air filling with the acrid stench of burning flesh as the parasites screeched in unison.
"Run!" Damian shouted, grabbing Juno and pulling her toward the exit.
Eve followed, her lungs burning as they sprinted into the open air. Behind them, the shelter erupted in a fireball, the shockwave knocking them off their feet.
When the dust settled, the shelter was gone, and so were the parasites. For now.