On a green green world, in a forest-grown dense and wild, in a house, a man paces, a woman lay unconscious, and a witch examines the woman.

“Just tell me I'm wrong.” The man begs the witch.

The witch scrunches her eyebrows in annoyance, the man had been pacing for the last ten minutes and it was starting to get on her nerves, “Well depends on what you think.” She said shortly. “SIT DOWN.”

The man practically fell into a chair, trying to compose himself, “Can you please, just tell me what's wrong with her.”

The witch rolled her eyes, she didn’t understand how he thought a witch would be able to do anything for a being like her. The only thing she could tell was there was something like an infection but the cause she couldn’t quite tell. She had the man explain everything that happened and if she mentioned anything.

The man happily obliged letting her know of the different people he’s taken, about going through a painting, teaching her how to make connections, even the cat on their last mission. The witch was stunned eyes wide having no idea what to say, she had almost forgotten to try to figure out what was wrong with the woman. Though she thought back to his words and had him elaborate on what he meant by connections.

The man explained the best he could, that it was the fates of all the people in the world, and that she did mention she did feel some pain.

“And this started when the black connections started?”

“I think they were already there but this was her first time doing this.”

The witch used her power and as it drifted through the woman she started to find the connections the man said, as she did she found one of the black threads and felt a primal revulsion deep down in her soul.

“Ok, I think it's the connections. They’ve grown too strong to just disappear, and the monsters are staying like a foreign disease.”

“Fuck!” The man shouted abruptly standing to look over the woman, and said softly, “It's too soon.”

“Well, it happening.” The witch looked down thinking, “Why is she like this though?”

The man tore his eyes away from the woman to respond, “The monsters are like an infection to us, and when they start to show up...think an immune system that has to learn to fight it, produce antibodies and the like.”

The witch looked down at the woman wondering, ‘What is she?’

The man spoke barely in a whisper, “I think she’ll remember after this.”

——

On a pale blue marble, in a city filled with people, a place filled with the massacre of people as they run from a creature beyond the void.

“Run!” A man runs up to another person who was eating a hot dog, “Don't stand there run!”

“Why?” The man asked confused looking around not understanding why he should run. He didn't see anyone else running.

“Monsters!” The man yelled as he started to run again away and into the distance.

“Monsters?” The man asked confused and looked back at the way the man came seeing more people running. Right behind the crowds were monsters covered in blood, and slashing at people, “oh shit!” The man dropped his hot dog and ran with the crowd.

People all over the city ran from a tide of creatures attacking anything that moves, not sparing the young or old. It moved in a wave of indifferent death.

Deep in the city a boy and a girl are running away, deep in a crowd of people. The two-run and can only thing, ‘This is wrong.’ Like they shouldn’t be running.

But they knew if they didn’t they would die. So the two found themselves running, and hiding along with the flow of people making it to a place, where they could take shelter. They run into a large brick building, that was used as a gym. The people work to barricade the doors with whatever they can move.

The two reflected on their day, it was just supposed to be a trip downtown with their friends. Monsters weren’t supposed to appear. The two could see their friends had joined and made it all the way here with them as they fell to the floor exhausted. The group lays behind the doors shivering, as they hear the creatures slamming against the doors.

“What is going on?” The girl asks finally getting a moment to process.

The boy sat and said the only thing he could think of, “Monsters.”

“But how?” The girl shook her head, feeling something nudging her in the back of her mind, “Is this the apocalypse or something?”

“Who knows.” The boy looked around grabbing the girl pulling her closer to their friends, “We just need to lay low, and the cops or military will take care of them.” He said hopefully.

“How long will that take?”

The boy shrugged knowing something like that would take hours and would probably not be able to help them. The girl had the same thoughts, “Fuck!”

The two sat in silence listening to monsters claw and slam against the doors. With every slam and scratch, she felt it in the back of her mind. That place held back by fear, waiting, if only she just reached for it. “This isn't right”

The boy looks to the girl lets out a long sigh, “I know, but if we can just wait.”

She shook her head, “That's not what I mean, and you know it. This feels wrong. I feel the urge to fight. I feel like I've fought these things before. How?” The girl asked the boy feeling completely lost.

“...I...I feel it too.” The boy shook his head trying to describe the feeling, “It all feels…”

A loud bang rings throughout the gym as a monster appears in the back of the gym. It sniffs, tentacle things lashing out smashing everything around it, and sees the people, it snarls and lunges forward at the clustered people, ready for its meal. The crowd screams as the monster flies, claws extended. People flailing trying to get out of the way, but all too slow.

The monster never hit. It never made it past the halfway point of the gym. The girl had stood up, strangely moved her hands, and a blue beam shot into the creature freezing it solid, it hit the ground shattering into thousands of pieces. The crowd stood to dumbfound, scared of the girl who could so easily kill a creature.

The boy however just asked, “How did you do that?”

“I..I... Reached for the memories...” The girl gave the boy a soft smile, “I remember it all. We went somewhere else. We freed a people. We were heroes.”

“What are you talking about?” The boy asked afraid but with every word she spoke, she felt the place banging at the back of his mind, begging for release.

“Reach for the memories. Nothing will stop you anymore.”

The boy stared in disbelief as he felt for the memories. The memories, hidden in the back of their mind by something. And for the first time, he could feel it was just in reach. It was only the mundane fear, instead of the supernatural wall, that kept him from reaching.

He felt around the memories, “I'm scared.”

She grabbed the boy's hand, “Trust me.”

He did. He never understood why he trusted her so much, but he did. He reached, and he remembered.

——

Somewhere in the city people are running and hiding. Two people a boy and a girl are guiding panicking people to a safe area.

“This way everyone this way.” A girl shouts, now holding a staff made of gnarled metal.

The people watched these two children completely dumbfounded as the two moved through a horde of monsters, like reapers. Where they danced monsters died, all the while guiding people away to safety.

Some people doubted these children could keep them safe, but when they saw fire fly from their hands, they listened to them and felt the hope that they might survive. They moved as instructed just trying to survive they didn’t have time to wonder where these two had come from.

“This is crazy.” The boy said out of breath slicing a monster in two, “How are they on earth?”

The girl smashed another creature with her staff, sending a bolt of electricity into the monster killing it, “I don't know.”

“Do you think they followed us?” The boy asked afraid.

The girl shook her head, “I don't think so, but I think their presence woke us up.”

“We were already heroes once. Do we have to do it again?” The boy asked sounding weary.

The girl looks out at the tide of monsters letting out a long sigh, “A hero's job is never done.”

“Ugh.” The boy groans as he kills another creature.

The two were fighting a particularly large cluster of creatures when a lighting bolt flies past them, striking down a pack of monsters.

“Was that you?” The boy asked surprised.

The girl looked in the direction of the lightning bolt seeing another person standing hands wide gathering power, “No. I don't think we're the only people to wake up.”

——

Earth was in chaos as monsters began to appear all over the world. In a few places, leaders appeared with supernatural powers, helping to push the monsters back. In some places, ordinary people were able to band together to survive and even push back the monsters.

All across the world people, who were barely more than children were starting to remember. They began to remember another world, another place, and most of all they started to remember the magic.

It was these people that barely held the truly gave humanity hope, holding the monsters back, but it wasn’t enough they could all feel it. They were losing ground. There were too few people to wake up, and in many places, they thought it was just a rumor or story put together to give the people hope. Not everyone even believed these people existed as the world fought to survive.