Chapter 1

Act I

The Day Earth Falls

City of Calead

Residential District

It was another day in Calead, and Jude Flynn was making good time on his daily jog. He interchanged between sprinting and jogging every five minutes, breathing in the cool morning air.

A healthy soul reside in a healthy body. These were the words Jude’s father hammered into him everytime he came home from a tour. His father was a dour man. And much too serious for his own good. But Jude respected him and held on to his words like it was his religion.

Even now - three years after his death - the young man still ran twice around the block for a full hour.

He arrived at his house just as the sun came up. Bootsie, the family’s Daschund greeted him excitedly, jumping around his legs. He pushed the elongated sausage of a dog away with his hand, wincing a few times from the morning light. “Okay, okay. Down, boy!”

“Woof!”

The persistent dog kept licking him until he opened the door to his house, where the little dog slipped in like an eel, and then began chasing his own tail. Sidestepping Bootsie, Jude went to his room on the second floor. Throwing away his jumpers and entered the bathroom to wash away the sweat.

The radio on his bedside came on automatically as he went past, and David Bowie’s The Man Who Sold the world began to play, mingling with the sound of water in the shower.

Ten minutes later, dressed and smelling like fresh oranges, the boy made his way down with Bootsie trailing behind.

The happy little dog then got to his usual spot by a well-worn standing piano near the TV and began chewing his namesake, his father’s old boots.

On the couch, his mother was watching a news show in a designer suit, her face still flushed from early morning commute from the Business District back to Residential District. Already she had taken part of her morning vices, a cup of thick dark coffee and a stick of cigarrette. Her staple breakfast. She could finish off two packets in one day, five if Jude did not tell her off.

“Back from your morning jog, honey?” she said after blowing a thick smoke through her wrinkled lips.

“Yeah. What’s for breakfast?”

“The usual, burned toast and sunny side up. With lots of pepper.”

“My favorite,” Jude replied, with a kind smile.

“We got some orange juice if you want. Dunno if it’s still good,” The mother said without turning away from the TV. A puff of smoke curled from the cigarrette between her fingers. Jude liked watching her mother play with the smoke. It meant that she is in a good mood.

His mother, Hannah Flynn, was in the middle of her forties. She had him quite late in her life. She worked as a news anchor for a local TV station. Her dark brown hair coiffed to a perfect peak was the result of a monthly visit to a local hairdresser. The pout and those sharp, confident eyes of auburn, however; was all her. Despite her best efforts, traces of wrinkles had begun to appear on her forehead and she looked worn down.

These days she anchored for a relatively unknown station that aired so early in the morning even the crows were still asleep.

He opened the refrigerator and poured some juice into a glass and began to eat. While he was poring over two slices of burned toasts and runny egg, Hannah Flynn was watching the Weather Channel on TV.

“Look at this guy, even robots can do a better job!” she commented, fed up. “I don’t know why we still even have a weather channel. We got monthly weather schedule for god’s sake!”

His mother spoke the truth. Every weather prediction in the channel is guaranteed spot on, thanks to Stratos4, Calead’s weather machine. The machine regulated the local weather using a strict schedule agreed upon by the Calead’s government.

Her hot temper, coupled with the stress of her dead end job often became problems with her colleagues. Fortunately, Jude took more from his father’s upbringing rather than her genes.

Jude had black hair, a thin face, and black eyes. He grew his bangs long to hide his gaze. This was because he had a strong and sharp gaze that made people feel uncomfortable. Despite often wasting his days surfing the internet, he was relatively fit.

The mother and son’s clock did not really click, but Hannah always made time to make his son breakfast.

She would make breakfast and Jude would make dinner. Ever since her husband passed away, that was how it had always been. A family of two, three with Bootsie. Then again, the excitable dog did not really count because all he did is sleep and eat.

After finishing his breakfast, Jude put the cutleries in the sink. Hannah looked over her shoulder. A hint of apprehension on her face. “Jude, are you having trouble at school?”

“No.”

Jude cursed inwardly, failing to stop himself from answering too quickly. She squinted, deepening the crow’s feet beside her eyes. Hannah could read her son like a book. “You’ve been coming home late these days.”

“It’s nothing, mom. Everything’s fine.”

It was a lie. Still better than adding trouble to her already stressful life, though. Her mother had that sixth sense all mothers have that knew when their son did something wrong.

She looked at him, still not convinced. Jude noticed a yellow bus through the window. “It’s the bus!” He cried as he grabbed the bag sitting on a chair and ran his free arm around her, “Love you, mom.”

“Jude! Wait!” Hannah shot up from the sofa and stopped

“What is it?”

Her mother looked at him with an expression that he had never seen before. “After school today, I want you to come home. Okay? No playing outside or hanging out with your friends. Just come straight home.”

“…” Jude furrowed his eyebrows. Not understanding. His mother was a hands-off kind of person. So, this was very odd. Hannah asked again, this time, there was worry in her eyes. “Promise me.”

“Alright. I promise.”

Suddenly, Hannah’s phone rang. She annoyedly looked at the number and her face expression quickly changed. “Hello,” Hannah said. She covered her phone and mouthed wordlessly. “It’s Mateo. I need to take this. Love you.”

“Love you too, mom,” Jude said as he closed the door.

Jude dashed to the bus stop which was five houses away. As he made a turn, out of the corner of his eyes, he saw a black cat. It was not a nice cat. It looked like it had been in a car accident and was left to rot for days. There were even flies circling its body.

The cat turned its head and their eyes met. It had the blackest eyes Jude had ever seen. It was like looking at a void.

Suddenly, his body seized up.

Everything turned black and white. His body burned like fire.

The smell of the flowers in the neighboring garden became so strong it turned his stomach. Everything seemed to stop on their track. The wind. The smoke from the bus’s exhaust, the little boy pedaling a tricycle in front of the lawn, even his own heart.

During that moment he felt as if he was watching his own back. The image coming and going like a mirage.

As sudden as it came, the attack stopped.

Jude gasped like a man after a long time underwater, hands feeling for his heart to ensure it was still beating, swallowing a few times trying not to empty this morning’s breakfast onto the flower bed.

“Aagh…Gaah…” he could feel the acid from his stomach burning his throat and coughed a few times. Quickly taking the water bottle stuffed to the side of his backpack and gulped it down to ease the pain.

This ‘attack”’happened infrequently. But when it did happen, he could not do a thing. His mother had sent him to a lot of doctors, but not one managed to find out the cause. So, he just saw it as another inconvenience that he had to live with. Among many other things.

After steadying himself, Jude wobbled onto the bus, ignoring the nasty look the driver gave him and slumped onto a seat by the window.

Soon after, the bus began to shudder and they were on their way.

The cat watched the bus burping its way towards the highway until a bird tried to land on the fence. The feline preyed upon it. And if Jude was not too preoccupied with his seizure, he would have noticed that it got the shape wrong.

Cats don’t have six legs.