the last normal day.

The last normal day before they came.

It was late at night and my step-sister Lizbeth and I were at a high-school party. It was your typical teenage party, with Red Solo cups and fake drunkards galore. And let's not forget the excessive mentioning of sex from every corner of the room.

Or yard in this case.

I hadn't wanted to go in the first place. I wasn't a fan of parties. Even in my old town I hadn't bothered myself with them.

But Lizbeth had insisted. She told me she wasn't going to risk me lowering her social status now that we were sisters and all.

So, I decided to put on the most casual dress I could find and drag myself to the overrated party.

As predicted, there was nothing too special about it. I did my good share of drinking (soda, mind you) and pretending to be interested in the people Lizbeth introduced to me.

I also met Cassie for the first time that night. Cassie and Lizbeth were best friends and although I'd been in town for a couple months at that point, I hadn't yet talked to her. So that night, I came face to face with the person who, whether I liked it or not, would play a big part in my future.

"Lucy, this is Cassie. Cassie, this is my step-sister Lucy," Lizbeth said.

The music was blaring from the house, causing the window panes to shake and my ears to buzz. It also made it hard to hear Lizbeth or anyone else for that matter. 

I gave Cassie a small wave. "Nice to meet you," I said, projecting my voice so it could compete with the song playing. 

 Cassie returned my gesture with a smile. "Hi," she said.

I nodded, forcing a small smile to stretch a cross my face. Obviously, Cassie was oblivious to what Lizbeth had said to me about her.

About her and Ben Parish.

But now wasn't the time to think about that, let alone bring it up. 

"It's so crazy this is our first time meeting!" Cassie said, "you've been here for like months!"

I nodded, adding in a small (and rather forced) laugh. "Yeah," I said, "I don't really get out much."

Lizbeth laughed in response, elbowing me. "She can be such a recluse. It took so much effort to get her out tonight!"

I wasn't a recluse, not really. It was easy for her to get on my case about not putting myself out there when she was the one that had been able to stay in her hometown. My mother and I had been the ones to move when Lizbeth's father proposed last year. 

"You'll want to go out more often once you see how hot some of these guys are," Cassie said in a hushed whisper.

I opened my mouth to respond before Lizbeth decided to bring Ben Parish up, but Lizbeth beat me to it, forcefully pushing away any hope of avoiding talk of the boy that made my heart leap and cheeks redden. 

"You mean Ben Parish," Lizbeth laughed, punching Cassie playfully on the arm. "He's the rare exception," she added, "most of the high school guys here are immature and still don't understand the concept of 'showers'."

Cassie laughed and I followed suit; I masked the anger boiling inside me with a bright smile and clasped hands.

"Well, yes," Cassie said, "he's an exception. But there's probably some cute college guys around here. We have a university close by."

"Nice to know," I said, nodding half-heartedly. 

I wasn't the least bit interested in college boys. Currently, there was only one guy I was remotely interested in, and he went by 'Ben Parish'.

From there, Lizbeth and Cassie continued their conversation on Ben and I stood in the background feeling incredibly awkward and slightly annoyed.

I understood why Lizbeth was upset about my mother and I moving into her house. I also understood why our parents marrying one another wasn't exactly something to be ecstatic about.

But I didn't understand why all of that was somehow my fault. I didn't understand why Lizbeth went out of her way to make sure I knew I didn't belong here.

After minutes of standing alone in the background of their thrilling conversation, Cassie decided it was time for her to leave.

"Well, I gotta go," Cassie said, facing Lizbeth with a frown on her face. "Wouldn't want to find out what my parents would do if I missed curfew," she added, laughing as she hugged Lizbeth.

Lizbeth laughed and squeezed her back before waving goodbye. 

"Nice meeting you, Lucy!" Cassie called over her shoulder. 

"You too!" I called after her, sending her a small wave.

Not wanting to engage with Lizbeth, I focused my attention on watching Cassie as she walked towards the front of the house.

My heart lurched ever so slightly when I recognized the boy behind her.

He was sitting on the front of his car, his brown eyes gazing down at the pink cellphone in his hand. He was wearing his signature light brown jacket layered over a navy hoodie, and his hair was perfectly swept across his forehead in a disheveled but distinctly sexy way.

Was is possible for someone to be that bloody attractive?

I watched as Cassie tentatively approached him, silently wishing she would move a little more to the right so I could get another glimpse of Ben's perfectly structured face.

I heard a cough beside me and snapped my attention away from the two of them. Apparently my staring hadn't been as subtle as I'd hoped.

Lizbeth gave me a look, her lips pursed into a straight line and her left eyebrow raised in annoyance.

"What did I tell you?" she asked, her voice tinged with irritation.

"I know, I know," I said, looking down towards the ground.

That's how the night ended. We left shortly after, drove home, and went to school the next day- Lizbeth with a hangover and I with thoughts of Ben Parish.

That day at school, things changed.

We saw them. We saw the Others.

Their ship loomed a cross the sky, speaking silent, impending doom. It seemed to cover the entirety of the atmosphere, blocking out the sun and its warmth.

It was on the news. That's all that was on the news. At first, people were scared. No one knew what they were here for; no one knew what they wanted. After awhile, when nothing happened, everyone let themselves believe that they had come in peace, that we were safe.

But when the first wave struck, fear hit the human race like a bullet.

The lights were turned off. An electromagnetic pulse was cast over the world. It killed half a million people.

My mother was one of them.

She was on a plane heading back from a business trip.

She hadn't wanted to go in the first place. She knew I was still getting use to my new family; she hadn't wanted to leave me alone in the thick of things. 

I couldn't help but wonder what would've happened if she hadn't gone on that plane. What if I had begged her to stay? Would she have survived the next 3 waves? Would she be here with me now?

I had insisted she go. I was the reason she was gone. And now I was completely alone, spending the little time I had left in my life obsessing over 'what could've been's.

The second wave killed my step-father.

The second was actually a wave, a massive wave, that managed to obliterate coastal cities and send earthquakes shaking the rest of the world.

My step-father drowned. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time- just like the other 3 billion people the second wave took. 

After the second, it was just Lizbeth and I. We didn't know what to do. We were scared. We were alone. We hid in our bedrooms, too afraid to open our doors in fear that we'd stay stuck in the nightmare. We didn't acknowledge the other's presence, deciding to spend our days secluded from the outside world.

Until the third wave struck.

The plague, carried by the birds, delivered our already ruined world into hell.

That was the first time Lizbeth and I talked after the passing of our parents.

We talked about heading out to the country, away from the dense population of the city. We knew our chances of survival were greater if we worked together, away from where the Red Death reeked.

But we never got away. Before we had the chance, some officers took us away from the house I had once loathed and brought us to the place where we were supposed to die.

We had been quarantined.

During the three days Lizbeth and I were there, I didn't contract the plague. I didn't even show the slightest of symptoms. Unlike many others, I wasn't coughing up blood or speaking with a raspy breath. My limbs weren't trembling and my eyes weren't sunken in. I was completely fine. 

But Lizbeth wasn't. They took her away the second day once she started showing symptoms of the disease. They told me they were taking her 'somewhere safe'.

That was the last time I saw her.

"Listen Lucy, you need to find Cassie. If she isn't gone already, you need to find her. You need to find her and stay with her," Lizbeth said urgently, her hands on my shoulders. "If I don't make it through this, you're on your own," she said, "there's no more hiding in our rooms- you need to survive. For dad, for mom, and for everyone else who didn't make it. If you don't-"

She never got the chance to finish. The doctor had yanked her away from me and towards 'somewhere safe' before I had the chance to say a proper goodbye. With Lizbeth, the doctor pulled my past and future, everyone I was and everyone I hoped to be, out of my grip.

I didn't know what she was going to say. I still don't know for sure.

But if I were to guess, it'd have be something along the lines of:

"You need to survive. For dad, for mom, and for everyone else that didn't make it. If you don't, they died for nothing."

So I did. I escaped the stench of stale death and left the 3rd wave behind.

And when the 3rd wave ended, I was apart of the 3% of the human race that remained.

Then it was just our 3% and them.

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Behold, the first chapter of Perish !

So excited to start this and share Lucy's journey with all of you!

Please let me know what you think so far by voting or commenting!