It was getting dark, although earlier than usual because of the time of the year. I was in my room, and I had been working all day, with the lights off, switching from sitting in my computer chair to my bed. I had been used to being sleep deprived, so I thought I would be able to stay up a while longer, to finish my homework or watch some TV. But I decided first to take a short nap, very short, only an hour. I pulled out my earphones, picked up my phone from beside me, opening it and reading the time aloud.

“It's 8: 56”  I read. “Just an hour.” I said, sighing as I set an alarm.

I crawled up to the top of my bed and got under the covers, then turned to my right side and gradually blinked my eyes shut.

I dreamt of a red sky, with smoke billowing upwards from the ground and swirling like a hurricane, the spirals larger than the setting sun. I couldn't see where the smoke was coming  from, my eyes were fixated on the fiery dark red sky, and the white wisps of smoke, so numerous I couldn't see any clouds. Then, I felt my body moving forward. And I felt that way for what seemed like days, just wandering aimlessly. I heard the patter of my feet as I walked across the flat, cold, wet ground. I wondered how the ground felt so cool, as the sky was berating my face and body with a prickly, intense heat. It was different from the heat of the sun, where you could turn around and the heat would be on your back. The eye of each smoke storm radiated the heat of a sun that burned stark white. Just as I noticed the heat, I heard a constant and distant roar, like a fire suddenly engulfing a log. I didn't -or, I couldn't- look around me to see where the roar is coming from. I felt obsessed with the sky, engulfed by its shifting shades of red, and its cyclones of smoke. Suddenly, I stopped hearing the patter of my feet on the ground and looked down quickly to see that my left foot had stepped over an an edge. My head looked around quickly, all I saw was a dreadful pit. This pit in front of me seemed to consume the entire ground as far ahead as I could see. Despite my panicked struggle to find my balance I fell forward, the darkness engulfing me. Under me, an eye that stretched the entire expanse of the pit quickly opened, as I fell towards the iris.

Abruptly I woke up panting, cold and my eyes stinging. My body jolted up to a sitting position and I looked around hastily for my phone. My phone read 9:00. I had felt like I was asleep for days, like that dream lasted forever, but it was only 4 minutes. I decided to go downstairs to get some water. When I shut my bedroom door behind me I noticed how silent the house was, which usually you could faintly detect life in it until about 10:30. As I walked down the stairs, the creaking of the wood and the brush of my hand down the banister were the loudest sounds in the entire house. I had not noticed this before, because my blinds in my room were drawn, but there was a faint red glow emanating from outside and pouring through the windows. I walked up to the window closest to me, and looked outside. It was just like my dream, a dark, red sky, and grey smoke spiraling and twisting. I was terrified. I walked up the stairs,

“What the hell is going on?” I  yelled

No one responded.

“Hello?’ I asked knocking on one of my siblings doors.There was no response. After a few seconds I just opened the door, and no one was there. “That's… odd. She never goes out during the week” I said, then decided to go to my brothers room, whose door was always open.

“hey- “ I uttered, seeing no one in this room either. So I walked to my parents room, who I did not want to bother, they were usually watching TV at this time, but oddly enough I didn't hear a sound coming from their room.

“Mom? Dad? Do you see what's going on outside?” I said as I knocked on the door, which creaked slightly open as I did so. I slowly opened the door, peeking inside. Empty. Slowly I walked over to the center of the room, and looked around.

“What….?”

I noticed the reflection of the TV on the wood floor, and looked over at it. The news was on, and the camera was zoomed out of what I looked like a panel of commentators. No one was there. I flipped to all of the news channels I could remember; CNN, Fox, MSNBC, the local ABC news, and it was all the same, just a table with no one sitting at it. I was lost. I thought, if it was just the house being empty I wouldn't freak out. But what was going on with everything else? If the entire sky turned the color of blood, people would be everywhere yelling about the apocalypse, or some fanatics would think it was the second coming of christ. I decided to check my phone to see how everyone was reacting. Nothing. I checked every social media I had. The most recent posts were all at 8: 59, without fail.

“Alright, maybe people just aren't posting.” I said aloud.

So, I checked news outlets, even the ones I didn't read. Nothing. I texted half of the people on my contacts, trying to sound half joking, so they didn't think I was a lunatic, asking what was going on outside. I waited. After what felt like an hour, sitting there, I checked the time again. Nine o’clock. Not a minute had passed. I thought, maybe it's just my phone, its old after all. So I looked at the clock at the corner of the screen on the news channel

“Nine o’clock.”, I whispered

I walked over to the alarm in my parents room.

“Nine o'clock.” I whispered.

I thought, maybe, I am just panicking, and so I began counting seconds, and decided to check all the clocks in my house.

I counted to three hundred, before I couldnt take it anymore and looked at the time again. Over three minutes should have passed.

Nine o’clock. It's what everything said, the time on my computer, the time on the oven, the time on the microwave, the time on the clock hanging above the fireplace, the time on my phone. I decided, I must just be dreaming. None of this makes sense, it can't be real. Dreams are like this, i thought. Arbitrary. Illogical. Odd.

“Wake up. Wake up!” I told myself.

I pinched myself, I washed my face, I thrashed around my head. None of it was working. I went to my room, and fished out a lighter from my drawer. With my right hand, I flicked on, and after hesitating, I slowly brought my left hand to the flame. It felt warm, then hot then scorching, as I brought my hand closer. Finally my hand touched the flame.

“Shit!” I exclaimed, and quickly pulled my hand away simultaneously dropping the lighter and shaking my singed hand. I looked at my palm, seeing the burned flesh and feeling the pain. This was real. I checked my phone, one last time. It must have been an hour since i sent those texts, and no responses. This was definitely real.

I wasn’t sure what to think. My body just brought me outside while my brain stopped thinking. I craned my neck up to the sky. There were different shades of red, bright, dingy, dark, rose, burgundy, blood red, all swirling about with the black and grey smoke.

“ What the hell is going on?” I whispered.

I didn't feel any of the prickly heat I felt in my dream, there was no great dark chasm in front of me, no eye at the bottom of the expanse. Just me, and the red sky.

I tried knocking on the doors of my neighbors, thinking maybe, somehow, they were there and could help me. To which, in every attempt, I was greeted with silence. Miraculously I had not gone into a full panic, meaning there were other options I had not exhausted that could break this surreal moment. So I walked back to my house, got my wallet and keys, then started the family car. I pulled out of the driveway and onto the road with no idea on where I was going. There were other cars on the road, but none were moving, just sitting there, some still on. Eventually I stopped my car and got out, maybe thinking someone was in one of the cars. It was empty, but music was playing faintly, not from the radio but from an aux. I walked over to another car. No one. And another. No one. So I just kept driving, going around cars when I had to, turning around and taking another road if one was blocked. I ended up in a nearby city.

“Someone has to be here.” Said, getting out of my car.

The sky was still red. Hundreds of shades of red. I looked up at one of the taller buildings ahead of me, and watched the shifting of the red sky reflected on the windows. I would think it was beautiful, if I were not so scared right now.

No one was here. It was only nine, and no one was here. Impossible. How many people lived in this part of the city, a few thousand? But not a single person on any street. There were abandoned cars, bicycles, motorcycles, and leaves. Hundreds of leaves, twisting in the breeze and bathed in the red glow of the sky. I went to a few stores, each time abruptly opening the door and peeking in, even though I could see through the glass no one was in there. I went to restaurants, more stores, even a local bank, and no one. I sat there, sitting on the counter in a Wells Fargo and thinking what I was supposed to do now. I kicked my legs, which were dangling off of the counter, and tried to make sense of what was occuring.

What should I do? Should I steal? I had already given up on looking for help. I could have whatever I wanted. There is probably a hundred shops in this city, and nearly as many restaurants. If I wanted I could find some top floor apartment, and stare out of a wall of windows at the shifting red waste above me, wearing some absurdly overpriced suit. I could visit an art museum another state. I always wanted to see some original Greek statues. The way they could make marble look like thin cloth was breathtaking. There, i could see the original works The Death of Marat, or Fallen Angel. I could blast my favorite songs through the streets. I left the bank, and continued to walk around the town, and then my head hung down and I completely realised that I was alone. Entirely alone. I felt a great chasm in my abdomen open up. There at that moment I felt true anguish. Entirely alone. If there was but one single person with me, maybe I would have a chance at keeping my sanity right now, but there was not. As I was walking, I saw my reflection in one of the store windows. I looked like a terrified, lost child.

I began to cry hysterically. Cursing as I wiped my tears. Then I chuckled. No one was going to help me. I could hear my laughs echoing off of the building walls. I felt aimless. Eventually I wandered to the town square. I dragged myself to the center, where there was a circle of trees in tiny plots of dirt, with red bricks surrounding them. I laid down in the middle, so I could still see the trees in the sides of my eyes but I could stare at the sky. I reached in my pocket and pulled at my phone.

“Nine o’clock” I laughed, then dropped my phone beside me.

I laid there and stared at the churning blots of red above me, and the spirals of ash colored smoke. My eyes shut.