I can still remember it all so clearly.

A summer day in Brooksville. Just another sweaty Saturday in a small town.

I was at a friend's place, watching a movie, reaching into the bag of chips we were sharing. Ash made some kind of joke about the main character's intelligence and I laughed even though it wasn't really funny. I remember thinking her hair would look nice if she would just comb it once in a while.

Then Marcus came back from the kitchen.

"Where's the pop? Don't have any?" I asked him.

He stared blankly at me. "Nate...this is gonna sound weird but..."

"But what?"

"...It's daytime right now, isn't it?"

Ash giggled, her mouth full of doritos. "You on something? I know the living room's dark but it's like 2 o'clock."

I watched Marcus' face, unsure what to think. He didn't seem like he was joking. He took off his glasses, rubbed them against his shirt, put them back on, then turned to look behind him. When he met my eyes again I could tell something was wrong.

"Can you just...come and look?"

"Sure." I said, standing up.

Ash sighed and paused the movie, making a big deal of having to move from her favourite spot on the couch. We both followed Marcus into the kitchen.

"Look out the window." he pointed.

I brushed the window curtain aside. "Woah."

"I wanna see!" Ash squeezed in beside me.

It was pitch black outside. Marcus' new car, which had been glistening in the sun of the front driveway earlier, was now sitting quietly in the dark. Was it nighttime already? It normally wouldn't get dark like this until ten.

I checked the digital clock on the microwave. 2:16. For a split second I questioned whether that was AM or PM.

"So, is this a solar eclipse? Awesome."

"Yeah, cool." I said. Of course. Of course that's what it was. How stupid of me.

"No. It's not a solar eclipse."

Ash and I turned away from the window to see Marcus standing in the living room. He'd opened the back door that led to the yard. "It's still daytime on this side." he said.

I came up beside him and stuck my head out the door. Sure enough, it was a sunny summer afternoon. The sky wasn't blue, and birds weren't singing sweet melodies or whatever, but it was a pretty average-looking day.

Ash opened the front door and stepped outside. She quickly jumped back in, rubbing her bare feet. "This--this doesn't make any sense! It's still hot as hell out there! But why is it dark?"

"Turn on the news." Marcus told her.

"Huh? Why?"

"Just do it. Maybe they're talking about this."

Ash rushed over to the TV, switching it from Netflix to cable. She found the news channel a few minutes later. The anchorwoman was talking about an animal shelter in Texas. How it was having troubles with its animals lately. Ash found a different news channel, Global, but they were discussing politics. The next one was a weather forecast for a big city near us. The middle-aged weatherman was grinning from ear to ear.

"Bring out your water guns and sunscreen because this week is looking absolutely fantastic. We've got a sunny week all the way through with the highest temperature being 68 Fahrenheit. Mild winds coming in from the north on Monday..."

"Doesn't Brooksville have its own news channel?" I asked.

Ash turned off the TV. "Nope. Just a radio I think."

"Damn." Marcus pulled out his phone.

"Who are you calling?"

"Shut up."

I sat on the couch while Marcus called whoever he was calling. At that point I wasn't scared, just worried. Confused. One glance at Ash and I knew she wasn't either of those things. "What if this is some kind of new phenomenon? Do you think it could be named after me?"

"I mean...I guess. If you're proven to be the one who discovered it first. Which you aren't."

"What do you mean?"

"Marcus is the one who noticed it, remember?"

"Oh. Right. I'll just have to kill him then. Make sure to cover for me."

I laughed. Or I tried to. It was so forced even she could tell.

"Hey, Ashley. Dad wants to talk to you."

Marcus passed her the phone, looking upset. She pretended not to notice that, either. "Yeah? Oh hey! Is it weird where you guys are too? I think it's a--"

She stopped. Her back was turned to me so I couldn't see her face, and I could only hear vague syllables and noises from the cell phone. 

"Mom? Mom!"

Ash moved the phone away from her ear as Marcus stared, waiting for an explanation.

"They hung up." She finally said, the usual cheerfulness in her voice gone.

I put my hand on her shoulder. She was shaking. "Hey, what's going on? Are your parents okay?"

"No. I don't know. I don't know what's going on. Mom was yelling about something."

"What'd your Dad say?" I asked Marcus.

"He just asked me if everything was alright, told me to stay inside, then to pass the phone to Ash. That's it. Ashley--hey, Ash! What'd they say? What'd Mom say?"

"I said I don't know! They didn't say anything! There was just...yelling. Other people were there with Dad. He didn't say much. Then Mom answered, and then she started yelling too...and..."

Suddenly a gush of cold wind came in, making us all shiver. The back door was closed, but the front door had been left open. So it must've come from the front door. Still, why was cold air coming in at all? None of this made sense.

"We should close it." I said, breaking the silence. "Your dad told you not to go outside, right? Maybe there's gas out there or something."

Easier said than done. After that phone call, none of us wanted to go near the door. Another long silence passed as we all struggled to gather our thoughts.

Marcus was the first to speak up. "Sure. But it's no big deal. Mom and Dad are probably fine. And yours too, Nate. Just stop being pussies." And with that, he went up to the front door like he was about to smack it in the face.

Everything happened in an instant.

I blinked.

Ash screamed, a long, high-pitched scream that made my ears ring.

My eyes went to her first, then to what she was screaming at--the empty doorframe. The empty kitchen.

No Marcus.