Title: Didn't previously have one; I'm now calling it "The World Went Dark"

Status: Unfinished

Last touched: Unknown, probably late 2021 or early 2022

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They say the world went light before it went dark. A dazzlingly deadly display of light turned the night to day, if only for a moment. Endran vaguely remembered a feeling of something tickling his skin as a brilliant array of colors filled his vision for the very last time. Reds, oranges, pinks. Then, as the color was quite suddenly sucked away, purples and blues that faded abruptly to black. There was nothing but black. Only black. Colorful, yet completely lacking it. It was confusing, something Endran didn't understand at first. He still didn't understand it; he especially didn't understand why everything—and everyone—had been taken out. Everyone but him.

When Endran's vision first cleared after that strange blast, he was wondrously aware of the feeling of being alone. No eyes upon him, perhaps for the very first time in his entire nineteen years of existence. There were no sounds to meet his ears as the echoes which had filled them faded into nothing; no humans chattered nervously about the event they'd just witnessed, no dogs barked anxiously, no birds chirped curiously from the trees. In fact, there were no trees for the birds to chirp from. There was nothing at all.

Endran's legs had gone almost completely numb, so he stumbled as he tried to get to his feet. A bit of shaking managed to jolt his limbs back to life, and Endran carefully picked himself up off of the ground. He didn't remember where he had just been standing, but, wherever or whatever it had been, it was no longer there. There was nothing surrounding Endran but mute gray rubble, shattered concrete and bent wires making up the floor. Endran remembered seeing a whole forest of trees before the world had gone dark. None of those remained, nor was there any evidence left of the woods ever having existed in the first place. Something akin to smoke curled its way lazily across the disrupted environment, settling in the deeper spots like a thick fog.

A figure caught Endran's eye a good distance away. His heart started up at a frantic pace. I have to find help. Maybe they'll know what's happening. Ignoring the strange buzz which still remained in his shocked limbs, Endran burst into a sprint, dodging sharp shards of broken material and leaping over the strange cracks in the ground as he made his way towards the figure. His mouth was already popping halfway open to greet them when his heart sank. He gulped down his hopes, which had risen expectantly upon spotting the figure, and stumbled to a stop, nearly tripping over his own feet. What he had assumed to be another person had been nothing but an overturned trash can. Endran let out a frustrated grunt and kicked at the can. It barely shifted; whatever had flashed before the darkness had taken over had caused the aluminum of the can to melt, permanently fixing it to the worn concrete below it. Endran sank to his knees, his brown eyes skating over the strange, broken environment all around him. It was a ghost town, this place. Something heavy settled in his stomach, tears pricking at his eyes. He was deeply, profoundly, completely alone.

Endran had just lowered his head to curl into a ball when a soft rustling sound reached his ears. His head shot up at once, his gaze hurriedly darting around in an attempt to find the source of the sound. The rustling grew closer, combined by the grating and clacking of small concrete fragments being pushed around. Finally, the sound stopped only a few feet away from Endran. The boy lifted himself wearily onto his feet again and carefully made his way over.

A small rat was nosing its way through the debris, its chestnut-brown fur caked with dirt and dust. One of its ears was torn to nothing more than shreds; the only indication that it was a recent injury was a bit of fresh blood that stained the poor animal's skin. The rodent raised its head, noticing Endran. Its nose quivered as he took in the boy's scent, and the rat ceased to move. For a moment Endran wondered if the rat had dropped dead right in front of him. Fortunately, that worry was shoved aside as he noted that the rat was still breathing. It was paralyzed by fear, likely assuming it was about to be killed. Endran dropped to a crouch. He had no reason to kill the thing, no matter how afraid he was of small pests like rats. The rat twitched as he settled down, still eyeing him with a pair of beady black eyes.

No, Endran realized a moment later. Only one eye. On the rat's right side—the same side of its injured ear—the rat's eye was completely missing, leaving nothing but a gaping, bleeding hole. As the rat hesitantly turned away from Endran, he saw that the rat's entire right side had been damaged; he assumed the small creature had been thrown by the force of whatever had just hit the area, and had landed on its right side. Among the most obvious injuries, the rat's back right leg was curled up against its skinny body, as if walking on it was too painful. Emotion swelled within Endran: guilt, sorrow, sympathy. He wondered whether the rat would even last a day. Definitely not if he can't find food.

"Hey," Endran murmured, his voice scratchy. The rat flinched, glancing over in his direction again. Its breathing sped up, sides heaving with fright. Endran slowly extended his hand. "Shh, I'm not going to hurt you. I promise. Maybe we can help each other out, you and I."

The rat approached with its lopsided gait, whiskers and nose twitching as it took Endran in. As it reached his hand, it lowered its head, and Endran was suddenly worried that the rodent was going to bite him. Still, rabies—along with whatever other possible diseases rodents could carry—hardly seemed like his biggest problem at the moment.

But the rat didn't bite him, shoving its snout into Endran's fingers as it began to sniff him more profusely. The boy managed a soft chuckle.

"Have you managed to find any food, bud?"

The rat, unsurprisingly, did not answer.

Endran tentatively scooped the rat up in both hands, holding the rodent tightly but gently. The rat barely even squirmed in his grip, though it did recoil when Endran attempted to stroke its back.

"How do you feel about tagging along with me for a bit? I don't think I've got much choice when it comes to companions in our current situation," he murmured, his voice taking on a solemn tone as his gaze once more drifted across the rubble strewn around them. The rat raised its head to sniff at his face. Endran managed a grim smile. "I'll take that as a yes."

Carefully setting the rat on his shoulder, Endran rifled through his pockets, searching for anything that could potentially help either of them. He still had no idea what they'd been thrown into, but somehow it was a boy and his rat against the world, with no sign of life in sight. All he managed to scrounge up from the depth of his worn jeans was a balled-up tissue—seemingly unused—and a small chocolate bar, still in its wrapper, that had seemingly melted and then solidified again. Endran's stomach vibrated at the mere thought of food. He hadn't realized he was hungry until he'd been faced with the idea of something to eat.

As Endran tore open the wrapper and began to carefully extricate the strangely shaped chocolate, the rat perked its ears and attempted to crawl across his shirt to get to the food. Endran laughed softly, silently promising the rodent a piece as he bit into the chocolate.

It was stale, he noted, but the dryness had not caused all of its sweetness to disappear. He let out a soft moan of satisfaction as the candy melted in his mouth. It didn't occur to him until he was several bites in that the chocolate would make him thirsty. That's a problem for future Endran, he thought to himself, nibbling at the remaining piece.

Remembering his promise, Endran left a small fragment of the chocolate uneaten, holding it tentatively in the rat's direction. The rodent greedily took the piece between its teeth, holding it in its paws as it began to eat in small, quick bites. Endran craned his neck to watch. The rat seemed much more relaxed than it had upon their first interaction—clearly, feeding it was the way to earn its trust.

"That was a nice little snack." Endran commented, smiling as the rat finished up and began to clean itself. He couldn't help but admire the little rodent's balance, as it remained sitting steadily on his shoulder as it went through all of this. Endran turned his attention to the horizon. It was impossible to tell the time of day when the sun was hidden deeply within the smog-filled air. "I guess we should find..." He trailed off. What exactly do I expect to find? It wasn't like there were people scattered all around for him to get help from, and there weren't exactly any department stores left standing for him to go and buy something.

"We should try and find somewhere safe to stake it out," he mumbled at last. "Maybe there's a building that hasn't been completely destroyed, or some sort of makeshift shelter we can use. Just long enough to get our bearings."

Without further thought, Endran set out in whatever direction he was currently facing. He soon discovered that he couldn't remove his eyes from the ground, or he'd risk falling on his face after stumbling on a piece of debris or a fallen wire. The sky seemed to grow darker around them the longer they walked, making nerves wind their way through Endran. Whether it was easy to decipher or not, the world would still turn to night eventually. Something told him that the heavy fog suffocating the sky wasn't going to dissipate anytime soon, which would surely leave them with a completely dark night. They wouldn't see any stars—or the moon—for a while. A new sense of urgency settled in Endran's bones at the thought, and he extended his strides to speed up his pace.

His brown eyes flitted between the rough terrain below him and to either side, desperate to find somewhere safe to stay for the night. I wonder what I'm bothering to keep us safe from, Endran thought as he eyed a caved-in house. Or if there's anything left to be afraid of. Still, he kept up his pace, scanning every object and piece of rubble that stood out from the crumbling world around it.

Endran's legs ached when he at last laid eyes on a suitable shelter. Two large pieces of debris, seemingly walls, had fallen against one another, creating a tent-like space between them. While Endran was hesitant to stay underneath such heavy objects, they seemed sturdy. Sturdy enough to last them the night, at least. Baby steps.

Endran ducked his head to enter the space, pleased to find that it was roomier on the inside than it had looked at first sight. While he couldn't stand straight up, he could spin around with his arms fully extended without skating the makeshift concrete walls. After sweeping away some of the dust and shards of glass that lay littered across the ground, the space almost seemed homey. Sheltered away from the disastrous environment outside, it provided a much-needed reprieve.

Setting a couple broken tiles over the area where he had seen the glass fragments, Endran sank down into a sitting position. His back and limbs ached from walking and standing for so long on the uneven ground. He held a hand up to his shoulder. The rat stepped tentatively onto it, and he slowly lowered the rodent to the ground. The chestnut-colored rat took a few steps around the space, licking at a spot on the ground where something had clearly spilled and stained the concrete, before it climbed onto Endran's knee. He felt a swell of warmth for the creature, small as it was.

"Alright, little fellow. If you're going to stick with me for this adventure, you're going to need a name."

The rat's whiskers twitched as it stared up at him with its remaining eye.

Endran tapped his chin. He was acting dramatic, and he knew it, but it felt good to pretend that everything was alright for a moment. "I think I'll call you Luck. How does that sound?"

The rat remained silent.

A grin lit up Endran's features "Perfect."

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My Thoughts:

I have no idea where I was going with this story, and I'm not sure if I did when I started writing it either. Still, I like most of the descriptions and details I used. Very descriptive and easy to picture, which I like.

I think you can kind of tell that I was running out of ideas towards the end, as the writing grows less descriptive and there are a bit more unimportant details.

I like the name Endran, though I have no idea where I got that one.

Rats are always a good choice of sidekicks. I do like that.

This might be something I'd write nowadays?  I'd definitely do some more planning than I probably did when I first wrote this.

I quite honestly have no clue where this story would go, though. Would Endran search for others? Are there any others? Would he find the source of whatever put them in this post-apocalyptic situation? Would he somehow turn the world to normalcy? It's anyone's guess.