Last night, I was at my town’s local Fourth of July fireworks event with my friends, like we’ve been going to together for the last few years. It was hard for us all to keep up after college, but we all swore that every year, we’d at least make it back to our hometown to watch the fireworks on the Fourth of July. But this Fourth, something very, very wrong happened. I don’t think anyone will believe me so I’m going here and maybe, just maybe, I might find some answers.
We met up at a local barbecue chain, and grabbed some food, grabbed some beers, and caught up on everything that happened in the last year. Molly talked about the new guy that she started seeing last month, and we were all pretty excited for her. Molly had been in a really serious relationship during college, and when it ended horribly, it seemed like she would never find happiness again. So hearing her talk about a new guy with the look of joy and excitement on her face again gave us all something to be happy for. On the opposite end of things John talked about how the last acting project he was a part of had gotten scrapped by its producers. John had been taking up an acting major in school and was really, really good. He got picked up by a new show by a pretty well-known channel, but unfortunately, 6 months ago the producers decided to cancel it after the pilot was submitted.
When it came to be my turn I didn’t really know what to say. It seemed like everyone was divided, either having really good years or really bad ones. Mine we’re just.. decent. Nothing bad happened. I was working at a decent job that I at least didn’t hate. I wasn’t having any huge relationship successes, but I also wasn’t having any tremendous failures. There were a few people I would go out with occasionally for drinks, or every so often I invited a girl back up to my apartment, but nothing serious. I still have good relationships with my family, still went to church with my parents on Sundays, and overall was doing.. decent. I felt almost guilty for that.
After our catching up was over, we grabbed a few more beers for the road and headed out. It seemed like every Fourth of July I’d remember how much I missed these people, how much I missed our times at college. The one thing missing from my life here was a group of friends I could laugh with, friends I could talk to, friends I could be myself around. Whatever John and Molly came back it reminded me of how that felt, but it also made me all the more aware of the gaping hole left in my life when we all moved away. But when those thoughts tried to come back in, I tried to shake them away like I always had to. We’d only have one weekend together every year so I knew we had to make it count.
“How about over here?” John asked, throwing his blanket down on a patch of grass in the park without waiting for us to answer. “This is a good spot right? We’re pretty close to the bleachers but we’re not too far away from the field, so we should have a front row seat for the fireworks!”
Molly rolled her eyes and flopped down next to him, laughing at John’s obvious attempt to get under our skin, all in the spirit of fun, of course. I sat down next to Molly and we started talking about nothing really. It was like that for about an hour as we waited with a filling up park for the sun to set, us just talking without really saying anything, and it made me once again think about how much I missed the old days. I could feel those thoughts coming back in, the loss, the anger, the betrayal, and this time it was harder to keep them quiet.
Thankfully, the screaming roar of a rocket being launched into the air was the distraction I needed. The first firework of the night was always the loudest as it reached up and up and up, a lone climber in a dark night sky, before it erupted into brilliant gold and red sparkles, the blast almost deafening in the quiet night air. John laughed, and Molly clapped, and I looked up into the air as more and more fireworks streamed out after the first, filling the night with beautiful explosions of color.
We watched the fireworks display as the night stretched on, and I became less and less aware of the people around me. Watching the fireworks, it sometimes feels like you’re the only person left in the world. It’s just you, the lights, and the noise, but even the noise starts to fade away into numbness as you’re just left to watch the brilliant eruption of colors.
But that night, something very different happened. When a specific kind of firework that I knew Molly loved went off, the kind that explodes into gold and green, I leaned over to nudge her and ask if she remembered when she first saw that type, back in sophomore year. But Molly didn’t react. She didn’t laugh, she didn’t answer, she didn’t even move.
“Molly? Are you okay, what’s wrong?” I asked as the explosions around us made it almost impossible to hear, but Molly didn’t react at all. Looking beyond her, I saw that John was exactly the same way, it was like they were both frozen in time as everything around me moved. But unfortunately, I realized that that was wrong too.
Looking frantically around me now, I realized that the entire park was like that. Everyone was frozen in place, as if time had been stopped. Families were stuck to the ground, expressions of joy and delight frozen on the faces of little kids that probably hadn’t even stood still for hours tonight. A baby a few feet away was frozen in the midst of crying, tears stuck to his cheeks like they were icicles. Everything had stopped except those fireworks… and me.
I stood up, turning around frantically now as the explosions continued, screaming out for help, for anyone who could hear me, but booms and cracks of the fireworks drowned out my voice. Panic started to take over as I started running through the motionless crowd, trying to find someone, anyone, that could hear me.
That’s when I realized the night had gone quiet. The night was still erupting into light and color every few seconds, but there was no more screaming as the rockets were fired into the sky, no more deafening explosions as they burst into beautiful colors, but there was still the light.
I looked back up into the sky, wondering how in the world this evening could get any more perplexing, and I saw what was really going on. The lights bursting into existence around me weren’t fireworks. Instead, bright red and orange and yellow rings were flashing into existence in every direction of the night sky, and behind them was what looked like the sky on fire. Red flames flashed across sections of the sky, then disappeared, then reappeared elsewhere in the stars. It was as if chunks of the sky were being lit on fire and then extinguished and then lit again, and for minutes this continued as I wandered through the frozen crowd in a confused daze, my eyes unable to look away from the starry, fiery sky.
Then, just as suddenly as it had started, the sky went dark again. In cautious optimism I glanced around me, but the crowd in the park was still frozen. My mind was racing with potential explanations, ways to make sense of what was happening, but nothing worked. I couldn’t understand how, or why, the night had gone so crazy.
A sudden flash of searing light caused me to look away from the sky instinctively, and as my gaze went to the ground, I saw everything around me illuminated in a red, fiery glow. The world was lit ablaze, and when I turned back to look back up, I saw the entire sky had shattered open, and I finally realized what I was looking at.
I’m pretty sure Hell had just burst open.
The entire sky was on fire, but it was as if I was looking into a window. I could see rocky crags of blackened stone rising out of fiery lakes, could see lava flowing over charred plains, could see fire everywhere I looked. But I could also see figures moving in the fire, although it took me a few moments to see them. There were thousands of them, shadowy, dark figures moving closer and closer to the edge of the window or whatever was in the sky, and I took a terrified step back as they got closer and closer. They were trying to break through. They were trying to escape.
I saw the closest one was a figure standing on a black crag right next to the edge of the sky window, an area of the sky that only looked a few feet above the top of the stadium. I watched as the figure stumbled forward, little bursts of fire breaking out all over its blackened body, and then it was at the edge. I watched as it pulled itself up and over the crag, then threw itself forward and out of Hell. It fell through the air into our world, leaving particles of black and burning ash behind it as it went, before I heard the telltale thump of a body hitting bleachers.
Then it screamed, an ear-splitting cry of anger and agony and hatred that was louder than any firework was, and left my heart racing. I knew I had stayed too long, watched for too long, and I turned around to run back to where Molly and John were in the vain hope that maybe, just maybe, I could wake up from this nightmare. As I ran through the crowd illuminated by that damn red glow, I could hear more of them now. More thumps as the things broke through, some on grass, some falling through trees, and occasionally I heard the sickening splatter sound as I think some of them landed on people. I didn’t look up. I didn’t look back. I just ran.
The screams chased after me, and I squeezed my eyes shut and pumped my legs even harder.
“Eric.”
The word froze me in my tracks simply because of how long it had been since I heard a voice. The people around me were still frozen, so I knew the nightmare wasn’t over, but I knew I had heard it. My name, spoken in a gritted whisper, almost right beside my ear. But no one was there. No one was behind me.
“Eric!”
The voice came again in a deep yell, and I whirled to face the direction I thought it came from, and that’s when I saw Him. A tall figure stood before me, shrouded in shadow despite the harsh red glow all around us. I narrowed my eyes, trying to see who or what it was, and then it took a step forward and was suddenly lit up in light. It cocked its head to the side, and smiled. Its teeth were stained black and as I focused on that face, I felt my skin crawl in revolution. Rotted, charred flesh clung to its skull like tattered rags, and instead of eyes, there was some kind of swirling, thick black liquid that filled its eye sockets. Drops of the sludge trickled out of the sockets like tears as I stared, tracing their way down the cheeks, and the trail they left on the rotted skin glowed a soft red, like they had left little trails of fire. Its whole body was naked and blackened like its face, with those same particles of ash floating around it, and as I stepped backwards in revulsion, it spoke again.
“You’re not supposed to be here, Eric Ramsey. You’re not supposed to see. Unless… you’ve already been marked.”
With that last word, the syllables turned into a growl, which turned into a scream that was so loud I doubled over in pain, trying to push my hands over my ears to shut out the noise, to make it stop, to make it all just stop. But the scream kept going, kept burrowing its way into my mind, until I realized that my mouth was open, and the scream was my own.
When I shut my mouth the noise ended, all of it, and I felt my legs give way. I crumpled to the ground and my vision swam, and for a blissful second, everything was peaceful and dark. Then I felt hands grab at me, and my eyes shot open as I felt myself ready to start running away from the creatures reaching out to me.
But they weren’t creatures, they were people. Normal people, families, looking at me in friendly concern. Trying to help me up from where I collapsed next to their blanket. Fireworks once again exploded above us as I looked around at them, looked at there faces, tried to hear their words.
“Are you ok?”
“What happened?”
“Do you need an ambulance, man?”
I shook my head and stood up shakily, looking around at their concerned faces. I looked past them to the rest of the crowd in the park, the children laughing, the families gathered together, the couples cuddled together, and saw that life had resumed. Things were normal. That nightmare, whatever it was, was over.
I made my way back to Molly and John, who waved me over to sit back down with them, smiling and gesturing at the empty spot where I had been.
“You okay, Eric? Where’d you go?” John asked.
“Yeah, is everything ok?” Molly echoed, her face showing a little more worry. “You seem a bit off, did something happen?”
“No, I’m fine,” I finally managed, sitting back down next to her. “I’m okay I just… had to use the bathroom. Everything’s okay.”
But as I looked back up at the fireworks, I realized everything wasn’t okay. The sky was filled with the ash, the same, glowing red and black particles that had risen off the figures that had broken through.
“Molly… do you see that? The ash in the sky?”
“No, what ash?”
I didn’t answer for a minute as I stared at the sky, the beautiful night sky filled with fireworks and colors, stained with demonic ash from a moment that no one else has seen. I could feel my throat starting to close up as the dread in me built, as my breathing started to get more and more panicked, and that’s when I felt Molly nudge me gently
“Eric, hey, are you sure you’re alright? You’re crying.”
I looked at her in confusion and wiped my eyes, seeing a teardrop on my hand from my cheek that I didn’t even know had been there. I didn’t realize I had been crying, I didn’t feel the tears. But as I looked at the drop on my hand, just for a second, it switched. The smeared bit of water on my hand changed color and consistency, no longer clear and liquid, but a greyish, black sludge. As it rested on my hand, the spot on my palm around it started to glow a dull, soft red, as if it was cutting into my hand with fire. Just like the figure that had spoken to me.
I think Hell shattered open that night, and for whatever reason, I think it’s gotten a hold of me. And I don’t know how to stop it.