Excerpt: Darkness Falls

He managed to get to his feet. The whole building was vibrating, which seemed weird. Jack looked out the window to see if that creature was still out there. It was still dark outside and the stars seemed to pop out of the night sky. It was very clear compared to the foggy sky he had been seeing. He wondered if the world had changed again and he was back in the real world. But it was night time. Could he have been out for that long? Jack checked his watch. It said 4:26pm. It was late in the afternoon so the sun should be up. Jack looked out the window again. There was the moon in the distance. It looked bluer than usual, but that happened sometimes depending on the season and how cloudy or polluted the atmosphere was. But as he looked around he saw another bright object in the sky that also looked like the moon and it was much closer. Frighteningly closer actually. Jack closed his eyes and rubbed his head again. His head really hurt from that metal case falling and hitting him in the head, and he thought he was just seeing double. He opened his eyes and looked out the window again. There was no mistaking it. There were two objects in the sky. A big white one which he now recognized as the moon, complete with its signature craters. To Jack’s horror the other was now clearly not the moon, but Jack did recognize it. He had seen enough globes in school to recognize Earth when he saw it.