The world was dying. Everyone who lived there could sense it coming. The Powers That Be were fighting it with all they had, but it was obviously a losing battle. Day by day, the trees were browner, the grass more withered. Food - which had seemingly always been scarce - was ever harder to come by. And worse than all this - was the sky. It loomed above them with a hazy, miserable semi-darkness that seemed to be neither day nor night. Some doubted that the sun even still existed past the grim murk that was their daytime. Even when night fell, the ambient light didn't fully dissipate, and the smog above remained. It was becoming unequivocally evident that the knowledge to fix their world was no longer available in this world.

So, they posited, it was time to look elsewhere for the solution to their cataclysm. The strange portal shimmered, and each individual that came through had the whole weight of the world's hopes on their shoulders. One by one, they turned out to just be another mouth to feed. Doubts began to creep in. What if there wasn't anyone who could fix their world… anywhere in the universe. Or the next Universe. What if they were simply damned?

The attempts began to try to escape through the portal, but every attempt invariably failed. The luckless traveler would be sent right back, with a sense of dread overwhelming their every thought. Finally, it became clear that they were stuck here. The cawing of the crows mocked the escape attempts of the Powers like a Harbinger of their ultimate downfall.

With a renewed determination, they fired up the portal again. And again. And again. One by one, the disappointments came in. One by one, the new settlers were abandoned to their dismal future here. And still the portal brought them in. Even as hope died, the portal found more souls. The Powers had to try to find help, even when, deep inside, their hearts told them it was folly. And so the arguments broke out. The researchers grew more and more desperate, as the days grew shorter. Signs of life faded as an alarming crawling darkness crept in. It began to take over not just the world, but the thoughts of everyone in it. A writhing, slithering, living darkness it seemed no one could heal.

Slowly, even the Harbingers fell silent. … And through it all - despite those who fought it - everything inexorably died in a slow, painful, starving atrophy of the soul.

Story Info | Chapter 1