The Facility looked haunting at night—more so than usual.
In this ruined world, new buildings were rare, and constructing stable, new ones from scratch was difficult. People had no choice but to live in the crumbling remains of the old.
Yet, the institute's building stood in relatively good shape, well-maintained enough for the scientists to establish a base and carry out their experiments. Its location near the ocean made it ideal—the waters cooled the pipe structures that powered the machinery within.
It wasn't a large building, no more than two floors at best. Once, it had been an elementary school. But with so few children left—especially young ones—what use was a school anymore? Hope for the future had dwindled, and with it, the will to raise children.
So the scientists had repurposed it into their operations base instead.
After working hours, it now stood silent, almost abandoned. The last sputters of electricity had been switched off after the final staff members left for the night. The research team was already gone.
The nurse was the last to lock the front door, her rusted key groaning in the slot.
"We'll walk you home."
Loona nearly jumped out of her skin at the sudden, energetic voice. She turned mid-step to find Inase waving at her as he approached her.
He wore a beaming grin, oddly cheerful and too suspicious for Hosen to ignore. Tagging along, he hoped his buddy didn't plan anything mischievous along the way… But he'd supervise, just in case.
"It's getting dark," the scientist muttered.
Indeed, it was. The sun bled into the horizon, staining the clouds in the shades of pink and orange. The dimming light only made the nearby planets appear more massive, like looming giants suspended just overhead.
Saturn hung impossibly close in the sky—its rings cast pale light that shimmered across the sea. In the dark water below, strange silhouettes stirred, gliding through the reflection of the planet's golden glow.
Far beyond the horizon, colossal bridges stretched across the void, linking worlds together. They stretched into infinity—dreamlike pathways of stone and vine—opening a way to step from one planet to the next. The sight felt both ancient and new: the universe connected with every world within reach.
The moon had vanished twenty-four years ago. Without it, the earth should have been swallowed by total darkness, if not for the Moon Devourer—the sole thing holding the skies together.
A massive sphere of twisted flesh and ribbon, it glowed faintly, like a poor imitation of the true moon. It's glow pale, dimmer, yet bigger than the original celestial body. It barely held back the chaos.
Silent. Sleeping. Wrong.
A creepy sight.
Though monstrous in form, the Moon Devourer served as both a threat and a reluctant protector.
Its presence alone stabilized Earth, halting the chain of earthquakes, storms, and tsunamis that had followed the moon's disappearance.
It prevented gravity from collapsing. The strange crowding of planets in the night sky—the unnatural closeness of Saturn, Jupiter, and others yet unidentified—was said to be the aftermath of its hunger. Yet it kept them balanced, suspended, warding off a greater catastrophe.
So long as no one touched it, their blue planet endured. But dread lingered. For if the Moon Devourer ever woke—or if humanity dared disturb it—the fragile stillness would shatter, and the world would be undone once more.
As the sun set, Ul-birah, the Chaser of Dusk, revealed itself. The ancient twin streaked across the atmosphere with low, reverberating hum and emanating translucent light, then vanished just as quickly—an omen that night had truly fallen.
The Earth felt hushed, suspended between wonder and unease.
Loona's glasses caught the faint light as her eyes shone with fascination at the alien skies.
"Sure," she finally agreed, her voice steady for once. No crack, no hesitation.
So, they left the Facility grounds.
Hosen and Inase walked ahead, the latter with his hands tucked lazily behind his head, whistling a tune that echoed through the ruins as if this were just another stroll. His carefree rhythm was out of place, yet it filled the silence.
The Facility's outline faded behind them, swallowed by the city's first tall, timeworn buildings.
The streets were fractured, weeds bursting through cracked asphalt. Hollow windows gaped at them, shattered glass crunched beneath their boots.
Rusted streetlamps, unused for decades, leaned like weary sentries, their wires swaying loose with the faintest breeze. Faded graffiti clung to walls, long washed out by time. Warning signs fluttered, unreadable, their words ghosts of forgotten urgency. Somewhere, a loose metal sign creaked against its hinges.
The last red afterglow of the sun lightened their path.
Inase's whistle carried through the emptiness, oddly cheerful, while the nurse kept darting anxious glances into dark alleys and broken doors, as though expecting something—or someone—to emerge.
"Eldritch beings love to swarm at night. You should be more careful," Hosen's voice gently pierced through the cold air. "Come home early next time."
"Mm. I-I know," Loona replied with a hint of sleep-deprived nervousness. "But it's alright, I can walk back alone."
"I can't believe that bitch really went home first and left you here," Inase muttered, clicking his tongue. He remembered that female scientist's attitude whenever she had to interact with someone of a lower position than her.
He eyed the nurse's frail frame skeptically. Skin and bones wrapped in torn leggings, boots, and an oversized sweater beneath a long, worn green coat. She barely stood upright with what little energy she had left. She was barely standing straight with the little energy she had left.
He had a hard time believing her sister had left her just like that. If she treated herself so poorly, how was she still even alive?
But Loona chuckled awkwardly.
"Oh, it's often like that. But I can take care of myself, see?"
She pulled aside her coat. A shotgun gleamed menacingly at her hip. Behind her round glasses, her golden eyes flashed with rare confidence.
"I'm not scared."
She was prepared. Inase whistled,
"What a fine specimen. Not bad~"
At the rare compliment, the girl flushed, shyness snapping back into place.
"B-besides, Selena is the one who cooks for us when she comes home," she added, eager to defend her family. "She's got… a bad temper, but that's because she cares. About you, the crew, this mission… and the world."
"Uh-huh… Doubt it," Inase scoffed. He couldn't picture the sharp-tongued scientist making a warm meal for anyone but herself.
Her having a soft side is even more unbelievable. All he knew of her thus far was only nagging and getting angry at everyone around her.
"It's true!"
And yet, this girl insisted.
"Fine, fine. You win," he said so, though he didn't believe her either way.
They turned onto a wider street where the asphalt lay split and broken. That's when they saw it—an unusual trail, although very common across this land.
At first, it seemed like water stains left behind by rainwater. But the longer they looked, the more unnatural it appeared. The thin, glistening lines curved across the road, gouging through concrete and buildings alike, like a giant claw had scraped it. The linear dents stretched into the dark, origin unseen.
The blonde crouched beside it.
Now that he looked closer, the trail wasn't filled with liquid at all—it was emptiness. A slug-like smear of void, hard to see in the dark and blending into the shadows of night. A portal to dissolved nothingness.
Curious, he reached for it. Fingertips millimeter from touching—until Loona squeaked.
"Don't," her voice high and tight. Her uneasy eyes fixed on the faint shimmer. "It's dangerous."
If anyone had wandered here unknowingly, one careless step could erase a finger, a hand, or more, two—without a warning, a trace, or a sound.
The thought excited him.
"It'd be stupid to touch it," Hosen warned, as well.
They even agree on this. Two peas in a pod—Inase thought.
Instead of chasing this cheap thrill, he froze, his fingers hovering just above the line.
What a grim party to travel with—he whined internally.
For once, the blonde pulled back, grinning sheepishly.
"Heh. I know. Just messing with ya. These are the Things that Devour and Dissolve, right?"(1)* He shrugged, standing up. "The creepy lil fellas that look like slugs."
Yes. These creatures slithered like deformed mollusks, their elongated bodies curling with an unnatural flexibility. Their moist, pallid skin glistened as though perpetually coated in slime, while rows of sharp, feather-like spines jutted from their backs, twitching fainly in the night.
From their twisted heads sprouted clusters of stalks tipped with eyes—each one swiveling in a different direction. Tentacle-like appendages wriggled from their concave bellies, dripping with a thick, caustic slime that hinted at both toxicity and hunger. Their toothless maws gaped open and shut.
That was how they looked—crawling, as if they came from the darkest corners of some alien marsh.
The trail was their calling card. Common to stumble across—but the creatures themselves were rarely seen. They were masters of hiding, leaving only these corrosive tracks for evidence of their passing.
"These weren't here yesterday…" Hosen muttered, "They must've slithered through last night."
The thought lingered, heavy. If someone wandered here after dark and stumbled into one… no one would even hear their body dissolve into the void.
"It's better to let the scientists know," he added, covering his mouth with one hand, thinking. "They should at least put out a sign until these trails disappear, so that no accident happens."
Loona nodded quickly. "I'll let Selena know."
"Whatever. Why bother? Those things aren't even that dangerous."
His dismissive tone halted when something rustled nearby. In a flash, his knife was out.
But instead of an ambush, a small two-legged lizard scuttled into view nearby. Its many eyes blinked in rows along its entire body, from the neck to its long tail. A tiny cousin of the Vooniths(2)* from local legends—common, harmless, and not worth the effort.
Inase's knife rested, sheathed.
It moved swiftly, blinking each eye independently. Then, scurried past the overgrown sidewalk and into the empty ruins without so much as testing its shapeshifting. Though, even when transformed, its rows of beady eyes would have given it away.
Above them, something vast drifted through the cloud-choked sky, resembling a manta ray.
Somewhere in the distance, a flying polyp—the ancient lord of wind—drifted through the sky. The massive blot of flesh, all mouths and tentacles, glided without resistance, unbothered by anything or anyone.
Inase and Hosen instinctively shared a look.
Stay hidden underground, you ugly bastard.
The thought was mutual.
Flying polyps had once kept to the earth or the sea for the safety of their species, but in this world gone wrong, they floated freely now, unchallenged. But now that eldritch creatures had overtaken the world, they no longer had the need to hide.
"So," Inase said, grin snapping back onto his face, "tell me—are you single?"
Hosen's head snapped toward him. Knowing what he had in that mischievous mind of his, he shot him with a bombastic sideeye, sharp like glass.
"Stop bothering her."
Loona froze, color rushing to her cheeks.
"W-what? What's up with this sudden question…?"
"Just wondering." The blonde shrugged, feigning innocence. He slapped Hosen on the back. "Because my buddy here has zero experience in romance."
"Don't you see she's flustered?" The white-hair had no reaction.
The woman looked from one to the other, caught between flustered laughter and dread.
"All he thinks about are his experiments." Regardless, Inase went on, mock-theatrical. "He's expressionless, apathetic, has the social skills of a brick wall, stubborn as hell, arrogant when he talks, careless about his own health—and you're a nurse! Perfect match, right?"
"Hey." Was it supposed to be sidewinging or dissing him?
"Besides, he couldn't charm a fly if he tried."
"Uhm…?" Where was this going, the girl wondered.
"At least he's handsome! If you can even call his pale ass this way. That's a good point, yeah?"
Hosen exhaled through his nose, pinching the bridge of it, and glanced apologetically at the nurse.
"And, you said he was nice. That's why I was wondering if you'd like to teach him a little bit about how to ask someone out properly. Whaddya say?" The blonde smiled like a charming door-to-door salesman.
"Excuse me for a moment," the scientist murmured. Calm voice, calm face.
But when he turned, his mask cracked just enough. He swung, swift and precise, boot colliding with Inase's ass. It left a heavy footprint—Hosen's way of telling him to shut up.
"Stop pushing!"
The white-hair hissed an additional warning, then turned to the nurse. He used this moment of silence to excuse his partner's childish behavior.
"He doesn't tend to be tactful at all. Forgive him. He's just goofing around-"
Inase lost his balance. He was about to fall into the slug trail if not for the swift maneuver in between, jumping between the void lines with the precision of a cat. Dust puffed up around him as he landed between two slug-trails. He sat up, rubbing his rear.
But he didn't back down, nor did he calm down. Instead, he jumped at the other.
"It hurts! What's up with you? I'm only trying to help you out!" He grabbed the other's collar.
And just like that, the scuffle broke loose.
"I don't need your help!"
"You wish! One day you'll be coming back to me and begging for it!"
"As if! Only in your deepest dreams!"
They lunged again, a cartoonish dust cloud rising around them.
Loona stood frozen at first, then doubled over, laughter bubbling out of her uncontrollably. Watching the two of them brawl like five-year-olds was so absurd, so human, she couldn't hold it in.
"Pfft—haha! I can't—this is too funny! You guys—hah!"
Tears pricked her eyes behind her glasses. And while she laughed, it suddenly struck her: no one else could open them up like this. Only them, together. She'd already thought about it in the locker room, but now, seeing Inase draw out this rare side of Hosen, she was convinced.
"Yup," she wheezed between laughs, "I see it now. There really are two people more suited for each other."
The fight froze mid-punch. Both men turned to her, jaws slack, then pointed at themselves in disbelief.
"You don't mean… us?"
She just smiled.
Cold chills ran through their spines.
"No way in hell," barked one.
"After my dead body," the other mumbled darkly.
But they both sighed, the fight draining out of them, and for a moment they stood shoulder-to-shoulder, staring up at the darkening sky.
The fight, the banter, even the laughter—all of it melted into a quiet lull when the city settled into late dusk. It didn't matter anymore. Silence settled over the group before their footsteps carried them farther into the city.
"I'll leave you here," Loona said at last, breaking it.
"Already? We're not even near your home," Inase frowned.
"It's fine. I can manage from here. I want to stop by the market. Knowing my sister, she's probably forgotten an ingredient or two. Better I grab it now than choke down another one of her… experiments."
Who would've thought Selena, the well-organized, sharp-tongued scientist, could have such a human flaw?
"I'll be fine," she added with a small smile. "The market's a safe zone. No monsters usually show up there."
"Alrighty then." The blonde said with mock solemnity. "Be careful when going back. Scream if you'll need us to—OW!"
He recoiled, hopping on one foot. His face twisted in pain. Loona had stomped down hard on his boot as she passed.
"What the hell are you putting in her boots? Lead?! They are heavy!"
"Oh! I-I'm so sorry!" she squeaked, cheeks flushing, "Do you need help? Is it broken?" and asked like the nurse should.
"No, no, I'm fine," he groaned, crouching to rub his foot. "Go, just… be careful not to step on me the second time!"
"O-okay. Bye!" The woman waved nervously, then hurried off, tripping unsubtly while she rounded the corner.
"..." Hosen gave his buddy a long, unimpressed look. "Are you sure we should let her go like that?"
"Yes—ouch." Inase hissed through gritted teeth, still massaging his foot. "I think she's more than capable of handling herself."
He glanced in the direction Loona had gone. Her frail frame betrayed nothing, but her steps had landed heavy, solid, like her boots were made with metal. Heavy and hard. If her skinny legs could lift that kind of weight, then she wasn't as fragile as she seemed.
"We should go home too. No point wanderin' around in the darkness." He stood up, trying to play the pain off with a stone expression.
"Argh—!!! Stay away!"
But before they could scurry home, they heard a man's desperate cry echoed through the building.
"I… guess we gotta stay here a little longer," Inase sighed.
"Mhm." Hosen didn't need to say more.
And thus, they darted off into the broken streets, chasing after the voice.
***
Meanwhile, Loona's steps quickened until the two men were out of sight. Then, at last, she slipped behind the jagged corner of a wall and leaned against it, drawing a steady breath.
Her brows knit together. Inase's teasing replayed in her mind, tugging a bitter smile to her lips.
"You've got the wrong guy, idiot…"
She admired how endlessly forward, fearless, reckless—but also how idiotically, hopelessly oblivious he could be sometimes.
The ruins around her whispered with the settling night. And then—
Rustle.
Her whole body stiffened.
The grass stirred nearby.
Instinct took over. In a blink, the shotgun was in her hands. Her glasses caught the faint glow of Saturn's reflection as her gaze sharpened into a predator's. The barrel snapped into place, steady, unshaking.
The air was still. Her finger rested steady on the trigger.
The intruder crept into view—small, hunched, skin pale and slick. One of the Things That Dissolve, dragging a void across the ground where it slithered. Dozens of tiny eyes on twitching stalks swiveled toward her at once.
Bang!
The shot rang out—sharp, final. Not able to crawl out even halfway, the creature's head split open, dissolving into nothing, its trail of emptiness collapsing in on itself.
Smoke curled from the barrel as Loona lowered the weapon, eyes cold behind her glasses. For all her nerves earlier, for all the shy chuckles and stumbles—here, in the dark, she was unflinching. A glint of a woman who was far stronger than she let anyone believe.
(1)*From: "The Beyond" by H.P. Lovecraft, 1934
(2)*From: "The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath" by H.P. Lovecraft, written in 1927, published in 1943
(3)*From: "The Shadow Out of Time" by H.P. Lovecraft, 1936