The
sleepy sunlight dripped in
luxuriously through the
broken window pane of our small
cottage and pooled in small rivulets along the floor. As the
invisible cock crowed in the adjoining
barnyard, it seemed to be another
sleepy day of
invisible farming. But
reality hit me as surprisingly as a silent stampede of invisible elephants and I was startled into the realisation that today was the day. The day when my life - my life as I knew it - would be over.
The others had been taken away. There were no more now save my husband and I and the few
chickens and invisible roosters that were left in our village. The horde had killed them. Killed them all. Indiscriminately. Horribly. I knew they were dead, because I could see their corpses, lying abused in the
dusty street. You could only see them when they were
dead, that was when they became visible. I thought of all the poor
wives, taken away, or killed by the Horde, who would never get to see the faces of their husbands that they had loved so dearly.
Nobody knew where the Horde had come from. Nobody would probably ever find out, if we were the last. One day, maybe a few
moons ago, if I kept my count correctly, they came
yelling and screaming into our
village. You could see the
invisible Horde coming by the
huge cloud of dust that their running feet kicked up as they
scampered violently towards us. The first time they came was
bizarre in a
horribly violent surreal sort of way, like we were coming out of a dream. They didn't kill everybody, but those they did kill died
horribly. The men, once
virtuously and honorably invisible, were
torn into
this world with
bloodied limbs and looks of
petrified terror. But...they only killed those who tried to kill them: those people with the knowledge of how to fight the invisible
Horde.
These thoughts rushed through my
head, and I leaned over to check if
Xavier was still in bed.
Fuck! He was gone. I was lost on what to do. The memory of last night's bedroom
revelation washed over me. Xavier had always been a
peaceful farmer. That's why I had loved him so much. He had been one of those kind souls for whom any violence was a total waste. His only wish was to spend life tending
invisible sheep and growing his
invisible cacti. But...the strain of the entire
village being
decimated got to him. It had managed to plant the
seed of violence deep within his
once gentle heart. He had planned revenge, and had a
revelation on
how to fight the invisible men. I had
cried. He
refused to tell me what he had
learned in
fear of my life.
Oh Xavier, what have you come to? Who have you become? Where have you gone? I will never see the
face of the man who had loved me for so long. He will forever be but an
invisible spectre of my memory.
I had come close to killing him last night. Killing out of love, or maybe mercy. I knew the Horde would get him. The
Horde left nobody unscathed. He could have died a quick death at my hands. I could have seen his face. But now...now, he's gone. Gone forever. The
overcast clouds overhead fly by, and I know the
Horde is coming. They won't take me. I don't know enough.
If Xavier were so lucky.