Rrring... Rrring...
A calm ringtone played softly, even inside Noren's dream. He moved a little, still half asleep, but the music made him nod his head gently.
After a few minutes, he slowly opened his eyes, let out a long yawn, and rubbed his face. He reached for his phone on the table beside the bed.
Tap... Tap...
"Fifty-five missed calls? Jeffy, seriously?" Noren sat up, now more awake.
Something didn't feel right. Jeffy had never called him this many times before.
"We talked about everything last night. Did I forget something? Was Jeffy trying to remind me?" Noren thought.
He tried to call Jeffy back—but just then, another call came in.
Jeffy.
Without waiting, Noren quickly pressed "answer."
"Sorry, man. I was just really tired, that's why I didn't answer your calls. Please don't be mad," Noren said with a small smile.
But there was no reply.
"Hello?" Noren asked again.
Still nothing.
"It's not even 10:30 yet. I packed everything already. Jeffy? Your silence… is that your way of saying you're mad?"
Before he could say more, the call ended.
He called again.
The number you are trying to reach is switched off.
Noren frowned. That was strange. He was used to missing calls because of sleep, but Jeffy never ignored him. He always picked up within a few rings.
"Something's wrong," Noren whispered.
"Why would Jeffy call me fifty-five times instead of calling the police? Was it auto redial? Or… was he trying to reach only me?"
Noren opened his laptop and quickly used it to track Jeffy's phone.
A few minutes later—
"Found it... Wait for me, Jeffy. I'm coming."
He rushed to the bathroom, washed his face, brushed his teeth, and finished in five minutes.
He opened the fridge, grabbed a milk bottle, and drank more than half. Then he left his apartment.
As he locked the door, he paused.
"Why is it so quiet?" he whispered.
He lived on the third floor. He pressed the elevator button.
Out of service.
"Of course," he muttered. "Great timing."
He ran down the stairs and reached the parking lot. But once again, something felt off.
"…Where is everyone?"
No cars. No bikes. No people.
He got into his car, started the engine, and left.
Even the roads were empty.
"No traffic? On a weekend?" he said to himself. "Where did everyone go?"
Was he still dreaming?
He lightly punched his own face.
"Ouch." It hurt.
He almost lost control of the car for a second but steadied it quickly. Then he sped up.
Soon, he reached the location where Jeffy's phone had last been active.
It was a quiet place with a small petrol station. On both sides of the road were large cornfields.
Still… not a single person.
"This doesn't feel right," he said softly.
He turned off the engine and got out of the car, holding his phone in one hand to keep tracking.
He walked slowly until he saw something on the ground. A black object.
He got closer.
"It's Jeffy's phone..."
He picked it up.
It was off.
"Switched off? Or did it just die?" he wondered.
He reached into his pocket, took out a power bank, and plugged the phone in.
As it charged, he walked around the area, looking for any sign of Jeffy—or anyone else.
His fear grew stronger. He kept thinking about Jeffy more than his own safety.
"Why is every place I go completely empty? Did I fall into a coma? Am I… dead?"
He shook his head. "No. I felt pain. I'm still alive. But... why is this happening?"
Suddenly, his pocket vibrated.
He jumped from the shock.
Jeffy's phone had turned on.
"Finally," Noren said with relief.
He tapped the screen. A password was needed.
He tried two random numbers. Wrong.
Then he stopped and thought.
"…Could it be?"
He typed in 0000.
Unlocked.
He sighed. "It worked."
He opened the call history. The first call was made by Jeffy himself. The rest were auto redials.
Time passed as Noren scrolled through the phone. He almost forgot that he was still alone in an empty world.
"Oh Jeffy... what happened to you?" Noren whispered.
He opened the gallery and went to the recent videos. There was one video—2 minutes and 19 seconds long.
He tapped the info icon. The date was today.
Then he tapped play.
A few seconds in, Jeffy's face appeared on the screen, eyes wide, voice shaking.
"What th—"
His finger hovered over the play button. Then, he tapped it.
The screen lit up.
Jeffy's face appeared. Pale, sweating, shaking.
"Noren... I was just heading out to grab some groceries. Then—people started getting pulled into the sky. At first, it was a soft purple light... then others. Different colors. Like... they were choosing who to take."
The camera shook. Jeffy turned the phone, showing the sky.
Faint beams of light were descending—violet, crimson, gold, green, and pitch black. Each one reached the ground like tendrils, pulling people upward like puppets with invisible strings.
People screaming. Then silence.
Jeffy's voice came back, faster, shaking harder.
"It wasn't just random. The colors… they picked. One person for violet. Another for red. Then gold. Everyone was taken by a color. Everyone... except me."
A horrible sound cut through the video. A metallic shriek, like metal bending and bones breaking at the same time.
Jeffy gasped. "Something's here. Something's coming. I don't know what it wants—but it's not human. Noren, if you see this... don't come looking for me. Please. Don't—"
The video glitched—red static flickered across the screen.
Jeffy looked behind him. His eyes widened in terror.
The video cut off.
Black screen.
Noren stared at the phone, hands cold.
"What the hell did you get pulled into, Jeffy...?"
Noren stared at the phone screen long after the video ended. Jeffy's voice, filled with fear, still echoed in his ears. The lights... the people... being sucked into the sky.
Each light picking someone. Each color choosing its own.
And Jeffy—the one left behind.
His hands were shaking now. He glanced up at the sky, half-expecting to see a faint light reaching down for him too.
Nothing yet.
But his fear wasn't gone. It had taken root deep in his chest. Every flicker, every shimmer of sunlight on the windshield made his heart jump.
"What if one of those lights comes for me?" he whispered.
His breathing grew heavier. Panic rising.
Noren jumped back into his car, slammed the door shut, and started the engine. His hands clutched the steering wheel tight as he sped off, tires screeching over the empty road.
He didn't know where he was going—he just needed to move. Far from that phone. Far from the cornfields. Far from the silence that had swallowed the world whole.
But as the road twisted and turned, so did his thoughts. His mind filled with confusion, terror, loneliness. His brain was screaming questions he couldn't answer.
Why was Jeffy left behind? Why was I the only one here now? What are those lights? What if I'm next?
The fear made him dizzy.
His fingers went numb. He could barely feel the wheel. His vision blurred, like the world around him was spinning. His foot pressed harder on the gas pedal without thinking.
Then—
CRASH.
The car spun out of control.
It swerved off the road, tires skidding over wet soil, smashing through a weak fence.
With a loud bang, it crashed down into a crown paddy field, flipping once before landing upside-down in the muddy field.
Smoke hissed from the hood. The front windshield cracked like a spiderweb.
Silence.
A few minutes passed before the broken car door creaked open.
Noren slowly crawled out, body shaking. Mud covered his clothes. Blood trickled from a cut on his forehead. He took two weak steps forward, stumbled—and then everything went dark.
His body collapsed in the wet field, unconscious.