Varya did her best to flee, but couldn't drive in a straight line anymore. Images of Rosh's body going limp made her judgment of the outside world cloudy and she ran off the road multiple times. Nausea kept welling up in her stomach, but she kept it contained.
"And now they have Kallo," she said to herself as she drove. Tears fell from her blue eyes and the force of the wind threw them back into her hair. She shook her head, trying to stop crying so she could see more clearly.
Within the city limits, she fell off of her bike after hitting a curb and tumbled to the sidewalk. Her knees were now in bad shape, bleeding and bruised, but she couldn't feel it and ran the rest of the way back to the Vance Estate.
Their gate was open, but upon getting to their front door, Varya entered the password wrong a few times. Her vision was blurry and she was struggling to breathe. When she finally succeeded, she burst through the front door and fell flat onto her stomach.
Her mom soon rushed to her side. "What happened, honey? Where's Kallo?"
No words came. Varya tried to tell her mom about Rosh and Kallo but the bloody images came back to her mind and she jumped away from Mrs. Vance so she could throw up. She was on her hands and knees heaving until nothing else came out.
Many might think Varya was overreacting, but these things don't happen every day to someone who normally lived such a pampered life.
Vance Corp would be hers one day. All she had to focus on was finishing her degree. Her father was already certain his daughter could continue advancing the company when it was her turn. Never in her life was she supposed to see or experience tragedy. It's not what her parents would have wanted. They sheltered her for her safety.
Mrs. Vance was once again by her side with a cold dish rag, wiping her daughter's sweaty and tear-stained face.
"Honey, you have to tell me what's wrong. What made you sick?"
Varya opened her trembling mouth but closed it again when no words could be formed. She squeezed her light-blue eyes shut.
"Please, honey…"
Dr. Vance, unaware of what had just happened to his daughter, ran into the kitchen looking paler than usual, his glasses fogging from the heat of his face as he caught his breath. He always donned a neat lab coat and tie, with his black hair parted to the side. There was something wrong considering his disheveled appearance.
"We need to go into lockdown!" he shouted and motioned to the stairs, barely noticing Varya on the floor.
"What? Why?" Mrs. Vance ran to her husband and grabbed his arms.
"Dear. Trust me," Dr. Vance looked down at his bride, his eyes pleading, "Some—"
He was abruptly cut off when something hit the front door of their house.
The door was slowly bending at its hinges and Dr. Vance grabbed Varya and his wife by the arms. "That's why!"
They only made it to a closet under their stairs, but it would have to do as a hiding spot for now.
They were in the closet for hours. It had to be very early in the morning at this point.
Varya was trying to fall asleep in the corner of the cramped space while her parents sat next to each other, discussing the situation. Her father kept mentioning aliens. He was certain aliens were the cause of all that had transpired.
Mrs. Vance gently rubbed Varya's back soothingly. It was supposed to make her feel better but all Varya could think about was the occasional loud noise coming from outside of the locked door. She could only imagine what was going on out there. Would what happened to Rosh and Kallo happen to her as well? She squeezed her eyes shut, unable to stop reliving what happened yesterday.
Whoever broke into the Vance's mansion hadn't found the storage room yet. It was camouflaged and seemingly just a blank wall under the stairs.
Varya didn't think there were aliens. Maybe her dad was overreacting. There couldn't be aliens - right? She was trying to reason with herself, knowing now she should have listened to her father in the first place.
"All we have to do is get to the shelter under the house. We have supplies there. They won't be able to find us. We have to-"
But his muttering was cut off. A loud explosion cracked the door of their hiding spot.
They had been found. A tall, skinny being opened the door and wouldn't stop laughing at their scared faces. Its skin reminded Varya of an alligator. It donned armor similar to what Varya had seen before, but this time it was a duller, grey metal than what Emperor Kruos wore. The alien seemed to get a sick pleasure from the Vance's pleas to stop.
As soon as it stopped laughing, it held up a scaled finger and pointed it towards Varya's parents. A bright light erupted from its finger like some kind of gun. It shot a blast at Dr. Vance that easily sliced through him and his wife who he had been trying to shield. They died almost immediately with their eyes still open and looks of fear permanently left on their faces. Where they were shot, their skin was blistered and burnt. Varya couldn't even comprehend what was happening. The sounds around her became muted and she had tunnel vision that allowed her to only see her parents.
Varya began and couldn't stop screaming when the disgusting alien pulled her out of the cover of the storage room by her hair. She struggled and tried to grab the alien's hand because it felt like her scalp was going to rip off. The alien dragged her across the remains of her house and to a small, grey spaceship that was going to take her to a location unknown.
Her struggling only stopped when she saw another alien drag her parents' bodies out of the closet by their legs. Silent tears dripped down her face. She felt everything and nothing at all. Her parents were her life. They died in front of her. She had no one left.
The alien let her go, seeing her sudden compliance as she stopped struggling.
However, her eyes still followed her parents being dragged away and time slowed down as they were carelessly tossed into a fire the aliens were discarding various object into.
The early morning sun peaking at the horizon gave her enough light to see the horrifying scene unfolding in front of her.
She suddenly screamed for her parents, but as she started to run, the alien hit her in the back of the head and she was out cold.
The alien troops were given the orders to take care of the silver-haired girl from Earth. They were not to touch her in any inappropriate way because Emperor Kruos had big plans for her in the near future.
Varya was transported to a ship that orbited around Earth while it waited for its men to return. She wasn't the only one being taken away. Thousands of humans were being imprisoned then transported to the ship as well. The spaceship was a silver sphere with many circular windows along the diameter. It was large enough that an entire city could fit into it.
Thankfully, for Varya's sake, she was still out cold when the Earth imploded. Emperor Kruos stood on top of the spherical ship as if the lack of oxygen was no problem for him. He held up his hands and Earth started collapsing in on itself. His actions were effortless. It wasn't his first time erasing a planet from existence, nor would it be the last.