Jazz Lawrence held her hands over her ears to block out the wails and cries of her neighbors and people outside as they fled to avoid capture by the aliens. The walls of her hideout were quite solid, as were the walls of her home, yet the sounds still penetrated. Jazz’s body quivered with an overwhelming sense of terror as she desperately sought refuge from the cacophony of agonizing screams and cries.

Overnight, the sudden descent of the Demonbruens on Earth unleashed an unanticipated wave of alien invasion, leaving behind a trail of devastation and pandemonium.

Almost a week had gone by, but it was a night Jazz would never forget. She huddled in the corner of the makeshift panic room that her father had built. Merely a week prior, life had been normal. Now, all she yearned for was a mere echo of her parents’ voices once more, to continue the argument with them about completing her medical training, and to listen to her father’s daily condescending remarks.

Alas, that was gone forever.

They were gone…

Her father for sure…

Her mother?

Could she ever find her?

Save her from those monsters?

She would die trying…

When Jazz closed her eyes, her mother’s screams echoed through her mind. The Demonbruens had taken her mom that first day of the invasion. Her screams had alerted Jazz that something was not right, and she had rushed from her room and peeked over the upstairs railing. What she had seen would change her life forever. There were black-skinned aliens in her home and one of them held her mother against him as she tried to reach for her husband.

With trembling limbs, Jazz shut her eyes tightly, still haunted by the memory of her mother’s shrill cries fading away as the aliens snatched her away on that fateful first day of the onslaught.

The Demonbruens, Demons, as Earth’s inhabitants called them, called themselves Bruens. Many of them had similar features, square jaws, black onyx skin, and unusual dark eyes with swirling teal centers. Their height ranged from six and a half to seven feet of solid muscle covered with metal armor. They looked extremely primitive. Their headgear sported long curved horns on both sides. Other Bruens appeared to be a blending of part machine and man. But their faces were the same, with minute differences in the colors of their eyes. The one holding her mother stood out. That one had the whitest hair she’d ever seen, scars on his face, and one eye was almost completely closed from thick scar tissue. Thick leather bands interlaced with some type of animal teeth were bound around his right upper arm. The left was covered in a shoulder plate that extended to his wrist.

In a brilliant flash of light, the alien and her mother were suddenly gone. Her father had fought the one remaining creature only for it to strike him with a clawed hand the size of a sledgehammer that sent him flying across the room. He had landed at the foot of the stairs, his sightless eyes gazing up at her. It was an indelible image etched into Jazz’s consciousness, destined to haunt her…

Her gasp had alerted the other creature of her presence because he’d glanced up just as she carefully backed away. Jazz had quietly crawled to the hall closet that had been converted into a panic room by her father, a security specialist with the government.

Alone in the dark space, she had cried silently, tears trailing down her cheeks, pooling between her fingers, before sliding down to her t-shirt. The wooden floor vibrated as the creature’s heavy footsteps pounded and moved from room to room, searching. She knew he was looking for the source of the human sound and almost gave away her hiding spot when the splintering of the closet door ripped from its hinges penetrated the small space. Jazz held her breath, hoping the false panel she hid behind was enough. After not detecting her, he was gone minutes later. She had never felt so scared and alone in her life.

Jazz had stayed in the panic room throughout the day, finally venturing down to cover her father, her tears choking her as she forced herself to look at his broken body. A man always so full of life, a life that was snuffed out in seconds.

Fueled by relentless hunger, she made her way through the dimly lit hallway toward the kitchen, her steps purposeful, yet she remained cautious and focused on the task at hand, reaching for food and water. The piercing flashes of light that seeped in through the windows were a stark reminder of the war raging outside.

She retreated to her refuge and swiftly consumed the banana and apple, washing them down with a gulp of water.

As twilight descended upon her neighborhood, Jazz went back downstairs and braced herself to confront the sight of her father’s lifeless body sprawled at the foot of the staircase. For a few moments she lifted the blanket and closed his eyelids to hide his sightless eyes. With a heavy heart, she fought back tears that blurred her vision, swallowing hard against the lump in her throat. She kissed him on the forehead and whispered a soft goodbye, then covered his face again. Gently, she fetched and spread her mother’s cherished rug beneath his motionless form, wrapping him in its familiar embrace before dragging the bundle out to the backyard. There, beneath the solemn gaze of the sky, she dug his final resting place, her tears mingling with the soil as she laid him to rest beneath the quiet umbrella of the large oak tree. Darkness descended and the stars twinkled down on the mound of dirt and the young woman kneeling beside it murmuring a quiet prayer and farewell.