We’re changing things up for a bit! Please enjoy this story The Day the Universe Stood Iffy, in 10 (?) installments.

10.
The universe rarely sends a message when everything is about to change, when it’s going to send a fireball of radiation or a massive comet with bad intentions.

This time was a little different, at least for Taryn, who, walking home on an exceptionally starry night despite the city light pollution, found herself distracted by a strange arrangement of light. While far from an expert, it didn’t seem, to Taryn, to be a constellation, not one she’d seen before.
If she squinted, and she didn’t have to squint very hard, she would swear the stars made out the shape of the number ten.

She gave it a shrug, and onward she trudged, through the squeaky door of her three flat, and up the groaning stairs to her apartment.

She unlocked the door, the lock always a little tricky, reached to hang her purse on the hook and turned on the light. Her bag hit the floor with a combination thunk and clatter.

Whether it was better to believe what she was seeing or believe she’d lost it entirely, she wasn’t sure. The entirety of her small living room, from the sofa to the TV, floor to ceiling, was filled with a glowing, pulsating ten, the surface transparent but rainbowed, the colors flowing in random directions. Holding a hand toward it, it bent away from her touch. It had no heat, no smell, no sense of energy at all and yet there it was.

Whatever it was, it had started.

Until next time…