A Galon-Reach Horror Vignette

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Before Galon-Reach fell silent, before the transmissions cut out, one colonist saw what was waiting in the dark beyond the orchards.
This is what happened the night the lights went out.

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Galon-Reach, Outer Reaches

The power died at 02:17, and with it, the entire colony exhaled its last sense of safety.

Layna Varos had just finished locking down the hydroponics bay when the first flicker hit. A ripple of dimming lights rolled across the valley like a wave. Lamps guttered. Tower beams thinned to threads. The glow from the crystalline trees outside faded as if some invisible hand smothered them.

Then everything went black.

Not dim. Not low-light.
Total. Dead. Darkness.

The kind that made you aware of your own heartbeat.

Layna stood perfectly still. Even her breath felt too loud. The night was supposed to hum with life — soft insect clicks, the glide-wings settling in their nests, the distant whirr of recyclers.

But now the world was silent.
Hollow.
Wrong.

She tapped her wrist-comm.

“Control, Bay Six. Full power loss in the orchard sector. Acknowled—”

Static.

Not random static.
There was a pattern under it — a faint, rhythmic click-click-click, like teeth tapping against glass.

Layna lowered the comm slowly.

A breeze drifted through the orchard rows. The crystalline leaves shivered.
In the distance, something stepped between the trees.

Not an animal.
Not a colonist.
The sound was too deliberate. Too heavy.

She turned toward the noise, squinting into the dark.

At first she saw nothing but silhouettes of trees.
Then one of those silhouettes straightened.
Lengthened.
Separated from the trunk it had blended into.

A shape stepped forward into the faint starlight.

A tall, muscular, impossibly dark humanoid figure. Skin like polished obsidian. Limbs long and underlit by coiled muscle. Fingers ending in curled, predatory hooks.

And eyes.

Twin, glowing ember-red eyes burned like coals in a furnace.

Layna’s throat tightened.

The creature didn’t blink. The glow inside its eyes pulsed faintly, as if the thing were breathing through them. Its face stretched into a permanent, lipless smile — rows of serrated teeth gleaming like wet bone.

The thing tilted its head.

The motion was slow.
Curious.
Like it was studying her.

Another footstep — closer — sounded off to her right.

Layna turned her head just enough to see another pair of red eyes floating between the trees.
Then another pair behind her.
Then two more.

Her heartbeat went from steady to frantic.

That was when she ran.

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The Shed

Layna sprinted across the clearing, boots slipping on damp grass. She slammed shoulder-first into the utility shed’s metal door and clawed blindly for the latch.

Her fingers found it just as something large brushed the orchard ground behind her.

She dove inside, threw her weight into the door, and dragged the nearest crate against it.
Her lungs burned.
Her hands shook.

Outside, the footsteps continued.

Slow.
Patient.
Circling.

Layna squeezed her eyes shut. She could hear her pulse pounding in her ears.

Then came the scrape.

A long, drawn-out metal-on-metal whisper as something dragged its claws across the shed wall. Not frantic. Not testing for weakness.

Tracing it.
Mapping it.
Learning it.

The scrape moved along the entire left wall, then up toward the roof. The metal roof flexed slightly — just enough to let Layna know something heavy was climbing overhead.

She dug her nails into her palms and forced herself not to scream.

Another scrape.
Right above her.

Then nothing.

Silence returned, thick and suffocating.

Layna’s breath trembled.

She tried to convince herself they were gone — until something pressed gently against the door.
A soft push.
Then another.

The crate slid half an inch across the floor.

She froze.

The pressure increased. The metal door buckled slightly inward, bending around invisible fingers.

Layna stumbled backward, tripping over the breaker panel. Pain shot through her elbow, but she barely felt it.

Outside, a low, guttural sound vibrated through the doorframe.

Not a growl.
Not a roar.

A voice.

Trying to form a word.

“…in…sside…”

The syllables rasped like they’d been chewed through serrated teeth.

Layna slapped both hands over her mouth.

The door bent further. The crate toppled.
Cold air leaked through widening cracks.

Then, with a sudden thunk, something struck the roof hard enough to rain dust onto her shoulders.

Followed by another impact.
And another.

Multiple creatures were dropping onto the shed from above.

The roof groaned under their weight.

Layna whimpered.

She crawled backward until her spine hit the breaker panel again. Pain radiated down her side, but she couldn’t move. Couldn’t look away from the door as the metal began to split.

A claw pierced through first — long, curved, black as midnight. It curled downward, pulling the metal aside like peeling fruit.

A second claw joined it.
Then a third.

The door tore open with a sound like a dying scream.

Something stepped through the gap.

It ducked its elongated head beneath the buckled frame, red eyes flaring brighter with each breath. Its body filled the doorway — broad shoulders, narrow waist, elongated arms ending in claws long enough to reach the floor.

It straightened inside the shed, towering over her.

Its smile widened.

Layna tried to crawl backward, but there was nowhere left to go.

The creature’s eyes burned like twin suns in the dark, illuminating its twisted grin — teeth jagged, endless, perfectly wrong.

It leaned down until its breath washed over her face, hot and sharp, like something molten.

Layna’s scream never escaped her throat.

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Aftermath

When the power returned eighteen minutes later, the shed stood exactly as it had before — except the door hung peeled open, the floor was slick with something dark and wet, and a single black claw was embedded in the wall like a signature.

The colony perimeter sensors triggered an alert moments later.

For the first time since their arrival, the system tagged an apex predator.

The file simply labeled it:

UNKNOWN.
HOSTILE.
EYES: RED.

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“The Night the Lights Went Out” is a standalone teaser from the universe of The Fall of Galon-Reach, my upcoming sci-fi horror novel. No spoilers — just a glimpse of the night paradise learned it was being hunted.