Entry for Harris Burdick contest on GaiaOnline. The picture was "The Harp", and the quote was "So it's true, he thought, it's really true."

I will most likely take this down and edit it, because there is much more that I wanted to add but couldn't. I don't know, though. NaNo is coming up, so I'm going to be busy with that throughout November.

The title came from the song "A Modern Myth" by 30 Seconds to Mars. It was one of the list of songs that helped inspire this story.

Prologue

The man was frightened. He stared frozen across the stream, his German Shepard barking wildly beside him. Spreading up the water in the pristine East Woods, the water turned a shade of deep red. This can't be happening, the man thought. This isn't real.

He stared at the Harp, perched on a rock on the opposite side of the stream. He stared at the body beside it, further back than the Harp. He stared at all the cuts and gashes that covered the body. And he stared at the face--the only untouched piece of the body: he stared at the ordinary brown hair; the ordinary nose and mouth; and he stared at the eyes, the blue eyes that fogged for a brief moment, then cleared to glass.

This is how the story begins. This is how the world ends.

So it's true, he thought. It's really true.