Those who don't remember the past are doomed to repeat it. But so are those who do.

It is a pleasant Sunday morning.
Reaching her hand out to shut down her bedside alarm, May lazily rolls off her bed, her hair messily thrown over her face as always. Shoving strands aside, May swipes across lines of messages from her friends, all wishing each other a good night. Timestamps all from over 12AM. Yeah, last night was a blast. May yawns as she drags herself into the bathroom and heats up the water. Nothing beats the winter cold better than a warm morning shower, she thinks, as she dresses up and ties her hair into a bun.
May dances down the flight of stairs, humming a soft rhythm along the way. Sliding the kitchen door open, May is greeted with the delicious smell of pancakes and bacon. Two others are also in the kitchen, beaming at her.
"Morning, sweetie. You are early today."
"Morning, Mom. It'd be a waste to sleep in on such a beautiful day" May smiles, suddenly realizing an absence. "Where's Dad?"
"Oh, he had to leave early. Said there were important things to deal with. Strange weather or something." Mom chuckles. "Sometimes I honestly wonder if he's working at a research institute or a fantasy nerd club."
"Ha, could be." May pulls out a chair and sits down by her young brother. Mom brings each of them a glass of milk. They have breakfast and talk about silly things. May is happy. Life is peaceful, and she wishes it to stay like this forever.
There was a deafening bang, and before the sound reached their ears, the light from outside the window scorched their eyes and vaporized them into nothingness.

May snaps upright from her comforting bed, sweat pouring profusely from her face. She scrambles up towards the window and forces open the curtains. Typical sight for a winter morning, nothing odd or out of place. A car is parked in front of the house.
It was just a nightmare, May reassures herself, her breathing still heavy. She reaches for the phone that she knocked over in her panic, swiping through the messages again. Yeah, it was just a nightmare, probably not a good idea to watch horror movies before bed, May smiles as she sends a playful blame to her friends. She throws the phone aside and begins her morning routine.
"Morning, hon. You look exhausted."
"Morning, Dad. Probably from staying up too late."
"It's not bad to stay up every now and then. Prepares you for future sleepless nights working on papers and stuff." Dad winks at her.
They sit down and have breakfast, and her dad begins to talk about his strange encounters again. May is intrigued by how her dad always makes it so immersive and believable, even if she is wondering if he has been playing too much DnD like Mom said in her dream.
Another strange encounter occurred that morning, and the stories were cut off by a new Sun rising in the middle of the town, obliterating everything it touches.

May snaps upright from her comforting bed, sweat pouring profusely from her face.
Something isn't right.
She scrambles to the window again. Still a normal sight for a winter morning. May is in shock. What is happening? Is this some kind of future prediction, or telepathic warning? She sits back down on her bed, face in her hands, trying to comprehend the sheer incomprehensibility of what just happened to her.
May skips her morning routine, wraps a jacket over her pajamas, then hurries down the stairs, past the kitchen, towards the front door.
"Morning, sweet- Wait, where are you going?"
She opens the door and is greeted with a barrage of freezing winds in her face. Coughing up the snow in her mouth, May turns her gaze upon the sky. Something is definitely not right. Behind the thin layers of winter clouds, she can make out the faint, ever-changing silhouettes near the horizon. More like masses of shapeshifting colors, colors that are definitely not normal for a sky color. As she is stunned by the odd sight, her dad walks up behind her. His mouth drops a bit.
"This… this is not normal. Wait a minute, I'll be right back."
She watches as he runs back into the house, pulling out his phone and dialing someone. Within minutes, he returns with her dumbfounded mom and brother, not understand anything that's going on. There's barely anything happening, anyways, just your typical color-and-shape-shifting-thingy in the sky. Her dad shoves all of them, still in pajamas and thin jackets, into the car and drives away from town, looking very concerned. However, May, in the front seat, can see in his eyes that he doesn't know what to do. Maybe this is nothing more than a weather phenomenon and her dad is worrying everyone over nothing.
Her thoughts, along with her family's, and also their car, are completely wiped off in an instant. The last thing any of them ever saw was a blinding white light.

May snaps upright from her comforting bed, and instantly knows that something is extremely wrong. Without any thought, without scrambling to the window, without even putting on a jacket, May finds herself at the kitchen door, screaming at everyone to get out of the house. Her dad isn't there. He has left early again.
Screaming to no avail, she pulls at her mom's arm, drags her to the front door. But her mom is not, at all, worried by the thing in the sky as her dad was. May is desperate. With her mom looking at her as if she has gone nuts, she knows that it was pointless. May runs. Runs as fast as she can, ignoring her mom yelling at her from behind. She runs past houses, past people moving in the opposite way, past the occasional vehicles that pass by. Her legs are in pain. She keeps running. At times, she runs into people that she knows, friends and neighbors alike, no one has any idea why she is running away. No matter what they ask, her only response is, "Run." She keeps running on the snow-covered path, for what seems like eternity.
It was finite, however. All that's left of her is a faint shadow on the nearby wall, which is later washed away by torrents of poisoned and filth-filled rain.

May snaps upright, and runs downstairs.
Her dad is there.
Without a word, she brings him to the front door. It worked. At the sight of the sky, her dad immediately escorts her clueless family to the car. The engine comes to life, and off they go. Her mom and her brother keep asking questions, and all she is able to respond is "We need to leave." Her dad is no better. He appears to be in deep shock, sweat pouring from his pale face. He looks as if he has seen some kind of otherworldly eldritch horror. Maybe he has.
They keep driving, and driving, and driving. They reach the town border. They keep driving, driving, and crash into something. A transparent, no, invisible barrier. Encasing the whole entire town. As she gazes helplessly into the road beyond, her dad frantically scrambles through his phone, calling for help forces.
This time, May actually had a split second to look at the light, before her eyeballs are torn off from her face. She briefly writhes in agony as her skin melts away from her twisted flesh and bones, tainting the once-white snow.

May snaps upright, and there was light. Her blood splatters onto the invisible wall, drop by drop joining each other.
And again, there was more light. Her flesh melds into her mom's, with the bones of her brother smearing over.
Once more, another blinding light. May's organs burn her inside out, fixing her to the once comfortable bed.
Not enough, here's more light. The demons slip through the makeshift barricade in her garage, toy with her mind and feast on her flesh.
She stands inside it. There is only light. Nothing else.
It keeps repeating over and over, the endless light slowly burning away the will of escaping in her.

May wakes up. She lies on her back, staring at the bland ceiling.
She sits up, peeks through the window curtains.
It is not just a small spot near the horizon anymore. They are all over the sky now. Masses of ever-changing shapes and colors, every time more chaotic than the last.
May smiles, teardrops forming in her eyes.
She looks down. Some people on the street appear to have noticed the signs of the end.
Of the light.
Maybe the light is the reason behind all of this.
Maybe the light has brought her an eternity of suffering.
She can't escape.
She can't fight against it.
She can't let herself succumb to the light anymore.
Her breaths shorten, drowned among muffled screams. Her hands fight each other to resist the urge to cling on to the light.
From the chair beneath her, one could see a shadow rocking back and forth.
At the end, there was light, keeping her shadow in place one last time.

Item Description: A nuclear snow globe. When shaken, instead of falling snow, it shows a miniature-scale nuclear explosion. It emits no radiation, sound, or force, and the explosion pattern changes every shake. Aftereffects such as radioactive snow and black rain have been observed. At random intervals, the snow globe will contain a small shed, car, or truck, which reacts to the explosion.
Date of Recovery: ██-██-████
Location of Recovery: Sokrovenno, Russia.
Current Status: In storage.