I. The Above

I. The Above

The sound of rumbling echoed in the distance.

I stepped out of the building I had taken shelter in. Dust stung my eyes, sharp as needles, forcing them half-shut as I moved forward. Step by step…slow, steady…as if the world hadn’t already fallen apart.

I wanted to believe nothing had changed. But it had.

The sky hung overhead, gray….like it had been painted with the sorrow of every living thing beneath it. People prayed. For mercy. For their lives. But no answer came. Only silence, heavy and absolute.

Agony twisted inside them. Their minds unraveled, driven by a single instinct: survive.

They wore composure like a mask, standing tall where they could, but it was fragile. One more mistake, and it would shatter.

So they prayed again. To whatever lingered above.

“Please… grant us mercy for our sins. Spare us.”

They pray until they ran out of air in their lung, what they didn’t know is their prayers are in vein…because this is the punishment they get from the above.

• uthor101, 14/04/2026