Chapter 1-1
288 Words
Chapter 1
It was afternoon, but with a sucking gasp of wind and air, the sky grew dark, bleaching to grey and green and sickly orange. The town below was large and wooden, miles away from nowhere and far too close to everything else. The breath of it froze, stretched, and the sky broke open.
A rift ripped its way across the cold air; the light inside was blinding-bright and phosphorescent green, inhaling the clouds and the grey.
It creaked—the town below creaked like a waking beast, stretching its muscles and old, splintering bones. There was a vague feeling of panic, of stilled feet and upturned faces, but nothing concrete, only the crack and groan of houses and buildings and anything nailed down.
The things that weren’t nailed down went first.
The refuse in the street, the dust of gardens, the washing—all were sucked into the sky. They whistled and flashed and were sucked into the blindness and then, only then, did people begin to be afraid.
They ran out into the street and watched the cobblestones float from beneath their feet and slowly, with a stretch and vicious suction, they, too, began to float.
Gravity was nothing, did no more than pull their bodies opposite, and they began to scream; great cracks sounded as bones shattered and houses wept and things were swept off, crashes, yells for family or help or gods…
To the watcher on a far-off hill, it was quiet. The silhouettes of debris and bodies rose against the sick light, ascending home. A spotlight shone on the town; the hills and fields and land around were death-silent and black-green.
Certainly, the time to act was soon, but she wasn’t afraid, couldn’t be afraid, because in things like this she was always safe, would always be…
- Writer
