"They say stay calm. But the calm is what's killing us."
— intercepted radio log
——————————————————-
The clouds had rolled in fast. Not gray. Not blue. Just black.
By noon, it looked like evening. By two, it looked like the end of something.
Nyra stood at the window, arms crossed, hoodie sleeves tugged over her hands. Her breath fogged the glass, but the sky stayed bone dry. A single bolt of lightning cracked across the sky — silent, bright enough to bleach the color from the buildings — and then faded like it had never been there.
Still no rain. Still no thunder.
Storms don't do this, she thought.
She wasn't afraid of storms. She liked them. Grew up watching them from her bedroom window with her mom, counting the seconds between flash and boom. There was something clean about the chaos. Predictable. This wasn't that.
Nyra stepped back from the window, locking it — again — and turned away.
"This is fine," she said out loud. "Totally normal end of days energy. Very chill." She paced. Back and forth, between the couch and the kitchen. She'd already triple checked her go bag. Phone? Charged. Flashlight? Working. Knife? Still there. Water, snacks, extra socks — yep.
And yet she kept moving. Like if she stopped, the stillness might catch her too.
Like it caught the others.
Another bolt of lightning lit the room through the curtain. Still no thunder. Just a flicker. Like something brushing too close to the edge of the world.
Nyra flinched this time. "Okay," she muttered. "What are we doing, What's the plan?"
The apartment didn't answer. The fridge hummed as usual. But the sound stuttered — not off, just… wrong. A single pitch stretched too long, like someone trying to remember how appliances are supposed to sound.
She looked at the hallway. Then back at the window. Then at the door.
She didn't want to go outside. But the power had just glitched — twice. And something told her if she stayed much longer, the next time it might not turn back on.
Her phone buzzed. A notification this time — social media. Trending post.
"THE WORLD ENDED A WEEK AGO. WE JUST HAVEN'T REALIZED YET."
— @xxx | 4.1M reposts, 2.3M likes
Under it, replies stacked fast.
"why does this feel true"
"anyone else seeing static in the corners of rooms?"
"the moon blinked at me lol"
"repent now"
"y'all i'm scared fr. nothing makes sense anymore."
"someone tell me this is a joke"
"let me tell you about our lord and savior jesus chri-"
Nyra stared at it. Almost wanting to chuckle, but couldn't. It was too real.
As her fingers hovered over the screen. She noticed the way the letters looked — not the words, the letters. They felt wrong. Like they were… rearranging when she blinked.
She locked the screen and shoved the phone into her hoodie pocket.
"Alright, yeah. Definitely time to go." She grabbed her bag off the counter and walked towards the front door. The hallway light flickered once. Then again. But slower — like it wasn't flickering from power loss. Like it was… blinking.
She froze. No one was there. No shadows. No footsteps. But something felt stretched — like the hallway was a little too long now. A little too flat. Like the edges of reality had been drawn by a tired hand.
Nyra backed up slowly, breath caught high in her chest. "Okay.. fire escape it is."
She turned toward the window. Outside, the sky cracked open again — blinding. Nyra shoved the window up, hauled her bag through, and climbed out into the dark, still air.
No wind. No rain. Just a sky that looked like it wanted to fall.