Thousands of rain droplets hung in the air as if an invisible string were holding them midair, and left even the wind suspended.
In the night sky above, even the last streak of the blue, snaking lightning froze mid-coil across the cloudless sky, its glow trembling faintly like a paralysed snake.
At the roofs of the buildings spreading long from the walls of the barracks, three bats remained unmoving, their wings half-spread as their shadows remained locked against the light purple moonlight as though the night had been held by the neck.
On the road stretching long from the walls of Bion City, a lady wearing a yellow gown, hurrying back with a small sack filled with green and red vegetables hanging around her shoulder, stopped and stared at the frozen droplets of rain.
She blinked twice, brushed her left arm across her face, thinking her eyes were playing tricks on her. But after doing all that she could, she noticed the world itself was refusing to move.
