[b]WALKING THROUGH AN APOCALYPSE[/b]

The screams of death and agony, the gargantuan flames that destroy and devour everything in their path, the hot air filled with toxins and ashes, slowly and painfully smothering our lungs and killing us from within… Is this my doing? I feel sick, utterly disgusted with myself as I walk along the streets of the town that used to be so beautiful, but which is now rapidly falling into a ruin, never to be restored again for there will be no one left alive to do that. Corpses are lying on the ground, their bodies twisted and burned, stuck in the horrific scene of their last agonizing moment. Their dead eyes are silently judging me as I walk past them, but I can hear them cursing me in my soul. Some of these poor people died in the arms of their loved ones, forever embracing each other. I find this both soothing and grim. I just want to look away from it all, close my eyes and pretend that the visions in front of me are not real. But I am unable to do so. I simply cannot turn my gaze away from this total disaster I have caused and I feel such anguish ravaging me that I could not have ever imagined something this devastating could be possible.

Somewhere in the distance I can hear the cries of people who are still somehow alive. But I know they will face the same gruesome fate as those whose light of life has already been extinguished. Those poor unfortunate bastards, not only is their death more painful physically, but mentally as well. It is a horrid realization to know you are the last to remain of an entire human race and soon you will succumb to complete annihilation. I can hear them crying desperately, begging for help that will never come, shrieking the names of those they once loved with the last breath they got, and each of these cries are like a stake that will be hammered deeper and deeper into the core of my black heart. And I know I deserve every ounce of that pain.

My body exhausted from the unrelenting storm of emotions that swirl inside me like a mad vortex, I fall on my knees on the cracked asphalt. I cannot hold back the tears in my eyes, they are bitter and burn me as I weep. They blur my vision, but with the eye of my soul, I can still see the death and destruction around me, it has been etched into my very brain. But no matter how awfully guilty I feel, no matter how many tears I shed for my victims, it will not bring them back, it will not undo the suffering I have caused and it will not stop the demise of our world. And I know what I have witnessed here is just a small portion of the end; somewhere out there, all around our planet everyone is experiencing the same distress, misery and death. This is the ultimate downfall of our species and only I am to blame.

I cannot help but ponder, how am I still here? How am I still here breathing the air that turns my lungs black, how is my flesh still not burning from all the fire around me? Perhaps I am already dead, my mind just is unable to comprehend it. Perhaps I am a ghost of a dead world. Perhaps this is my punishment, and I am doomed to wander the hell I personally created for all eternity. If it could reset the result of my deeds, I would gladly take any chastisement the people of this world would wish upon me and be tormented until the very universe would collapse. If there is a higher entity watching over us, it is twisted and laughing at us now and condemning me into an existence of nothing but pure agony. Am I just a bitter memory of mankind?

The smoke is rising higher and without even thinking about it, I watch how it slithers towards the heavens and before even realizing it, I am face to face with the sight that haunts every single living thing in this world in their final moments. The sky is nothing but a blazing inferno, it is the fire of a star I accidentally killed because of my damned curiosity. Pieces of the star are raining over the world, inflicting even more damage on its dying surface. This sight burns my eyes, but it is strangely mesmerizing, and I sluggishly rise on my feet again, my gaze fixed at the sky ablaze. I walk forward but I keep watching the fire of a star, observing how it destroys the world I knew and ultimately casts me into a state where I am forced to relive the calamity I unleashed because of one fatal mistake, perhaps forever.



[b]WHISPERS OF A SERPENT[/b]

There was something unspeakably beautiful about the way the night sky presented itself above Cedric's head; small twinkling stars were falling towards the ground, but sort of in a playful way, like a brand-new adventure was waiting for them. This was a sight Cedric had witnessed once before in his life, back in the day when he had been a little boy who had snuck out of the house during the night, only to be amazed by something so extraordinary. The fond memory made him smile as he gazed at the sky, stopping his journey just to admire this stunning yet odd occurrence he didn't understand. But it didn't matter. You didn't have to understand something to enjoy it and he was aware that no man could know everything there was to know about the world. He just stood in his place for a while, in the middle of a road that ran along a sparkling river with clear water. And deep within his soul, he could feel harmony, like he was in tune with the whole world at that short moment.

Aside from a faint breeze that was gently rustling the leaves and the relentless flow of water singing its song, the world around him was silent. Peaceful. However, after a moment had passed, he could hear a quiet voice talking to him: “Why have we stopped?”

It was like a whisper, a little hoarse voice that still seemed to have unexplainable strength behind it, coming right by Cedric's side.

“Hush, Lithcer”, the man calmly told his hidden companion. “We're not in any hurry.”

“I know”, Lithcer replied with a rather monotonous tone, something that had become quite familiar to Cedric during his travels. “Her patience is endless. But why are we just standing here, in the middle of nothing?”

“It's a simple human thing, my friend”, Cedric said. “When we find beauty in our world, we want to stop for a while, to make it part of ourselves and marvel that we belong to a plane of existence where it's possible that such beauty exists.”

“Bah, you humans and your senseless way of perception.” As usual, Lithcer's tone remained monotonous, but even so, Cedric could detect a tiny hint of derision behind it.

The man chuckled a little bit. “Both you and me, we are part of nature.”

Lithcer stayed unresponsive for a little while and Cedric was fine with that. However, then the man could hear his whispers again: “Perhaps you're right about that one. But I fear her eyes, Cedric, and I know you do too. If she catches us just wasting time… She may not be pleased; it shakes my very scales. She is patient, but she won't understand your… human sentimentality. We need to get going. I think we're still far from Skygold Town.”

It was Lithcer's turn to be right and Cedric was well aware that his companion's concerns were serious. Even though the man had a bit more carefree nature than Lithcer, even while fully acknowledging that they weren't traveling just out of joy, he respected Lithcer's input in keeping everything on track. Cedric lowered his gaze from the night sky and continued to walk forward. He was content with what he had just experienced as it reminded him of his younger days and how he had always wanted to explore the world. And now, years later, here he was, actually living the way of life he had dreamed about as a boy.

Though things hadn't really gone the way he had expected, having Lithcer now as his companion was a constant reminder of that. His life had taken an unexpected turn, and at the same time, it was both exciting and terrifying. And he had no idea where it would go from here. But maybe that unpredictability was exactly what Cedric wanted.



[b]WE SUFFER SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO[/b]

A group of little kids were playing in the fields, just at the edge of the village. Their innocent laughter filled the warm summer air and their youthful playfulness was observed by a handful of adults that lived in the same village, wearing smiles on their faces as they recalled the days when they had been doing the same thing, just having fun together, not having worries in the world. It was a beautiful bright day and it seemed like the sun in the sky was blessing the little village with its light, which really wasn't far away from the truth. It would stay in the heavens for hours until finally it would be its time to set and disappear for a while. People of the village would go back to their homes to rest for the night, content and expecting to see the sun again tomorrow.

Not far away from the village, a town was located. A simple little place, but rather flourishing, mostly thanks to its port, used by the local fishermen and foreign visitors alike. Around the town's outskirts, fields of grains dominated the scene, along with the houses of farmers and windmills. Just like the sun, the winds were considered a blessing around here. Even that night, they were blowing throughout the town and the sea, spinning the windmills and offering their power to the ships and boats of those people who were out in the open water, grateful for the gusts that were blowing and aiding them in their journeys on the surface of the water.

Somewhere in the middle of these two places, a lone traveler was walking along a road, coming from the town and heading towards the direction of the village. He was walking through a forest, surrounded by the trees and other plants and shadows from all sides. And yet, he had no fear, being an experienced traveler that had been wandering from place to place for years, mostly all by himself. But a foolish man he wasn't and was carrying a bow and arrows, as well as a knife just in case. In his hand he was carrying a lantern, the flame of a candle trapped inside it illuminating his path in the dark world. But it was very limited and hidden away from his view was a morbid sight. He walked right past it, blissfully unaware of the horribly mangled remains of three men, and just continued on his way. He did feel a chill for a brief moment, but was convinced that it was just the wind or the night air was getting to him. He would never know how close he momentarily was to corpses of men that had suffered greatly before their death. But was it the doing of a violent individual, a dangerous animal or something entirely else, no one would ever know.

All these people and more around the world were completely oblivious to the truth of how the world really worked. The sun would bring warmth, light and make the plants grow, being a major factor in giving life. But what people didn't know was that the sun god would have to drag himself up to the sky every day to the point of exhaustion, burning his own body so the living beings could have an easier life. He would have to repeat this over and over again.

Those who felt gratitude towards the winds didn't know how the wind god would have to split his body and mind into many pieces, completely invisible to the human eye. They all lived independently but shared the same consciousness, it was like a hive mind. All these fragments of him would have to constantly travel around the world without rest, sometimes strongly, but sometimes in a weakened state. However, they would never take a breather. Feeling the scattered pieces of his body being constantly fatigued or energetic was putting a heavy strain in the wind god's consciousness.

What the lone traveler was unaware of was that the death god had been walking by his side. He protected the man from the anguish of the tormented souls of the men that had brutally died in the forest just a while ago. He would take the souls with him, carrying them on his back everywhere he would go. But many souls had a lot of negative emotions plaguing them, such as fear, hatred, sorrow, despair and anxiety. These overwhelming emotions and anguish would manifest themselves in the death god's body, making his flesh to rot and cause everlasting suffering. But he would have to keep going. He would have to continue collecting the dead souls and take their agony onto himself, so the humans would be mostly safe from them.

Every deity in the world was suffering in a way or another in order to give a better life to the living. Other examples are the earth goddess who has to stay completely still constantly, suffocating because she can't breathe, and the healing goddess who travels around and cures beings by taking their illnesses and transferring them onto her own body instead. They are constantly sacrificing their own bodies and minds so life could go on in the world. But even they aren't capable of everything, there's still misery in the world. Whenever people curse them because of their hardships, it's understandable that the tired deities would then unleash their wrath, causing disasters such as storms, earthquakes and plagues. Eventually they would calm down and keep doing their duty, to maintain life in the world.

And people would never know any of this.

One could think that such a cursed existence would make the deities absolutely insane. But perhaps they don't share the same kind of definition of madness as people do. It's true that the design for the world to work like this is completely flawed and unfair. What made them agree to this? Who created this system? Perhaps somewhere out there is an even greater entity with a very twisted and dark mind. This would go on and on and on, until the entity would decide to put an end to this.



[b]WHY THE MAGIC IS DEAD[/b]

A beautiful white fox was hurrying through the forest, leaping from shadow to shadow, but occasionally the golden rays of the setting sun managed to touch her pure pelt, making it shimmer in the most brilliant way possible. Having such gorgeous fur was a blessing and a curse at the same time and in that moment, it was the latter. There was a human hunter on her trail – and a really good one too. He had been chasing her the whole day, relentlessly, not showing any sign of exhaustion. It made the fox think if he truly was a man to begin with. She had encountered a fair share of hunters in the past, all of them after her pelt, but this one was so incomprehensibly persistent. The fox had tried her best to bend the vegetation of the forest to create obstacles behind her, trying to slow the man down, but nothing seemed to work. She was barely ahead of him and a few times she had heard the deadly swish go past her, followed by a thump as the arrow that had been aimed at her would barely miss and hit a tree trunk instead. And as the day was turning into night, the despair plaguing the fox's heart just kept growing stronger, more fat, it was like a monster feeding on her anxieties.

It wasn't the end of her own life she was lamenting. Rather, it was the permanent damage this world would suffer by the moment she would take her last breath. But of course, the hunter didn't know any of this. To him, she was just a prize. Humans had separated themselves from the rest of the living beings so long ago that they didn't remember anything of that time period when the various creatures had lived together in harmony. Back then, the world had truly been a magical place. Sadly, this wasn't the case anymore, mostly thanks to humans and their obsession with hunting down anything extraordinary.

The white fox was getting so tired. Using her magical energy to hinder the hunter's travel was starting to take a toll on her body. She felt so conflicted at that moment; she wanted to just lay down and succumb to her fate. But on the other hand, she was the last one of her kind and it would feel disrespectful for her to just give up entirely and let the last remnants of magic in this world vanish. Not a lot of creatures in existence have faced a predicament like this one. If only she had found a new vessel for the power she carried within… If only all the others had managed to do that as well before their passing…

A sudden wave of sharp pain surged through her body and she yelped from agony. An arrow had hit her left side, making it painful to move. But she continued to push forward anyway. Maybe if she could get some distance, she could try to heal herself… But then she felt another arrow piercing her flesh, sticking out from her left hind leg. The blood was staining her beautiful white fur, droplets dropping onto the ground, forming a faint trail of blood as she still tried to get away. Gasping for air and limping forward, she could basically feel how the sharp arrowheads were sipping the lifeforce out of her. The fox felt the ground beneath her feet rumble slightly as something much larger than her was coming towards her from the behind. It was the hunter. The demise. The end.

The large man had no difficulties finally reaching his injured prey which he had chased throughout the whole day. The fox knew that there was no way she could get out alive. So she stopped and lifted her head, staring with her stunning blue eyes at the hunter.

“This is all your fault”, she muttered to the man.

But of course, the hunter couldn't understand her words, all he heard was a pathetic yelp. He drew out a hunting knife and struck it at the fox's throat. She didn't resist. Her body collapsed on the ground, the blood gushing from her fatal wound staining the soil. As her spirit left her broken body, so did the last bits of magic there was left in the world. No one could experience it anymore. And as the sun disappeared beyond the horizon, it took the soul of the magical fox with it, turning the page for a new era where magic and its wonders were dead.



[b]WITHER AND WRITHE[/b]

A tainted soil by the mother and the dark seed from the father. Not really the most ideal conditions to create life, but nonetheless, something did grow on that spot. A flower boy, Seenia, emerged into existence, his childish heart full of hopes and dreams. He would look up and marvel at the sky, enjoying the bright and warm light of the sun. Seenia was a happy little boy, but unfortunately, hands of darkness were already pulling his roots. He tried his best to smile and face tomorrow, but it's so hard to thrive when nobody understands you. During his younger days, Seenia would still dance and maintain innocence within his heart, even though the soil beneath him was poisoned and he would inevitably absorb that poison into his body. But probably nobody could have anticipated just how much damage it would do to Seenia as the years went by.

Little boy Seenia was a rose and he grew thorns. And as he became older, his awareness of the world and those around him evolved. He found himself even more perplexed than before; what was wrong with him? Why was he so avoided by others? It was the question he never got an answer to. Seenia would keep gazing at the sky, but it had started to turn darker. The flower boy was getting plagued by emotions that would never leave, only grow worse over time, infesting his weak mind. But still he danced, although alone.

As more time passed, Seenia learned how keeping up a smile was an effective mask used to deceive others. At this point, the poison he had been absorbing all these years was destroying him from within. The sky above his head was gradually turning dark and eventually he believed that the sun would never shine again. The air felt suffocating somehow, he could still breathe but it was more difficult than it should have been. Seenia realized that he had been poisoned his whole life, but he couldn't possibly uproot himself, he was stuck with the anguish that would only keep increasing. His mind was deteriorating, he was ravaged by such misery he didn't think was even possible. His body had started to wither away as a result of his crumbling state of mind. His own thorns pierced his flesh, adding a new flavor to his agony. Seenia couldn't dance anymore, instead, his body was writhing in a pitiful way, like his movements were controlled by a twisted puppeteer. He became a sorry sight that should be hidden from the rest of the world – no one wants to see a withered rose.

In the end, Seenia became a madman; there was no trace left of that happy flower boy he used to be. He hated everyone and everything around him, but most of all, he hated himself. All this hatred continued to grow inside him, but he refused to let it go, thinking it would destroy everything around him if it got loose. But you can't keep such destructive force locked up inside forever. Seenia knew this, but still attempted it anyway. As expected, this resulted in a devastating and uncontrollable blow that had the exact same effect Seenia had feared unleashing. His vicinity was torn to shreds, even tearing apart the reality around him. He was plunged into a void that was home only to a complete darkness and Seenia would keep spiraling down and drifting through its endless space, unable to do anything but lament his fate, his existence forgotten by everyone. For the rest of the world, the sun would shine brighter now that he was gone.