The Silent City

[Rebecca]

The city of Fikiawe basked in the balmy breeze, the light of the sun upon it and fat bees buzzing lazily through the grass. Insects were the city’s only permanent inhabitants these days. Here and there in streets overgrown with vegetation, the sunlight would catch the facets of shattered crystals.

A couple of figures picked their way through rubble, flitting in and out of buildings, hoping to scavenge enough to sustain themselves just a little longer… long enough to escape. Odd growths deformed their clothes. Always they kept glancing up at the sun. For a while they searched, until the glint of refracted light on the crystals turned a deep orange. As the sun began to sink, the figures fled.

From a higher darkness than night, eyes gazed towards the city, hungering to know. The thing that stalked extended a withered hand, opening the gate. And unbeknownst to it, still other eyes watched it as it went.