Awakening

Rain. It greets me as I return to the world, falling from the sky in endless streams. Cold, sharp, and insistent, it clings to my skin like a lover, or an enemy, I cannot decide which. Perhaps both. The droplets drum against my flesh, rolling down in silver rivulets, trying to distract me, trying to conceal what cannot be hidden…the stench.

Momma Says (part 1)

Momma says the world didn’t end like she thought it would. Not with fire in the sky or the earth tearing itself apart. It didn’t end with armies clashing. There was no booming thunder or lightning splitting cities. It was quiet…too quiet. She says it came on like a whisper, not loud and raging like the stories people used to imagine when they thought about the end.