You

• Jitarah Church, Grade 12
• Short Story
• 2015

Years flashed by in a matter of minutes. Images moved so fast they blurred, suffocating and close. Each blink brought on a new scene. Fire tore at a city, its orange jaws consuming everything in its path, leaving only fragments of what used to be. It licked up buildings and drowned townspeople. It burned trees and scorched the earth. Nothing and no one escaped its fiery hunger. Screams and cries for help became tortured and violent pleas. The world flickered and it was now a scene of blood and gore. The sky was dark and brooding, lightning lashing out across the sky. Blood ran thick and fast in the gutters. Bodies lay scattered about the streets, more blood rushing from their eye sockets or mouths, gashes in their torsos or headless bodies. There was screaming again, but more unearthly than before. Scarlet blood was splattered over windows and cars. It overflowed from garbage cans and onto the pavement. A man with both his legs missing and a hole in his side, grunted as he used his arms to navigate closer.
“You did this.” He said, his voice, hoarse and weak. “You will wreak havoc upon the earth, destroying all in your path. You will inflict all this pain on those you love and hold close. You…”

She blinked; her blue eye’s filling with tears as she awoke.
The baby girl began to cry.