Calamity Begins!

Ayid's friends, Devin and Kyle, called out as he walked ahead, their banter and laughter carrying on the afternoon air. "Hey, wait up! Leaving us behind, huh?" Devin asked, throwing an arm around Ayid's shoulder.

Ayid offered a sheepish smile, his mind already preoccupied with the looming mid-term test. "Just trying to get home to study, guys. This test is a big one."

Devin groaned dramatically. "Ugh, don't remind me. Sixty percent of our grades? I'm already stressing out!"

Kyle added, equally withe the same mood, "I know right. It's almost like the teachers wants us to fail!".

They both laughed, Devin shaking Ayid in the process.

As they walked, Ayid's thoughts drifted to his own struggles in class. He had always found academics challenging, and the pressure to perform was mounting. His friends, on the other hand, seemed to breeze through school with ease.

Suddenly, Kyle turned to Ayid with a mischievous glint in his eye. "Hey, Ayid, can I borrow your notes from class today? I need to compare them with mine for the test."

"Oh, okay. It's in my bag", he replied, dropping one arm of the bag as he searched for the notebook.

Ayid's heart sank. He couldn't find it."Oh, shit."

"What's wrong?", Devin asked looking into Ayid bag.

"I think I must have left my note in class".

Kyle chuckled. "You're such a brainiac, Ayid. Always forgetting something."

Ayid forced a laugh, but his mind raced. He couldn't afford to fail this test. He had to get those notes.

As his friends continued on, Ayid turned back towards the school, almost breaking into a run  back to school.

Devin called after him, concern evident in his voice. "You sure you don't want us to wait for you?"

Ayid waved them off, signaling that they should go ahead without him. As his friends shrugged and walked away, Ayid's footsteps echoed in the empty corridor as he headed back to school.

Alone at last, Ayid welcomed the solitude, grateful for a moment of respite from his friends' carefree attitudes towards the looming test. Ayid's thoughts churned with self-doubt and determination. *I have to ace this test. It's my last chance to getting a good GPA and secure a future.*

The school lay silent, its halls deserted but unlocked. Ayid navigated the empty corridors with a sense of purpose.

Upon reaching the classroom, relief flooded over him as he spotted his notebook resting on his desk. 

*Thank goodness, it's still here.* But as he reached for it, doubt crept in. *Is this really worth it? Will acing this test really change anything?*

His friends' voices echoed in his mind, their casual dismissal of college dreams contrasting sharply with his own aspirations. *What's the point of studying so hard if it all leads to the same outcome anyways?*

*Why am I studying so hard anyways?, Oh, that's right, so I can provide for my loved ones... that's the right thing to do, everyone's doing it so that is what is expected from me , right?....I don't even know anymore.... I haven't really been working that hard but here I am, expecting to get into a good college. This really sucks*.

Doubts gnawed at him, clouding his vision of what lay beyond graduation.

With a heavy sigh, Ayid realized he had lingered longer than intended in the empty classroom. As he turned to leave, a low whisper caught his attention, sending a shiver down his spine. He froze, "Who's here?!", he asked aloud, scanning the room for the source of the sound before gravitating towards the window.

Outside, the sky had darkened unnaturally, casting an ominous pall over the landscape.

*Wasn't the sky sunny just a minute ago? Is it rain probably?*

As Ayid walked out of the school building, he was greeted by a bizarre scene. Cars were stopping suddenly, one after the other, and people were gathering in confusion and fear. They were all pointing towards the sky, which had darkened unnaturally, like a thick, heavy blanket was about to suffocate them. The air was thick with an eerie, unsettling energy, and Ayid could feel his heart racing with anticipation. What was happening? He looked around, trying to find some answers, but everyone seemed just as lost and scared as he was.

Still staring at the sky in hopes and fear that something strange was definitely going to happen, everyone watched as the scene unfolded like a surreal dream .

A little girl who held her stuffed toy close to her while clinging to her mother's finger pointed up towards the sky, "Mommy, look! What is that.... In the sky Mommy".

But just like everyone else who gathered there, her mother stood silent, watching with terror in her eyes for what was about to unfold.

The clouds parted, revealing a figure cloaked in darkness descending from the fractured sky. In one hand, the being held a peculiar scale, tilted heavily to one side, while in the other hand, a black hourglass slipped through its fingers. Towering above the helpless civilians beneath it like a colossal skyscraper, its face obscured by the depths of its cloak left everyone completely frozen and horrified.

Ayid's heart raced with a mix of dread and fascination. *What exactly is that thing!*, came a loud thought in his head. It's presence seemed to to draw the very air out of his lung. It's aura filled of unyielding authority left Ayid feeling both tiny and terrified.

As the air grew thick and heavy, Ayid's instincts screamed warning, alerting him to the imminent arrival of something truly terrible. He wanted to run, run as fast as his legs could let him, but for some unexplainable reason ,his body wouldn't move . A voice then boomed through the city, its commanding tone piercing the air with a intensity that made Ayid's head throb and his eardrums ache. The sound alone was enough to reduce him to agony, prompting him to clamp his hands over his ears in a futile attempt to block out the torment. Meanwhile, the civilians around him writhed in similar distress, their cries of anguish merging into a collective wail that filled the air, as if this malevolent entity was deliberately inflicting unbearable pain upon them all.

As the pain suddenly ceased, the choking air was gone.Ayid slowly opened his eyes to a welcome sight: everyone was gradually recovering from the ordeal, their faces etched with confusion and fear. However, his relief was short-lived, as he gazed up at the sky and realized the enigmatic being had vanished, seemingly into thin air, leaving no trace or sound behind , but the heavy clouds still lingered, like a dark specter hovering over the city.  – it was as if something even worse was going to happen, he could feel it. Every senses screamed warning

Ayid's thoughts swirled in a maddening whirlpool: *What just happened? Is it truly over?*

The air grew thick with an eerie, electric charge, making the hairs at back of Ayid neck stand on end. And then, without warning, the world around him erupted into chaos. The ground lurched violently, throwing him off balance, as a deafening crack of lightning , splitting the sky in two , struck a car that was nearby. The sound was like nothing he had ever heard before - a primal, ear-shattering roar that seemed to shake the very foundations of the earth.

Car traffic screeched to a halt, horns blaring in chaos as drivers struggled to maintain control. The city's electricity power flickered, plunging some areas into darkness

"What's happening?" a panicked voice cried out.

"It's the end of the world!" someone else shouted.

Ayid's thoughts raced as he stumbled through the crowd, his eyes fixed on the sky. *"This can't be real. "*

A loud crack of thunder boomed, sending yet another car into a massive explosion,making him jump. The air was electric with tension, and the smell of ozone filled his nostrils.

"Oh God, oh God, oh God..." a woman chanted, her hands clasped together in prayer.

Ayid's phone buzzed in his pocket, but he ignored it, too stunned to think about anything else.

The shaking intensified, throwing people off their feet. Ayid stumbled, almost falling, but managed to grab onto a nearby lamppost.

Suddenly, the sky split open, revealing a massive, dark swirling vortex. The air seemed to suck towards it, pulling everything in its path.

"Run!" someone screamed. "Run for your lives!"

Ayid didn't need to be told twice. He sprinted down the street, his heart pounding in his chest.

"What's going on?" he yelled to a nearby stranger.

The man's eyes were wild with fear. "I don't know, but we need to get out of here – NOW!"

The ground shook again, and Ayid stumbled. The stranger grabbed his arm, pulling him up.

"Come on, kid. We need to keep moving!"

Ayid nodded, his mind racing with thoughts of his family, his friends. Was this really the end?