The crowd milled around, taking note of little, saying nothing, made dumb with shock. Time crawled for Evan, time for a thousand prayers to innumerable gods. The oppressive quiet of smoke and the smell of death permeated everything.

This was the end, the end of everything. Not a soul saw it coming. Not a soul could have stopped it. Full of fury, anger, and gnashing of teeth, the end had come. And yet, Evan did not care.

Above him the sky was rent in twain, a blood red smear creasing heaven’s brow. The moon reflected the ghoulish glare, the dragon of the moon never looking more resplendent. The sun hid its face, obscured by the anomaly that would change all life on Earth.

But Evan cared little for these cataclysmic events. What care he if the world should perish? There in his arms lay Josephine, sweet Josephine, felled before her time, felled just before the time of all mankind by a stray piece of metal sent hurtling by a distracted driver’s careless swerve. Her life seeped away while the whole world wept.