Taste of Melanin

All His Children

Warning: major criticisms of God! Or blasphemy if you wanna call it that.

No Face Claims
~~~

As if the sky had been cracked open, a scorching heat filled the streets. The sun shined with a fierceness that forced crowds to disintegrate, animals to hide, and made all outside surfaces untouchable.

Nakia Eli stared down at the empty streets from her window, the heat against the glass warming her front while their AC cooled her back. The odd silence rang loud in her ears, the usual traffic now replaced by the low hum of the ventilation system.

Per usual, her face was scrunched in an obviously displeased expression- one Ruth, her mother, said she'd held onto since birth. Ruth often described her expression as what God would look like as he gazed down upon what his creations had turn the earth into.

Nakia despised the description and the fallacy of a higher being her mother fell pray to. She remembered countless nights as a young child hearing her mother beg this God for help, her cries unheard.

It planted a seed of distain.

A seed that bloomed into a flower the day her mother died in her arms, Ruth's last words those same pleas she remembered from childhood- pleas that were yet again unanswered.

"We're seeing unprecedented temperatures. There is a strong advisory against going outside..." Nakia finally turned back to the voice of the news anchor on tv.

"Relax your face. You'll wrinkle early." Alliah, her new roommate, tapped Nakia's shoulder as she walked past. The woman was a stickler for anything to keep herself looking young.

Physical appearances had never meant much to Nakia. Many people over the course of her life had told her how conventionally attractive she was- small nose, full lips, naturally well shaped eyebrows, and a petite frame.

It was no use to Nakia though.

She'd always felt like she was simply meant to be an observer in this life. There had never been a time when she'd found herself particularly good at or interested in anything from hobbies to dating. If there was one word people used to describe her it would be quiet. She spoke only when spoken to.

"Ew. Turn this depressing shit off." Alliah reached for the remote, but quickly retracted her hand as Nakia turned to stare at her.

Returning to the news, Nakia listened as they described how the temperature had climbed 15 degrees over the course of an hour, a spike yet seen before. A feeling settled in her stomach, one she couldn't describe yet knew meant nothing good would come.

As if it had been a warning, a low rumbling began around them simply shaking the items on their table at first. The next wave shook the entire apartment, their bookshelf falling over and items clattering to the ground.

Watching on as she had most of her life, Nakia felt as if time had slowed. The next wave was so violent she watched as Alliah was thrown to the floor, her forehead becoming cut on the glass that had broken in the impact. Their building shook as the walls around them began to crack and crumble.

The screams of Alliah spurred Nakia into action. Pulling the woman up, the pair ran towards the door as they ducked to protect themselves from falling debris. They managed to make it down to the third floor before coming across a large concrete slab that blocked the rest of the stairs.

"We can jump out the back windows. There's bushes and we're only three floors up." Alliah pulled Nakia back up and through the floor entrance.

As they ran to the window, Nakia took note of the fact that they were the only ones outside their apartment. A morbid curiosity ate away at her insides yet she simply observed everything around her silently.