My Short Story Collection

The End Had Come.

Dylan stood watching with wide, eager eyes as he watched the luminous lights dance across the darkened night sky like the stars themselves had come to life and were exploding in bright colours before his very eyes. The lights made his green eyes light up and illuminated his pale, youthful face.

The bright lights continued to streak across the sky, blinding those fortunate to still be alive but yet unfortunate to be witnesses to this terror. Dylan slowly began to notice that these lights weren’t as great as he had originally thought when he turned and noticed the horrified expressions mixed with that of fear that were etched on the trembling on-lookers faces.

The sky was burning; a bright orange fire covered the sky creating a dazzling almost mesmerizing glow that shone over the entire city. It was almost beautiful if you forgot about the raging fires and explosions that were spreading closer and closer to the crowds of people. The end was near, they all knew it. Even Dylan could sense it.

Dylan reached out and clung to his mother’s arm in fright when an explosion caused a building in the distance to come crashing down. A few people around them pushed passed Dylan and his hysterical mother and caused the ten year old to release his mother’s sleeve in all the chaos.

He could hear his mother’s worried cries as he was forced further and further away from her through the panicking hordes of people. Her voice slowly got quieter and quieter until he could no longer hear it anymore. He was lost in all the commotion with no one to comfort him.

The tears had already begun to stream down his pink-tinted cheeks as he desperately searched through the crowds in search for his mother, the only family he had left. His small, fragile form pushed passed the larger bodies with a great deal of difficulty but the adrenaline pumping through his veins was forcing him to keep going. Dylan released a pain-filled wheeze when a much larger man was pushed into him but the young boy carried on trudging through the swarm of hysterical people, resilience written all over his flustered face.

Just when he was beginning to weaken and his breathing was shallow did he finally see the one person he was so desperately searching for amongst the turmoil. His mother pushed through the crowds of people, her pale blue eyes filling with relief upon landing on her only remaining son.

As soon as she reached him, Dylan was pulled into a tight hug that was a mix between possessive and protective. “I am never letting you go again,” she promised into his ear as he relaxed in her comforting embrace. Other parents nearby clung to their children in despair as they mimicked what Dylan and his mother were doing.

Desolation and anguished misery was all around them. Nowhere was safe. Nowhere was free from this horror that had been created.

The end had come.