A.M.

Caila Grigoletti

The world broke into pieces. A red crack spidered across a black, starless sky. The ground beneath my feet shook with the force of such heavenly destruction. You hear people talk about the end of the world; every religion has their own version of how the apocalypse will begin. In Christianity, it’s the four horsemen, for Islam the dead will rise and be judged upon their actions, in Norse mythology the Vikings called this day Ragnarok. All of those warnings meant nothing to me, or most of the people on this Earth for that matter. It’s too impossible to believe that something so grand and vital to our survival will just end in a blink.  

The fracturing of the sky sent every man, woman and child into a stunned silence. No one fled the streets because there was nowhere to run to. Seeing hundreds of people on a New York City street standing eerily still felt unnatural. I do not know if their solemn poses stemmed from the reality of their demise or abject terror, but either way the quiet hummed in the air between the shocks of earthquakes and rumbling thunder. Even the clocks on the surrounding high rises froze at the XII markings.  

At the last stroke of the midnight bells from St. Patrick’s marked the appearance of the first break in the atmosphere. Somehow those haunting bells still rang their tune even minutes after the heavy copper instrument completed its swing. A hot, dry wind began to bellow through the blocks of the city and gained speed from some unknown force of nature.  

In none of those “end-is-nigh” stories do they describe this muted sensation. The lack of screams and pleading for mercy to their gods almost made me giggle with the impossibility of it all. Why was no one acting terrified? Why am I not terrified? Maybe it’s because we all know, deep down, we probably deserve such a violent end. So, we waited, for the sky to fall and the earth to crumble and we watched it all burn with nary a complaint.  

Jayden Dhawan is a local Pennsylvanian from the Easton area. She is currently a freshman at Cedar Crest College studying Math and Global Studies, with minors in Religious Studies and Global Diseases. Her interests include creative usage of embroidery, singing, and being her sister's biggest supporter.

Caila Grigoletti is a senior Writing major with a double minor in Communications and History. She plans to pursue a master’s degree in writing when she graduates in the spring of 2022. Besides reading fantasy fiction and gaming, she is also a voice actress for a role-playing game podcast group called “The Bardic College”. She hopes to one day change the lives of young women everywhere with her scripts, novels, or short stories to keep reminding her readers that it’s never too late to have an adventure.