“The world is ending”, I said to myself, “there’s no one of my kind left but myself…and this benighted person. Who knows what to do with him? The eternal rain is approaching and he is the one to be suffering, for I came prepared.”

Dark ominous clouds circled overhead. We looked up at the sky, and I knew the worst was yet to come. A flash of lightning made the ground shake, the sky opened up and the rain poured down. But the benighted person continued to look up, as turkeys do in the rain, drowning themselves. He was gone, I remained and I will survive…but what then…?

I looked down; the soil was turning to mud. I remembered the times I had, after the rain would end, jumping in the puddles that came from a once great sea, miles away. But this rain was different. It had a different smell; it was a smell of death. If only it could all be taken back. Those who came before, spreading ‘the disease’ killing the others off, it is my turn for vengeance. I was once weary of these people; I watched from afar as they killed my people. Now it’s my turn to mock them in their pain, it is my turn to kill. I am now on their land. They will all drown in my vengeance.

As I started to walk across this crowded landscape of tall steel buildings, people were running as if they feared the rain. They should. They will all perish like the benighted person, drowning in their own flesh.

Children screamed, they were the only ones who knew what future lay ahead; their parents, oblivious, telling them to be quiet. If only they knew.

I looked to the sky, watching, waiting, hoping. My face was damp, it too, like the rain, smelled like death. Death will rain upon them. Just like they did to us, just like they did to my family and my friends. Just like they did to me…

Dark clouds still lay ahead. I don’t know why I bother to look up. No one will come to save me. I will die along with these pathetic beings. After death, I will join my friends, my family, and my formal self. All that remains of me is my shadow, my dark side that lay hidden, only to be seen under the morning sun. I have abandoned my flesh and wonder among the living. I am a ghost amongst the shadows, only to be seen by those who bother to look.

Looking around, the streets are flooding, and the children still are weeping. I laughed at them, mocking them as they mocked us. When that day came, when the outsiders arrived, I was lucky enough to have a chance to flee. If only I could take that chance back. If only I could have shared that time with my family…with my friends. It has been years, I wonder if they’ll remember me.

“Hey you!” Someone shouted. I looked around; no one could have possibly seen my shadow.
“Yes! You!” The person shouted again. I was surprised someone was intelligent enough to actually think. I decided to converse; it isn’t too often that there is someone here who isn’t benighted.
“Yes…what do you want?” I said.
“Don’t you see the rain? Isn’t it beautiful?” The person responded. I found this person to be a young male child. He was no older than ten and had golden hair, like that of the morning sun. I couldn’t help but chuckle at the fact that this species always pointed out the obvious.
“I wouldn’t call it beautiful, but yes, it is rain.” I said, nonchalantly.
“Did you know that God created the rain?” He asked.
“Did you know that God killed millions of people? Did you know that He, along with his minions, his missionaries, killed off almost an entire race in His name?”
“You mean…”
“What? Speak up!”
“You mean those so called ‘people’, from the red planet?”
“Watch your tongue. You do not know who you are speaking to.”
“I thought they were all gone, they were a nuisance, they didn’t help us when we arrived.”
“Would you try to help someone who invades your home, abducts your family, and then kills half of your race?”
“Well…”
“I think your family and lack of government has told you nothing of its doings. They are probably saying that the rain will pass. It never will. It’ll drown your planet and all will perish.”
“What about you, won’t you die?”
“I’ve been dead for years now. I may still have a body, I may still have a shadow, but my soul has been dead for far too long to remember. Your world will end, as did mine. You better make the most of it while you can.”
The boy walked off, teary eyed. I felt a little sad as he left, but it is better this way. I just want them all to suffer as they made my kind suffer. But somehow that boy instilled something in me. I can’t explain it, as if his innocence freed me from my shadow.
Looking up, the sky was turning that soft shade of blue, the clouds evanescing. The rain slowly ceased, drop by drop. The end of the world was really no end, but a new beginning.
I decided to go back to my home, the red planet. Its deep rich soil nurtures me. I will return to the red planet. I will go back to the time before the others came...before my friends died, my family…and myself.