“Sight can be perceived without the courtesy of understanding. People can see what I see, but can they understand what is in, or the meaning of my vision?”

It was going to be dusk soon. The sun was close to setting; shining the remains left of its rays for the day, before it went to rest in this region of the globe. The ashes never stopped falling from the skies. It just kept coming and raining down, covering and engulfing everything in its path with the cremated human remains.

Jessica’s hair was covered with ashes too. It was the fifth time she brushed her hair with her hands, creating a puff of ash by petting her hair and now it was full up with it again. Her breath was unsteady. She was panicking. Everywhere she went, there wasn’t a single soul to be found.

Was she the last person left on this world?

She hoped not.

She couldn’t begin to understand the situation she was in.

What the hell was happening?

She roamed blindly until she was at the famous Boboli Garden. The luscious green overcoat was now dusty grey. She gazed around, looking for any danger, but then quickly realised there was nobody to endanger her.

She sat down to calm her nerves.

The bench was painfully cold; so cold that she felt it through her layers of dressing, shocking straight up to her bum. She glanced at the floor and for a moment, almost mistook the white layer on the ground was snow; it was far from it. She could see the footsteps she made in the chilling coatings, all the way back to the road she came from.

She looked around her, still unbelieving.

She convinced herself for the fifth time that this had to be a dream, but if it was a dream, how come she couldn’t wake up? She pinched and punched herself, but all it did was hurt like hell. She covered her face and sulked to herself.

Her stomach growled in hunger. She had not eaten or drank anything the entire day. She never had the mood to. So now, her tummy was calling out to her, begging to be pampered. Nevertheless, she was too afraid to decide what she should do next. She lifted her head and glanced around. There was a burger stall just down the garden, right by the roadside. It looked intact, and the fact that it was shaded by an umbrella, the cart still looked pretty clean and the contents, edible, or so it seemed.

Within minutes, she was ravaging the cart. Inside the closed container, there were already ready-made burgers with labels. Chicken, beef, fish, and turkey burgers. Jessica tore the wrappers open and chomped on the bread.

It tasted so juicy good; tender and soft. She ate three burgers one-shot, and yet she was still starving. Never had she turned to such savage behaviour in her life, but like everything else, the situation called for a different font of approach. She lusted for food, and it was so much stronger than ever before.

She reached for her fourth feast when she heard some bells ringing in the distance; the kind the ice-cream man used to get attention. It sounded like it came not from ground level, but from above; on one of the rooftops of the buildings.

Jessica ignored it at first, presuming it was just another figment of her imagination; that she was hearing things. Her ignorance, however, had a limit and it was surpassed when the bells grew nearer and louder, relentless in its nature.

Then, the singing started; a carol that sounded like it was being sung by children began to hum gleefully in the air.

~ La, La, La, La, La ~ ~ why won’t you see? ~ ~ La, La, La, La, La, ~ ~ why won’t you go? ~ ~ La, La, La, La, La, ~ ~ it is time, do you not realise? ~ La, La, La, La, La ~ ~ Mother is waiting ~ ~ La, La, La, La, La ~ ~ embrace Mother’s arms ~

“What?”

Jessica looked up to the four-storey building opposite the street, and saw a group of children standing at the rooftops. The girls were wearing red blouses, while the boys wore red-and-black striped shirts with white-coloured jeans. Their hairs were pulsating with the burly winds, with perceivable ascension in its zealous.

They split from the formation of a circle, to a straight line, lining the ledge of the rooftop, standing dangerously close to the edge. None of them seemed to be disturbed by it. They continued singing to their tune, with no attention paid to their surroundings. Tiny little stones were ignorantly kicked by their unwary feet, falling down from the roof and shattering themselves against the road with great, dangerous impact.

~ La, La, La, La, La ~ ~ why, why, why, why won’t you move on ~ ~ La, La, La, La, La ~ ~ Mother says everything will be alright; Mother says, we listen, won’t we? We must~

“Hey! HEY!” Jessica screamed, waving her arms to get their attention, extremely worried, “Stay away from the edge! It’s dangerous! Can you hear me!? Stay! Away! STAY AWAY!”

~ La, La, La, La, La ~ ~ time is borrowed; that’s what Mother says ~ ~ La, La, La, La, La ~ ~ Mother says adventure awaits ~

“Children! Kids! For God’s sake, get away from the ledge!!! HEY!!!”

~ La, La, La, La, La ~ ~ nothing is permanent; that’s what Mother says ~ ~ La, La, La, La, La ~ ~ open your eyes, and see; see beyond what your vision permits ~ ~ La, La, La, La, La ~ ~ if only you followed Mother’s guide ~

“HEY!”

The singing stopped abruptly.

From the last few stray strands of rays from the sun, she could see the children’s faces lucidly. They stopped their carol and glared directly at her. All fifteen of them looked and gazed at her, with looks so intense it pierced right into her soul from the distance.

Then, the girl from the middle of the row of children began to hum and sing alone.

The rest continued glaring sharply at Jessica from afar.

What she sang was terrifying.

~ La, La, La, La, La ~ ~ take a step forth; step into the Light ~ ~ La, La, La, La, La ~  ~ the first step of a big flight ~ ~ La, La, La, La, La ~  ~ Light! Light! A door of Light!  ~ ~ La, La, La, La, La ~ ~ the place of Light ~ ~ La, La, La, La, La ~ ~ Mother says… Mother says jump and fly! ~

Then Jessica began screaming.

Her shrill cries could be heard blocks away, shocking everything around her in tremors. She couldn’t stop shrieking. Her body froze in trauma.

She screamed until nearly gave way in pain, with shocked tears rolling down her cheeks.

She screamed when the middle girl gave a signal, followed by the other fourteen children on the rooftop taking a coordinated step forward, and came crashing down to the cold, hard road below.

One by one, their bodies were destroyed with the impact, spraying blood all over the Italian road. One by one, the fall broke their limbs to pieces and burst their skin, spilling everything inside; intestines, eyeballs, spleen and all, squashed onto the tar road.

Some of the children fell right onto the cars below, smashing the metallic frame in with a gagging blow, accompanied by sickening sounds of metals forcefully bent. Some dropped onto the windscreen, followed by the shatter of the glass and with it, their bodies.

Some impaled themselves on the poles of the streetlights.

Their mouths hang open, blooding oozing out like a fountain.

Their eyes, devoid of any life, locked onto Jessica.

The road turned red with children’s blood in just a matter of seconds.

“Oh God… What…” Jessica cried and fell to her knees, howling and pleading, “Oh my God…”

The last girl was still standing at the rooftop, looking below at the bits and pieces of the bodies of what was left of the children. She then shifted her sight to Jessica, crying in the middle of the street, choking on her own tears. The wind grew stronger. It was blowing the place so violently that some of the torn off limbs began rolling down the road towards where Jessica stood.

The girl’s blouse was fluttering with the strong gust. Then she continued to sing.

~ Jesssicaaaaaaaaa… followwww meeeeeeeeee ~

She took a step forward and jumped.

###

Jessica hid behind a yellow taxi, facing the brick wall of the shop lots in front of her. The shops were wide open and abandoned, with all the goods still intact without any supervision. The entrance door hung wide open for all to enter. She sat on the ground and hugged her legs. Her hands were still shivering and her breath remained uncontrollable. Her legs felt weak and wobbled with any attempt she made to stand.

She tried to get a grip of