Work Text:
If you listen, you can hear it.
The city, it sings.
It's a wordless song, but you can pick out each note.
There were sounds of bustling humdrum throughout the square, the ever-present rumble of cars, sirens quietly wailing somewhere in the distance, pierced by the cursing yells of passers-by and club goers on New Years Eve stumbling into 24/7 fast food restaurants. The rattle of shutters on tourist shops being pulled to a close as their keepers locked up for the night. The ground rumbled from the last of the subway trains and the beginnings of underground raves, orchestrated by the uncaring and unfaithful of the world.
The church bell tolled, the sound reverberated across the city, glaring down disapprovingly at the last dregs of people littering the streets, cigarettes hanging precariously from lips and fingers, embers floating to the ground; glowing sparks dying out on the sodden pavement. On the twelfth and final toll, couples and strangers alike kissed under the stars, whooping and cheering echoing through the entire city. The church continued to study the city in disdain, glowering at the inhabitants, new souls on a pilgrimage to a false sense of hedonism.
Later on - around 2AM - most people had gone back to tiny studio apartments and hotel rooms, preparing themselves for another day of work in just a few hours. The same 9 - 5 routine interrupted by New Years festivities. All of it as boring and as trivial as the next. One thing that caught my eye, however, was the jet-black furred creature skulking, padding silently through the shadows of the darkened alleyway below the balcony I was sat on. Back arched, her emerald green eyes spied vigilantly for scuttling mice to pounce at. She snarled, revealing vampiric teeth, hissing at the resounding slam of a metal door from streets away. Slowly, the apex predator slinked down a separate alley, melting back into the maze of sable-black shadows.
Horrifying yet awfully mesmeric, mere moments passed before the supernova of the explosion ran through the city. Through me. Shock coursed through my bloodstream, like the thundering bass of a song at a concert. Hellfire tormented the towering office building and its surroundings, instantly spreading to neighbouring structures. The amber flames licked at the sides of the building, the insatiable thirst of them consumed the tower, claiming it as its own. Its noble sacrifice. Barabbas-black plumes of smoke emitted from the flames, encapsulating, choking the city.
Wailing sirens of the emergency services followed mere seconds afterwards, oscillating wildly throughout the city streets the sirens were ever present, cutting through the air like a butchers knife. All that I see, absolute horror. Wailing sirens and flashing lights that made your heart sink to your stomach; your pulse drum in your ears when you realise how much damage has occurred. Sound. There was nothing but sirens and screams and somehow, blissful silence. All of it equally as deafening as each other.
At the bottom of the wreckage, paramedics swarmed around the area of the rubble; bees to a hive. Not a minute later, a body was pulled out and put unceremoniously onto a stretcher, head lolling from side to side like a pendulum, his face in a permanent visage of distress. You wouldn't have been able to tell if he was dead or not if it wasn't for the way his hands twitched violently over the burn marks encapsulating his torso. His shirt had been burnt to a cinder and ripped to shreds whilst pulling him from under the evidence of the destruction of the building.
Plumes and billows.
Despair and pandemonium.
Agony and torture.
You don't have to try to listen to hear the city. It screams. A raw, agonising, true lament.
This was their day of reckoning. A wake up call. The best day of their lives.
It was me who planted the bomb, only hours beforehand. A gift to the city.