The birds flapped squawking from the trees, panicked, afraid. Everything was afraid. The trees whispered with fear, their ancient boughs quivering with the anticipation, leaves rustling in a fearful wind. An eerie silence hung beneath them, unbroken, absolute, thicker than the humid air. Eyes gleamed in the shadows, wide, afraid. Predator and prey stood side by side and yet did not attack for in their eyes and in their hearts was such a primeval, instinctive fear that they were rooted to the spot, frozen, entranced by the darkness that crept over the trees.

            And suddenly the wind dropped and the trees were still and every head was turned upwards, watching, waiting, hesitant and confused and yet unable to act upon their fear because they could not run, could not hide from the sky. The buzz of human destruction had become still, their race consumed now by a long forgotten instinctive fear. Their shells lie abandoned in the roads, their shelters darkened, their cities lifeless. The world was hiding, retreated into itself, driven back by the fear. Everything stank of fear.

            And in that infinite silence, in that dead calm before the storm every living thing was united in their terror. Predator, prey, man, all equals, all moments away from the same fate. No longer did the light of the sun shine upon them, no longer did the cool breeze slip through their homes, all that existed was a harmony in the darkness. A harmony of fear.

            Suddenly the sky burned, flames tore across the dark, blazed as a sheet of fire in that infernal nightmare. The creatures yelped and bolted for cover, the trees hissed as the heat began to wither their flesh. Men pressed their faces against their windows and gaped as hell descended upon them. Heat blasted the ground, turned anything in the open to ash. Trees, animals, men, all gone in a heartbeat as the flames and the darkness rushed down. Mankind’s almighty empire turned to dust in an instant.

            The planet crashed into Earth with such force that the crust rippled out, shattering mountains, hurling up the seas into walls of searing hot water. Magma spurted up into the heat as the surface crumpled, was torn to oblivion. Vast chunks of rock, sheared off, went spinning off into the void of space. Gases ignited, liquid flame gushed across the ruined Earth. The two planets stood still for a moment, captured by their own gargantuan strength, hung in empty space. 

 

And for a moment everything was in harmony once more.

 

The harmony of fear.