-LET THE SKY.....BREAK.

LET THE EARTH...... POUR.

OH. MOTHER. HEAR YOUR CHILDREN.

THE STORM HAS AWAKENED.

THE STORM IS HUNTING. -

- Ravings from a mad priest of balance.

Another dull crack echoed, this time it was closer, his head whipped sideways, his horror was cut short by the shelf leaning down precariously towards them, it weighed at least eighty pounds laden with provisions and heavy implements used in the surrounding farm, he dragged Baba closer to himself as he struggled to keep his balance.

Baba was tall, and retained a surprising amount of muscle despite his age, moving him was tough, he was making little progress. The shelf tilted a little more a cry of determination tore from his mouth as he hefted Baba in a princess carry, he felt something in his back give.

The shelf thumped on the ground, where a few moments before, baba's prone body lay.

His legs were noodles. His heart a jackhammer. The ceiling gave a low groan and began to cave in, pieces of broken boards and light bulbs falling like rain, he pushed his way towards the door, trying to avoid the cascades of debris flying around the kitchen and shielding Baba’s body with his, he did not want to face what was happening outside but he knew he had to leave the kitchen, the harrowing noise of the cracking roof enough of a whip on his confused senses, stiffening his resolve, he ran outside and beheld horror:

The surroundings were devastated, deep trenches that spewed noxious fumes that peppered the eyes, it got into his lungs causing him to wheeze and cough, a miasmic haze inundated the surroundings as far as his eyes could see. The earth changed in front of his eyes, turning Into a sickening shade of rust.

He rapidly blinked his eyes, alarmed that his eyelids were now becoming heavy and sticking to his eye, in a short while it was filled with yellow mucus, he had to strain to clean his eyes, using the Baba clothes. It was awkward, but he cleared his eyes of the awful gunk, it would have been easier if he had set Baba down.

But he would not.

His vision was diminished but he looked around, and the hell he saw, penetrated his skull and dragged itself into his head, he suspected that even if he was blind, he would have still seen this horror. A screaming banshee it hooked claw in your psyche and forced you to acknowledge it existence.

By the old gods, he did and his sanity wailed.

If the sky was a canvas, then it was a psychopathic dream of a mad god, for it was torn apart in wide swatches, the cold gaze of the cosmos Peering through, their eyes a sickening colour of pus and infection.

This was not the skies he knew, for those those long tears held different stars that shone with sickly light. And massive winged creatures that flew with unearthly grace.... Adebayo wept blood, for their shape was wrong, and they movement draw tears in his face, in a short while gouges drew a tattoo on his head, and he was Bath in his own blood.

A monumental force of will, made him pull his eyes away. He was a moth to a flame, but that path lay death.

But his eyes moved by itself, as if a needle was attached to the globe and pulled back and forth, he was helpless, as his eye turned towards the sun.

Adebayo now felt a new type of pain, this one inside his head as he beheld the sun. It was dim and lifeless, and appeared bigger in the sky, and he could see why.

A gigantic black arm had seized the sun, and was pulling it away, the death cry of the sun was in its essence, it spewed across space, colouring the infinite darkness of the cosmos, its grace and beauty been witnessed by all of creation, one last time. It was like an overturned bowl, cracked and overflowing, little pieces of solar matter scattered about, from the shattered sun a river of flame poured down.

Our sun, was being killed in front of my eyes, and a demented will, wanted me to watch.

He did not know how long he stood there, but he felt a frigid sensation in his chest, and the influence passed, and he could move his eyes once more, that did not bring him any relief.

The forest was burning. looking toward the rest of the village a sizable portion was also on fire, and he could distantly hear the unearthly wails of people, he could imagined they all saw the same sights as him, and he wondered how many was still left with their sanity.

Another frigid cold spread into his chest, so intense was it that his teeth locked together, and his mind grew marginally clearer.

A part of him knew he could not at the moment find a logical reason or the meaning for what was taking place, he just had to move, he had to find shelter first, and amid all the horrors he felt the breath of his Baba on his face and he calmed down a notch - get him to safety!.

He felt a pinch on his arms and looked down, Baba was awake and has been screaming at him all this while, though he was looking at Adebayos chest, a perplexing look of surprise and fear on his face. He screamed at him:

“ GO TO THE SHRINE... HURRY".

Adebayo looked at baba, whose eyes were widened with shock, his voice was hoarse, he had woken up for a while and had been screaming at him, the shell shocked Adebayo had not heard him over the noises and his turbulent mind. Baba was stained with blood, whether it came from Adebayo’s body or Baba's own blood, there was no way of telling.

“ right, the shrine “ Adebayo looked across the field, his legs pumped as he hopped over the smaller cracks on the ground, reaching the surrounding of the shrine, he noticed the ground was becoming more stable the closer he got to the eerie structure.

The ground here was free of cracks, and the noxious fumes that clogged the eyes and sinuses was almost non-existent here.

But even that was beginning to fail, as Adebayo looked below his running feet at the spreading crack that followed his pace, was he was dragging the hell with him to the shrine?

A bizarre groan rang out behind him, and he stiffened. Goosebumps broke across his skin, and ice filled his chest, in an unconscious movement his head craned to the left.

A feline creature prowled beneath the burning trees, watching the skies. with a slow jerky movement, its head turned to observe them, its eyes were milky, with patchy furs and a huge swatch of decaying muscle adorning its frame, the upper part of its skull was bare of flesh.

His observation of the creature was interrupted as he gagged, the wind had blown against the creature to him and a foul smell ravaged his nose, and he gagged in sheer disgust. This creature took the damp and the cold and the dead, all that was decaying and rotten and weaved it into the fibres of its being. The creature thrust its head towards them and growled,

Baba all this while had been looking at the spreading cracks following them, as a look of realisation seem to come to his eyes, then a tinge of sorrow passed, but that coukd as well be imaginary, for it went by in a blink of an eye. He looked up and saw the creature, he gasped “ bultigin"

Adebayo saw fear in his grandfather’s eyes... Baba squirmed from his arms and stood on his feet, reaching for the pockets in his clothes...pulling out some herbs and chewing it, he pushed some into Adebayo’s mouth, he unconsciously started to chew, immediately a clear wave of clarity burst through him and he gasped in shock, his lungs tortured by the miasma found relief, and his will turned razor-focused.

Baba pushed him again, “ run to the shrine...you will be safe there”

Something in his Baba voice made him pause, a sense of I.pending doom clawed his mind. Adebayo voice came out in a croak, as he stretched his blood hand to his Baba "come with me"

"I cannot Ade, I am not pure...."

"What do you mean?, Baba there is more...."

"Listen to me boy" Baba voice rose up in anger "there is more happening here than you can realise, follow my orders, or we will not survive this night." His voice thundered "NOW GO!"

Years of listening to the authority of baba voice pushed him into motion, the black cavernous door drawing closer to him, Adebayo noticed a faint light glimmering on his chest, the necklace around his neck was exuding light.

Something was different with the shape of the pendant he had worn all his life, it was formerly in the shape of a coiled serpent swallowing it's tail. Now It had opening all over its delicately carved scales, and with very close observation, each of these opening sprouted hands. hands tipped with claws, each fixed in varying shapes.

with all the commotion and madness around, one more weird happening did not faze his near fractured psyche.

He leapt into the opening, the darkness slid across his body like a cold wet tongue, he shuddered for he felt that it was the necklace that allowed him to pass through the gloom...he pierced through the darkness and the light brightened from the coiled metallic snake, he had to squint, he enclosed the pendant with his left hand shading his eyes, then he turned outside.

His eye widened with horror for his Baba was not behind him, but was facing the creature he called a Bultigin. He tried to recall the teachings on the old gods and their children - Aberrations, he had not been particularly attentive when it comes to those parts, he always considered it an unnecessary task when he was being taught folklore by his baba, there were many more important things to be learnt, and ancient fictional monsters never felt like worthwhile reading.

Baba was kneeling on the ground chanting incantations, while he drew out a ring of cowrie beads....the decaying beast melted towards him with unearthly grace. If disturbed by this sight, baba did not show, he drew a circle around him with white chalk, but to the dismay of Adebayo, he stopped halfway, the chalk that was left with a stub was now finished.

The Bultigin charged at him, baba threw the rings of cowries at the beast, to Adebayo's surprise a thunderous clap resounded and the beast was thrown back with a sorrowful howl.

with a sickening pop and a squelching sound it stood back up, its limbs had bones protruding out, and the side of its ribs was caved in, but it slinked back to baba, its rheumy eyes holding a diseased fury.

Adebayo's mouth was opened in a silent scream, as he saw the beast charge at baba again, its movement an unearthly caricature of motion, as baba hastily fished inside his robe, the beast charged across the half-drawn circle and its jaws snapped shut on baba neck.

...in horror Adebayo watched as with a flurry of motion baba was decapitated... the beast turned to the dismembered corpse... feeding.

“ Baba.... Baba"

His eyes were fixed on baba eyes that was still opened, he dry heaved, his right hand stretched towards the doorway, his left squeezing the pendant.. in renewed horror he watched the simian jaw delicately close over baba's head.

“ the beast watches you “

An eerie voice whispered beneath his clenched fist, a jarring confusion made him focus his eyes on the beast, and its eyes were fixed on him, twin cold orbs that peered at him with unreasonable greed...even as it cracked Baba's skull open, which it did slowly, eyes still fixed on Adebayo’s, letting him hear every little sound made, as its slowly crushed the skull.

It swallowed the grisly content and grinned at him.