I don’t think that this is such a right place to finally remember something from the past, but… This sounds… The way people are screaming. And also that squeaky voice begging for mercy but for no one.

It is… So familiar… Like that time when my father beat me up for running away from home when I was just a little kid. I begged for mercy… But not to my father…

It’s the god who I was talking to. Because not only my father, but literally almost everything, even life itself hates me.

I don't know why I thought so…

All this time I'm just happy… Or…

I don't know…

Or maybe I just forgot? Of all that hate, disappointment, ignorance, all the physical and mental wounds they inflicted...

If only… If only my father knew what he was doing, why he treated me like that ever since I was born and what’s the reason for me always running away from anything...

I would never try to force myself to become a very forgetful person in the first place.

I leave the past by forgetting about it. I trained my brain to do so. And that’s how I survived until now, that I don't even have to hurt myself because of regrets and disappointment.

I made it!

I thought to myself…

But it’s all over. I no longer need to pretend like a kid… I am definitely gonna die here and now… But even so...

“I don't really want to! So please… God! I don’t want to die! Please I beg for your mercy… I don’t want to die!” I screamed like a coward.

At that moment I squatted down and covered my ears as tight as I could, while my teeth gritted in fear.

Little by little, the orchestrated sound of the lightning strike started to destroy me from the inside. Just like the heartbeat of a monster when we are chewed and move through his throat, I started to give up.

Feels like I’m in a dark place alone right now…

I no longer feel anyone around me. Whether it's because they're all dead, or just me panicking to the point of numbness… Unconscious…

~~~~~

“Buddy? You okay?”

A voice echoed softly in my ears. Slowly starting to sound clearer, then I finally open up my eyes. This guy just tapped my shoulder while helping me to find a good stance.

“It’s all over already…” He said.

“Thanks…” That was not the only thing that I wanted to say to him, but… Staring at the mass of unmoving human bodies around me, I don't know what to ask first from this guy.

I can’t even control myself to breathe properly...

“They’re not dead… Yet… They will wake up again just like us. So that’s why You don’t have to worry about it.”

“I see… Wait. Just like us?” I replied.

“Yeah. You also got hit, right? By the lightning. You can’t remember?”

“No I’m not. I mean… Not because of the lightning… I don't feel like I've been struck by anything... I think I just… Fainted… From panic… At that time.” I speak with a slight stutter in it.

“Ah… That’s lucky.”

He said it while his head was turning right and left, seeking for something.

Not luck. It is a shame instead!

“Okay then. I will help the others. So you take care, okay?”

Leaving me through the building's door, I can still hear his voice trying to wake up someone else. What a strange man… But still the good one.

~~~~~

Maybe there’s around a half of us. Who has not got hitten and got hitten by the lightning. And yes, one by one, they all started to wake up from the ground. No need to question, I also helped some of them, then walked past the door to the outside.

No longer a dark silk sheet all over the skies. Nothing left but the normal one.

All the vehicles were left like the last time I saw it. The dogs are barking all over the place, while some people who previously fell and stepped on by the others are now being handled until there is nothing left to be worried about.

“Deo?” Now I remember this guy.

I called his name a few times while walking around, measuring everyone's body size because that’s how I usually recognize him.

He’s not that fat, but… I’m used to knowing who is who by only looking at their body size… Or should I say body shape?

But it always works. Because I found him just now.

He turned his back right before I managed to surprise him. Where now I can't stop myself from showing an expression of disappointment and failure.

“Did you just try to surprise me, Daniel? At a time like this? Seriously?” He complained.

“Nah… You’re wrong…”

“Dude… You always don’t know when you have to act seriously about something. Like the past is nothing that important to you… That’s annoying, you know? It might just kill you in the future.” Those words stabbed me right on my weak and soft heart.

So I just stood there in silence… But not really.

I slam Deo right on the shoulder, while kneeling asking how the people around me are doing. Then I say this to my best friend. “In a world like this, that's how we survive... Correct? So don't be too surprised by my own nature, Like you don't know who I am.”

“But it feels weird if you ask that right away…”

“I know… And that’s funny, right?”

“Shut up…” Without continuing the conversation, Deo leaned against the wall nearby. Watching me help people without him intending to do the same, then he asks.

“So you got hit?”

“No…”

“I didn't get hit either… And what the hell was happening just now? That sky… These people… Don’t you feel curious? Or even worried? You make me feel like I'm the one here in the wrong for not being afraid of what just happened!”

This man asked as if I knew for sure about that nonsense…

What does he expect from me anyway? Or of all of these people?

He's like my father who gets angry when he doesn't know something, asks me the same thing and scolds me about it instead.

“Daniel!? You hear me!?”

“Wow… What’s going on here? You guys okay?” Someone came with a sense of concern for both of us, because of my mistake for letting Deo panic without intending to calm him down over and over again.

He’s… He’s the guy from before!

The random guy!

“If you're asking about the condition of us, the people who were struck, you don't have to worry about it… I don’t even know if there is any problem with my body or not, but I think there isn’t. Also isn't it too strange for you to ask your comrades in such a tone? We all know nothing about what happened earlier.”

“You hear? You just need to calm yourself down, Deo.” I proved to him that he was just overreacting.

Yet Deo felt suspicious while still looking at the random guy... Who suddenly feels like scratching something on his back, which then feels like he doesn't really want to scratch something itchy.

But he was reaching for something with a curious expression as to what was actually hanging behind himself…

That thing…

That magical glowing sword that this man just took out from nowhere around his back, just ruined all of my confidence.

Half of us around the road were shocked while the other half had an expression as if this was just a common thing to happen.

“What is that!?” And this is where Deo has reached his own limit.

Only for a moment that man who drew the first sword become the center of everyone’s attention. After that, all of them who've been struck by the lightning from the very beginning, also reach the same spot where that invisible scabbard might be.

Glowing swords everywhere...

Now, this street has turned into a concert venue…

~~~~~