The world has ended.
It didn’t happen at all like I thought it would. Whenever I had imagined the end of time, it was always so…cinematic. Maybe because it had always been talked up. I expected hurricanes that picked up entire cities. Tsunamis, deadly viruses, aliens. Or nuclear fallout, after each major world leader had pressed their big red button. Maybe even something more religiously inclined, Jesus finally returning to end it all.
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
It was much more quiet. If I hadn’t been paying attention, I probably wouldn’t have realised. It was very subtle. A slow, incremental ending. Like the phasing out of a song when you don’t want to interrupt the atmosphere of the party. I don’t even know when it started to end, I only remember noticing that it had all gone much more quiet. Like the calm before the storm. But instead of the storm, nothing. Just the end of it all.
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
And I don’t know what to do now. How does one go on, knowing that it’s over. I hadn’t anticipated this interlude. The world ending, but humanity still existing. I’d always thought that when it came to this, we’d all end too. But it’s funny. It’s all still pretty much the same, everything is as it was. The sun still shines. I still have work and assignments. Breakfast followed by lunch followed by dinner. It is all as it always been. All would be normal, if it wasn’t for the lump in my stomach and the nagging thought eating away at me.
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
I’ve realised the world doesn’t end with explosions and riots in the streets. It ends when you run out of things to say, when all your conversations have run their course. It ends with awkward silences when you realise you can never go back to the way things were. The world ends when the boy you love, loves someone else. Or when a boy loves you, but you love another. The world ends when you have to break someone’s heart, and live with that. The world ends when you realise that everything is not what you thought it was. That you can never really know what someone else thinks of you, whether your affection will ever be returned. Whether happiness can ever be attained. The world ends when you grow up.
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
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