The world did not end in a bang or a whisper. But rather, one scream at a time.

The next scream came many minutes later. Just bloodier, this time, piercing my ears as chills ran down my spine. My heart had stopped pounding into my rip cage by then, almost like I had accepted death. After all, I couldn't escape it - just endorse it.

I didn't think this was how it would end. The world, I mean. People theorised, made movies, shows. People sang songs and told stories about it. However, none of them played out like this. It was colder than I expected, lonelier than I imagined. There were no explosions or aliens or whatever they came up with. Just agonizing cries, followed by silence.

My body laid stiff on the dirt, sprawled out like a starfish. I slowly began to lose all sense of feeling, both emotionally and physically. The cuts and bruises that covered me no longer stung, the pain from the large wound on my leg had practically gone, and I almost could no longer feel the aching of the bitter breeze on my face.

Was this dying? Was this what it was like to die?

I had lost all sense of time. Instead, I resorted to counting the number of screams, knowing with every single one that reached my ears, I was getting closer and closer to my turn.

Soon, another scream came. Then another, and I finally embraced the idea of eternal sleep. Because that's what I believed would happen - forever asleep.

Eventually, my eyelids grew heavy. I fought to keep them open, trying to capture one last image of the beautiful blue sky and dispersed white clouds that glided by so gracefully. But they fluttered shut as my breath slowed down. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks, weighing down on my body, drilling me further into the dirt. My mind was between the awake state and sleep, so I could faintly feel everything again until suddenly, the pain intensified and grew, and then finally, the scream escaped my lips.