Only five minutes earlier, the world had been so still.

Charmaine heard a mixture of fatal screams and glass shattering as she tore away. At first, it had only been a faint rumble; a lot like the kind you hear when a storm is about to blow over.

But, in a matter of minutes, the rumble turned into the loudest roar she had ever heard in her lifetime, gripping the usually tranquil town in its entirety. It seemed to erupt from the deepest depths of the earth, like a volcano that just couldn't hold back any longer. By now the sound had spanned all the way to the tops of the phone lines, causing them to dangerously rock back and forth.

As the roar became even more deafening, Charmaine quickened her pace. Ignoring the dizziness induced by the shifting ground, her feet hit the ground a million miles a minute. She chanced a glimpse over her shoulder, only to find that the old architecture in the town she called home wasn't going to remain standing much longer.

Moments later, her dismal theory was confirmed. Heavy bricks and hardened concrete began to hit the ground, sending clouds of dust through the night air, illuminated by the moonlight. It was just like the fireflies she had been watching minutes before the earthquake—except instead of harmony, these particles represented everything that would change someone's life forever. For the worst.

Just run, she screamed in her head. Run!

It didn't matter where she was going. It didn't even matter that running so fast could potentially kill her anyway. All she knew was that she had to escape before she was lying beneath her town's ruins.

The ground continued to shake for another two long minutes. By this time, Charmaine found herself in the middle of a grassy field, approaching the edge of a thick forest. At last, the roar began to fade into the distance. The dead must have been stirring in their graves, but now it seemed they were settling back down again.

Though silence now echoed through the valley, Charmaine didn't consider pausing to listen—not even for a moment. She raced through the gathering of trees, muttering a thankful prayer that the trees' roots were sturdily fixed to the forest floor. She ran for a few more minutes until she reached a small clearing. Only then did she let herself fall to the grass, clutching breathlessly at her pounding chest.

Just five minutes earlier, the town had been fast asleep. No one had anticipated any of this. It wasn't like a forecasted blizzard or a tornado warning that could be predicted ahead of time. It was disaster—pure, ugly, unforeseen disaster.

Only Charmaine had been wide awake at this time of night, dreamily inhaling the fragrance of her mother's flower garden. Their petals had been wavering in the placid breeze, while fireflies and butterflies had been silently teeming around her. Not even they had known what was coming.

How could everything change so suddenly?

Charmaine now sat sprawled on the ground, gasping for air. Her unsteady breath gave her a sensation somewhere between drowning and being strangled. Nothing she tried to do could control it, nothing would slow it down.

Her racing heart frightened her the most. She knew very well that if it continued to pound so fast, her life would be over in just a matter of minutes. That's what she had been warned about her entire life. That's why she had been shielded from extensive activity since she was a toddler.

Calm down, her mind screamed, hoping her heart would listen to her cry. Please, calm down. She passed her trembling fingers through her dirty-blond hair, trying to rid herself of the panic she felt.

But try as she might, her heart rate wouldn't slow down. It resembled a race car without any breaks. It was out of her control—beyond remedy.

Charmaine let one last arrow of dread pierce through her as she listened to the deadly sound of life pumping through her veins. Then, too weak to strain her ears any longer, she let the rest of her body collapse to the ground in slow motion. She took one last desperate breath before everything went black.