I was starving again.
The stim capsule had worn off hours ago. My stomach had returned to its gnawing emptiness, a hollow pit with teeth. I couldn't stop shaking. Couldn't stop thinking about the reward countdown ticking too slow.
Then—something happened.
The sky changed.
It was late morning. The clouds parted in unnatural spirals. And then… it rained.
Not water.
Food.
Vacuum-sealed packets, rolls of bread, whole roasted chicken, even desserts wrapped in clean plastic. It fell from above like divine mercy.
People screamed.
But not in fear.
In joy.
They ran into the streets, crawling over each other to grab whatever they could. Biting into it before even checking the packaging. Crying from relief. Laughing. Hugging. One woman was shoving cake into her mouth like a toddler. One old man was weeping over a can of soup.
I just stood there, frozen on my balcony.
Too easy.
I didn't trust it.
And besides—I had just taken my stim capsule. I wasn't hungry yet.
Then came the screams.
But not the joyful kind.
Blood-curdling, claw-the-sky kind.
One boy fell over, clutching his stomach, writhing like a bug in oil. His skin turned pale. He started puking—blood and bile and something black. A woman ripped out her own hair before bashing her skull on the wall.
People begged others to help them die.
Some were stabbed.
Some ran into traffic.
Some jumped headfirst from buildings.
The streets filled with death faster than I could blink.
And still, the food kept falling.
My phone buzzed.
---
⚠️ WARNING #0004 ⚠️
> ENTITY CODE: GORJINA
TYPE: MASQUERADING BLESSING
TIME OF ARRIVAL: IN PROGRESS
ABILITY: FALSE NOURISHMENT – induces terminal digestion collapse via neural chemical triggers disguised as food.
PHYSICAL TRAITS: Appears as a cloud formation. Hidden among the sky. Emits sustenance from a cluster of mouths. Each mouth bears human teeth.
SURVIVAL TIP: DO NOT CONSUME FALLEN FOOD. DO NOT LOOK DIRECTLY UP.
NOTE: IT FEEDS BY MAKING YOU FEED.
---
My hand trembled.
It wasn't food.
It was bait.
I took one shaky breath and slowly, slowly looked up.
What I thought was a cloud… wasn't.
It was alive.
And watching.
The mouths weren't dripping rainwater—they were chewing. Constantly. Rows and rows of teeth, embedded into the fleshy surface of the sky itself. Like the heavens had been replaced with skin and hunger. From those mouths, it kept spitting food—blood-slick, polished, fresh-looking food.
I couldn't stop myself. I screamed.
I screamed and pointed at the sky.
People stopped eating.
And looked up.
And then they screamed too.
The silence was broken by a city-wide panic.
People throwing up, dropping food, collapsing to their knees. The old man who cried over soup shot himself. The woman with cake stabbed herself with a fork over and over until it snapped.
I ran back inside and shut the curtains.
The sky is not the sky.
I sat on the floor, breathing hard, heart pounding like war drums.
My phone buzzed again.
---
YOU SURVIVED WARNING #0004
> REWARD UNLOCKED: EMERGENCY IMMUNITY INJECTION (1X)
NOTE: BE CAREFUL. NOT ALL FEASTS ARE YOURS TO CLAIM.
---
Four down.
This one felt worse than the others. Because they offered hope. They dangled it in front of us. Let people taste it.
Then ripped it away.
I kept thinking about those mouths in the clouds.
They weren't chewing food.
They were chewing us.