Evening hadn't simply settled over the sky it had swallowed it whole.

Heavy, low-hanging clouds pressed the world down, as if trying to suffocate everything that still breathed. The wind came in restless gusts, tearing at branches, howling through narrow streets, and rattling loose objects as if they were warning signals. There was something unsettling in the air, something that clung to your skin and wouldn't let go.

then the rain broke. Not gently, not hesitantly but hard, relentlessly. Fat drops slammed into the asphalt, roofs, and windows until everything was swallowed up in a single, roaring roar. Within seconds, the world was drenched, blurred, distorted. Streetlights flickered in the veil of water, their light refracting in the drops and transforming everything into a shimmering, unsettling image.

A rumble of thunder swept across the sky, deep and menacing, as if something were about to shatter. Moments later, a blinding flash of lightning ripped through the darkness, freezing everything every movement, every shadow before the night returned even more densely.

The storm was alive. It pounded against windows, whistled through every crack, and tugged at doors as if trying to force its way in. Trees bent under its power, their branches creaking and whipping through the air. Water pooled in rivulets that quickly transformed into raging torrents, carrying away everything that wasn't firmly anchored.

And somewhere in this chaos lay a strange stillness not true calm, but the kind of stillness that lurks between two claps of thunder. The kind that makes you sense something is about to happen. Something the storm brings with it.