It was a rather normal day in Plathora, where clouds were born. The engineers were just receiving their next order.
"We're getting too many requests for storm clouds, Connifer. If we have to make many more, we'll run out of rain."
"But Brad, they need storm clouds to grow their crops. There's no other way to get water these days. It's called living in a drought," replied the Clouder known as Connifer. She then proceeded to build a cloud with black puffs and watered it down with water vapor before sending it off into the sky.
"You're pathetic, Connie." Brad rolled his eyes and walked back to the mailbox.
"You're heartless, Brad," Connifer retorted. "And you know I hate it when you refer to me as Connie! My name's Connifer Jones." Then she held out her hand expectantly so Brad would give her the next request. He handed it to her and she tore open the envelope.
"'To whomever it may concern:
Plathora, or as you may wish to call it, CloudLand, is under attack by who-knows-what. We understand it may not be your greatest pleasure to have such short notice, but we strongly recommend you evacuate Plathora as soon as possible to avoid the possibility of certain death. The most efficient method of performing this action is to throw yourself of the side of CloudLand in an orderly manner. We thank you for reading this letter and apologize again for the inconvenience.'" By the time she had finished reading, Connifer had whited beyond white. Brad took her hand to keep her from fainting and ran outside with her in tow.
The letter had not been kidding; some force that Brad could not describe was destroying the entire floating city of Plathora. It was composed of complete darkness and was covering the town as he watched. He couldn't move for fear. This darkness seemed to be gobbling Plathora up like bread soaked up water. And in its trace, it left nothing. Nothing at all. When the force had almost reached him, Brad found strength in his legs and began running, carrying Connifer in his arms. And when the darkness was about ready to overtake him and leave nothingness in his place, he turned around to face it and took it like a soldier.
"Daddy, we have to do something! Pretty soon we're going to cease to exist thanks to that…that thing!" cried a wide-eyed girl with a fancy pink dress.
"Yeah, Daddy, we're going to all disappear! Shouldn't we try and stop it?" another girl in a white dress with a similar pattern to the pink one bawled.
"We can't," their father replied. "There's no way." The two girls began to wail pitifully.
"But Daddy! I don't want to die! I don't!" The first girl rubbed her eyes.
"Troy, can't you do anything to save us? Anything?" pleaded the girls' mother.
"Marrissa, there's nothing anyone can do. It's too late," Troy replied.
And he was right; there was nothing to be done about the darkness as it reached up and swallowed Plathora whole.