“THE EYE”
Dr. Charles Howard, a renowned infectious disease specialist, hunched over his microscope. He had seen countless samples in his career, but today… something was different.
A smear from the hospital revealed an entirely new strain of bacteria. The patients weren’t dying — just waves of nausea, cramping, and diarrhea. But the lab had no clue what it was. That’s why the sample landed on Charles’ desk.
At first, he felt a flicker of pride. Discovery still thrilled him, even after decades of work. He called his assistant, Carol, to share the moment.
As they leaned over the eyepiece together, debating what to call the new strain, the conversation drifted.
“There’ve been so many strange things happening lately,” Carol said. “The light in the sky last week — bright as the sun, but the sun was nowhere in sight. The rumbling sounds people keep hearing with no storm clouds above. Maybe the strain’s tied to all that.”
Charles chuckled softly. “So what? We name it after the end of the world?”
Carol smiled faintly, but her tone was serious. “Phenomenononus. Found in the middle of all these… phenomena.”
Before Charles could respond, a sound cut through the lab — distant at first, then rising. Screams. Dozens of them.
They rushed to the window. Outside, people were running, shoving, and tripping over each other in blind terror.
And then they saw it.
Above the city, blotting out the night sky, was an eye. Vast, unblinking, enormous enough to dwarf the clouds. At first, it looked blurred, distorted, as though seen through glass. Then Charles realized.
It wasn’t blurred.
It was magnified.
The eye was pressed to something. Something round. Something focusing.
It was staring through a microscope.
Charles felt his knees weaken as the truth settled in. The strange lights. The sounds. The sickness.
They weren’t studying bacteria.
They were the bacteria.