The City Without Windows (La Dernière Voix)

THE CITY WITHOUT WINDOWS

One day, all the windows in the city disappeared.

Then the rain started.

No matter what we tried to do, no matter how we tried to protect ourselves,

the water would get through.

Our ceilings passively welcomed the constant drops,

our wood slowly rotted in submission to the downfall.

No amount of technology, or human effort could resist...

...to what was just meant to be...

We were the city without windows...

Nothing we could do about it.

The water infected everything...

Wood turned porous,

allowing the liquid to seep into our houses,

metal corroded until it became like a dripping sponge.

Disease spread, our bodies forced to encounter incurable pestilence...

...that slowly paralyzed our vocal chords.

Paper dissolved to pulp under the merciless torrent,

anything electric having shorted out and stopped so long ago...

Communication became a new challenge to our race.

Everything we knew had to be re-invented.

Flesh became our only trustworthy mode of communication.

Ironically, our bodies suddenly became useful again.

Our skin could hold messages,

secrets carved into permanent scars that would never be washed away,

infecting themselves into all too vulnerable tissue that couldn't lie...

...after it was cut into.

Strangely, we had become honest again.

We couldn't re-trace our steps and re-form our words.