It took the world six stages to become nothing. Six steps to pull all life and action into a still, empty, blankness. First, there was the Glowing. Hardly anyone noticed it because, in the big cities, the shine of neon lights and street lamps reduced the

brightness of the glow. The Glowing was the fastest of the stages, lasting only one night. People who noticed the stage described it in an awed manner: praising the unearthly blue light that radiated softly from everything. Trees, houses, mountains,

people... everything was luminescent for a mere ten hours. Some blamed the snow for the light, others believed that it was something supernatural. Whatever the cause, people stood outside their houses for weeks after the first stage, waiting for more

glow to appear. It never happened again; the Glowing was only a stage, and it was over in less than a day. Many called the Glowing the beginning of the world's descent into nothing, and after the next four stages, survivors swore to that idea. However, the

Glowing was never the beginning of the end. Nothingness had been scheduled since the start of existence. Every day was simply time ticking off of the clock, counting down the moments until existence would cease.