"When the world stopped turning."
At 2:16 a.m. UTC, the Earth halted.
Not gradually. Not with warning. Just… stopped.
The wind stilled. The tides froze. The sun refused to move.
And everything changed.
On the side of Earth facing the sun, cities began to burn. The air thickened. Trees turned to ash. Skin blistered in seconds. Water hissed and vanished. Fires raged with no nightfall to stop them.
On the side swallowed by shadow, the cold crept in. Fast. Entire towns frosted over. Lakes turned to glass. Roads cracked beneath the weight of growing ice. The stars never shifted. Darkness never lifted.
Between them—at the planet's waist—storms churned in violent confusion. Heat met cold in a collision of fury. Tornadoes split through jungles. Oceans climbed into the sky. The planet groaned under the weight of imbalance.
And somewhere in the middle of it all, a boy sat alone, in the dark, watching a dying world on an old television screen.
The light from the screen flickered over his face.
The room around him was cold, still, and silent.
He didn't move. Didn't blink. Just listened.
"To all citizens, wherever you are… this is not a test."
"This is Dr. Evelyn Soraya, lead scientist at the World Climate Observatory."
"At exactly 02:16 UTC, Earth ceased all axial rotation. We have entered planetary standstill."
The footage cut between chaos.
Flames devouring city skylines. Snow burying highways. People running—some screaming, others kneeling.
No leaders. No answers. Just fire. Ice. Silence. Collapse.
"Both hemispheres are no longer cycling. One side of the Earth is facing total solar exposure. The other, total darkness."
"All projections confirm that in thirteen days, Earth will fall from orbit and be pulled into the sun."
There was no escape.
No cure.
No bunker.
No plan.
Just time.
Thirteen days of it.
The boy leaned forward. The static from the old TV crackled softly in the corners of the room. A soft hum from the heating vent gave up its final breath.
Dr. Soraya's voice faded to a whisper.
"Tell someone you love them. Hold them. Say goodbye."
"The world as we know it is coming to an end."
He stared at the screen. Blank.
Then, slowly, he reached for the remote… and turned it off.
The room was swallowed in silence once more.
He didn't scream.
He didn't cry.
He didn't move.
He just sat in the dark, like he always did.
Only now, the whole world was joining him.