No Space in Heaven

It was a clear blue sky when the first one hit the ground with a thud, and then there was another.

Thud!

As the seconds passed the tick of the clock was punctuated with many more thuds, which were getting heavier by the minute. 

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

The bright skies were engulfed with dark raging clouds that were spitting thunder and spewing lightning, signaling that the deluge had begun.

Soon the streets were filled with what was falling from the sky, they were falling on the roof, on vehicles, it even fell on people walking down the street. It was not a heavy torrential rain, nor was it a hailstorm, it was not Mother Nature wreaking havoc, it was a more powerful force that was unleashing the terror. When it fell in front of Shankar, the local security guard of Jubilee Atrium who was ducking for cover, hardly could he believe his eyes. There lay in front of him the heavyset frame of Murthy, the recently deceased local MLA–a brute of a man who was notorious for conducting shady businesses that ranged from abduction to prostitution to smuggling, a man who ruled the town by instilling fear amongst its denizens through his henchmen.

Shankar looked around to see bodies falling from the sky, “Had a plane crashed in midair?” he wondered. It was like a hundred thousand people had decided to jump to their death at the same time from the stratosphere. A synchronized mass suicide. Shankar and the others were initially struck with curiosity as the cataclysm unfolded, and now as minutes passed they looked with their mouths agape and eyes wide open with fear at the horror that was playing in front of their eyes. Mothers covered the eyes of their young ones shielding them from the ghastly sight.

The thuds slowly stopped,  Shankar looked up to the sky to see the downpour had ceased, the Sun had emerged from the clouds burning bright at its full glory. He looked around to see the streets that wore the look of the aftermath of a genocide. Bodies were lying all around him, corpses that had plummeted from the sky lay motionless in open gutter, cramming the sidewalks like garbage.

“That was the last of them, Sire” said the Gatekeeper dusting his hands off the vermin he had disposed.

“Good” said the Man in White stroking his beard. “Now it feels like Heaven doesn’t it?”

“It certainly does my Lord.” the Gatekeeper replied.

“I wonder what these people down there think? That they could kill, rape, and loot from their people and get away with it at the end of the day by saying a prayer to me? That they could convert, exploit, and pillage places in the name of religion after which I will reward them with a place in heaven? That they could lie, cheat and steal the whole year to get what they want, after which they could fast for one month and visit my shrine, and that would absolve them of their sins?” the Man in White thundered.

“Humans they call themselves, my Lord” the Gatekeeper said in mock irony.

“I sometimes wonder if they are my creation, or I theirs?” the Man in White said whimsically. “Close the gates, we allow no more souls in here!”

The Gatekeeper obeyed his Master’s orders as he locked the gates, walked back to his post with a tune on his lips and slipped into his reverie.