It's Raining Dogs and Gods

She had no idea what the dog was barking at.

She had no idea what everyone was barking at, to be honest.

The clerk Vita spoke to everyday when purchasing her daily intake of groceries was yapping at the sky, which had grown strangely dark. Yet, storms were predicted to hit the horizon today, so it was no surprise. The clouds waltzed among themselves, becoming heavy with hues of any traditional storm colour - whether that be violet, navy, or bright yellow. She took a quick peek in the window, and swiftly decided that she didn't need to restock her groceries today, anyways.

Vita focused on the mournful sounds of a violin nearby instead, so she could ease her mind of the rather annoying dog-like noises. The man behind the melody had his chin pointed up at the sky too, however, a bit of drool dripping lazily out of his mouth. She bit the inside of her cheek: his throat was spasming a little, as though he were screaming - and yet, all the sounds physically could not reveal themselves to her.

Those poor homeless people, she thought. Hard off drugs and desperate to make a living, when they should be desperate to fix their wellbeing instead...

Her daily stroll throughout the town continued. She began regretting her decision to not wear the new earbuds that she had bought the previous day: all this noise was really getting on her nerves. And so was the sky on everyone else's nerves, seemingly. With each person she passed, it only seemed to worsen. The newspaper-delivery boy was riding his bike in circles, shrill howls spilling from his prepubescent vocal cords. The lady-baker a few shops ahead could be heard hollering at the top of her lungs, sounding more animal than human. And, much higher in the distance - from a new building in construction, specifically - Vita's eyes caught a glimpse of a construction man's silhouette plunging towards the freshly-dampened ground. She swore that she could hear him scream, too.

"What is the matter with you people?" she called out, slapping her palm against one of her aching ears. "Don't any of you know how to behave in a functioning society nowadays?"

Yet, the barking only continued. The sky only darkened, the clouds only multiplied, and the air only became heavier. The spitting rain soon became a downpour. Vita flipped up her umbrella and glared at the sky, as though it were the cause of all of this. A ridiculous concept: a bit of atmosphere and precipitation couldn't kill anybody, let alone cause such horrendous noises - unless, it were acid rain of course, but that most definitely weren't the case.

If that were so, Vita's hairdo surely would've been ruined by now.

It trailed along the ground, enjoying its meal of freshwater from the supposedly-cursed skies. Briefly, she could feel the movement of people and other creatures alike stepping on it as they screamed and ran through the streets: sometimes it hurt, and other times, it was as though nothing were there in the first place. The one thing that stood out to her, however, were soft paws that pranced and barked all about on her long mane.

"What do you want, you mangy hound - " Vita began, yet she turned around before she could even finish her sentence. Its eyes were filled with malice, its hideous yip-yap aimed at her. She swallowed hard, and nudged the dog away from her with her high-heeled shoe. Yet, it persisted in its habit of bothering her: bothering her to the point where she walked face-first into another known town-dweller.

He, however, failed to make any noise at all. Like time had decided to freeze him and him only, his only true action resembling that of a fellow person was tilting his head down to stare at her...

To stare down at her and say, "Vita."

A chill - something she had never felt before - travelled through her entire body. The townspeople, each and every one of them, had their eyes facing her, barking as strongly as any mangy hound possibly could. The storm fell still. And, so did she.

"Vita, it is time for you to have another meeting with our god. In case you have failed to notice, you have disappointed Him once more... He had no other way to get your attention."

"...Right." Vita turned her head away and rolled her eyes. Quietly, she mumbled, "Okay, okay, fine then. Tell Dad that I'll be right there."