Adrius had been staring at Big Ben for a few minutes. The sound of the pleasure boats on the Thames, mixed with the noise of the street, occasionally broke his concentration. Still, he remained indifferent to everything around him, gazing tiredly and listlessly at Big Ben. There were three minutes left until midnight, three minutes until the anniversary of his third year of homelessness... Adrius muttered under his breath: "At least summer's back, I can sleep anywhere on the street again."
Adrius, the only childe of a wealthy family, had lived an effortless life in a luxurious apartment on Greenwich Street with his girlfriend until about three years ago. He worked six hours a day at his father's business and earned a good salary every month. He even had a black Range Rover, a birthday gift from his mother when he turned twenty. And, most importantly, his girlfriend loved him...
But in this world, everything good eventually comes to an end. Three years ago, Adrius's father suddenly suffered a stroke. At first, besides the paralysis of half his face, there seemed to be no other problems, and he was supposed to be discharged within a week. However, three days later, he passed away at St. George's Hospital due to brain failure. According to the law, Adrius and his mother were supposed to inherit all of his father's assets. However, on the day of reading the will, Adrius's mother, along with his father's assistant, Ganzo Bonacci, entered the lawyer's office. That day, Adrius learned that the woman he had always believed to be his mother was, in fact, his father's second wife, and his real mother had committed suicide from postpartum depression shortly after his birth.
Adrius's father, after marrying Melinda, his second wife, had decided to keep this secret from Adrius as much as possible. This revelation struck him with shock and disbelief. However, before Adrius could digest this, he was even more shocked by the words his stepmother suddenly started speaking, words that still echoed in his mind after three years: "Let me be blunt, Adrius. Your father's death was one of the best things that could've happened to me. Although I wish he had died sooner… These five years, I spent them with love, with Ganzo... But you know, it would've been a waste if I'd made everything public. Because your father would've taken everything from me with his lawyers."
On that day, Adrius learned that Melinda had worked as a nanny in their house since she was eighteen. A year later, several months after Adrius's mother's death, she married his father, all for one goal: to inherit the vast wealth of the Wallace family, nearly nine hundred million pounds.
After hearing Melinda's words, Adrius decided that once he took control of the company and his father's assets, he would make Melinda's life as difficult as possible and take away even the share of the Wallace fortune that he was supposed to inherit, in hopes that his father's soul would find peace. But he quickly entered the ruthless world of reality. According to the will, Adrius was completely disinherited. He refused to believe that this decision had come from his father, and after recalling his father's words in the hospital, he became convinced that the will was a forgery. At that moment, he could only think of one thing: "I wish I had taken his words more seriously." Words he had previously thought were spoken due to stress and medication.
However, the will didn't completely favor Melinda. Just as Melinda had exploited Adrius's father, Ganzo had manipulated Melinda as well. According to the will, Melinda inherited only the personal properties and assets of Clark Wallace, while all the properties, assets, and bank accounts related to the Wallace Company were passed on to Ganzo Bonacci.
After that day, Adrius lost everything. His apartment and car were handed over to Melinda, and Ganzo fired him from the company. Melinda didn't even pay for the funeral or burial expenses, forcing Adrius to give up his last pound to the funeral company and, in the end, be left owing another eight thousand pounds. However, the company owner, upon learning about his situation, showed some humanity and forgave the eight thousand pounds.
That day, Adrius turned to the only person left in his life, his girlfriend Diana. But Diana, too, wasn't much different from Melinda. Over the phone, she told Adrius: "These two years were great, Adrius, I really liked you... but you don't expect me to stay with a loser, do you?" In that moment, Adrius couldn't bear to hear anything else Diana had to say and hung up the phone immediately.
In the three years since, Adrius had attempted several times, with the help of pro bono lawyers, to find a way to reclaim his assets. But not only did he fail to recover his wealth, he couldn't even rent a house in the worst part of the city or find a job, no matter how desperate he was. He knew the reason—Ganzo had hired people to keep an eye on Adrius, preventing him from being employed or even renting a house. Adrius had spent the past three years begging and rummaging through trash.
Still staring at the hands of Big Ben, Adrius had two minutes left until midnight. He replayed his father's words in his mind: "I'm sorry, son. I always thought I was too smart and no one could fool me. I realized too late that everything was lost. You can hate me, it's okay, you have every right to. But don't destroy yourself... please, somehow, rise again... show them that if a Wallace is knocked down... the next Wallace will knock down a hundred generations... damn this stupidity... I'm sorry, son..." Anyone else hearing these words suddenly, with no background, would be utterly confused and would accept the closest possible explanation. And at that moment, the best explanation for these words seemed to be brain damage, mental strain, and heavy medications. Adrius let out a sarcastic chuckle and muttered mockingly: "Knock down a hundred generations? Heh... I didn't fall, Dad, I've been buried underground…"
Beside him, two young men were talking, and their accents clearly indicated they were from Liverpool. Both seemed about the same age, around twenty, three years younger than Adrius.
The first boy, wearing rubber-framed glasses, spoke seriously to his friend: "...I'm telling you, the world's been going crazy for weeks. There's been earthquakes, storms, floods... Even three nights ago, India recorded the worst rain in history..."
His friend, brushing his hair away from his face, responded in disbelief: "What do you mean, the worst rain in history? Rain is rain, if it's heavy, it's a storm..."
The boy with glasses smirked and replied: "What's wrong with you? Besides checking out girls, do you do anything else on the internet? The rain in India was recorded as the worst ever, because the smallest raindrop was the size of a ping-pong ball, and the largest one was the size of a basketball..."
The boy with long hair began to laugh, then, after a few seconds, said with annoyance: "Maybe I'm not into this kind of stuff like you, D.D., but how stupid do you think I am? A raindrop the size of a basketball? If you're going to lie, at least make it believable..." He shook his head.
The boy with glasses remained completely serious, still smirking. Without responding, he took out his phone from the back pocket of his jeans and began searching. After a few minutes, he turned the screen towards his friend: "Don't believe me... but what about BBC? It's a pretty reputable news network... they wouldn't lie about something like this, right? Or would they? Click on the video yourself and see..."
The boy with long hair stared at the screen, somewhat surprised, then suspiciously as though trying to figure out whether his friend had really opened the BBC website. Finally, he touched the video, and it started playing. The voice of a reporter was heard, though it was in Hindi, and from the stress in their voice, along with the terrifying sounds of thunder and people screaming in the background, it was clear that something serious was happening. The camera shifted from the reporter to the street, showing strong winds shaking trees and even cars, but there was no sign of rain. The reporter was explaining something in Hindi, though it seemed the reporter, too, was unaware of the rain. Then suddenly, everything changed—winds intensified, thunder roared without pause, lighting up the night sky, and finally, the raindrops began to fall.
At first, the drops were the size of ping-pong balls, and the sound of them hitting cars or shattering windows could be heard. Gradually, the raindrops began to grow larger, until they were truly the size of basketballs. The rain fell with such intensity that nothing beyond a meter from the camera was visible. But the sound of smashing cars and people screaming was crystal clear, and even the reporter began screaming. The cameraman, filming from inside a building, was trembling, causing the footage to be shaky and unclear. Despite the thunder and heavy rain, the sounds of cars crashing and even the collapse of weaker buildings could still be heard.
Adrius, distracted by the two boys beside him and the sounds from the video, turned his gaze back to Big Ben. It was twelve minutes past midnight. He shook his head and started walking in the opposite direction of the two boys, muttering to himself: "Basketball-sized raindrops... what would hail be like? Heh..." He smiled faintly as he walked.
Exactly one minute later, or thirteen minutes past midnight, as he walked slowly, the worn-out sole of his shoe scraping along the ground, a white rectangular frame appeared in his field of vision. The frame was horizontal, completely white, with blue text in the middle. Adrius was startled, but before he could determine whether the frame was real or not, a sharp pain filled his head and began spreading through his entire body. The pain was so intense that Adrius screamed without even realizing it, falling to the ground, thrashing with all his might.
A little behind Adrius, the two boys who had been debating the strange events of the past days also experienced the same condition, but the boy with long hair seemed to be in worse shape. With each scream, it seemed like his throat was tearing, and his vocal cords were breaking. His eyes, ears, nose, and mouth began to bleed, and his hands clawed at his face.
Further up, from a wider view, it seemed as though all of London had gone mad—cars and vehicles veered off their paths, crashing into each other, buildings, and people. People screamed, collapsed, and convulsed on the ground.
It was as if the world had come to an end, and at last, the gods had descended to settle scores, bringing their wrath upon the mortal world.