[ WP ] Earth 's entire population lives in one gigantic skyscraper .

`` Halt! Stay your distance!'' 
 
 ``...'' 
 
 ``...'' 
 
 `` You hold the light?'' 
 
 `` I do.'' 
 
 `` Are you an Angel?'' 
 
 `` No.'' 
 
 `` My Father used to tell me that Angels lived above us. Azrael. Mikail. Their light shone so bright that they illuminated the entire world, from top to bottom. Of course, he'd never met them in person. How could he? My Father was born in District 302 - not exactly the basement levels but a far cry from the districts which pierced the clouds. 
 
'Isaac,' he'd say.'D'you think that you need goggles to live in Heaven's Gate?' 
 
 Of course, he'd never wait for a response. 
 
'Nah,' he'd shake his head,'the only ones up there would be the Angels, would n't it? I wonder how they do it - make all that light.' 
 
 As for me, I was less concerned about the affairs of Angels and more about the light. For us, light was everything. It gave us energy. Hope. Sight. Without light, there was no world to live in - even those poor bastards down in Hell's district got light! 
 
'For the Angels are merciful and view us all in equal standing,' my Father would always add in. 
 
 Perhaps it was because I grew up with Father's tales heralding the Angels to be infallible or the fact that the light had always existed - either way, it came to a huge shock to me when the world turned black. After so many years living as we did, the darkness felt almost tangible to me - probably moreso to my poor Father, who died from shock shortly thereafter. I imagine the blackness choked him to death. 
 
 I do n't blame him. It was suffocating those first few days. Weeks? I ca n't really remember - time tended to wax and wane in the dark. For the first time in my life, I felt pain - a tearing sensation in my stomach which seemed to grip up my chest and out my throat as if to get out. A beast, if you will. It certainly felt as if I were possessed by an animal - I stumbled around in the dark blindly for anything to stem the pain. Swallowing things seemed to do the trick in making it go away at first. Other times, it'd just worsen it. I quickly learned what things were good for the monster inside - soft, squishy, wet things. 
 
 Like my Father's eyes. It had the added effect of soothing my throat, which the foul thing had left all dry and scratched up in its attempt to leave. I only felt the shame afterwards, when I had taken from him all that I could. I tried to reach down myself and pull Father out but alas, the monster had a strong grip - I could not free him.'' 
 
 ``...'' 
 
 `` But how do you hold the light? Have you stolen it, then?'' 
 
 `` I have stolen nothing. Lucifer gave this light to me, for he knew that this day would come, when the Angels would cease to be. This light is called *Fire* and it destroys where the Angel's light would give life.'' 
 
 ``... It's warm.'' 
 
 `` It is.''
