The oceans boiled. A thick greasy steam lifted ominously to the hurricane winds. Demon winds that ripped trees up by their roots and tossed them like straw against the strongholds of man.

Cities, mountains, all fell before the onslaught of the end of the world.

The Earth, a million years in creation, disintegrated to a ball of flaming, molten rock within a matter of hours. Then even those flames died, the life sucked out of them by the frozen vacuum of space.

Then everything was dark—except for the flicker of distant lights and faraway stars.

.

.

.

.

“And that folks,” I announced, while signaling the waiters to deliver the champagne and nibbles. “Was the end of the world. We hope you enjoyed your time with Kiki’s Time Travel and Emporium. Please remain seated while we return to our own time.”

I clocked the time device back to our original time and keyed the switch for the temporal engine.

A feral panic hit me when the engine failed to engage.