Heart of Glass

[first lines]

Hias: I look into the distance to the end of the world. Before the day is over, the end will come. First, time will tumble, and then the earth. The clouds will begin to race... the earth boils over; this is the sign. This is the beginning of the end. The world's edge begins to crumble... everything starts to collapse... tumbles, fall, crumbles and collapses. I look into the cataract. I feel an undertow, it draws me, it sucks me down. I began to fal, a vertigo seizes upon me.