Except, periodically, they would summon the Screamer.
Every time we would run to escape its terrible onslaught; decimating everything in its path, howling with piercing, grinding sounds that seemed to penetrate our very cores.
After it had passed, we would emerge from our hiding places to find everything, our whole world upended.
The Providers would act as if nothing had happened. Sometimes, they would even seem to tease us about it in their babbling, incoherent language:
“Aww, silly kitties, that awful old vacuum is gone now!”
Comments? Criticisms? Advice?
