...When the world ends...

Last night I dreamt the world was going to end.

I was with the girl I loved when we found out, we decided to split up, she to find her family and friends and warn them of the danger, while I would try to rally together those we could trust and prepare a place to live in the wake of the coming cataclysm.

I found a handful of those I could trust and we began moving to the higher ground of a tall but sturdy structure in the middle of a large city. What food and supplies we could find we took. We did our best to construct shelter and barricades to protect us once the disaster struck.

All the while my thoughts were with her, a cold fear growing in the back of my mind every second that she was out of my sight.


Soon it became too much to bear, while the others continued the work I had specified, I tried to call her. Luckily, our cell phones still worked, and the satellites had not yet ceased their function, as they surely would in the days and months following the end of the world as we knew it.

The slim plastic of my phone slid smoothly into place as I used the touch screen to find her name in my contacts list. The phone rang.

And rang again.

And again.

A fourth time the phone rang.

There was no answer.

I tried my best not to panic, surely she was just away from her phone, or perhaps the noise from the growing crowd was too loud as she drove back to our hastily assembled fortress. I tried my best not to allow the darker thoughts to surface, not to allow myself to think of the other possibilities.

We had been lucky to learn of the imminent doom mankind faced earlier than most, but we had known it wouldn't be long before more became aware and tried to take our stronghold from us. The new danger of being destroyed not by the coming disaster but rather by our fellow man was enough to briefly distract me. We needed to focus on the barricades, we needed to arm ourselves, we needed to secure a route for my love on her return journey, and we needed to know how many people she was bringing back with her.

I knew it was a foolish idea to let her go alone. "Wait" I'd begged her, "Wait until have more people to accompany you, wait until I can go with you, I'll keep you safe!" But she'd always been stubborn. Stubborn and strong. It was one of the things I loved about her. I'd pulled her close and kissed her. She kissed me back, and we both knew we meant that kiss more than we'd ever meant anything in our lives. As I pulled away, we looked into each other's eyes. There were no words. None that would suffice, and none that were necessary. She turned and left without looking back, and after she'd gone beyond my sight, I did the same.

She'd been gone for four hours, and every time I tried to call I got no response. The fear of my own death paled in comparison to the fear that I might never see her again....

I knew it was futile, night was falling and electricity had gone out in the city an hour ago, and there was no way of knowing where or how far she'd gone, but I had to find her. I knew that survival meant nothing without her by my side. I had to find her.

And so I left.

The streets were wet. It was quiet...the darkness was unnatural and oppressive.

I didn't know where to look.

I had one solitary hope, thin at that, but a hope nonetheless... perhaps now, when all else seemed lost, and when my only thoughts were of her, and of our first day together on the beach...perhaps her thoughts lay there too...perhaps I would find her there.

I drove north along the coast as fast as I could for as long as I could, but my gas gave out while still miles away. I got out and ran, and my feet grew heavy and my lungs burned. The sky was lightening as I ran, the night was almost over.

The end was coming.

I kept running until I finally found the place where we first walked along the shore, awkwardly making conversation and trying to seem more comfortable than we were. The gate was locked, so I jumped it.

I ran to the shore and collapsed in the sand. I saw footsteps, but I could go no further.

And then I heard her voice.

Singing our song to the heavens, she was just down the beach, I saw her as she saw me.

My strength was renewed.

We ran to each other and our bodies fell to the sand as we collided. I held her tighter than ever before, knowing I would never let go until the end of my life.

The sun crested the restless waves of the Pacific ocean as we lay in the sand, and in the coming light the stars were winking out. This morning though, was unlike all the others in time before it....For as this night ended, and this sun rose, on this new day, the stars did not simply disappear in the fiery light of a new day.

No, on this day, the stars were crashing all around. Each light that vanished from the heavens fell to earth in a brilliant flash and thunder.

I saw the light of the falling stars reflect in her eyes, and I was complete. The heavenly fire that claimed our lives found us warm in each other's embrace, ready for whatever awaited, so long as we had each other.