Writing Prompt Wednesday #11

53. The sun rose for the final time. https://getfreewrite.com/blogs/writing-success/writing-prompts-60-ideas-you-can-use-today

I sat on my roof, watching as the bright ball of light crested over the horizon, lighting the sky up in orange flame. She remembered when the sun was bright and yellow, promising new life. Now it was the dim red of blood that foreshadowed disaster.
The end was approaching-that they all knew. No one knew how it was coming. Some thought it’d be a surge of diseases that’d leave people crippled. Others said a foreign, alien race would come to destroy cities. A few thought it’d be a huge meteor that’d obliterate everything in its wake. There were a few other theories, I knew, but those were the most common.
I shook my head. The end was coming. It didn’t matter how, it’d be here shortly and I wanted to make the most of the little time I had left.
I hopped down from my roof, landing with a solid thud! A few people called out greetings to me as I passed. Hardly anyone had slept last night. Very few were willing to waste the little time they had left with something as pointless as sleep.

I made my way into the local diner. The shop owner called, “Ah, Catia, it’s good to see you. How was your night?”
“As good as can be, Mr. Fiker,” I told him.
“Very good, very good.” As he was speaking a waiter slid a hot chocolate over to me. I nodded my thanks to him. In these days, people rarely charged money for goods. There was no point. Money wouldn’t help you when you were dead.”So do you have any plans for today?” Mr. Fiker asked.
I shook my head. “I’m just going to try to enjoy my last day as much as possible. You?”
“I am spending time with my family and the place I love,” he said, gesturing to the diner. I nodded. “This place is my soul. When I die, I will die here.”
“I wish you well,” I said, picking up my glass. “It’s been an honor to know you.”
“It has.”
I left the diner, throwing my glass in a clump of bushes once I had finished it. I looked around. It seemed so strange that soon all of this wouldn’t exist. I shook my head. It’d be here, it just would never be the same. It-
My thoughts were cut off as I was shoved to the ground. “Oh my gosh, Catia, I’m so sorry,” a voice said. The man helped me to my feet, giving me a small smile. “I was just coming to see you.”
“Hey Trey,” I said. “You’re here too, huh?”
“Yeah,” he said.
“How are you?” I asked him, frowning as I did so.
“I’m okay,” he said. “You?”
“Honestly, I’m terrified.”
“I wish I could relate. It’s weird. I couldn’t be less afraid,” Trey said. “It’s a little weird though, isn’t it? That soon this’ll all be gone?”
“I was thinking the same thing,” I smiled. “So why are you here anyways?”
Trey frowned. “Well, uh, I knew I couldn’t die without finishing something.”
“What?” I said after a few moments of silence.
“It’s just something I’ve been meaning to do for a long time,” he said. “I won’t waste your time-I’m sure you have much more important things to do with your last day.”
“Not really,” I said. “My parents are...well, you know, my brother is busy with his last-day goal-” Try cocked an eyebrow. I sighed. “‘I refuse to die a virgin,’ as he says.” Trey couldn’t hide a small smirk. I smiled, shaking my head. “-and you’re my best friend. So, no I don’t have anything better to do.”
Trey thought for a moment, then said, “Do you want to come with me?”
“What?”
“Come with me. If you don’t have anything else to do, there’s no harm, right?”
“Well, not to me,” I said. “But this seems like a private thing. I don’t want to-”
“Oh, don’t worry about it,” he said. He smiled. “I couldn’t think of anyone else I’d rather have by my side during this.”
“Really? You’re sure?”
“I’m sure,” Trey said. “So? You ready?”
“Yep. You?”
“As I’ll ever be,” trey said. He took my hand. “C’mon, let’s go.”

“So where are we going, anyway?” I asked once we were in his car.
“I’m going to see someone,” he said. “To say goodbye.”
“Oooo mysterious,” I said as Trey grinned. I sat back in my seat, looking out the window at the orange sky. “It’s not a bad way to end it, you know. Being here, far away from it all.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know. I won’t have to see my life crumble. I’ll be far away from it all,” I explained. “I don’t know if that makes sense.”
“It does,” Trey said.
We sat in silence for a few moments. “What are we going to do if it just...doesn’t happen?”
“Doesn’t happen?”
“Yeah, I mean, scientists have predicted that this’ll be the end of the world but what if it isn’t?”
Trey shrugged. “I guess we’d just continue with life as normal.”
“I guess,” I said. “But it wouldn’t be the same. Once you live life like the end is coming so soon, you can’t ever really go back.”
“Your brother would have a particularly hard time,” Trey said and I grinned. “Why aren’t you with him, anyways?”
“We both decided that it’d-it’d,” I said, my voice cracking. I took a breath and dabbed at the tears forming in my eyes. “We both decided that it’d be easier if we didn’t have to see each other. If we didn’t have to say goodbye.”
Trey frowned. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s no problem,” I said, forcing a smile. “It is what it is. We can’t change that now.”
Trey nodded. “Right you are,” he said as we drove along.

About an hour later, we pulled into a dirt parking lot. The end was coming-both Trey and I could feel it. It felt hard to move at some times and other times we were almost floating in the air-like gravity kept changing. The air was hot and muggy and it was hard to breathe. “This is pleasant,” Trey panted as we walked.
“You’re telling me.”
We kept walking. “Thank you for coming here with me,” Trey said. “It means a lot to me.”
“It’s no problem,” I said. “You would’ve done the same for me.”
We approached a cemetery. I cocked an eyebrow at Trey, but he was still moving forward-his face set in a hard, determined line. I followed him.
We came to a large tombstone. Carved in the stone we’re the words, “James Crawford: A great husband and a better father.” I looked over to Trey for explanation and saw that tears were falling down his face.
“I haven’t seen my father in 14 years,” he said. “It feels good to be with him again. Goodbye, father.” He said the last words like they were taking an enormous amount of effort. I didn’t realize why until I noticed how hard it was to breathe. The end was near. After he spoke, he fell to the ground in exhaustion. I followed him shortly after. My last hope was that it wouldn’t be painful or scary. I silently said goodbye to everyone I loved and faced my imminent death.