Apocalypse Kiss

By Michelle Belmont
She had never before seen the moon so red. It seemed to her that the world must be coming to an end,
for everywhere she looked was chaos. Stars were falling all around her; not meteors, but actual stars
who left a void in the black sky to crash and burn holes into the grass around her feet. With every
impact, she felt sparks of galaxies fly up and burn the skin on her arms. The sky was darkness all
around as each star disappeared, but the earth around her was illuminated by the burning moon. The
atmosphere seemed vaporized, the hue of clouds were gone and only empty space remained.
There was a wetness at her feet which seemed to freeze the air and sting her with every breath. The soft
rain that had earlier fallen on the grass suddenly turned to ice as the earth rapidly cooled from a night
with no atmosphere. Blades of grass became sharp as steel, and every little movement of her feet sent
cold, stinging pains up her spine. Her eyes frosted over, her heart seemed to stop, as if time itself was
stopping.
It was here. Her world was ending. Soon the planets would collide, the sun would supernova, and
everything she knew would be torn asunder. Gone would be the safety of her simple suburban life, no
more silent happiness in a warmly decorated living room. In the corner of her eye, she was certain she
saw the back patio burst into flame as a star rained down upon it.
Just five minutes earlier the rain had slowed and she had gone outside with her best friend, barefoot and
in Capris, to feel the night air and the moisture on their feet. Five minutes earlier, her world was the
same complete little dream as always. But that was gone now. With laughter and running, the two girls
met under the night sky. With hearts beating wildly, they kissed. And in that moment, she knew that her
world could never be the same. Her soul was engulfed in flames, and so was the dream of life around
her. Innocence burned away with the night sky and dreams crashed with the stars when, for the first
time, she kissed a girl.