Ethereal

The End of the World

The sky was still dark with the beginning rays of sunlight crossing across the sky when I heard several pairs of feet hit the ground and the slamming of a car door.

I heard the sound of a gun cock, and then the cold barrel press against my head.

“Good morning.” Said a voice.

I opened my eyes, seeing a pair of black leather boots in front of my face. I didn’t feel the familiar weight of Jax’s arm around me – he was gone.

I blinked, fear and adrenaline crashing through me all at once as I struggled to take a deep breath in. I slowly sat up, lifting my arms over my head as I met the eyes that leered behind the gun. The man looked down at me with an expressionless face, his grey eyes cold. There were three other men standing behind him, their faces just as emotionless as his. They dressed all in black, like haughty grim reapers about to do their bidding.

The rebels were here. They had found Jax and I – and now they were going to kill us.

“Good morning, gentlemen.” I said, choking back the fear that was about to come pouring out of my mouth. “And what are you all up to on this fine morning? Going for a stroll along the shore?”

The men just stared down at me, their faces impassive. Normally, my inappropriate comments would muster some kind of response, but they were immune to my charm.

“There is another person you are traveling with,” the man holding the gun said. “tell us where they are, and your deaths shall be quick.”

“’Shall’? Who even says ‘shall’ casually like that anymore?” I said, my fingers digging into the dirt next to me. “You lot really need to work on your diction.”

“Stop playing with us, girl.” One of the men said. He had bright red hair.

“I’m not, carrot-top. But I must say that it fills me with joy knowing that people still synchronize their outfits together. Is it picture day for the rebel party? I hope you remembered to comb your hair.”

The following sequence of events happened rather quickly, and unfortunately, I never did find out if the group had purposefully planned out their outfits so that they all matched.

The man with the gun lifted me by my neck and carried me towards the edge of the cliff. He squeezed me throat, choking the air out of me. I clawed at his hand as I struggled to pull in air, my toes straining to touch solid land as he held me in mid-air.

“Tell us where your accomplice is, and I will end your suffering.” He said.

“Now why – would I do that?” I said, gasping out the words. If I was going to die, I might as well have the last word. “Don’t you know that - suffering is… what keeps life interesting?”

The man cocked his head to the side, as though he was confused about what I was saying. The edges of my vision blurred, darkness quickly sweeping in around me. My head was spinning as my lungs burned inside of me, begging for air.

Just as I felt my eyes close and the dizziness in my head still, I felt the earth under my hands. I twirled a small purple flower between my fingers, dully wondering how something with only four petals could be so beautiful. For a moment, I thought I was dead.

A gun shot went off, echoing down the cliff wall behind me. I felt my neck jerk at the sound of it, pulling me out of my haze.

Several more gunshots went off, one right after the other. I pinched myself, wondering if guns were even allowed in heaven. My skin prickled as I pulled my hand away, leaving behind a painful red welt.

“Not dead,” I said, slowly pushing myself up into a sitting position. “definitely not dead.” I looked around, my vision slowly coming into focus. Jax was standing off in the distance, his back turned towards me.

“Jax?” I said, rubbing my eyes. I saw his head turn as I called his name, but he didn’t move. I watched as a gun dropped from his hands.

I stared at the gun for a moment too long, my brain slowly connecting the dots. Littered around Jax’s feet were four bodies dressed in black – the rebels. None of them moved.

“Jax?” I said again, shakily standing up onto my feet. I moved towards him, wincing at the sight of the rebel’s as their red blood soaked into the earth. Their eyes were cast upwards at the sky as daylight approached. My eyes went back to Jax.

I stood behind him, my hand reaching out to touch his shoulder. He had saved me once again. My hand wrapped around the fabric of his shirt as I pulled him towards me, wrapping him in a tight embrace.

My nose pressed up against his shoulder, relishing in the familiar warmth of him. His arms slowly folded around me, and it took a moment for me to notice that his hands were shaking.

“What’s wrong?” I said into his shoulder. Jax didn’t respond.

I pulled away from him, taking in his ruffled blonde hair and blood speckled face. His eyes were wide as he took me in, his throat bobbing up and down. I opened my mouth to ask him once more what was wrong, slipping my hands into his, and froze as I felt something warm against my skin. My eyes shot down at the dark red blood mark that was blossoming across his abdomen, my breath coming out as a faint gasp.

Jax had been shot.

His knees buckled, sending him crashing to the ground. I caught his shoulders and eased him the rest of the way down, cradling his head in my hands.

“Jax,” I said, my voice breaking. “Jax.”

He lifted a hand up to my face, his thumb brushing away a tear I didn’t know had fallen. His breaths were coming out softer now, slower than before. The first rays of sunlight peaked over the horizon, casting his face in bright color.

“Nor,” he said, and I hushed him.

“It’s okay,” I said, feeling the blood drain out of my face. This wasn’t happening – this couldn’t happen – not to Jax. Anyone but him.

Jax sighed, his eyelids flickering.

“I went down to – the shore...” He said, his hand made smooth circles on my cheeks. I smiled down at him, unable to hold back a sob that broke past my lips. He dropped his hand and dug into his pants pocket, pulling out a small cream snail shell. He pressed it into my hand, folding my fingers around it.

“Jax, you go where I go, remember? You can’t leave me yet,” I said, tears streaming down my face and dripping onto his shirt. Jax gave me a weak smile.

“I’d never leave you, Nor.” He said. Jax coughed, blood speckling his lips and cheeks. I stroked his hair out of his eyes, leaning my forehead down to his and I pressed my lips against his.

I pulled away just as Jax went limp in my hands, his head rolling backwards as he stared up at the sky. I let him down gently, closing his eyes as I did so.

I fell perfectly still, my cries no longer echoing around me. As I lay surrounded by death, I tilted my head up into the sky and screamed.

My chest was ripping itself open, my heart thrashing around inside of me as I gripped my hair and pulled at it. The world blurred together around me – there was no line that separated me from my despair. There was only Jax’s brown eyes that stared at me as he slipped into the darkness, and then beyond.

I screamed until no other sound would come out, and I collapsed against Jax’s chest, my cheek pressed where I should have heard his beating heart. At that moment I felt as though I could have sunk into the earth, my flesh and bone returning to the dust that it was once made from.

“Please,” I said, “please, Jax, come back to me. I’ll do anything – please don’t go.”

Something soft grazed my cheek, and my eyes opened, expecting to see Jax smiling down at me, his thumb on my cheek. But his eyes were still closed, his hands unmoving by his sides.

I pulled myself up, my sobs quieting as a purple flower floated up into my vision. I watched, transfixed, as the flower drifted past me, the other blades of grass and flowers rising off the ground with it as they floated in midair.

The ground began to shake as large chunks of earth separated from the cliff and floated up into the air, pieces of root and dirt falling to the ground around me as the whole world was slowly coming undone.

Jax’s body stirred beneath me, and I watched in horror as his body and the other rebels were swallowed by the earth. I flung myself away, crawling backwards as I watched his blonde hair vanish from sight. The ocean went still behind me, the waves no longer crashed against the shore. I looked over my shoulder to see that the ocean was rising up towards the sky, large spheres of water and sand swirling above my head.

Everything around me drifted up higher into the sky, and I watched it all as I laid frozen on the ground. It circled over my head, everything stopping suddenly as the entire earth was resting above me.

Then all at once, everything came tumbling down back to the ground in a mighty roar.

And I was no more.