“I… I, um…uh…”
“Rara.”
The blue light seemed to scatter from the tips of my eyelashes. I blinked. A fresh wave of tears. I was Rara. The scattered light particles illuminated me. They bathed the lines of my body with their gorgeous glitter, defining my image against the dark of the night.
“I know you, Rara,” he said quietly.
His voice was a little low, but crystal clear. Blue. As far as I was concerned, it was the only voice in the world. The only one. It was the only voice I knew anymore. Every other voice had left me but this one.
“How do you know me?”
“Because I’ve been searching for you this whole time.”
“No way… You really mean that?”
“You’ve been waiting for me too, haven’t you?”
“Yeah, I think so. I know so.”
“This is your world, Rara. You are the world. And I promise to protect you.”
“That’s…hilarious.”
“Do you know what I’m trying to say?”
“No. I really don’t get it, and that’s why it’s hilarious. But that’s okay.”
I meant it too. It was fine. Anything was fine. As long as we could be together, I didn’t need to understand. He was searching for me. He came all the way out here to find me. That was all I needed to know.
“I’m so happy,” I said.
The alien paused. “Happy?” The sound of his breathing stopped for a few seconds too. “How can you be happy right now?”
He gently stroked my cheek with the pads of his fingers again and again, like there was something he was trying to wipe away. He moved on to my eyes, my lips, my temples. When he carefully ran the tips of his fingers through the long hairs that were plastered to my forehead, I noticed his irises wavering slightly. I knew that even he was anxious about what was going on, but I still ended up smiling. I was just happy that he was touching me so tenderly despite his fear.
“I’m happy to see you. If I were a dog, my tail’d be wagging so hard that it’d lift me up by the butt and I’d be flying around like a helicopter.”
There was another short silence.
The alien gave a quiet “I see” from under his mask before finally embracing me.
Everything that was left of me was being supported by his chest. I really couldn’t be happier, and that happiness was all I could think about. I wrapped my arms around his back to make sure we wouldn’t be torn apart. I clung to him with everything I had. I never wanted to be apart from him ever again. I never wanted to let go ever again. I pressed my face into his cold leather chest and closed my eyes.
This is perfect.
As long as we could stay in each other’s arms like this, nothing else mattered. Maybe it was a bit sudden to be thinking along those lines when we’d only just met. I don’t know… Maybe I was being dumb.
Truth is, it wasn’t as sudden as I’m making it out to be. He stole my heart the moment I saw him. It was still with him now, as it had been since then. The alien had flawlessly taken the form of my true love.
I could remember sitting on the floor in front of the TV with my knees up. It was three months old and had a forty-inch screen. I was wearing my usual camisole-and-shorts combo. It was my loungewear, honestly not that far off from underwear. In my left hand was my then-current cup noodle addiction: tom yum flavor. I had chopsticks in my right hand. My iPhone was right next to me.
Be warned, this is the Q part. That’s what I call this section of the timeline.
Surprised was how I felt right then. Something had just happened that I couldn’t believe. There was an alien on TV. It was trying to give a message to humanity. It was standing there all alone under a clear blue sky. Night had fallen beyond the drawn curtains of my bedroom window, but it was still daytime wherever the alien was. The word “live” was in a bouncing white font in the top-right corner of the screen. I had no idea where this was being broadcast from.
The alien walked slowly up to the podium and stared right at me through the camera. I blew on my noodles so that they wouldn’t burn my tongue and carefully slurped them up, waiting for the alien to speak. To be honest, none of it felt real. I got a bit closer to the TV and increased the volume.
“To every human who is watching: Thank you for your patience,” the alien began. There wasn’t a single building disturbing the view of the blue skies behind it. Its voice was coming through perfectly clear. “I hope you’ll remain calm and listen. The world’s end is approaching. We know because we aliens possess technology that can predict the future.”
No way.
I’d just bitten off a mouthful of noodles that I was forgetting to chew. The camera pulled back, making the alien shrink.
“This is not a joke. This world is about to end very soon.”
The world was gonna end? Seriously? So, wait, what did that mean exactly? Was everyone gonna die? All at once, just like that? Or was some massive calamity gonna come for us? A pandemic? A war? Was some little robot girl in glasses gonna come chop the Earth in two? The alien could at least spell it out for us.
“I want humanity to stop the world from ending. That’s why I’m here. I implore you to keep your composure, but please believe me that everything I am saying is true. There is a way to avoid the end, but you cannot continue on this path. Watch carefully and think back. This is a drea—”