I saw something flash in the sky above the alien’s head, way beyond the clouds. The alien bent right back and looked up, and then it seemed to shout something. The next second, the light shot silently toward the ground, a single white line. It looked just like a piercing arrow. It was a beam shot at the alien from the heavens. The creature was caught in the middle of that pillar of light and then vanished without a trace, like it had evaporated. The screen showed a dazzling, flickering glare, and then everything was breaking into pieces. There was a flash of light and a thunderous roar, a twisting sandstorm, clouds of dust. The sound cut out, and the screen shook violently. Wreckage rained down from the sky, and the ground was split and pushed up. Earth was compressing and getting torn apart. The world was beginning to end.
“No…” For a moment I didn’t know who’d said that, but then I realized it was me. Still gripping my cup noodles, I inched closer to the TV. “No… No, no! There’s no way this is happening!”
No one was coming to save the alien, who had completely vanished. I unconsciously touched the TV screen with the hand that was still holding my chopsticks.
“No! Please…someone!”
I knew no one would hear my screams. Hitting the screen was pointless. All it did was put the TV in danger of falling over. I couldn’t help it though. I saw the alien. What was that insanely loud noise? A car horn? I could smell mud. I saw a bright light.
No! Get away! I can’t see!
“Please, someone! Save him! He’s right there! Someone, anyone, find him! He’s gonna die otherwise! There’s no way he’s not hurt! Someone help him, please! Hurry!”
I could feel the floor trembling like an earthquake. It started off gently but then got rockier and rockier. The shockwaves from the impact I saw on TV had reached us.
“Someone save him! ’Cause I can’t!”
I still couldn’t stop shouting at the screen. I was more worried about the alien than I was the Earth’s impending destruction. It said that it could see the future. If that was true, it should have known what was about to happen to it, and yet it still came all this way to save humanity. It wanted to stop the world from ending, even at the cost of its own life.
I just felt like there was something far, far more important to me than the Earth or anything else. Like there was something I was forgetting. Something quiet and unmoving…
“Please! Someone! No…you can’t die! Hang in there!”
My heart was beating hard enough to explode, and my bones seemed to clatter as I started shivering. My throat was trembling, turning my breaths into shrill sobs. I wondered if the alien was breathing. How much pain it was in. Someone had to go help it. Because I couldn’t. I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t even breathe. My panic transformed my next cry into a shriek.
“Breathe!”
I dropped my cup noodles, and the steaming hot soup spilled out over the floor. I reflexively turned to my right to apologize, but the apology never made it out of my mouth. There was no one there. There was only an empty space, big enough for one person.
I looked back at the TV. The sky was still there, but a darkness was riding up from both sides of the screen, closing over it like a zipper. The floor was still shaking underneath me. Fragments of something were flittering down all around me. The lights cut out. The ceiling was collapsing. Everything was flaking away, falling down. Beyond it all was nothing but black.
I closed my bloodshot eyes. And then I remembered. How could I have forgotten? Someone was supposed to be to my right. They weren’t here, and then it hit me.
“I’m dreaming. It’s gotta be a dream! I mean…”
That’s it.
I saw the alien on the TV, and I saw it get hit with that beam. Then I did a lot of shouting. That’s what Q is. By the way, I called it “Q” because I needed some way to refer to it, to keep track of these particular events. It doesn’t have any specific significance. I’m gonna pick up the scene from earlier now.
The blue alien loosened his grip on me and pulled back slightly. “I need to continue what I was saying.”
“What were you saying?”
“This world is about to end. I was looking for you so I could stop that from happening.”
I lay with my head in the alien’s lap as I listened. I was pretending to listen, at least, but the night sky above him was just so pretty… He looked so hot in that mask too. This was the best angle ever. Before I knew it, my eyes were slipping shut.
“No, Rara. You have to listen. This is important.” He grabbed my cheeks and tugged on my lower eyelid. I opened my eyes. He was glowing blue.
“Don’t do that. I’m gonna get wrinkles under my eyes.”
“Listen. You can’t die here. Do you understand me? The world depends on you.”
“No, I don’t understand. And besides, I can’t do anything.”
“This world can’t go on without you.”
“I can’t do it.”
“You’re not even trying to understand!”
“Huh?!” His tone made me mad. I opened my eyes again. My drowsiness was gone. As wonderful as the alien was and as happy as I was to meet him, none of that meant he couldn’t tick me off. “Look at this a sec. Don’t you get it? Tell me what you see.”
I pointed at the massive hole in my head.
“It’s gross,” he said.