First Contact

Starry Night

Stars. Stars surround us on all sides like an army encamped around its enemy. They watch and wait, wait and watch, diligent in their observation. It is dark, almost suffocating, save for the sparkling stars. They shine with an unreal, artificial, almost cheap glitter, as though they were made from clumps of glitter glued together.

Our audience laughs as they twinkle, all several billion of them. I cannot move, fear paralyzing my legs. The world is falling, and I am unable to stop it from shattering when it hits the ground.

Every second that ticks by is unbelievably slow in passing, each a minute within itself. Time liquefies into molasses and eventually crystalizes into place. All has stopped, except the beating of my heart. It counts the seconds that should have been, picking up speed as it does. Fear, it impedes me again, choking off my futile warning.

A drop of warmth rolls over my cheek. A sticky sheet of olive green slime coats my hands and soaks through my clothes. Whose blood is this? I feel dizzy, almost drunk on confusion and terror. I close my eyes to shut out the noise of my conscience.

Swaying in front of me is a curtain of soft sky blue. It is bright, even in the darkness—a beacon of extinguished hope. My thoughts are trying to make sense of it all, but I can only uselessly mutter her name.

“Reia.”

Her hair hangs only inches away from my face and brushes against my nose lightly, from the wind pushing it back gently. I sit, staring up at her with the unfortunate realization that this is where it all ends. This is when I wake up from this endless dream.

She was supposed to be unstoppable, infallible, indestructible.

I guess I was delusional after all.

Girl of iron, boy of glass; how could be both be so naive? I could never have my happy ending. In front of me lays a girl, her eyes barely open, and a giant jagged slash open across her stomach. I’m too afraid to look up. If I look, I’m not sure what will happen to me. All I know is that they defeated Reia, and that was impossible from what I’ve learned about her so far.

To be clear on this point, I never asked for any of this. It seems that everything, to some degree, always starts out innocent and fun. Eventually the truth comes out, and you’re left wishing that you had stayed home and lived your life as normally as possible. All because of one desperate, stupid wish, I’m facing Death.

I want to disappear, I want to run away, but I can’t. If I leave now Reia will die, and I just can’t live with myself if that happened.

One minute we were rushing headfirst into another investigation, the next moment we were under attack, and I was being protected as always.

Green. I can’t escape this color. All this time we had never encountered someone that could take Reia down with just one hit. And now she was bleeding as I held her in my arms.

I can hear the footsteps of our enemy, creating an even click clack against the pavement. From the beginning, I realize, I’ve been the useless one.

I am dreaming right? I must be…

Because if this isn’t a dream, then why is the impossible happening?

For a moment an image of a corpse lying on the pavement flashes in my mind, beside it lays a plain black handgun. That body looks familiar, and it is then I realize that it had my face. What if this whole thing was just a psychotic dream?

Ever since I received that phone call, everything has been surreal up until this point. Was my life before so dull? This part right here is madness of the highest power, but the pain is just so sickeningly real.

Escape isn’t even an option, really.