Have You Ever Seen the Sun Rise at Midnight?

Broken

"You know," they stare about the broken, ruined world around the two of you. Trees and houses alike lay torn, shredded, into splinters. So much firewood where once was home and hope, "This really isn't so bad."

You laugh. A crazed, choked up laugh, because what else could you do? How else could you respond? They join you, theirs broken every few seconds by fresh sobs which wrack their body.

You cling to their hand.

They cling to yours.

And apart from your laughter which feels so distant from reality and their laughter which is interrupted by twisted cries, it's silent.

The two of you sit there alone on a small hill, round, with what was probably once grass, but now had been razed to just cinder, the black, sooty powder sticks to your torn clothes, feet, and the palm of your hands. You both sit, and laugh, and watch as the moon begins to rise, the sky finally going purple, the stars beginning to shine in the sky.

Soon it would all be over.

A few hours more and then, when midnight struck, you'd wake up, and then it would all be as real as a dream.

It was funny though, it had only taken fourteen tries to completely destroy the world in less than a day.

Even less than that for it to stop mattering to either of you whether each world was an alternate universe and for some reason your consciousness left it behind at the end of the day or if March 22nd really did just reset at the end of it.

You wondered what you would do tomorrow.

Did it matter?

You'd enjoy the silence in the meanwhile.

And so you sat there, heads leaning against each other, shoulders touching, hands entwined, on the tattered hilltop, and watched the broken moon rise in the sky.

It really wasn't so bad.

You laughed. And they did too.

You wondered if they were really there.

Maybe... maybe tomorrow you would check.

You leaned further into their side.

Yes, yes, that was what you would do.

It didn't really matter in the end.

They probably wouldn't even mind all that much.

And if they did, and were real of course, then they'd forgive you after a few more cycles.

After all... they didn't have anyone else who could possibly understand. Neither did you.

It would be fun.

         You smiled, no longer laughing.

         They were quiet except for their sobs.

Your hand gripped theirs tightly and theirs held onto yours even more so in return as if they were desperately grasping the last few strands of sanity.

Before you lay the broken remains which nine billion people had once called home.

You laughed even more.