Biker Mice From Mars - Breaking The Habit

Every Story Has A Beginning

The sun burned mercilessly against her skin, but she didn’t care.
All that mattered was keeping her feet moving.
She couldn’t go back home—to that empty house, filled only with silence.
That wasn’t an option.
Not even close.

Her doctor had advised her to walk for at least an hour every day.
So she did.
She had to.
She knew what would happen if she didn’t.

Hands tucked into her pockets, she raised her blue eyes and spotted a bench near the water.
Despite her determination to follow the doctor’s orders, she told herself a short break wouldn’t hurt.
After all, the heat pressed down on her heavily, and she was tired.
With a sigh, she dropped onto the bench and stared out at Lake Michigan.

The view was beautiful—the sun scattering diamonds across the surface of the water—yet it stirred nothing in her.
She didn’t care about much of anything anymore these days.
There were only the same questions, looping endlessly in her head:

Why am I alive?
Why am I here?
What’s the point?
What’s the purpose of life at all?

The worst part of it all—next to listening to that relentless voice in her head twenty-four-seven that is—was never finding an answer.
Still, she tried to keep moving forward—if only for her parents.
She had to, even though she didn't want to.

A sudden flash of light cut through the sky, snapping her out of thought.
Squinting against the sun, she looked up.
What in the world…?

A fireball.
Falling fast.
Her pulse spiked.
Holy shit.
A meteor.

She should run.
She should get the hell out of here before...
Before what?
Before it crushed her?
Before she disappeared under burning debris?
Before the explosion would blow her to smithereens?

As if she cared.

Sitting there, she realized something.
Maybe this was it.
Maybe this was all just meant to be.
Maybe this was destiny's plan all along.
To lead her here, after a very long and agonizing journey.
To be at this very place at this very time.
All to die.
Maybe this was the answer she had been so desperately searching for all along.

Slowly, she sat back down, eyes locked on the blazing sphere.
The roar of fire grew louder as the burning object came closer.
It probably should have terrified her.
It didn’t.
She just sat there, still as stone, mesmerized.

And for the first time in a long time, she felt something.
It was beautiful.
Not just that.
It was salvation.
And it felt like breathing after drowning for so long.

All fo a sudden, three black shapes tore away from the fireball.
She frowned.
Weird.
But she shoved it aside.
She wouldn’t ruin her last moments puzzling over the inexplicable.

The meteor was nearly here now, close enough that heat brushed her face.
She closed her eyes.
It was time.
She was ready.
More than ready, even.
She embraced death, for it would set her free.

But then, something coiled around her waist.
Without warning, she was yanked off the bench.

A strangled sound escaped her as her eyes flew open.
Was she… flying?
Actually... flying?
Well damn.
Was this what dying felt like?

Well, she did know one thing, and that was that she was being carried away from the meteor.
Away from her savior.
That wasn't good.
“No…” she whispered, reaching out a trembling hand.
A tear slid down her cheek.
Dammit.
She had been so close.

Then, the fireball struck the ground.
The impact cracked the air with an ear-splitting boom, followed by an explosion unlike anything she’d ever seen—even on TV.

Holy shit.

The shockwave followed, scorching heat and ash rolling outward, blasting her faster through the air.
None of this made sense.
Her ears rang with a piercing whine as she stared down at the crater.

The bench was gone.
Everything within a five-hundred-meter circle was gone.
She was gone.
But not in the way she had hoped.
Not at all.

There was, however, only one thought that cut through the chaos in her mind:
What the actual fuck just happened?