Eternal Love

Starcrossed

Lily scrambled excitedly into the bed of Evan's battered pickup.

"Hurry, it's starting!" she cried.

Grinning, Evan nestled beside his best friend on the pile of old quilts. The gentle autumn warmth still rose from the Runner Canyon cliffs around them as dusk faded to black, unveiling the stars.

They came to remote Rattlesnake Point to watch the Perseid meteor shower in privacy. As shooting stars began streaking the sky, Evan kept sneaking glances at Lily instead, admiring her wind-tousled hair shining under the celestial display he couldn't voice his true feelings for.

A brilliant meteor flash caught their gaze. "Did you see that?" Lily breathed.

Evan tore his eyes back upwards, pulse quickening at her nearness.

Trying to finally confess, he began "Lil, there's something..."

A strange rumbling overhead interrupted him. Frowning, they searched the clear night sky until Lily gasped—an enormous fiery orb barreled earthward, defying all cosmic laws. Rotating slowly, it almost seemed...targeted at their location.

"No way..." Evan uttered as the uncanny meteor swelled against the stars.

Adrenaline flooded their veins at the inexplicable menace.

"It's coming right for us!" Lily gripped Evan's arm.

Dread leached all logic. This was no ordinary celestial event, but some personal doom hurtling directly into their path from lightyears away.

The ominous rumbling grew outside all measures of sanity as the jagged fireball eclipsed whole constellations.

"Evan..." Lily turned into his chest just as rational thought gave way.
"I think we're going to die."

Now facing oblivion, Evan finally stammered, "Lily...I love you."

Screaming filled the air as the falling star bathing them in firelight made an impact...then faded abruptly to the whispering canyon wind. Cautiously they found the cliff edge still intact, themselves unharmed. The objects had vanished, leaving no traces of their untouched reality.

They clung together in shock until Lily managed a delirious laugh of relief—they had made it! As she embraced him tightly, Evan began:

"I meant what I said. I've loved you for so long..."

Just then Lily jerked rigid with a thin scream, slick warmth spreading over Evan's hands at her back. To his horror, a smoking hole gaped from her spine...spitting free the fist-sized meteor glowing cherry red that had buried itself deep in her chest cavity.

With a horrible wet gasp, she went limp. The meteor tumbled smoking into starlit grass that began smoldering. Eyes clouding in death, Lily fixed Evan in a struggle to speak.

"Sorry...waited too long..." she choked out. "...love..."

Then the brilliant light in her eyes drowned forever.

Howling in anguish, Evan pressed his face into her cooling hair. The—impossible—celestial rock that had hunted them burned forgotten beside flesh and spirit alike extinguished.

Only the stars still dancing careless witness high above the scene observed dry-eyed when soon enough the young man's wretched cries slowed, then ceased as well into the deeper silence. Dawn found two bodies locked serenely in fate's vise down on Rattlesnake Point.

Of the dire meteor, no trace endured but pulverized bits mixed inextricably now with cliff dirt and the lovers' mingled blood...one celestial traveler concluded at last its star-crossed descent through echoing eons to sheer disaster below.