5 Minute Reads | Anthology

In Five Minutes By Pheackle

"I don't think you understand the magnitude of this" her words escaped from a pained, dry throat. It sounded like a desperate plea belonging to a frantic individual in an event of calamity- and this described Mae just fine. Round, green eyes widened as the girl stopped to catch her breath, all in dismay as her glance landed at the nonchalance of Eric Bloome. "In like, 15 minutes we'll be dead."He chuckled, entertaining her chaotic display with a small shrug. "I still don't know what you want me to do, Mae."

She scoffed, pacing back and forth among the rubbles and debris of what was once a building of colossal proportion. Her ash-stained cheeks showed streaks of beige as tears cleaned some dirt off her worried face. "Do you realize what's happening? Theworld is ending. And alright, we've survived a day of this hell-holevaganza, but we're not making it out alive." She spoke in short bursts of sentences, inhaling polluted air in between each distraught phrase.

"Yeah, no, I get that part." The boy spoke, running a hand through his blonde locks. "I just don't get what you want me to do. I mean, I say we go for a swim- since the entire city is a water park anyway- because I don't know if you're delusional or something, but no amount of wishing or running can save us from Doom's Day." His voice is eerily calm while Mae is losing her's to crying and screaming for the help that never came.

He sighed, rolling his eyes before propping himself up from the pile of cement he claimed as his seat; his throne for the last hour or so. "Are you crying? How many times have you done that and how many times had it helped?" His voice sounded sterner than it did seconds ago, though a hint of responsibility and guilt is still clearly prevalent.

"Eric, I'd rather die-" She began sobbing; grubby began rubbing at her dampened eyes. Never had Eric seen such green redness, not from Mae Webber. "I want to die." The girl made out between sniffles."Oh. Okay." He gave her a light shrug before in one swift motion pushing her off the top of the building, only holding her secure by the arm, being careful not to let go. "You really sure though?" The male made a coy laugh.

Mae couldn't even react fast enough for her to scream. Her stare was filled with urgency and fear as nails dig into Eric's skin- clinging to him with everything she's got. "Eric, it's not funny. Lift me up. Now." She commanded.

Under her laid a sea of decay; wasting away as the gentle water above epic structures began to corrode the giants of cement and limestone. It's anything but serene; the faces those swallowed by the waves stay twisted in agony- an expression they adopted as they either drown or are crushed underneath the demolished edifice.

"You see the dead bodies under you, Mae?" Eric hissed, for a second letting go of his grip to hear the girl's unfiltered squeal before he caught her at the wrist. "That's what being dead is. Do you want to be like them?" He asked once more, brown eyes admiring the girl's defiant oculus decorated with bona fide tears. The girl shook her head, the grip on his hand firm and decided. With a gentle smile, the blonde pulled her up, and once Mae's feet once again kissed the ground, Eric pulled her in a tight hug.She was whimpering, her blue lips trembling from fear and cold. "What the hell was that?!" She cried, suddenly pushing the boy away with one smack on the chest. "You almost killed me."He raised a shoulder, lips parting to smile as a chortle escaped his lips. "So? All the cops are dead." He joked, jabbing at Mae's side playfully before he cleared his throat. "Okay, sorry- I don't know, you said you wanted to die? But Mae, here's the thing. I don't think you want to die, I think you want to be saved."

Her once bright eyes dimmed, lips shut and fingers curled to fists. While mere reasonable individuals would take this as a sign of defeat, Eric is not a reasonable individual. He's a wise one, albeit young and already broken. He had faced deaths countless times before, even mocking it in the face during nights when he decided to load the barrel of his gun and played Russian Roulette with the wall. He, too, thought that he wanted to die. But unlike Mae, he made the revelation himself- he never wanted death. He needed rescue.

"I don't know what to do.." The girl whined, slapping her already bruised forehead as she sat down on the crumbling concrete, eyeing the horizon. Of course it's there- another large body of water coming their way. It's bigger this time, more violent, and broken down skyscrapers are tangled within the waves to ensure both their deaths. "Eric, another one is coming, and I-" She sobbed, hugging her knees in a near-fetal position.

"What is there to do?" He spoke calmly, lying down next to the sobbing girl. "It's okay, Mae. This is all okay." He assured, facing the open skies of ash and cinder. "Soon, all our sins and regrets will be washed away by waves. Everything we stood for, everything we're scared of- just.. .everything will cease existing soon. Think about that for a second, okay?" He spoke; strong hands that are now rendered useless stroked the girl's soft filaments of hair. "You know nothing lasts. Even this fear you have now, soon won't exist anymore."So the two held on to each other in warm embrace, both eyes closed as they decided not to think of what will happen or what has. Because nobody exists on purpose, nobody ever belonged, and it all ends in death- it all ends in five minutes.