Flash Fiction: The End of the World

The End of the World as We Know It

“Are you sure about this?”

Alex turned to Chris. “Yes. I am. Aren’t you? I thought we’d talked this out. Don’t you agree?”

Chris looked towards the horizon and the terrible beauty it portrayed. “I just can’t believe it. Yes, we did talk about it and yes I did – do – agree. I guess I didn’t expect the moment to actually arrive.” He felt Chris’s gaze and had no trouble imagining the two dark green – almost brown – eyes boring holes into him, but he refused to turn his head.

“Don’t tell me you’re having second thoughts.”  Alex voice held a devastating mix of doubt, fear and anger and Chris wanted to kick himself. Why couldn’t he be strong and sure like Alex. His boyfriend was right. They had spent endless nights talking about what they would do when they reached this point. They’d weighed all their options, rejected impractical and fantastical ideas until they’d arrived at the only logical conclusion.

“Listen.” Alex’s tone of voice had changed. “If you’d rather do something else, just say so. I’m not going to force you into anything you’re not one hundred percent behind.”

“What? No.” Chris could hear the panic in his own voice. “We’re in this together. It’s just...”

Alex said nothing and Chris had to silently admit there wasn’t anything he could say. It had all been said before.

“I always imagined the end of the world would look something like this.” Talk about melodramatic. Chris wasn’t impressed with himself right now. Why couldn’t he follow Alex’s example and stop second guessing their plan.

“Yeah.” Alex stopped walking and in doing so forced Chris to stand still as well. “The orange light combined with the black clouds is rather apocalyptic, isn’t it?

Shivers ran down Chris’s spine. “That sky tells the tale of an ending.”

Alex pulled at his hand and Chris turned. When Alex lifted his chin, Chris looked up. The kiss started off soft before Alex put more pressure behind the contact between their lips. Chris couldn’t help it. Despite his worries and doubts his body responded to Alex as it always did.

Lips parted and the kiss deepened. Alex sucked Chris’s tongue into his mouth and Chris felt his mood lighten, as if Alex had also drawn his second thoughts out of him. He could do this. The time had arrived. There was no way back. They had to keep on going forward and face whatever came next.

When Alex pulled back Chris was almost calm.

“Are you okay now?”

“Yes.” Chris felt the smile stretch across his face. “I’m fine and I’m ready to do this.”

The grin on Alex’s face was all the reward Chris needed. “You’re right. It will be the end of the world as we know it but we are signing that lease and we will be fine...together.”

***

This weeks inspirational picture was chosen by Theo Fenraven.

Changes:

Brigham Vaughn and I have decided to change the way we do are Monday Flash Fictions. We have created a Monday Flash Fic group on Facebook and opened it to anyone who’d like to join in, both readers and writers. If you visit the group today you will find links to the flashes written by Brigham, Theo Fenraven, and me. Hopefully next week a few more writers will have joined us. I’ve copied the ‘rules’ for participating below.

Rules for Taking Part:

1. Join the Monday Flash Fics group on Facebook.
2. On Monday, Helena or Brigham will post the pic prompt for the following week. 
3. Write your story and keep it under 500 words.
4. Post it on your blog on Monday.
5. Post a link in the comments of the pic prompt in the Flash Fic group.

It’s meant to be a creative exercise for authors and something fun for readers to enjoy, so don’t sweat it.

Authors:
Join us when the mood strikes and you have the time. If you can’t manage to keep it under 500 words, well, we’re not going to hunt you down. It’s a good challenge to limit the word count, but don’t stress if your final word count is more like 507.

Readers:
Share links and comment on the blogs.

Everyone:
Feel free to submit inspiration pics in the group by attaching it as a file or sending a PM to either Helena or Brigham.

We’re looking forward to writing and reading with you in the Monday Flash Fic Group.