13 Years ago
"And r-right next to the southern cross is the Je-jewel box, its made up a tones and tones of different pl-planetary systems" the bespeckled girl sits next to me staring up at the stars with binoculars wrapped around her neck stuttering while talking animatedly about the sky above us.
An old oak tree sits upon a large hill in the middle of nowhere, we lean against it together, lights of the town off far in the distance, no other lights for hundreds of miles around. This is our spot, ours. It takes hours by bike to even get here, but once a week we sneak out and exist under the galaxy shining just for us.
"What did you say your mum was again?" I whisper, staring up at the galaxy in awe, my voice as quiet as the Earth around us.
"Sh-she's an astronomer, I want to be like her someday, being able to look at the stars through their big telescopes." Sadness in her voice comes after the excitement "She got asked to leave with all the rest of the scientists, she said that before tomorrow night they would send someone to pick me up to take me with them..."
We were all waiting for the big event, for the Asteroid to pass our small fragile planet.
It won't be happening till tomorrow afternoon so this is our last chance before my 12th birthday to be here. They said we might be on lockdown for a week or so in the town bunker, a birthday in a bunker, how embarrassing will that be, knowing that the whole town will be there for it, even the other kids that bully me...
"S-soo have you thought about a name?" She asks, trying to distract both of us. This wasn't just a place for watching the stars, it was also a place where we told each other everything, without worry of being judged or bullied for being different or feeling different.
"I was thinking... Lilia..." I move my face away from her knowing that she won't judge me but feeling bashful, nonetheless.
"Huh... that really suits you, Hi Lilia, it's nice to me-meet you" I turn to her with tears in my eyes and see her smiling at me, that big smile that always brightens my day and I smile back knowing that this is a safe place, that it’s going to be okay.
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"Do you ever think the town will accept me?... "I ask hesitantly "like I told mum how I feel a bit and she only hugged me and told me it would be hard... But I just wanna feel like me, it shouldn't be hard to be me, right..." I pull my head between my knees, and we lean into each other looking out over the Australian wastes that stretches on forever and ever.
I can feel Nat shiver next to me so I grab the picnic blanket out of my bag, one that dad wouldn't get angry at me for getting dirty. I pull it over both of us, feeling the safety and warmth of my best friend against me, she speaks up and mumbles, "You know you could come with me?... I don't want to leave you here alone..." She sniffles slightly and I follow in kind, wishing that we could never be separated.
"I'm really glad you came into my life Nat... even if you're not here, I'm never going to forget you, we both know your mother might have been stationed somewhere else one day, at least we got one last night together... Even if you will miss my horrible bunker birthday party" we hold hands under the blanket and doze off together, under the stars that flicker just for us.
"I hope you'll come back for me one day...'' I whisper, as sleep finally takes me.
…
A noise wakes me from my dream, the sun hasn't come up but I can see the moon nearly leaving my sight so it must be getting close to morning, Nat stirs next to me as well, snuggling into my side asking for 5 more minutes, the noise is really annoying... is that a siren? The evacuation siren!?
"Nat! Nat we need to get up, the evacuation siren is going off we need to get to the bunker!!" she freezes realizing what's going on "what!? but it's not even sun up yet, we should still have half a day at least before it should even be…"
The word gets stuck in her throat as she looks up high above the tree and sees a looming shape above us, a circular eye staring down upon us, judging humanity like an all-encompassing god. It travels silently, and in its wake blue droplets like space rain come off it, some dissipating into mist and others dropping further and faster towards Earth.
The light of sun-up starts to cast a blue glow against us and the old oak tree, the Asteroid, has brought forth a new type of light into our world.
All we can do is hold each other as we know it's too late to get to town, we can only wait it out in our favorite spot, the place for us.
It seems reality had other ideas, a batch of droplets seemed to be interested in our part of the earth, the last thing I see is a flash of blue light, a shockwave spreads over us, darkness obscures my vision, my body pierced again and again, flung like a teddy bear in a hurricane.
I will never see Natalie again.