The Ends Beginning

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. Little did they know just how wrong they were. My scream seemed to echo beyond the stars or so it felt. My world had been dying from the start but this was just cruel.

All six of us had been kidnapped. Forced into a deep sleep, waking only to find an empty metal room with no door. It had a vast window on one side that revealed to us the Earth. It would have been beautiful if not for the circumstances. Sweat covers my skin in little beads.

Some of the others haven’t woken yet. So far it is just me and a woman who looks to be my age. In fact, everyone looks to be in the same age-range. The woman shrinks into a corner trembling. She draws her knees up to her chest and her long black hair covers her arms as she wraps them around her legs.

“How…where? We are in space…” she whispers in disbelief. She starts hyperventilating and I would’ve tried comforting her but I too am in shock. Only I don’t scramble in a corner. I get up and walk up to the glass. “Rizzo…” I whisper as I lay a trembling hand on the glass.

It’s extremely cold but I don’t care. I should be down there with him. I should be down there with my family. With my little brother Tommy. I should be with them all facing our impending doom. Instead I am here, floating above it all watching. Watching as the massive solar flare rips through space towards our home.

My scream is silent but echoes past the stars. My scream is loud but isn’t loud enough to fill the room. I fall to my knees as my world is scorched and burned. I sob as the people I love are no more. What a wonderful day to get married.

I slump down empty inside. This can’t be happening can it? One of the others must have woken behind me because I hear an “oh-ohhh shit!” Behind me. A man appears beside me. He is gangly and thin, his clothes look as if they’d been scrapped from a garbage bin and he smells like that’s the case. He has rings under his green eyes. His blonde hair is long and greasy looking. He has some scruff but it doesn’t look like it ever gets past that.

“It’s over.” He whispers. I stare back at the world and I let out a low wail. My face is soaked with tears. I should be down there burning. I shouldn’t be alive. I have unknowingly cheated death. The man at some point had put his arm around me. “Hey heyyy shhhhh. It’s okay, we’re alive, we’re okay.” I shove him off. “No! It’s not okay! I should be with them! I should be with my husband!” I shriek, waking some of the others.

The man holds up both of his hands in surrender. “Okay….okay.” He whispers. He lowers his hands and looks at the others that are waking. He notices the girl in the corner and goes to comfort her. Good riddance I think to myself. My heart burns and my mind is empty as I stare at the world which is now a charred color, minus the great oceans. The world doesn’t have its atmospheric glow anymore. It looks like a tomb now.

“My name is Ben, what is yours?” I hear the man ask the girl in the corner. “G-Grace.” She squeaks just barely above a whisper. “That’s a pretty name, do you remember how you got here Grace?” Yes. Where are we? I question myself once more. I look around and as I do I realize that the burning sensation in my heart isn’t grief at all, it’s rage.

Whoever took us, stole my ending. Whoever took us, took me away from the love of my life. Whoever took us, took me away my family and they will pay for it….dearly if it’s the last thing I do, I promise.