A single day had passed when they announced it. That people's lives would soon come to an end, wiping everyone off the earth within seconds of hitting. 

Yet Evie couldn’t bring herself to care. 

Not that she didn’t want to, but because she couldn’t. Her feet dragged on the pavement, pace slow and leisurely as she strode forward, gazing at the darkened sky. Stars winked at her, as if they knew what she was doing. Waiting. 

Because waiting was what she did for the last day.

Waiting for that asteroid to come down and claim her life, as if it wasn’t anything of importance. Thrust her from what felt like hell cloaked in feigned happiness. 

Forced grins. Laughs. Teasing. 

She didn’t mean any of it, even though she tried. Forced herself to wear the grins she hated so much, telling herself she’d eventually become what they called…happy. 

Yet it never came, and soon, she would be freed.

Perhaps the asteroid was a mercy, something that could take her from this world that she was too cowardly to do herself. But it was world that never cared whether you suffered or thrived. If you were poor or wealthy––a failure or a success. She didn’t want it anymore, too tired to try. 

Too tired to care.

Regardless, people continued to scramble––hurried feet and trembling hands. Ushering children into cars to flee the city as the sirens blared, if only to put more distance between them and fate. 

Only fate would claim them wherever they went, no matter how far they drove. It would strip them from materialistic living and expensive homes, as if it was something to cherish when really, none of it mattered. 

Screams and frantic shouts filled the air, the first sign of the life ending asteroid headed straight toward where their feet remained planted. Evie’s gaze lifted higher and higher––eyes reflecting a wild shade of orange and red as the asteroid stared back.

A shade of destruction. 

Destruction that aimed for the city she called home for the last twenty years.

Yet for the first time in Evie's life, a genuine smile tugged at her lips, eager to be set free. She was ready. 

Ready to greet whoever hovered on the other side of those winking stars. The same ones that promised a better life than the current one she was drowning in. 

Certainly, anything was better than this.