Wither

~~~🎧~~~

"Awiwi, awiwi, awiwiwiwi. One, two, three, awiwiiii!"

The TV screen reflected a cat, which, in its attempt to drink water from a pool, ended up soaked after falling in, shooting off with surprising speed. It was the third similar video I'd watched in the last hour, all with the same catchy song. I reacted with a heart and pressed the down arrow on the remote.

Another video appeared, but I don't even remember what it was about. It didn't make me laugh. Actually, those memes hadn't made me feel anything for a long time, just a strange empty satisfaction.

I hadn't smiled in a while. Although there wasn't a reason to, anyway.

"Aurora!" a deep, muffled voice called from the distance through the wall. I frowned, annoyed because my distraction was interrupted.

"What?!" I barely responded, without getting up from the futon.

Surely he hadn't heard my question, because it took him a moment to respond as if my effort had been in vain.

"Aurora, come here!" he raised his voice a bit more.

I sighed, looking at the ceiling for a brief moment before closing my eyes.

"No use."

I got up with difficulty, my body heavy from hours of inertia. Without pausing the video, I walked to the door, avoiding empty snack packages and old magazines. The room was dimly lit, barely illuminated by a ray of sunlight filtering through the blind.

The hallway fared almost the same. There was no trash scattered on the green carpet, but the dusty walls and lack of lighting showed it had been neglected lately. I followed the path in my memory to the room where I'd been called, and slowly opened the door.

Inside, the one who called me was waiting, sitting at his desk. A faint smile appeared on his face as he saw me enter.

"Aurora..." The smile quickly disappeared as he saw me standing there, like a ghost had appeared before his eyes.

"What is it, Dad?" I asked in a soft, lazy tone, setting aside my annoyance at having to stand.

"Were you watching MiuMew all night again?"

I slowly shrugged, nodding slightly at the same time.

"There's a latte you like in the fridge, maybe it will wake you up." He quickly scrutinized me from head to toe. "You look awful. You should take a bath."

I didn't need to look in a mirror to agree with him, but I replied anyway.

"Look who's talking. When was the last time you left your room?"

"Since..." he looked at the floor for a few seconds, processing the question as if he were in power-saving mode, "Yesterday, when I went to the supermarket."

"That was two days ago, Dad."

His brow furrowed slightly, as if defeat weighed on his forehead.

"Damn. That's why I ran out of ramen. Can you go buy some? There's money on the kitchen table."

I looked slowly toward the bed behind him, full of empty instant ramen containers. I let out a short sigh, disappointed, though there wasn't much I could do.

"Sure," I tried to give him a small smile. "Try to walk around the house a bit, at least. It's good for your legs."

The comment and my gesture elicited a faint smirk from him, but little more before he refocused on his monitor.

"Okay," he said, though I knew he wouldn't.

I wanted to tell him to really take care of himself, but I didn't even know how to say it, nor was I the right person to do so. I could only walk down the hallway and close the door, but as I turned my back on my father, I paused for a moment when he played the video again.

"...a tragedy of unprecedented proportions. Hospitals in Sapporo are overwhelmed and will not be admitting new emergencies until further notice."

I forced myself out of the shock quickly and hurried to close the door with vehemence after stepping into the dark hallway. Without hesitation, I went downstairs, relieved that the video's sound was fading away.

Is it possible to avoid the end of the world?

Upon reaching the last step, however, another device brought me back to reality. The living room TV, glowing with its colors in the darkness. I walked quickly to turn it off, but couldn't take the final step.

"We bring you an interesting discussion with scientists, astronomers, engineers, and physicists analyzing the possibilities of humanity's salvation from its apparent inevitable annihilation."

I stood frozen, expressionless, watching the presenter.

She always left the TV on when she was home. Thinking about it, I don't think it had been turned off since that day.

"Damn," I bit my lips in resignation and headed to the kitchen.

I poured the latte into a cup and heated it in the microwave. I watched the cup spin as the TV kept hammering into my mind with the grim story I knew so well.

"Everything is really going to end soon," I told the microwave, which didn't answer.

Exactly a month ago, governments worldwide revealed the most shocking news in history. The comet PX-2019-Ω, called "Amane 天音" in Japan, was inevitably heading to collide with Earth. It had been discovered by space agencies in 2019, but it wasn't until then that it was confirmed the celestial body wouldn't pass thousands of kilometers away, but would enter the gravitational influence zone and impact some remote area of the Pacific Ocean.

Beep, beep. The latte was ready. I took the cup quickly and sat at the lonely dining table, facing the mortal reminder.

Yes, it would fall far from civilization, though it didn't really matter. The comet was too large, with a dense composition of iron and nickel that made it impervious to any known weapon. Additionally, its impact speed exceeded the capacity of any diversion technology. Due to its size and speed, it was estimated that the impact would kill 95% of the population within minutes, and the terrible nuclear winter that would follow would kill the rest within five years. It was truly the end of humanity.

I finished the latte very quickly, it was delicious but it no longer brought great joy. I hurried to wash the cup.

The catastrophe announcement was made on May 7, 2024, and Amane was set to crash on May 7, 2025, exactly one year later. A macabre irony in its purest form, as if the universe had made a precise calculation just to say, "You have a year to live, let's see what you do."

Apparently, nothing.

"Another failed attempt to divert the Amane comet. The Artemis IV mission did not alter its trajectory, increasing global despair." The TV continued spreading the bad news.

Because, once again, its size and composition were such that there was no way to destroy it, not even to divert it.

I left the cup, took the keys, and hurried to the door, but a vibration in my pocket stopped me. I quickly took out my phone, hoping for a message, just one of the many I used to receive.

"Oh... it's..." I was disappointed. "Just a memory from last year's vacation."

The album "Trip to Nara," the land where deer roam freely among tourists, showed as its cover a photo of me at the great Tōdai-ji, with its majestic bronze Buddha in the background. My blond hair danced in the wind, shining under the sun, and my white dress with blue flowers floated with the day's freshness, highlighting a vitality I no longer recognized.

I looked away from my phone, knowing that I was in the vestibule and that there was a mirror to my right. I noticed a wilted flower in the glass, which had more of a human shape. My blond locks were disheveled, sticking out in all directions, and my pale skin contrasted with the deep circles under my eyes. As if that weren't enough, the wrinkled pajamas betrayed that I hadn't changed in days.

I was not even a shadow of what I used to be.

Still, I went outside. What did it matter if people saw me like this? Would they make fun of me? Think badly of me?

"Nothing matters," my mind repeated as I closed the door behind me. After all, in eleven months, we would all cease to exist.