March 21st, Friday

March 21st, Friday.

The elderly man had awoken with a sharp gasp, breathing irregularly, trembling and sweating cold. He abruptly sat on the edge of the bed, hands shaking as he clutched the heavy golden cross hanging from his chest. The only light in the room came from the window—starlight under a dark blue sky, just before dawn.

Without hesitation, he rose, draped his thin body in a white robe, and ran down the echoing corridors. He knocked on the first door he reached. Within moments, another elderly man appeared.

"Your Holiness?" asked the man who opened the door.

It was just another ordinary morning in that small town. Teenagers walked to school, most of them unmotivated. Everyone already seemed tired of the mundane routine.

Class 3-C was almost full, with only a few students missing. Then Iris walked in. She had fair skin, a few freckles on her face, stood at about five-foot-five, with straight brown hair tied into two large twintails, each held by star-shaped accessories. She wore a long-sleeved white T-shirt with a blue star design, denim shorts, and black tights underneath.

Tired, she sat at her desk, next to a boy about five-foot-nine, fair-skinned, with slightly spiky black hair. He wore a jacket split in color—blue on the left, red on the right—and blue pants with white cuffs.

"Hey, Jonas. My mom told you I hadn’t gotten up yet when you came over, didn’t she?" said Iris sleepily, looking at the boy.

But he barely noticed. He was too engrossed in a video on his phone, Iris’s voice muffled by his headphones. Iris leaned closer, and her expression changed instantly. She already knew what Jonas was watching.

In the video, there was a man around forty, with long, curly black hair and an equally long black beard, missing a few teeth. Even through the headphones, you could hear the unsteady, hoarse, dramatic voice. Something between a theatrical preacher and a drunken fool.

"You’re watching that lunatic again?" asked Iris, touching Jonas’s shoulder. He took out an earbud to talk.

"Not a lunatic. That’s Zek Prophète! This one’s one of his funniest videos. Have you seen it?" said Jonas, handing her the earbuds.

"Stop it, Jonas! I already told you I don’t like those dumb memes..." said Iris, trying to remove the earbud, but something about the video caught her attention.

In the video, Zek Prophète was in what looked like his dimly lit, dirty kitchen.

"The end is coming. The end is coming, man." At that moment, Zek widened his eyes. "The great... meteor... it’s coming, man. Everyone’s gonna go like this: OOOOOOOH... THE METEORUS... IS COMINGUS TO EAAAAARTH, BRO... Look, I’m telling you, man, I ain’t lying, this isn’t a conspiracy theory..."

The video cut to old newspaper clippings, screenshots from conspiracy forums, blurry photos of the night sky, and space images with what appeared to be blacked-out sections.

Tired of what seemed like nonsense, Iris took the earbuds off.

"How do you never get tired of this? That guy’s been a meme since we were kids, and he’s been gone for like five years. He’s not posting again," Iris complained.

"You know he’s from our town, right?" said Jonas.

"I know. But what I find weird is that people all over the country watch his videos."

"He’s just another idiot trying to stir up drama. Always has been. People like him exist because people like you give them attention," said a female voice behind them.

Iris and Jonas turned around and saw a thin girl, about five-foot-seven, with short black hair, wearing a long-sleeved red shirt, jeans, and a constantly bored expression. After speaking, she walked to the trash can, threw away what looked like a broken pencil tip, and returned to her desk.

"Did Renata just speak?" said Jonas, shocked.

"See? Your nonsense made even the quiet girl say something..." whispered Iris.

The school day dragged on. The same old chatter, the teachers’ failed attempts to connect with students, the usual gossip. Nothing felt different.

At the end of the day, the bell rang, and the streets of that little town filled with students leaving school. Iris and Jonas walked the same path—they lived on the same street.

"Hey, what about the history assignment? Want to do it at my place?" asked Jonas at his gate.

"Can we do it tomorrow? I’m so tired..." Iris sighed.

"Alright, that’s fine," said Jonas. "The world’s gonna end, maaaaaaan..."

"Stop mimicking that lunatic..."

Iris opened her gate, exhausted. Her mother, a woman with wavy brown hair and freckles, and her father, a man with straight black hair and a mustache, were watching TV.

"Your father got home early from work today. Aren’t you going to say good afternoon to him, dear?" her mother asked.

"Hi, Dad. Hi, Mom. Sorry, I’m dead tired."

Iris opened her bedroom door, dropped her backpack to the floor, and flopped onto the bed, drained.

"Stupid Jonas... spends all day watching videos of that Zek Prophète... if he likes him so much, he should go to his house. It’s right here in town. Idiot..." Iris mumbled into her pillow, the TV muting her voice.

A few minutes passed, and Iris was almost dozing off when she heard that sound. That eerie sound that haunted her childhood and so many others’.

The emergency news bulletin music. The kind of report that demanded to be broadcast immediately.

"Sweetie, breaking news, come quick!" her mother yelled.

Iris ran to the living room and saw an anchor with a serious, yet almost disbelieving, look. Behind her, an image of the Pope standing on a balcony, addressing thousands in Vatican City.
"This morning, His Holiness Pope Adrian VIII made a public statement that shocked the world," the anchor said as the report cut to the Pope.

"This morning in my sleep, I received a direct revelation from God. I saw the stars, and a great object was heading toward Earth. A meteor. And on this meteor, coming upon the clouds of the sky, was the Son of Man, just as in Daniel’s vision. And I heard His voice, with the force of a thousand thunders. ‘In one year, I will return to the world on this star, and this star shall destroy it. The faithful will be saved from the end to live eternal life in the Kingdom of God. No scholar or nation shall know of this star’s existence until it is revealed to a Prophet.’"

Then the broadcast ended, and regular programming resumed.

"That’s it?" asked Iris.

"Sweetie, the world’s ending!" her mother exclaimed.

"They always say it’s ending, and it never does..."

"But this time it’s the Pope saying it!" her father snapped.

"Alright. I’m going back to my room..."

"No, you’re not. There are dishes to wash."

"Why me?"

"Because I’m tired from work, and your mother already does enough around here. Try helping out a little."

Iris reluctantly went to wash the dishes. But a few minutes later, the emergency music played again.

"Again?" she asked, tired but curious.

This time, the anchor’s expression had changed. Her eyes wide, her voice trembling.

"We’re back with breaking news. Just minutes after the Pope’s announcement, the world’s leading scientific institutions have confirmed that an unidentified celestial object, previously undetected, is on a collision course with Earth. Preliminary calculations suggest that the impact... is indeed expected to occur one year from now."

The plate Iris was holding fell and shattered on the floor. The room was deafeningly silent. Their gazes were blank. Iris grabbed her phone and quickly called Jonas, who picked up immediately.

"Iris! Did you see it? Tell me you saw it!" Jonas shouted, with what sounded like a crying child in the background.

"I... I saw it... The Pope... he predicted it before the scientists... How is it even possible..."

"Zek Prophète was right! He was right, Iris! He’s been saying this all along! All these years, he..."

"Forget that guy!" Iris snapped, hand trembling around her phone. "This is... bigger than any madness from that lunatic..."

Elsewhere, in her room, Renata stared at her computer screen, typing something into what looked like an online chat.

"Sweetie! Sweetie! The world’s ending!" her mother yelled, banging on the door.

"This is all nonsense..."

365 days left.