The End | Stay With Me.

Open ocean was now placid and still. Above the once powerful waves, the edges of The Calamity were visible from all sides. The great void was closing, and soon it would all be over. In the end, it was never understood. It was never stopped. There was not remotely enough time to fully comprehend its enormity or how it sliced through space and time, vanquishing everything in its wake into absolute nothingness. As its silent connection approached and stretched across the infinite universe, light faded from the world entirely.

In Asahikawa, the friends had bunkered down in Kureha’s house, in the same room they had slept on their futons all those ages ago. Shaking, frightened hands had patted their way through the near black that had arrived until the familiar layout of Kureha’s home was remembered, and her bedroom was finally found. 

Absolute darkness had overtaken them one sleep after arriving, so that when they woke in that room, not even the flashlights could illuminate them anymore. Light was gone. Sound ceased carrying, even as they screamed and shouted for one another, only inches apart. This time, the panic quickly passed, and they all knew it was only a matter of time before it ended. Thus, they resigned themselves to lying there on Kureha’s bedroom floor, holding one another until the very end.

Memories struggled mightily to return to Kureha’s mind as her body felt like it was being pulled through the floorboards. Eventually they ran out of food and water. Hunger pains shot through Kureha’s stomach with the same intensity as the roars of thunder that emanated from all around them. Still she forced herself to remember the wonder and joy of the last few months. Every laugh. Every tear. Every kiss and embrace. Every revelation. Every loss. Every new sight and meal. Every overlook. Every friend. Those memories dug their way out of the darkness and covered her in a shield of solemn appreciation, and Kureha spent the remains of her energy making sure they stayed with her until the end.

In that darkness, Kureha allowed thoughts of her mother and father to finally return to her mind. As she lay there softly gasping for air, she told them goodbye. She did not forgive them or acknowledge the lack of closure with which they had departed, but she allowed herself to understand that there was reasoning for their exits. That was enough for her, and she bid them farewell from the room where she had been raised.

Sleep came and went, sometimes after only minutes of being awake. Gravity became so strong it was impossible to stand even if they wanted. Kureha accepted her place on the floor, as Shiona and Kai flanked her. In the darkness, when awake, she would feel their hands and the hands of the others tracing her face and skin as she did the same to them. Small, weak breaths on her neck told her they were near. It was impossible to know if her eyes were open or closed. All she knew was that she was not alone.

Lying in the darkness, the six of them instinctively turned their bodies into a star formation, so that their heads could all be close beside one another. The effort to do even that seemed as though it was going to break Kureha. Tears of strain, rage, and grief fell one final time as she felt the heads of all of them press against her as they rolled onto their backs to face the sky and The Calamity. Kureha’s final moments would be spent looking unblinkingly into the void. If The Calamity could see her face, it would have seen the face of a tired, dirty girl on the verge of death, still unbroken in her defiance towards its dark approach.

Rin’s head turned to Arata’s head ever so slightly while still maintaining connection to the others. Their lips met and stayed pressed together. Shiona wept until every ounce of fluid in her was drained. Fear rose and fell like a heartbeat and she accepted that terror may be the final sensation she felt, so she clung ever tighter to Riku and Kureha. Riku focused on his breathing and the stabbing pain radiating up his hips as the newly exacerbated force of gravity twisted his mangled bones even further out of alignment. His fingers pressed deep into Kai’s hand but Kai did not retreat. Kai’s mind drifted to blankness as he abandoned thought and embraced the presence of his friends as the only singular truth left in the universe. Kureha felt the subtle graze of his arm hair against her elbow and cherished the reminder he was there. Soft skin against her wrist told her Shiona was still with her.

All of their hands connected as they exhaled and waited. Lifetimes passed as seconds. Kureha called out to her friends in desperation one last time but there was no answer. She begged and prayed one last time but there was no answer. All that remained was the arrival of vibrations in the ground and the sensation of feeling Rin, Shiona, Riku, Arata, and Kai there with her in the void. She told them she loved them but doubted they heard. All she could hope was that they all sensed her heart through the nothingness. Fingers glided along the-

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