HOW THE LAST BREATHS WERE TAKEN

"Lyra?" she was devastated. "Lyra?!" she had to be screaming. "Lyra?!!" she wanted to cry. She wanted to cry. She wanted to cry. But she couldn’t. Her eyes were as dry as the sand that her mother described to her in all those stories about lost souls, stuck in those hot desserts. But here she was. At the end of the world, where the land of cities turns to dust. All one long and endless dessert. And she has seen sand. It was the only thing left. But that sand wasn’t dry, it was wet. For as the last clouds cried on the dead bodies at the end of the great war the red sun reaches the sandy horizon. And all because of the great war. The great apocalypse. Where all the standing people fall to the ground and soon even they turn to ashes.

Estella turned around, now facing Alessio. Deep down she knew they were the only people left alive, but she held on to hope strongly. She wouldn’t let go. Lyra had to be alive. Had to be. "Alessio?" her voice cracked. She did try to stay calm. She did. Alessio's eyes were watery. He was looking at her and standing there quietly. There. In the middle of a field of dead bodies. Estella looked up. There they stood. The tall buildings, collapsing slowly. For as they knew, the end of the world brings everyone to their knees. And the clouds cried and cried, but they did not cover the red dot. The sun. Exhausted and dying. Deep red and smaller with each minute, as it was slowly moving down. The last setting of the sun. Even the clouds wouldn’t dare to hide that. She looked at the ground. Miles and miles covered with dead people. She started to move. She had to find her. "Estella?" she heard Alessio, but she didn’t turn. She knew he'd come along. And he did. He came up to her and turned her around. "Estella..." his eyes were still full of tears. He was scared and too hurt. "I wouldn’t want to see her." Estella looked at him with a confused smile. "Of course you would. She's your sister." Alessio shook his head. "No... no..." he was shaking it and then stopped. A tear, a single tear left his eye. "She's dead, Estella." Estella smiled and shook her head. "Of course not. We just have to find her." Alessio tightened his grip on her hand. "She's dead!" he shouted. "She's dead! She's dead! Dead!" Estella quickly started to back off. "Dead! Dead!" he kept on repeating, until his angry shouting turned to hopeless screaming. This was all a lie. Lyra isn't dead. She had to believe. So she kept on moving. The faces. Of the dead people. They scared her. Their eyes were opened and they were looking, looking at something she couldn’t see. It was far beyond, but far too close. The blue eyes of a man lying in front of her. They were focused, as they were unfocused. They were looking at something, but not something her eyesight could ever reach. She bent down and closed those old eyes.

Then she saw her. On the sidewalk. In the sand and ash. There she laid. She knew it because she saw her red curls, long and silky, forming a beautiful pattern around her pale head. She ran up to her. "Lyra!" she laughed. But the closer she got, the more it was clear that Lyra wasn’t just lying there. "Lyra?" she smiled. She kneeled next to her. First thing she saw were her hair. Now, closer, they looked dry and wierd. As if they didn’t even belong to the girl lying there. But then she saw her face. Pale, as it was always, but now even the pale got paler. And she seemed almost white. Even her freckles faded. Her stars, as Estella always used to say. And then her eyes. This was when Estella truly died. That moment. The moment she saw her eyes. Her gaze upon the sky, which was no longer in the vision of hers. Those eyes, now lost their purpose for good. They were dry. Staring deep into the darkness of nothingness. And Estella's vision blurred. Her eyes were no longer as dry as the sand and ash. The tears formed a mist and she was grateful, for she no longer saw the body of her Lyra. She now knew, that the love of her life was dead. Never to return. The hot tears finally left her eyes and fell, burning their way down her cheeks. She looked back at Lyra. She now noticed something strange. A necklace. It was... it was a heart shaped locket. She grabbed it and pulled it off her. Her hands were shaking. She never saw Lyra wearing this necklace. She didn’t know Lyra owned a necklace like this one. It was golden and the heart was a red diamond. It looked distant and almost cold, even though it was bright red. Her heart was racing. She was mad, she was devastated, overwhelmed, confused, and sad. But mostly she was angry. Angry at the world, which was ending and decided to take Lyra with it. She couldn’t bear the hurricane of anger, she couldn’t bear the wave of sadness, she couldn’t bear the storm of horror and the cloud of confusion that got to her. So she let them burst. Burst through the heart and the skin, through her throat and her lips. And the melody of screams filled the silent air, as the hot tears spilled down her cheeks, her neck and all heavy dropped on the sand bellow her knees. The clouds cried on their bodies and didn’t stop even when the last scream was released from her bruised body. She collapsed. But she heard Alessio. She heard him. When he found the body of Lyra. His little sister. He pleaded, he begged, but her body remained lifeless as it was when Estella found it. She died. A part of Estella, a big part of her died that hour. A part, she could not bear to live without.

She and Alessio sat at the edge of a tall building. The sun has almost set. It was sad but beautiful. Watching the tired sun lie behind the horizon for one last time. For not many have the luck to see such sight. It hurt. Time. Estella didn’t know what was faster, the beating of her heart, or the ticking of the time. They knew, that once the sun will set, the world will be covered in darkness and sunk into an endless cold. But it was darker already, and the coldness was spreading faster than any disease. She looked over the edge. They were high, and she has always been afraid of heights. But not now.

The cold was picking the flesh of her bones and she couldn’t bear it any longer. She stood up. "Alessio, I can no longer breath the air of the dead." He stood up himself. They slowly looked at each other. He knew that this was the end. There was no other way. So he decided to speak up, once and for all "It is time." Estella looked at him with tears in her eyes. "No. The time stops here." They traded smiles for the last time, before they took the easy path of a fall. And that is when even the survivors decided to end it all. That was when the last tear fell on the ground and the last breath was taken. And the world was brought to its knees. It fell. It died. And that is when the time stopped.