We always thought our great-great-great grandchildren would be the ones who had to deal with the imminent destruction of this earth. So when I heard a gasp out of my flatmates while boiling water for my instant noodles I thought it was about some stupid footie match.
"I don't get man and their sports" I whispered while pouring the water in the plastic cups I didn't expect to get (What should've been) the most devastating news in my life.

I walked into the room and saw the news. I frowned and tilted my head.
"You've heard it right people. The world is ending in three days. We've gone too far." The man hidden in a suit says.
"Is it the first of april?" I ask while I look at the boys while trying to eat but burning my mouth.
Grayson shook his head, hardly showing the tears in his eyes.
I dropped the noodles.
"Shite!" I screamed as the broth burned my feet and I started to tap dancing, trying to avoid the pain.
"Be serious for just one moment Louis!" Brent yelled. "Not everyone has nothing to lose." He says.
I look at him, my soul pinpointed on my chest as I tried to hide the fact he is right.

"Hey mate, it's alright. He doesn't mean it." Grayson says as he puts a hand on my shoulder.
"But he does." I say as I look at him. He puts his arm around me and smiles.
"You have three days to fix that Louis," He says while walking away.
I look at Grayson, his long auburn hair is so familiar. I would be able to recognise it if it were only one strand far from home. I would understand what he had meant when he lost it. Grayson is my hawk if I hunt, he would be my typewriter if I were an author. He is my everything. My life doesn't matter if it weren't for him.

He was my peer mentor when I came to the UK. I am Irish, I remember being heavily ridiculed for my accent but Grayson was always there for me. And eventually I discovered I used the ridicule to my advantage. I became the class clown, I was constantly on the bill and about to get punished but I had the best time of my life back in boarding school and now, whilst being a bartender in the evening, I am training to be an actor. But hey, those hopes have been crushed about half a minute ago.

I light a cigarette and rush my hand through my curly hair that bounces like waves afraid to touch the shore. My green eyes dart through the room, panicking in finding things I'll miss. But I cannot find anything but Grayson. I smile, well Grayson is something right.

I go to the kitchen and put on The Smiths. I smile and dance around the kitchen while Vicar In a Tutu blasts over the speakers and I grab all the ingredients for choclate chip cookies.

Grayson enters the room as I am mixing the dough when I notice he is carrying a suitcase. I feel my stance change, I touch the silver necklace I once stole from him but he let me keep it. I'm not religious, and the only reason I wear this cross is because he didn't ask it back. It meant strangely much to me.
"What are you making?" He asks. Sitting down on one of the bar chairs we have for the cooking island.
"I was aiming for weed cookies but I realised I have already smoked all of that." I say with a chuckle. He shakes his head and laughs.
"But seriously, I want to go out relishing a good space brownie!" I smile, "It would be something right? High off something looking at the destruction of the earth.... a real once in a lifetime chance. I am looking forward to doing it with you in three days."
He looks down and sighs. I put out my cigarette out and frown.
"Hey, I know that look what is it?"
"Louis.... I am going to my parents in Switzerland. I want to die with my family..... I...."

I laugh and turn around, knocking down some glass and standing on it. It hurts like the phrase he just uttered. Brother, you are like a brother to me. He said, he used to say, and I even was disappointed in that. I wanted to kiss him, I wanted him to find me beautiful. To write the poems he has written for melody about me, I needed him to love me. And brotherly love was good enough.
But this still feels like a betrayal of my own heart.
"You can come...." He begins.
"No," I say. "I don't want to intrude, of course the apocalypse is best spent with family."
"Why don't you go back to Ireland."

I blink slowly. The veil of secrets I used to hold is burning up, not because he cares but because this is the first time he asks. I realise I don't mean as much to him as he does to me. I am simply another of the boys he taught how to survive boarding school. The boys he used to hang out with.

"For what?" I ask while I angrily turn around.
"Your family." He says innocently.
"I haven't talked to them in six years, the first thing they'd say to me would be Téigh trasna ort féin. You idiot." I say while punching the cookie dough.
"Which means."
I look at him. "Fuck off."
"Oh, I am sorry Louis I do not mean it like that." He says.
I shake my head. "it's what it means. Why do you think I work while studying while coming from a wealthy family."
"I....." He doesn't dare to end that sentence.
"Go to your parents." I say as I put the cookie dough in a container. "It's weed free. Bake some with your mum, like the old time when I would come over at christmas."
He smiles. "thanks Louis. You know I will miss you. Call me in the coming days alright?" He says as we hug and the crystallized tears are stuck in my eyes.
I follow him to the hallway and look at him as he leaves. He smiles innocently as he closes the door.
"I love you." I whisper and smile. Let's make those last three days worth it.

I look out of the window of the train full of people going to their family or other loved ones and smile. Maybe the world could've been better if we knew this earlier. I lean on the yellow window and pray to the god that doesn't exist. Let me have some hope, let me be numb for these days.
Berlin here I come.

***

I spend the first two days partying and living life as best as I could. I visit attractions, spend my money foolishly on expensive jewellery, wines and other items. I do as much as I can in the forty eight hours.

I like the fact that there was a deadline. I liked deadlines. People were able to reason clearly on what they wanted to do. They could be whoever they were, do whatever they pleased, made sure that the people they loved knew. They will realize that nothing really mattered. That all the things they worried about, all the things they worked for, it wouldn't matter in a certain time. Life was short. Even if the world wasn't about to end in a few days.

Nothing mattered. Everything would just go away. Everything would go to waste. Everyone would be gone. I had to do all that I could do.

On the last day, I am sitting in my hotel room all alone. I'm clutching my phone in my hands, thinking of calling my friends but I decide eventually that I should probably leave them alone with their families. We have already said our goodbyes. I don't want to bother them. But then I am all alone. I am lonely.

I glance sullenly at the bland walls of the hotel room. I can't just waste my last day sulking in the room, I reason. I have to make it worth it. I get up suddenly and dash out of the room. As I walk along the busy street, I decide within myself that I wouldn't spend my last day sober.

I walk into a bar and once I'm at the counter, I demand for ten bottles of beer. The bartender gives me my order without a word. He understands. I'm pretty sure someone else has ordered for more.

I am on my fourth bottle when he leans over the counter.

"Know when it's going to happen?" he says fluently in German.

"In about a few hours," I reply in German, after glancing at the Rolex watch I purchased the day before. My German isn't perfect but it's good enough for him to understand. He nods.

"Aren't you supposed to be with your family?"

I gulp down the fourth bottle and pick up another one. I grab an opener.

"Aren't you?" I ask, instead of replying. "I mean, why are you even working? What do you need the money for? It's useless! Everything's useless!" I was slurring now and my voice had gotten louder.

He laughs before giving someone their order. "Danke." He collects his money.

"Well I'm here for people like you."

We begin to talk about random useless things. I'm sitting there for a while.

The eight bottle does it. I'm talking louder than ever and the world is spinning. The bartender calls out my name but I don't answer. Instead I get up and stumble out of the bar.

I've only made it a few steps away when I can't walk anymore. I collapse to the ground and I lie there staring up at the sky. It's late evening. As I look up at the sky, I think to myself, so this is really it?

I think of everyone I'll leave behind. I wonder how they are doing. If they're all happy with their families and loved ones. Who am I kidding? How could you be happy? I think of my own family. And then that's when I am overcome with guilt. Maybe it's all my fault, maybe I'm the wrong one here, maybe I should've carried on the family business, maybe I should've...

I begin to sob. People are walking past me like they couldn't care less. Everyone is terrified anyway. I can hear some children crying, I can hear people wailing, some people preaching about the end times.

I begin to wonder if there is any heaven and hell? If there really is, then I'm definitely going to hell. I pray to the God I never believed in for forgiveness. Forgiveness for my friends and family and everyone.

Suddenly I hear a lady screaming. I look towards her direction and notice she's looking upwards. I follow her gaze and to my horror the sun is expanding. It has begun.

So this is really it? I ask myself. I watch as the sun expands more and more by the second. My heart is beating so much that I fear it would explode out of my chest. Everyone is screaming and running helter skelter. The fact that it is happening in the evening makes it even more terrifying.

I wonder how everyone is feeling. The night is brighter than the brightest day, the scorching heat is burning my skin. The sun is getting bigger and bigger, enveloping the earth. The earth that had lived for billion years would be destroyed in a matter of seconds.

With tears streaming down my face, I quickly fumble for my phone. I dial my house phone and wait as I rings. I just want to hear someone's voice. Anyone from home.

I look up. It is terrifying. I am a bit angry that it's taking so long. I would have preferred it if it happened in a second. It would be easier that way.

I look down at my phone. "Pick up pick up pick up please," I murmur. But they don't.

Just before the sun engulfs the earth entirely Iwonder if Grayson is thinking of me too.

This is a collaboration with the wonderful ~@_Ash_es. It was great to write with you and you're so talented! I believe there is plenty of place for you in the Pantheon of writers! I really hope we can do this more often!