softpunks: zine pieces (zinetreats)
jinn ([personal profile] softpunks) wrote2021-10-11 10:54 pm
Entry tags:

stars like you

original piece // ~1.5k
> Originally written for the canceled Lo-Fi Zine.



 

The meteor was a wondrous sight and made headlines for the entire day, news talking about its descent before it happened. Predications claimed that it would look beautiful no matter where it was viewed—the rooftops, the streets, through a black screen, and moments like these were far and few in between, a clash between the sky and the earth, and everyone decided to make the most out of it for as long as they could. It was a rare time wherein people, no matter who they were and where they were from, could find solidarity in admiring the same thing.

The meteor entered orbit close to midnight and would make itself seen when the clock struck twelve. By that time, Violet was on a train headed out of Nuxe City. She didn't want to be there when the meteor would crash into the heart of the city and decimate everything around it. It was knowledge none of the journalists caught, none of the scientists revealed, but Violet knew, because Blue told her, and Violet trusted Blue with everything.

("No real names," Blue had explained early on, tugging on Violet's hand when she reached the abandoned train station. The system in the city was lousy, and no one had any use for trains when buses, jeepneys, cars, bicycles were much more popular. Blue had spent her afternoons teaching herself how to run the trains and studied maps on the railroad tracks and the places outside the city that they could go to, all to prepare for a day like this. She had big words for it—the reckoning, the rapture, the apocalypse. Until now, Violet didn't know how Blue knew this day would come. "When the world ends, we're starting anew. We don't need to be who we once were before."

So Blue was Blue because Blue said so, and Violet was Violet because Blue said so. And if it was the end of the world because Blue said so, then Violet would believe that too. It wasn't for naivety; it was because Blue was Violet's best friend.)

From a distance, the meteor was said to look like a butterfly fluttering past, its wings leaving behind streaks of colors and staining the blank canvas of the sky. Blue pointed out that the reason it took the form of a butterfly was because butterflies symbolize death, and it was a premonition for what would be the fate of the city if the citizens didn't leave. Violet asked how they could leave if they didn't know what was happening in the first place. Blue simply said that they did know, and that they just didn't care.

"That's why I'm taking you with me," she said. "Because I care."

From where Violet sat, staring at the window with her laptop perched in front of her on the train seat, she could only see the skyscrapers, city lights, and the stars. She never cared about butterflies past the ones engraved on the tombstones of her parents, built almost ten years ago, but she could easily confess that she found them beautiful. A part of her was curious to see the butterfly meteor, to at least get a glimpse of it before the train disappeared into the tunnel and they were well out of the city; but even if she couldn't, it was okay, because Blue decorated the train in fairy lights to look like twinkling stars and hung paper butterflies and stickers on the walls and ceilings, as if she was paying some kind of homage.

In truth, Violet knew that the reason Blue put up so many was to honor those who would perish, those she couldn't take along with her as they journeyed to safety. Despite the selfish decision to only take Violet with her, Blue still had a big heart.

"Feeling regretful?" Blue asked. Violet turned her gaze away from the window to look at her best friend. She turned on her laptop to play some songs to lighten the mood, as per Blue's request, while she tidied up the rest of the train to make it look more and more like a living space. But Violet had never been that invested in music, so she put on whatever was easiest to find. They ended up stumbling onto a playlist made of vintage records and indie tracks, the quality of the sound distorted and scratchy, but Blue seemed to like it, so they kept it on. Violet couldn't complain when she grew to understand its appeal too, around the fifth song in. Blue swayed to the beat while she fixed the fairy lights and flattered her palm on the stickers to make sure they didn't fall off, her sneakers squeaked against the floor as she twisted and moved about, and her expression was bright, like she didn't want to be anywhere else but here.

"If it wasn't the end of the world," Violet found herself saying. "Would you still take me away?"

Blue turned to her and Violet couldn’t read her expression. "I'd take you anywhere you'd like to go."

Violet didn't know where she wanted to go. She didn't know a life outside Nuxe City, just the stories Blue would recount about her own travels, and a part of Violet was tempted to ask Blue if they could return. She knew Blue would say yes if she asked, as much as her best friend wanted to leave.

But Violet had nothing to return to, so she didn't say it. She had nowhere she wanted to go, so she said nothing about that either. It was silence Blue understood, because her expression shifted from one of expectancy to fondness. Violet wanted to laugh, just because Blue had no reason to look like that, and it was funny that she did it anyway, so she did, unable to say anything.

Blue smiled. Past the train window, Violet finally saw the meteor in the sky. It didn't look as breathtaking as her best friend, who was with her. The tunnel leading them out of Nuxe City finally enveloped them in darkness, but to Violet, the world was still bright and beautiful.

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