Vanilla Dusk ✓

Dusk Part 9

It's all going to end.

Asher didn't lie.

It is the end.

They have long stopped running on the field. Most of their comrades have dropped their rifles, feet nailed to the ground as three bombers flit across the sky. Hundreds of bombs pour down. Shaan and Elli stand close to each other, glancing over the burning sea where their comrades are blown into the air one by one. An exceptionally huge and long bomb comes dashing towards them.

'That's...not right,' says Elli, unexpectedly composed. 'I thought they promised not to involve nuclear power.'

'Unless that's the last resort,' says Shaan, blinking hollowly at the sky.

Time ceases. Elli is back to the scene where he is standing on the summit with Shaan, with the world burning beneath their feet, creatures shrieking and wailing around them and shells pelting down on them. All the noises are drowned out all of a sudden and the background fades. The sun is slowly retreating below the horizon, leaving behind a beam of marigold merged together with the scarlet sea.

He is facing Shaan, holding both of his hands. Their faces are iridescent, burning in the dusk. The bomb above them doesn't matter; the explosions around them don't hurt; the bullets don't pierce their bodies. Nobody is crying, bawling, falling to their knees, crawling and moaning. Everything is frozen, paused on the screen.

Only he and Shaan are moving.

'It's been a pleasure, Elli,' whispers Shaan into his ear, making sure that Elli captures every single word, 'to meet you. I've always felt that we met each other somewhere before, long ago, but I don't remember when and where.'

Shaan's flickering eyes are the last thing he sees. Chocolate brown. Fluttering long lashes. He wonders where else he has seen them.

'I think I love you; have done so for a long, long time.'

He doesn't say anything. He knows he doesn't have to. Shaan has got his message across.

Elli returns the kiss passionately.

Their very first and last official kiss.

Everything is engulfed in a colossal mushroom cloud. All that remains is a dry, flat wasteland where life starts anew. Elli would love to tell Jónas with his very last breath, that he has found his true love miraculously on the battlefield. And so absurdly, there is something beautiful to cling to, even in the worst place on Earth.