The strange, unexpected, & supernatural

Tonight (Ally Stump)

The moon casts an alluring shine on the world.  Silence has been bliss for the past 10 minutes, but I'm running out of time.  She doesn't know it.  Not yet.

"It's beautiful," Amy says, sitting beside me atop this grassy slope.

I nod, "Yep."

Her head turns in my peripheral.  "You've been pretty quiet.   You okay?"

I rake my upper lip with my bottom teeth, staring into the distance.

"Ally?"

I meet her baffled gaze and look at my watch -- 11:53.   7 minutes.

"That's like the 5th time you've done that, y'know?"

I grin.  "How come you didn't question it?"

"Question what?"

"Why I asked you to meet me this late?"

She shrugs.   "I thought you wanted me to be the first person to see you turn 18."

I tilt my head to the sky.  The stars twinkle.  I sigh.

"Ally, what's going on with you?"

"You don't wanna know."

"You could bring down my level of concern."

I gander at her.  Amy Armstrong.  My best and only friend for the past 17 years.  "It'd be wrong of me not to tell you."

"Then why can't you?"

"I will. It's just hard."

"Can it wait until tomorrow --"

"No, I don't have tomorrow."

She knits her brows.  "What's that supposed to mean?"

I redirect ahead to the blades of grass following the wind.

"Do you think I won't believe you?"

"Part of it."

"If it's something you don't want to tell your parents, we can keep it between us."

I airly laugh and smirk.  "They know. In fact, they could be with me right now, but I wanted to spend my last minutes with you."

" ... "

"Tonight is the night I die."

Silence hangs in the air and Amy's eyes haven't left me.  She giggles, then stops abruptly.  "Oh, my god, you're serious."

I push my tongue against the inside of my cheek.

"Ally, we can talk about this, y'know?  You don't have to do anything rash --"

"It's not my choice."  I check my watch.  5 minutes.  Our eyes hold each other.  "I didn't say anything before because there's nothing you or anybody could've done."

"Is someone after you?"

"The universe."

They knit again.

"Would I ever lie to you?"

She shakes her head.

"I don't know if you'll believe me."

"Ally, at this point, I'll trust anything."

"What about magic?"

If I didn't have her attention before, I do now.

"Dark magic." Hell, I wouldn't think any of this was true.   "I was born with a failing heart.   The Doctors tried everything, but concluded I wouldn't make it out of the hospital alive."  I take out my phone to show her a picture.  "The Doctor left, but this guy came in. He had a tattoo on his arm of this."  I give it to her.