All Falls Down

"So what's next?", I asked after a disturbing length of silence.

"Nothing's changed", Lucy answered, "Nothing you say changes anything."

I looked at Prophet, wondering if he was thinking differently. He didn't look back at me.

"I suppose it doesn't", I muttered.

Lucy turned back into her material form with Prophet and went back up into the sky.

"I wish there was a wall between us...or something", I said as I looked at her building her weapon of destruction.

"What did you say?!"

I didn't think I'd been loud enough to be heard by her.

"I said I wish there was a wall between us!", I yelled back at her.

"Hah!", she said mockingly, "As if a wall could save you! You are not escaping me, you damned idiot! There's nowhere here where I can't reach you. Try to run if you want. I'd like to see you snivel!"

I had no intention of running. There was nothing more pointless than that right now.

I began to consider my options. There was no place on land which was safe. Flying wasn't an option either. I didn't know of any trickery or magic that could have made that possible. And besides, she'd kill me either way. My focus for now was on evading the impact. I couldn't find Nasty II anywhere. He didn't have any flying abilities either, as far as I knew. From the looks of it, Prophet was no help.

So what would help in such a situation?

"If the ground broke...", I murmured as I gaped at Lucifer.

If the world broke apart into two, maybe this part of it would sail safely. Still, I'd have to put a considerable distance between us to make that possible. Far as I was concerned, I couldn't cover much of an area if I started running now.

I sat down, folding my legs and calmly thinking about an alternative.

Maybe if the world broke horizontally...as if! That's ridiculous. The sky won't be separated from the ground at any cost. Actually, I should have been thinking about realistic possibilities, but desperate and hopeless as I was, I let my mind wander as it pleased.

The giant planet she was brewing began to fire up, I realized it won't be too long now.

Maybe if I disappeared, like being chucked away and trasported to another place. Isn't it possible that Prophet actually has a mechanism to shield me if things go haywire? Lucy would probably already know about it though. So then, no use counting on him after all.

"Hey, tiny!", Lucy spoke to me as the blazing winds began to form a hurricane all around us, "How're ya enjoyin' the front seat there?"

"Cozier than I'd like it", I murmured to myself, not intending to give her any answer.

A pocket would do, I thought. A pocket beyond this plane, for protection. Strangely enough, I felt like I'd actually experienced that somewhere before.

"You know, I ought to thank you for bringing him here with you. But! I couldn't stand the stench of having to thank yer damn bits!"

She sure had a lot of stamina, yelling so much while putting that planet together. It was getting too fiery for my taste. Then again, that much was to be expected of 'Lucifer'.

I felt something on my back as I was looking up at Prophet. I turned around to find Nasty II.

"Nasty! Where'd you been?!"

He was holding something in his mouth. I couldn't tell what it what was until he dropped it near my hand and stood with his hopeful round eyes glaring at me.

"What did you find?".

It was a dagger. Scorched, I thought, as it was black as coal. Nasty hopped around with a joyful glimmer in his eyes, this was a major haul for him. So, I figured, the dagger must be important.

"Its a bit on the rusty side. Still, better than having no weapon, I guess", it came naturally to me. I was enjoying swinging it around.

Nasty watched me with his huge round eyes, he looked happy.

"You've really helped me a great deal. If it comes down to it, I'll stop that boulder with this dagger", I chuckled after a pause, looking at Nasty, "It wouldn't make much of a difference but at least I can say I've tried."

I looked up again, it was ready. I got up.

"Get behind me, Nasty", I smiled at him, "Let me show you my cool blade skills. At least, you'll get to see something real nice...right at the end."

Lucy was staring down at me. She had sped up her work, it seems. And now was her time to show off her craftsmanship.

"You've had your damn time. And you are as useless as it gets. I gotta say, I gave you a little credit there when you made your little deduction. But ya ain't worth-"

"Yeah, yeah, just bring it!", she had no idea about my situation down here. There was no point chattering her up at this point anyway.

Its always a little hard to believe when things end. I could never get used to things like that even afterwards. It ached me to think of a world which would go on living without me there. The good part this time though, was that I didn't remember much of the real world anyway. Who knows if its even worth it?

I chuckled at myself as I though that. Who was I kidding? Of course, it was worth it! I was dying to know more. I shouldn't sugarcoat my end like this, I figured. I gazed back at Nasty II one last time before the planet came down on us.

I held out that dagger like I'd said I would. I clutched it so hard, it was almost peeling my skin off. Even when there was no hope, I kept wishing, I wished everything that connected Lucy and us in this world would just...disappear. I wished there was a void between us. I didn't care what happened to her, I just wanted to be away from all of it.

You can't say I was wrong in wishing for that. I didn't look at Prophet once, not just because the planet was blocking my vision but also because I thought, that would be way too hopeless and sad. I'm sure, he wasn't looking my way either. It was just Lucy there.

The heat was killing me, I felt like ripping my skin off. But I stood firm, for Nasty's sake too. As the blazing hot sun headed our way, the sky went dark. I peeled my eyes, just to be able to see the moment it struck us. In truth, the heat was enough to kill us, but we held on. It was probably Nasty's blood in the works that led me hold on. One last time, I wished that this would all disappear.