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Organised by
RogerDodger
Word limit
400–750
Love Me Like the World Is Ending
Jasper and Jamie looked out across the city, where floodlights illuminated the whole cityscape. Sparkling windows compensated for the stars that had faded away. Their feet rubbed cold against the cement of a tall spire. Below them there were cars like ants, widening the circumference of steel, leaving the city. One by one, the bridges lowered, the roadblocks closed, the ports of escape slowly disappeared.
Jasper called up the clock, and all four sides of the tower glowed with blue light. Holographic clock faces appeared.
5:12PM
“Hey!” Jamie said, nudging Jasper in the side, “Now I can’t see the sky!”
The clocks disapparated. Below, the final cars were tailed by yellow demolition walkers, multi limbed and decorated in safety lights. They were without the payload of BTHC explosive they had arrived with. Just like other cities before it, the great metropolis had become too costly to keep around.
“You sure you want to do this?” Jasper asked. He extended his arm, wrapping it around Jamie’s waist and lifting his gaze to her eyes. “I mean, we are going to die for each other. It’s not like we’re buying chocolate for one another, this is the real thing.”
“Are you having second thoughts?” Jamie pulled away and looked Jasper in the eyes, “What happened to not being tied down anymore?”
Jasper stared back and cracked a smile, “No rent is the only reason I’m all for this.”
Jamie laughed, kicking her head back and scrunching her eyes. Her blonde hair seemed to wane like a glowing moon in the floodlight.
“Yeah, you’d be the guy to die so he doesn’t have to pay rent.”
He threw up his arms and spun around as he spoke.
“I swear the housing commission hiked prices because they had an inside track on the detonation!”
They both laughed. A sudden rumble rippled through the flooring. The pair rushed to the edge, first looking below, seven hundred metres downwards to the ground, then to the outskirts of town. A whole suburb was crumbling into itself.
More explosions shook the tower, loose dust falling from the roof. Other suburbs went under, houses and factories becoming rubble and ruin. The ground beneath a thousand streets lit up with flame, like hell had entered the realm of man.
Jasper waved a hand theatrically.
“Let the fireworks begin!”
Jamie grabbed his hand and leant off the edge of the clock tower. Jasper gasped, stumbled for a moment, and then held her thin arm, his love the only thing keeping her from falling to the faraway ground.
“Four years, Jasper, four years since we met here.”
“Don’t ask if I remember,” Jasper said, spinning her round on the cement, “I can’t.”
“No? You don’t remember seeing that dashing young woman painting the city by moonlight?”
“You were painting the city? I thought it was a muddy cloud with some glow worms living on it,” Jasper said, nuzzling Jamie teasingly.
“Glow worms? Those were windows, you jerk.”
“News to me. What happened to that painting anyway?”
“Don’t you remember? You couldn’t pay the fees for our ceremony, so that nice pastor sleeps under it now.”
“That’s right.”
Jamie reached out and took Jasper’s hand. She released a deep breath. They were going to do this. They’d obviously talked about it for months but now to be here on the edge. It was something else.
“So, we’re about to kill ourselves, huh?”
“Most couples say they’d give their lives for the other. We’re actually doing it, I guess.”
Then the floor crumbled beneath them. The last of the explosives finally detonated with a boom. The cement cracked down the centre, and the two lovers toppled helplessly. They smiled to each other as stone and metal rained down around them. They began the descent from 2300 feet as the place they loved crumbled.
“I love you, Jamie.”
“I love you, Jasper.”
They were in space together, hopeless romantics chasing an idea that most did not have the courage to. Two astronauts on a mission to Mars knowing they won’t make it home. It wasn’t a happy life that they sought, it was an idea. Their ideology of what love should be.The black raven of death couldn’t take the souls of Jamie and Jasper, as they had already given them to each other. After that, what more was there to give?
In sickness, in health, in life, in death.
One last time, they clasped hands, stared into each other’s eyes and softly whispered, “I do.”
Jasper called up the clock, and all four sides of the tower glowed with blue light. Holographic clock faces appeared.
5:12PM
“Hey!” Jamie said, nudging Jasper in the side, “Now I can’t see the sky!”
The clocks disapparated. Below, the final cars were tailed by yellow demolition walkers, multi limbed and decorated in safety lights. They were without the payload of BTHC explosive they had arrived with. Just like other cities before it, the great metropolis had become too costly to keep around.
“You sure you want to do this?” Jasper asked. He extended his arm, wrapping it around Jamie’s waist and lifting his gaze to her eyes. “I mean, we are going to die for each other. It’s not like we’re buying chocolate for one another, this is the real thing.”
“Are you having second thoughts?” Jamie pulled away and looked Jasper in the eyes, “What happened to not being tied down anymore?”
Jasper stared back and cracked a smile, “No rent is the only reason I’m all for this.”
Jamie laughed, kicking her head back and scrunching her eyes. Her blonde hair seemed to wane like a glowing moon in the floodlight.
“Yeah, you’d be the guy to die so he doesn’t have to pay rent.”
He threw up his arms and spun around as he spoke.
“I swear the housing commission hiked prices because they had an inside track on the detonation!”
They both laughed. A sudden rumble rippled through the flooring. The pair rushed to the edge, first looking below, seven hundred metres downwards to the ground, then to the outskirts of town. A whole suburb was crumbling into itself.
More explosions shook the tower, loose dust falling from the roof. Other suburbs went under, houses and factories becoming rubble and ruin. The ground beneath a thousand streets lit up with flame, like hell had entered the realm of man.
Jasper waved a hand theatrically.
“Let the fireworks begin!”
Jamie grabbed his hand and leant off the edge of the clock tower. Jasper gasped, stumbled for a moment, and then held her thin arm, his love the only thing keeping her from falling to the faraway ground.
“Four years, Jasper, four years since we met here.”
“Don’t ask if I remember,” Jasper said, spinning her round on the cement, “I can’t.”
“No? You don’t remember seeing that dashing young woman painting the city by moonlight?”
“You were painting the city? I thought it was a muddy cloud with some glow worms living on it,” Jasper said, nuzzling Jamie teasingly.
“Glow worms? Those were windows, you jerk.”
“News to me. What happened to that painting anyway?”
“Don’t you remember? You couldn’t pay the fees for our ceremony, so that nice pastor sleeps under it now.”
“That’s right.”
Jamie reached out and took Jasper’s hand. She released a deep breath. They were going to do this. They’d obviously talked about it for months but now to be here on the edge. It was something else.
“So, we’re about to kill ourselves, huh?”
“Most couples say they’d give their lives for the other. We’re actually doing it, I guess.”
Then the floor crumbled beneath them. The last of the explosives finally detonated with a boom. The cement cracked down the centre, and the two lovers toppled helplessly. They smiled to each other as stone and metal rained down around them. They began the descent from 2300 feet as the place they loved crumbled.
“I love you, Jamie.”
“I love you, Jasper.”
They were in space together, hopeless romantics chasing an idea that most did not have the courage to. Two astronauts on a mission to Mars knowing they won’t make it home. It wasn’t a happy life that they sought, it was an idea. Their ideology of what love should be.The black raven of death couldn’t take the souls of Jamie and Jasper, as they had already given them to each other. After that, what more was there to give?
In sickness, in health, in life, in death.
One last time, they clasped hands, stared into each other’s eyes and softly whispered, “I do.”