Day 1 - The Beginning of the End

The world had always been dying, but now it had a deadline.

Five days. That was all that remained before the asteroid—cold, indifferent, and inevitable ended everything. Scientists had tried, world leaders had prayed, and the people had either rioted or wept. But in the end, nothing mattered. The countdown continued, and civilization unraveled thread by thread.

Sophie had spent the first day in front of her television, watching the last desperate news broadcasts flicker into static. The internet collapsed by the evening, taking with it all the noise humanity had spent decades building. By nightfall, the city she had lived in for years fell into eerie silence, broken only by the occasional distant screams or the hollow laughter of those who had surrendered to madness.

Sophie didn’t scream. She didn’t cry. Instead, she sat in her small apartment, alone with nothing but thoughts that had never felt heavier.

There were so many things she had never done. So many words left unsaid.

And then, like an ember flaring in the darkness of her mind, a name surfaced.

Mira.

Her best friend from school. The girl she had once sworn would always be a part of her life, no matter where fate led them. But fate had been unkind, and time had done what it always did—stretched the distance between them until Mira became a ghost of memory.

Sophie dug through old boxes, hands trembling, and found a crumpled notebook from years ago. There, scrawled in faded ink, was Mira’s number.

With nothing left to lose, she dialed.

After four rings, a voice soft, disbelieving answered.

“Sophie?”

The world was ending. And suddenly, she wasn’t alone.


Day 2 - The Reunion

They met in their hometown—once familiar, now eerily foreign in the shadow of doomsday. The roads were abandoned, shops left to decay, streetlights flickering as though they too were gasping their last breaths. A few people still wandered, hollow-eyed, clinging to whatever final purpose they had found, some seeking solace in churches, others drowning in cheap liquor, and a few simply sitting on sidewalks, staring up at the sky as if waiting for the end to descend.

But none of it mattered when Sophie saw her.

Mira stood in the center of the empty town square, arms crossed, watching the setting sun. She looked older, weary, yet unmistakably herself. A smirk tugged at her lips as she turned.

“You’re late,” Mira said.

Sophie let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding. “You waited.”

Mira shrugged. “Didn’t have anywhere better to be.”

There was a beat of silence before Sophie stepped forward and wrapped her arms around her. For a moment, Mira hesitated then, slowly, she melted into the embrace.

No words were needed. Time had already stolen enough.


Day 3 - Echoes of What Was

They walked through the remnants of their childhood, tracing footsteps that no longer existed. Past the school where they had skipped classes together, through the park where they had once laid on the grass and dreamed about the future. Every place felt like a ghost of itself—empty, waiting.

“Do you think it was all pointless?” Mira asked as they sat on a cracked wooden bench, watching the sky shift into strange hues of orange and violet.

Sophie glanced at her. “What do you mean?”

Mira sighed, running a hand through her short, dark hair. “Life. Everything we did. Everything anyone ever did. We built empires, wrote poetry, loved, hated, killed, and now… all of it is about to be erased. The universe doesn’t care. It never did.”

Sophie was quiet for a moment. Then, she smiled softly. “Maybe the universe doesn’t care. But that doesn’t mean it was meaningless.”

Mira scoffed. “If everything ends the same way, what’s the point?”

“The point,” Sophie said, “is that we were here. That we lived. That we existed in a world that will never exist again. Even if nothing remains, we were real. And for a moment, that mattered.”

Mira exhaled sharply, shaking her head. “You always were the hopeful one.”

Sophie grinned. “And you were always the cynic.”

Mira gave a small, sad smile. “Guess we never really changed.”

They sat there in silence, two souls caught between past and present, as the last stars of their world flickered into view.


Day 4 - The Weight of Existence

The asteroid was visible now, a monstrous shadow growing larger with each passing hour. There was no longer electricity, no more news reports. Just the sound of the wind and the distant echoes of humanity’s final moments.

Mira and Sophie sat on the rooftop of an abandoned bookstore, legs dangling over the edge.

“I used to think we’d live forever,” Sophie murmured.

Mira let out a dry laugh. “We were idiots.”

Sophie smiled. “Yeah. But it was a nice thought.”

Mira was quiet for a moment before saying, “I used to think I’d do something that mattered. Something big. And now… I just feel stupid for ever thinking I was anything more than dust waiting to be scattered.”

Sophie reached for her hand, squeezing gently. “You did matter.”

Mira turned to her, eyes dark with something unreadable. “To who?”

“To me.”

Mira swallowed hard, looking away. “That’s not enough.”

“It is,” Sophie said. “It always was.”

Mira closed her eyes, as if trying to hold onto the words. As if trying to believe them.


Day 5 - The Last Hours

The air was thick with the scent of fire and earth. Somewhere, people were screaming. Somewhere, people were praying. And somewhere, people were simply waiting.

Sophie and Mira lay side by side on the rooftop, staring up at the sky. The asteroid was massive now, a red colossus descending with the weight of inevitability.

Sophie turned to Mira. “Are you scared?”

Mira exhaled softly. “No. Just… tired.”

Sophie nodded. “Me too.”

There was a long pause before Mira spoke again, voice barely above a whisper. “Do you think there’s something after this?”

Sophie smiled. “I think… I think if there is, I’d like to find you again.”

Mira let out a breath that sounded almost like a laugh. “That would be nice.”

Sophie reached for her hand. Mira didn’t pull away.

The sky burned.

For a moment, there was only light—blinding, infinite, consuming.

And then, nothing.

But perhaps, in that nothingness, something waited.

And perhaps, in that something, two souls would find each other again.