The Apocalypse

Anna was sitting at hers and Jason’s favourite table in their favourite local cafe. They were well known to others as they visited often and it was the location of where they had their most important conversations over their favourite beverages. Jason liked to have an affagato. He loved how the ice cream would break the bitterness of the espresso coffee and the flavour the coffee was given by the vanilla ice cream. Anna liked to have a Vienna chocolate. She hated coffee, well the taste really but loved the smell. So she was a devout chocaholic and savoured the way the cream and chocolate blended together. Each drink was a vice to each character.

Neither smoked or drank so this was their outlet and they looked forward to seeing each other every time they went to meet at the cafe and have their favourite drinks. On this particular day, Jason was running late. He had texted Anna of the fact and so she waited whilst reading her book.

The wait seemed endless, felt like forever and after what seemed eons, Jason arrived, storming into the cafe, flustered. He sat down with an “Oomph!” He was red in the face and looked like he was ready to murder someone. The earth under their feet start to sway from side to side with a mild breeze coming through.

“What on earth happened to you?” Anna asked. She has never seen him like this before.

“I hate my job. I know I was supposed to give my subordinates at work a promotion but instead management called. I now have to give a pay rise instead…to people left behind after I have sacked half of my division.”

“Ohhhh…”

“And on top of that? I have to make sure that I don’t let anyone know of any promotions or pay rises coming up afterwards. I hate my job. No actually I hate the Bosses. Why me? Why? No one else is having cuts. Only my section.”

“Well….” Anna cautiously began. “You are the One. Your Bosses know that. They know you are against them trying to fight them. They know you are the one that will help save humanity from the apocalypse. We just have to follow their game for the right time to attack. They’re just provoking you with menial things like promotions and stuff. That stuff is nothing compared to the end of the world as we know it.”

“So what will it be guys? The usual?” asked the perky waitress that seemed to appear out of nowhere.

“Yes please. Affagato for me. Vienna chocolate for her.” Jason replied looking at his hands.

“Don’t mind him. Bad day at work…” Anna chimed in.

“Coming right up!” and the waitress skipped away.

Jason looked up just as the waitress bounced away wondering if she was one of them. One of the Skippers. The ones immune to the apocalypse as foretold by the Oracle.

The waitress stopped and turned to Jason and said, “Yes I am one of them and don’t worry…we got your back”. She winked and went off to place their order.

“Don’t you hate it when they do that? Read minds?” Jason retorted to Anna.

“I think it’s kind of cool you know? Like we have some sort of secret army the Bosses know nothing about.”

“What if they do know?”

“They don’t. They wouldn’t start causing chaos on small levels if they did. Skippers are notorious in battle. The Oracle says so.” Anna was wondering what was taking them so long to get their drinks. She was in need of a chocolate hit big time!

At that moment they felt the earth really vibrate under their feet, start to sway from side to side. The breeze became stronger.

“Finally!” exclaimed Anna.

“What do you mean?” Jason asked.

“The sideways earth shaking and the breeze! She has picked up our story again. Our book! We are being read and don’t have to sit here for what seems like FOR-EVER. Now we can get to the crux of the story. The pages are finally being turned! Gosh it’s boring being a fictional character in a book.”

“Ah yeah….it’s been a while that I forgot the sensations of us being read. Has she started yet?”

Anna looked up. There were the eyes of the reader instead of a ceiling. It was bizarre not having a sky but seeing another world there instead. She longed for the blue skies that the author wrote about. Of course they saw them when it was described in the book but when they were indoors in the story, the eyes of the reader always appeared. 

“Nope not yet. I can see the eyes of the reader. She’s got beautiful blue eyes and is wearing such a lovely shade of eye shadow. I wonder what that colour is?” 

“Anna! Stop it! We gotta keep going if the reader is going to get anywhere. You’ve been stuck in this cafe for a week now and I was in limbo at work until she picked us up and started reading.” 

Jason was frustrated when the reader stopped reading and were temporarily stopped by a bookmark. Sometimes readers took a while to return to the story. Especially those with young children. Oh he hated those…children…well not really, just the readers young children as they were prone to throwing the books around and it made him feel really queasy when they did that. He preferred the steady hand of a teenager or an adult reading their book. He loved the breeze when a page was turned and how they would sometimes read a story late into the night and the story would just flow. Then a bookmark would come in and it was like an annoying red stop light breaking a marathon of green go lights whilst you were driving. He liked those green traffic lights actually...especially at one instance in the beginning of the book.

“Jason…” Anna whisphered, breaking his thoughts. “Focus! We have to continue our conversation. The eyes are back.” She cleared her throat with a “uh hum”.

“Here’s your drinks guys! Sorry for the wait.” The waitress placed the affagato in front of Anna and the Vienna chocolate in front of Jason.

“Thanks!” they both said as they switched the drinks. 

The light suddenly disappeared and it was dark. Anna looked up and the eyes were still there so it wasn’t night time in the readers world.

“Here we go,” started Jason.

“Time to fight the Bosses!” Finally! thought Anna, I’ve been itching for the fight!

 ________________________

And so Anna and Jason fought the Bosses with the Skippers in the fight to end all fights that will prevent the apocalypse and the end of humanity. The reader was satisfied with the story and finished the final one hundred pages of the book as she read into the night whilst her children were sleeping because as she just wanted some time to herself. Reading was always a passion for her. She closed the book once she was finished, satisfied that Jason and Anna had saved the day, and went to sleep.

________________________

“Sooo….are we back on the shelf?” Jason asked Anna as he held her in a passionate embrace.

“I don’t think so. We’re still awake. We usually fall asleep when they put us on a shelf. We’re probably on the bedside table.”

“You mean I’m stuck here hugging you and nothing else? Not even sleep?! Or you know…ouch!” Anna pinched him.

“We re-set when we’re read again by someone else or put on a shelf or the words ‘The End’ appear. Just kiss me you fool!”

The End