If The World Was Ending

TW: Talk of death

Carmen saw her family split apart.

The earth being hit by a muy grande meteor.

Herself and her friends being killed by the meteor's impact.

And there was nothing she could do about it.

Carmen woke up, shook by the night's events.

"It was only a dream," she told herself shakily. "It wasn't real."

But she couldn't convince herself.

When Carmen descended the stairs to her mother's kitchen, she saw her little brother, Diego, sitting on one of the zapote stools her father had made, swinging his short legs.

"Hola Carmen!" he greeted her excitedly.

"Where's Mamá?" Carmen asked.

"She's still sleeping. What is for breakfast?"

Carmen lifted her eyes to the ceiling, but hid it from Diego, for he might believe it an insult and take offense.

Though he never stopped thinking about food, which drove Carmen slightly insane.

"Go wake Mamá up, then." Carmen sat down on a stool, gathered up her skirts, and crossed her arms. "I am not doing it."

She knew her Mamá would be grumpy, as many people are when they are woken forcefully.

You see, there was reason behind her refusal.

After Diego had departed the room, Carmen thought about the previous night's dream.

I must tell someone, she mused. But they will not believe me, the other part of her thought.

She threw up her hands, frustrated with herself. "This is pointless," she exclaimed aloud. "I need to clear my head."

Carmen stood and walked out of the house onto the front porch, her skirts sweeping across the polished floor.

She sat down on the wooden swing, another one of her father's small projects.

Carmen breathed in the fresh air, and turned her mind to more pleasant memories.

Like the time her and her closest friend, Adriana, had strolled through el Parque Verde and met an elderly man with three perros, beautiful dogs all of them.

That was nice, Carmen recalled.

Her cat, Lola, came out of her family's house through the cat door.

"Mrow."

Lola sat down beside Carmen's swing and licked her paw.

Carmen scratched behind the cat's ears.

"Oh, mi gata Lola. What can I do? Who should I tell?"

"Mrow."

Carmen nodded. "You're right, little niña. I'll tell everyone."

And she did.

Her padre woke soon after Carmen's revelation, so he was the very first person she warned about the coming meteor.

"Papá!" Carmen called. "There's a meteor coming, and it's muy grande! I saw it in my dream, and we're all going to die!"

He shook his head, clearly unconvinced. "Oh, querida, are you sure it was not simply a dream?"

"No, esta verdadera!" Carmen stomped her foot, making her dress flutter.

"Querida, I don't think you're thinking straight. Do you need to go back to bed?"

"¡No!"

The same thing happened when she tried to tell her madre, and her brother Diego.

Neither of them believed her.

Getting quite exasperated, Carmen fell onto the porch swing with a thump.

"What can I do? No one believes me. But I must try to save them."

Even if they think I'm la chica loca."

Carmen had an idea.

"I know! I'll go see Adriana. That chica knows everything!"

When Carmen got to Adriana's house, she noticed there was a stranger standing outside, ringing the doorbell.

"¡Hola! Can I help you?" Carmen asked the stranger.

They looked up and Carmen saw the person was a man.

He said, "Si. I am looking for Mrs. Lopez."

"Oh, that's Adriana's madre. She should be inside. Let me go find her, and I'll say you are here."

Carmen smiled and entered the house.

"Isabella!" She called for Mrs. Lopez. "There is an hombre outside who would like to speak with you."

"Carmen Rodríguez? Is that you?" Isabella Lopez asked from the top of the stairs.

"Si!"

"Just wait, I'll be down in un momentito," Isabella called.

Carmen went back outside to tell the man.

As she closed the front door, he looked at her.

"Well?" he asked.

"She will be out shortly to see you."

The man nodded. "Bueno."

Having that taken care of, Carmen lifted her skirts and rushed into the house, this time to find her amiga, Adriana.

She found Adriana in her bedroom, hemming a skirt.

When Carmen entered the room, Adriana jumped up excitedly with a smile, dropping her needle and thread.

"Hola chica! What's going on?"

"I need your help, amiga."

Carmen told Adriana the whole story, starting with the beginning of the dream.

"So, I watched everyone be murdered by this muy grande meteor, and... us..."

That last part was hard to get out.

When Carmen had finished, Adriana shivered. Even though Adriana was disturbed by this statement from her amiga, she still leaned forward in interest.

Her fingers steepled, Adriana asked, "And is this verdadera?"

Carmen nodded.

"Well then, I guess we have some work to do."

That night, Carmen saw how the meteor came to be, and why it hit Earth in the first place.

Carmen was standing beside a man, and with a jolt, she realized it was the man she had met outside Adriana's house earlier that day.

"Um, hola," she said awkwardly, not really knowing what to say.

The man nodded grimly. "Hola."

"What are you doing here?" Carmen asked.

"Watching. You may look, but do not disturb."

"Alright." Carmen sat down beside him, looking at Earth.

From up in space, Tierra was simply a sphere of blue, green, and white.

It was beautiful, and Carmen wished people could see Earth from up here more often.

Looking off to her left, Carmen saw a small rock hurtling through space.

"What is that?" she asked.

"The meteor," the man replied. "Well, what it was before, anyway."

Carmen watched as the rock grew larger and larger. It was not aimed for Tierra, but she soon saw why.

The rock hit the moon, which made it correct its course.

Straight towards Earth.