Juniper’s dad has been gone for six years. He left her and her family with nothing. Not a penny was left behind to hold his presence. Some might say it was like he never stepped foot in the house in his whole life, but that wasn’t true. There was one thing left behind, well technically three. Juniper, her older brother Tyler, and a pair of long neon orange socks. Those socks Juniper wore every single day of her life. She washed them every other day and held on to them for dear life. You might think it was a turning point in Juniper’s life when eight years, six months, and seventeen days ago today, Juniper’s father left. It was eight years, three months, and two days ago that Juniper’s world changed. On this day oh- so- long- ago, NASA announced that Uranus was spinning out of orbit and headed towards Earth. They gave us eight years and five months to live. We now only have two months left until our ultimate doom.
Juniper was sixteen and going to die in a couple of months, so she made sure to live her life to the fullest. Laws had changed in the past eight years. Children could start drinking alcohol at younger ages, you didn’t get arrested for going over the speed limit. Life was too short to spend the rest of it in jail. Juniper was to always be the good kid though, it’s a wonder how she ended up with a delinquent. It was this very delinquent that she was on her second date with two months before the end of the world. They had vowed to spend the last day together with both families by their sides.
One night, they were laying down in Juniper’s backyard. They were looking at the sky and seeing their killer closer than ever. Uranus was close. Too close.
“This sucks.” Juniper’s boyfriend, Peter, had said after a long period of silence.
“I know.” Juniper had replied.
“If only Neptune was Uranus, then we would have four more years to live. To not only stay alive but live. But no, our killer is two months away, but hey at least it will look pretty while it kills us.” He said. I laid my head on Juniper’s stomach and raised my eyebrows at him. He didn’t have to be so negative. Juniper scratched my head and I closed my eyes.
“Yeah…” She responded.
“Come here, Olley, come here!” Peter said. I excitedly bolted over to him and curled into a ball on his chest. He was my second favorite person, behind Juniper, no one could compare to her, but he was nice and caring. Except for at the beginning, I didn’t trust him so I would bite and scratch his ankles. He won me over with a huge bag of treats he let me loose on and seeing how happy Juniper was with him. He slowly pet from the top of my forehead to the end of my tail repeatedly. I sighed and fell asleep, I listened to his heartbeat and felt his comfortable touch.
I was startled awake when I felt him running with me. The blaring alarms made me whimper and I buried my head into his chest. He rushed Juniper in and came in with me. I looked up once he closed the door and saw the rest of the family already there. I saw Ty and Mom there and some random guy. He seemed dangerous, seeing Juniper, Ty, Mom, and Peter’s rage, I was right. I jumped out of Peter’s arms and immediately started biting and clawing at his feet. He kicked me away and since I’m a teacup chihuahua, I am light. I flew into the wall and whimpered when I felt a pain in my back and leg. I started to limp over to Juniper before she picked me up and held me to her chest. She glared at the man.
“Never hurt my dog again, Bowen or so help me God-” She started to threaten.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah I get it.” He said with an eye roll. Why was this cockroach even here? I didn’t know. I growled and huffed at him, which he ignored. Peter grabbed me and held me to his chest. I’ve been in this particular room one too many times. This is the safe place from the killer. Uranus had started entering the atmosphere and was breaking apart, sending molten pieces flying all over the place.
“What are you doing here, Bowen?” Mom asked.
“Here to see my family before I die, duh,” Bowen responded. Huh?
“And hopefully get my daughter to start calling me dad again before that happens.” I look at Juniper and tilt my head. She just looked at me and petted me behind my ear. So Dad had returned. Dang, how the turntables. But, we were still mad at him for just showing up. It was silent from then on until the alarms stopped and we left the Safe Place. We went into the house and went to bed. The next morning I woke up in the Safe Room. The door was closed but wasn’t locked, since I could push it open. I looked around and saw the house in ruins. I had run to the house and looked around for Juniper. She was lying under a bunch of wood holding Peter’s hand. Peter’s family was there, too. They were motionless and when I crawled onto my owner’s chest to hear her heartbeat, I heard silence.
Soon after, Olley died of starvation and thirst. He spent the last remaining days curled up next to his owner and was the last living organism on the planet. Now, there are only six planets in the Milky Way and no other sign of life throughout the entire universe.
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