The last spark.

1

Everyone was standing outside.2

Families watched the sunset with wide wet eyes as they held each other close, and thirteen year old Jenny Burns watched them instead.3

She had no family left. No one to hold her hand.4

Televisions were turned up in everyone's houses, reporters confirming the meteor a hundred times. The meteor that would be their deaths. 5

Just like they had said, on December 12th, 2012, their world was going to end. 6

They tried to change the Meteor's course but it only made it worse. They hit the wrong side, ruining all our options. The only thing left to do was to hold each other tightly, to kiss your family on the head, and pray.7

But Jenny had no family, no heads to kiss, and no religion. Her guardians overdosed on pain pills when they heard the news, and Jenny was left to find her foster parents in their bed, their lips touching. Tears streamed down her face as she thought of her two day dead guardians (there was no use calling the cops. It was happening everywhere.) and she fell to her knees in her unmanicured lawn.8

No one realized the lonely girl. No one would care, because their world was ending, too, and that definitely meant more.9

But there was one. 10

fifteen year old Aden Peck tried to slip away from his fathers tight hold, but was pulled back immediately. "What are you doing?" his father asked when he struggled. "I need to get something from inside. It will only take a moment." he promised, eying his front door desperately. It took a moment, and hard concentration, but his father let him go. "Ten seconds." he said, looking at the sky again. His hands felt substantially more useless when his son ran inside. Aden ran straight to his father's dresser, yanking out the top drawer with too much force. Under the socks and underwear was the picture of his mother, framed in a golden square with her name etched on it. "In loving memory of Elsie Peck." He ran back outside, tears running down his cheek, but something caught his eye. 11

Something dark was huddled up in a small overgrown lawn, sobbing and rocking back and forth. He looked around, but saw no family that the girl seemed to belong to, so he approached her sadly, the only emotion anyone could hold at this moment, and asked one question. "Are you alone?" he asked, touching her back.12

Jenny wished she could answer. She thought of saying "Horribly so" 13

or "I am now" but she couldn't say a word. Instead, a sob broke out and a shiver convulsed her spine. The hot air was making her sweat, but she shivered regardless. She looked up and saw the brown haired, green eyed boy, and tears fell stronger. She recognized him as her neighbor, but she had never talked to him, even though she wanted too, she was too shy. He remembered this girl, and reached out for her hand. "You're Jenny Burns, aren't you?" he asked, pulling her to her feet. She nearly fell back down, her knees weak, but he caught her. Since he had pulled her all the way up to her feet, the least he could do was let her cry into his chest. Which he did.14

He took her back to his dad after she uttered one word. 15

"Alone." she cried into his chest. 16

His father didn't bother to ask who the girl was under his son's arm, he just took him back under his arm, holding the picture of his wife tightly. 17

Everyone cried harder when the news cut off. "Goodbye, everyone." the reporter said, trying not to cry. "All broadcast are going off now. We're going to our families. Good luck." letting out her first sob of the broadcast, the news cut off in every house, white noise filling the air. Jenny looked up at Aden and his father with horrified brown eyes when the news was over. Aden looked down at her, his eyes filled with tears too, and suddenly kissed her on the forehead. "We're not alone." he whispered on her forehead, gripping his mother's picture. Jenny wrapped her arms around his waist and held him tighter, Aden returned the favor, gently putting his hand on the back of her head. 18

Jenny finally had someone to hold, and Aden finally had someone other than his father. She touched her lips to his collar bone and felt her tears fall for different reasons now. "Thank you, Aden." she whispered. "Good bye."19

And then it happened. 20

So fast, no one felt anything, no one saw anything, and no one knew it.21

The meteor hit, incinerating everything in a millisecond. The only thing Aden Peck and Jenny Burns had time to feel was the feeling of love.22

And if they had more time in the world together, that feeling would have lasted. But they were happy for at least two seconds. Even when the world was ending, even when they had both lost things, they gained each other for at least a moment. And they died together, their lips touching for the first and last time.