also titled Y2K
A lone figure sat. A silhouette against the shadows of the rising moon. Remembering again. Sara could often be found there, cross-legged on the hillside. Although there were not many left to search for her, in this the loneliness of the new millennium.
Those damned tablets hadn't helped any. Hadn't saved any of the millions of lives that perished in the hauntingly still dawn of 2000. She refused to take them now. Sara found no pleasure in living. She remembered that night. And she found herself returning to the memories often. The 31st of December. The night she'd left her lovers side only hours before the countdown, on one of her meaningless searches for happiness... One of her manic highs. That night, she remembered Adam begging her to stay, and then knowing he couldn't stop her - begging her to drive safe and call him. She remembered that. The last time she'd heard his voice - the last time, for she'd never hear it again.
Sara breathed in deeply, letting the ever-darkening sadness embrace her. A solitary tear left a silver trail down her cheek. The last sounds of day faded around her as a nearby cricket chirped a welcome to the night. The nights were gradually getting cooler, and Sara shivered at the chill in the air. She'd have to get used to the weather in the mountains. There was no other place left, nowhere else to go.
The moon was full tonight. And the beauty of it shining upon the vast body of water before her, stunned Sara. A month ago, that massive lake was a valley. A valley thriving with people. Now nothing thrived there except wriggler’s and small fish. The water was too murky, not pure enough for anything else to survive. And below those murky depths Adam would lie, bones covered in silt, for an eternity. Forever and always, as he used to say. That was how long his love for her would last. Yet funnily enough, she didn’t feel it now.
Had an eternity passed already? Time passes in strange ways when your emotions and thoughts are too much for your body to hold. Moments can be fleeting, or eternal. Problem is, you never know which beforehand.
Something had called Sara away from harm. Away from the Y2K bug - More like flood. The mountains had beckoned her that New Years Eve. She'd driven away from Adam’s embrace, and into their midst. She could still feel his body pressed against hers. His breath against her lips. His lips against hers. Only he had the power to make her feel alive. And he’d taken her beyond her zombie-like state many a time. These were the fond memories, that now caused her to cry at times, and triggered emotional blackouts at others.
Crazy? So many people used to think so. And she’d taken their tablets, falling out of control time and again. Was that the nature of a free spirit?.. Because Adam had thought of her as such. You’re beyond human Sara. You’re spirit… The freest of spirits. I won’t let them lock you away. I won’t let them take that away from you.
A frantic ringing had woken Sara close to 1am that night. The night the world ended, in every sense we knew it existed. She’d been sprawled out in the back of her silver jeep - god knows were… Somewhere along the mountain road. It was such an effort to keep her eyes open. Her dreams were filled with the deafening roar of water.
She never answered the phone. But Adam's last thought had been of her. Caller ID reminded her of that. It was too unbearable for her to push from mind. But then again, she almost enjoyed the pain it caused now. Memories haunted her shattered soul. She would never lay them to rest. Just as she would never lie in the safe cocoon of Adams arms again. And she won’t forgive herself for that. But she’ll never forget the days she spent with him... Lying in the sun, just beyond the shadows of depression.