A story a day until there’s a sleigh! This holiday season, I’m sharing a new flash fiction piece inspired by a holiday song every day of December until Christmas. Today’s story is inspired by Purple Snowflakes.
Lyric launched herself down the hill, her skis gliding over the purple snow, the hue closer to lavender than indigo and unlike anything she’d ever seen before.
The end of times was proving to be both unusual and more fun than she’d expected when she’d first heard the news.
There’d been pandemonium when the story broke–heads of state, religious leaders, and scientific experts all appearing on Meta Stream to let the citizens of the universe know their days were numbered. People mainly responded in one of two ways: embracing debauchery and trying to eke out the most of their remaining days or clinging to religion in hopes that their divine being would see them through The Big Bang II: the Bangenning or the End? (Entertainment executives found a way to market everything, even the end of the world.)
Lyric hustled herself out of the city where there was chaos on every corner and headed upstate to the slopes. Skiing had always been her go to when she was stressed about work or relationships. It was her favorite thing to do, and she hoped it would be the last thing she was doing when the time came.
Everyone knew it would be soon but no one knew exactly when.
The universe was starting to give way. The blue sky was falling, and it was mixing with the blood of the damned to form purple precipitation. In warmer climates, there was purple rain–where Lyric was, purple snow.
Lyric sped down the slope faster than she’d ever gone before–blood’s both thicker and slicker than water. She didn’t have much incentive to slow herself down. The end was inevitable and so what if she met it a bit earlier by careening into the trunk of an evergreen tree.
She made it down to the bottom of the run in record time all in one piece. Her breathing was heavy as she took off her goggles. It was starting to snow again–purple snowflakes so pretty you almost forgot they were colored by the blood of the damned.
The remains of the sky shifted toward night. The beleaguered moon rose. The other thing Lyric always loved about coming upstate was being able to see all the stars. She gazed up at them now and watched as one by one they fell from the sky.