They all sat, counting their hopes and dreams in the bubbling atmosphere. A fresh breeze danced on the backs of their necks as Claira sat up, flinging soft spitting drops from her saturated hair. Her arms outstretched across the tile and Wesley could’ve sworn she flashed the sapphires surrounding her pupils his way. 

            “One day, I’m gonna be in the circus,”

Dustin laughed and brought his arms into the sunlight, steam rose off his muscles.

            “I don’t know why that’s so hard to believe.” Claira shot back at him, “You can’t imagine it?”

            “Only if you’re cracking the whip.” Dustin bit his lip in a laugh.

            Claira rolled her eyes and dipped her legs in and out of the water, slipping them over each other in circular motion. 

            “I’d prefer the tightrope, or diving through rings of fire.”

Wesley sat across from her. He could see her thoughts forming as she spoke them. In the time that he had known Claira, he knew every word that left her mouth was a lie.

She would be the ringleader, with a red lace corset and a sleek black top hat. Her untamed hair would blend in with the lions as she conducted their roars in a somehow perfect harmony. Claira wasn’t a background dancer, she was the lead role. She had been since she entered their group. She was their circulation, the battery to the late night pillow forts and elaborate ghost stories that she knew could get their arms trembling. She told them to wish upon every star that lived in the black abyss of night and to never stop believing that they could be bigger than the universe itself. 

            “What are you gonna do when summer ends, Wesley?” Claira threw the question across the space between them. 

Wesley’s mouth went dry and his formulating thoughts got lost in the steam. Mallory answered for him.

            “He’s gonna tell Drexel to screw off and go live on the lamb somewhere in Colorado,” 

            “What is it with you and Colorado?” Dustin turned to her. 

            “You’re asking because you’ve never been to Colorado, try camping there in the middle of summer. You’ll never see anything more beautiful than that.” 

            “I’m not going to Colorado.” Wesley finally spoke. 

            “Your loss,” Mallory shrugged. “I personally would’ve liked it if we spent our last few weeks of summer there than at this fancy ass resort.”

            “Oh come on Mal,” Claira tilted her head with the familiar tone of adventure in her voice.           

            “You never give yourself time to relax, I thought this would be good for us.” She paused to take in all their expressions and ignored Mallory’s minor annoyance. 

            “And I think it’s safe to say that this was a good choice.”

They arrived back at the hotel room once their skin started pruning. Mallory kicked off her sandals as soon as the door opened, exposing their skin to the air conditioned room. Dustin flopped on his bed and laid his arms out like a sleeping angel. 

            “Don’t get too comfy,” Claira told them. “Remember we have dinner reservations in an hour.”

            “The real question is, are you getting us into a bar?” Dustin sat up to announce his pressing question. 

Claira just laughed and fidgeted with her hair in the mirror. They all changed in the chilled air and listened to the wind pick up outside. The palm trees swayed through the windows and a ray of sunlight peeked through a curtain to reflect the sapphire shine off of Claira’s ring. And that’s when the sun became the only drop of light left on earth. Dustin’s phone blipped off as fast as Wesley’s laptop, as fast as Claira’s hair dryer and slowly every lamp in the strip of resort rooms went dark without so much as a flicker. Their faces darkened in the shadowed room. A pulse began under their feet and blue flashes rang out in the windows, followed by a mechanical shriek that stung all their ears. 

            “What the hell is that?” Dustin’s voice tried to counter the iridescent sound. 

Wesley ran for the door and the sky held not soft cumulonimbus, but a circular disk with blue lights lining the perimeter. Claira gripped his shoulders and peered out behind him, soon everyone else followed. Their heartbeats quickened simultaneously, in time with the tremours that deafened their bodies. 

            “Look!” Mallory shouted. Down in the oasis, covered with palm trees and pools, people slowly were corrupted by anti gravity. A small toddler dug his nails into his father’s arms. An elderly woman lost her walker and floated above the crystal waters. The trees groaned in the wind, but never left their soil and their leaves were soon home to humans, clutching any last connection to the ground before the sky held them captive forever. Mallory launched a scream as her feet slipped off the ground. Wesley grabbed her without his eyes leaving the disk that engulfed the sky. 

            “We have to get out of here.” Claira lept over the railing and held her body upright on the poles.

            “Are you insane?!” Dustin’s voice jumped out of his chest  “We need to get away from THAT thing not go towards it!”

            “Look at the anti-gravity!” Wesley pointed. “Some people are swimming through it.”

Pedestrians that were stolen from the streets, swam against the convulsing air. A woman gripped her wife’s hand and split the space between her hands. Another group of teenagers joined hands in a chain led by the muscular friend that penetrated the lift beneath them and found a loose bush branch to grip onto. 

            “We should try to get on the roof and push through it. The farther away the better.” Wesley’s thoughts ruminated as he spoke. 

            “That thing is huge! Running is impossible.”

Wesley ignored him and joined Claira on the rail. With a deep breath, he threw his body behind him, indulging in the extraterrestrial force that allowed him to spin in a backwards circle and land on the roof.  

            “You have to jump!” He called to the rest of his friends. His shirt beat against his chest in the whirlwind of pressure trying to devour him. Claira followed by pounding her feet into the rail. She joined Wesley on the roof and waited for Dustin and Mallory to follow. Forearms in hand, the two swallowed their nerves and leapt off the rail. Their landing should’ve stuck. Their timing should have been perfect. But Mallory lost her grip and felt her body being lost in the air. 

            “Mal!” Dustin immediately threw himself after her, insisting that his rage could battle the loss of gravity. Claira pulled Wesley towards her and gracefully glided in the low levels of the sky. She looked up at the disk gaining on them, a slowly moving saw slicing through the clouds. She linked arms with the others and motioned her footsteps in all the right places. The blue flashes echoed in her hair, her eyes, her sapphire ring glowed like a thousand oceans. By the time she’d brought them to safety, the disk covered the roof in shadows. Mallory, Dustin, and Wesley all fell to the ground but Claira stood. The eye of the storm let her hands fall at her sides and craned her neck upward when a blue beam shone down. 

            “Claira…” Wesley called but his voice choked in the wind. 

A species exited the beam led by a commander in a plasma suit. His turquoise eyes were placed on Claira.

            “Cadet Clairadessen, have these life forms been prepared for boarding?”

Claira clenched every muscle she compelled. She would not let any tears leave her sockets. 

            “No.” her voice pounded in her throat.

The commander leaned closer to her and bulged his demonous eyes. He scanned her body one more time before he lifted his blaster from his belt and grazed her hip with a bullet. 

Wesley screamed for her as blue particles trickled down her leg. She landed on the scaffolding limply, her face turned towards the life she did not want to leave. A holographic forcefield shot up between the two species before Wesley could reach for her. His fingers pressed on the wall that divided them, and he watched Claira be lifted by the arms of the commander. He screamed and pounded but all that was heard was empty space. Claira’s eyes flickered in the midst of chaos, the screams that echoed off a collapsing earth. Her head hung down past the commanders broad shoulders as they made their way up the ship’s shaft. In between blinks, fading in and out what was left of consciousness, she pictured Wesley screaming her name. She knew he would be until the universe crumpled in on itself. Until every last star devastated the sky. Until no breaths were ever taken. The screams would repeat. On and on.