Earth Dies

Alice blinked her eyes open, staring at a dimly-lit white ceiling. It looked familiar, but it took a few seconds for her to recognize it as her bedroom ceiling. Her head was pounding. Why did she feel like shit?

Slowly, memories started to trickle back in. Alice remembered picking up Bridgette from her house, driving to the party, dancing, and ... oh god. What had she done? Alice refused to even put it in words, but she had ... made a huge mistake. And then she got drunk and threw up all over the place. How did she even get home? She glanced around, seeing a bucket in the bed next to her and a cup of water on her bedside table along with some aspirin.

"Hey you, you're finally awake." Alice looked over to see her mom sitting on the other side of the bed. "You gave us quite a scare last night when you came in."

"Mom? How did I get home? What happened?"

Alice's mom looked over at her and sighed unhappily. "Honey, how much of last night do you remember? Bridgette and Colin carried you in around two o'clock in the morning, passed out and covered in your own vomit. Then, Bridgette and I cleaned you up and put you in bed, at which point your father and I had a long talk with the two of them. Your dad drove Colin home, but Bridgette fell asleep in the guest room after I called her parents to tell them she was safe. I know what they had to say, but I want to know your side."

Alice looked down and sighed. "I fucked up, mom. I said something stupid, then I got drunk out of shame because I wasn't thinking. That's it. It won't ever happen again."

"The self-deception runs strong in this one." Alice's father quipped from the doorway. "You know we love you for who you are, no matter what, right? If you can't be honest with yourself, you're going to have a really hard time with your life."

"I don't know what you mean. And I don't feel well right now."

"Okay, no worries kiddo. Just... think about it, okay? Try to be honest with yourself. Feel better. Love you." and he walked back out, leaving Alice alone with her mom again.

Alice's mom turned back to her. "He's blunter than I was going to be, and it's rare for him to encourage having feelings, but he's right. You need to be honest with yourself about what you said and why you felt so bad afterward. I don't think you're allowing yourself to see the whole picture, and you're hurting yourself and the people you care about in the process."

"It doesn't matter anyway, mom. She's leaving for the Air Force in a week, and I'll never see her again. She'll get over it. Not that there's anything to get over, anyway." Alice took her feelings and shoved them back down into her stomach, along with everything else, and tried to pick her chin up and look at her mom, pretending like nothing was the matter.

"Alice..." her mom began.

Suddenly, Alice felt a thrumming sound - deep in her bones - as everything seemed to freeze. The sound intensified, doubling in volume and rattling her teeth. Her vision faded to white, then violently shifted through a range of colors Alice couldn't even describe, ending at a plaid-patterned purple that seemed to vibrate in time with the thrumming sound, before finally there was a loud pop that knocked Alice unconscious and everything went black.