The last day...

I woke before dawn this morning. I don't usually do that, because I am emphatically not a morning person- I like to work in the dark, where no one can see me or bother me. But I didn't want to miss the last sunrise of my life. So I grabbed the keys from off the table and sneaked up to the roof to watch the sun come up. Pollution has made breathing a hazardous activity and inhalers de rigeur, but it also adds interesting colors to the sky, unnatural shades of pink and orange. The view over Central Park is really, truly beautiful, especially in the spring- it lets you believe you're not in the heart of the city. I'm a New Yorker to my bones, and I feel comfortable around the skyscrapers, but I grew up where the only building taller than six stories was considered an eyesore. I *like* sky, especially dawn and dusk skies, and I wouldn't have missed that one for the world.

The last day...

Amy Lee's voice has been ringing in my head all day, ever since I changed the one on the toteboard to a zero before I went to bed last night. But even before today, that song was on my mind whenever I looked at the board and saw the days counting down. The board was a running joke with the other Amazons- they'd have a contest to see who could come up with the best reason for that day's number. None of them ever came close to the truth, that I was counting down the days left to me- and to Christián.

The last day...

For almost fifteen years, I've known that I was going to die today. I've known that when Liam kissed me goodbye, it would be forever. I tried several times to change the future with the knowledge I had, but it never worked. Liam still set the mall aflame, Emily was still foolish enough to trust a Southern man's sense of honor, my parents still believed everything they heard on TV, and Michelle still made us trust her. I *knew* she would betray us, and I tried to keep her away, but Alaine and Christián overruled me. As closely as I watched her, I thought I'd made sure that she couldn't turn us in, but she was sneakier. We were doomed.

The last day...

This little note is going in my locked folder, the one with all the letters I wrote to Liam and other such personal things. No one will ever guess the password, except maybe Liam, so my secrets are safe. No one would ever believe it anyway. Nothing is ever that simple, right? Of course not. Just as no one would ever believe that someone reached out of my mirror and handed me a floppy disk with fifteen years of future history on it, no one would think that my password would come from something other than basketball or my childhood obsessions. I can say things here that I'd never say anywhere else, and certainly wouldn't say in public. They'd get twisted all the wrong way.

The last day...

Like this: I love you, Alaine. Goddess willing, you'll never see this, but I love you. Not in a physical way like I need to touch you to make me whole, but you mean more to me than anyone *but* Liam. You're the best friend I've ever had, bar none. There's almost nothing in this world that makes me happier than seeing you light up with joy, because after everything you've been through in your life, you more than deserve all the good things that the universe sees fit to give you. I don't know what will happen after today, but I hope, and for the first time I pray, that you and your Cree will make it through safe and sane- along with everyone else, of course, but especially you two.

The last day...

I hear footsteps pounding quickly against the floor upstairs. Who's standing sentry this week? Right, Alaine. That must mean that my time has come. Whether it's New York's crazies, the government's crazies, Switch-Hitter, or some truly random event that I can't even hope to guess right, my killers are here. It's time to save, time to shut down for good- and time to kick some ass.

Chris, I'm sorry. Lainey, don't cry. Liam, I love you, always and forever.

And the song in her mind rose to a crescendo as she calmly turned to face the Wraith.

"The last day..."