6 hours until the end.

6 hours until everyone you know and love disappears. Gone. Forever.

6 hours until the entire world obliterates.

6 hours until it’s too late to stop it.

“Please come with me.” They begged. “I need your help.”

When she answered the door after hearing several urgent knocks, she was surprised to see them in front of her. It was a classmate of her’s. No one really understood them. Part of the reason was because they were genderfluid. She didn’t really understand what that meant but she knew that this particular classmate didn’t really like her, so she was surprised they even knew where she lived. What was weirder was that they were asking for her help.

“Why my help?” She implored. “You hate me.”

“Oh, come on.” They sighed. “I don’t hate you that much.”

“This morning you called me a huge piece of shit.”

“Okay. True. But I call everyone a piece of shit.”

“And you expect me to come with you because of that?” She commented, looking angrily to the ground. “Plus that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt any less.” she mumbled under her breath. But they heard it.

“Oh for fuck sake.” They groaned, pinching the bridge of their nose. “Your the chosen one aren’t you? The world will end if you don’t go out and do what you were prophesied to do.” They lectured, even though they knew that was not what she was prophesied to do. They knew this better than anyone.

“I wasn’t prophesied to stop the apocalypse!” She protested. “I was prophesied to bring peace and love to the people of earth.”

“You can’t do that if earth is dead. You can bring peace now.”

“I don’t think I physically can!” She urged. “Go find Amy! She’s the ‘end-of-the-world-stopper’ you are looking for.”

“You think I didn’t try that already.” They leaned their lanky body in her doorway, foot propping the door open, preventing her from closing it. Their bare dark skinned arms crossed in front of their chest. The wind started picking up, pushing their black haired bangs into the air, along with the ends of their short sleeved flannel shirt. The Big Hero 6 t-shirt they were wearing was also getting ruffled in the wind.

“Amy is in denial. She can’t believe this is happening. Besides, she isn’t ready to stop an apocalypse yet.”

“What makes you think I’m ready?!” She demanded. “Besides the prophecy-”

“Is wrong. It may have been written by mages, but they are still human enough to make mistakes.” The wind blew through her long wavy blonde hair, almost pulling out the flower barrettes clipped in it, pulling it in front of her so she could see the purple tips. The bully mage in front of her looked up to the sky, their brown eyes narrowing.

“This wind will only get worst. And look,” They lifted a finger up pointing it to the sky. It was cloudy, she didn’t know what she should be seeing. Maybe if she stood on her tiptoes, so she could at least meet their shoulders, maybe then she could see where they were pointing. No, never mind, they could see it now. In breaks in the clouds you could see the sky, no that you would know it was the sky. Instead of the wonder blue you humans have grown to love, it was replaced with a swampy green hue. She gasped, her bright purple eyes widened. The classmate in front of her lowered their hand.

“None of this is going to get better on it’s own. And you know that.” They confided. “We have 6 hours- wait.” They looked to the watch on their left wrist. “Make that 5 and a half hours. So Princess,”

“Periwinkle.”

“What?” They asked. She rolled her eyes.

“Come on Carter, you know my name. It’s Periwinkle.”

“Right.” They continued. “So, Princess Periwinkle, want to help me save the world?” Carter looked at her and she looked down to her hands, which held each other in fear. Carter could sense something was wrong with her. Something more than just the world ending. They could feel it because what Periwinkle was feeling  was such a familiar feeling to Carter. Heaven’s knows I haven’t the faintest idea what the two were feeling.

But what I do know is that in 5 hours and 30 minutes, the world was going to end. Periwinkle looked behind her and peered in her house. Her parents were not home yet and they trusted a 17 year old could stay home by herself until they got home from work. She sighed. There were so many things she wanted to do in this world. Master her magic, fulfill her prophecy of bring peace to the humans. But it looked like that wasn’t going to happen.

Unless she helped. But she already knew that wasn’t an option. There was no way she could help. A worthless girl like her who didn’t have any special talents? Whenever she went to lessons to become a better mage students would wish her “good luck” not knowing how much she needed it.

“Tick tock princess.”

“I-I..” She started stuttering. Images of failure flashed in her mind and her nerves spiked.

“I-I c-can’t help.” She confessed. She wrung the bottom of her navy blue sweatshirt as tears came to her bright purple eyes. “Th-this is all too much. And I can’t help. I’m nothing like a hero. Go find Amy again and pressure her! This is her destiny.” Carter’s eyes were full of sorrow, for once instead of annoyance, at least when looking at her. Periwinkle was lacking self confidence, now of all times. The time when they really needed her. The time when the world needed her. She just stood there, purple eyes casted to the ground, pale hands wringing the hem of her sweat shirt, breathing in and out. She was having a panic attack. Carter could almost see the magic leave her veins. This wasn’t good. This is because magic depended on confidence. Carter knew this better than anyone. They needed to get Periwinkle’s magic back and fast. Or else this world was as good as gone. Although Carter momentarily forgot they would get another chance to save this world. So, what did they do? They crouched down to her level and opened their dark skinned arms.

“Would you like a hug?” They asked. Although they knew Peri enough to know she likes hugs. Periwinkle, on the other hand, looked shocked, even flinched a little. Carter had never been this nice to anyone before. She looked reluctant, but realizing how much she needed one, she accepted the genderfluid student’s hug. She buried her head in the crook of their neck and cried.

“There’s this pressure that I need to be the best because I’m prophesied.”

“I know.”

“And I suck at magic. How can I be a prophecy?”

“You don’t suck.”

“Yes I do!”

“No.” They held her closer. “You don’t.”

“Why do you even care?” She asked.

“It’s… Complicated.”

“You hate me.”

“No, I really don’t.”

“Then why?”

“Why have I been such an ass?” They asked. They could feel her nodding her head, hair tickling their neck. “Simple. I am an ass. You seemed like you wanted friends but I don’t want to make friends.”

“You should have said so.”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

Peri was the one who ended the hug, she looked better, Carter could see a faint lavender light shine through her skin. They smiled. It was her magic, it was back.

“That’s good.” They thought. “I need her to be confident. She’s the chosen one. Not me, her.”

“Well, if your not ready to save the world..” “Guess I’ll again next time. Better prepare myself for the end.” They thought.

“Wait..Is that offer still up?” She asked meekily. Carter smiled and looked to their left wrist.

In 5 hours and 20 minutes, the world was going to end.

“Yep. It is.” They stood back up, towering over her. “Ready?” She nodded.

“Let’s just hope I don’t fuck up.”

“You won’t.” They assured. Carter knew that this time, they wouldn’t loose. The both of them were not going to loose this time. All the other times they had lost, but this was not going to be one of them. Carter could feel a mix of emotions rushing through them, relief and stress.

“There’s no guarantee that we will win.” They repeated to themself, though that didn’t stop them from being excited. This time lock might actually end! Though they tried not to let Peri see the relief. She can’t know. She can’t know the hell they have been through. How they repeated these months, looking for the right thing to do. Looking for a way in which this would work out. In which the world didn’t end. They came to one conclusion.

They couldn’t be the one prophesied.

It had to be Periwinkle.

Mages don’t make mistakes very often, but when they do it costs the world. Example of this being: Carter.

Carter was suppose to bring peace to everyone.

Carter was the one everyone was suppose to pressure to be one of the bests.

Carter’s name was suppose to show up on the scrolls.

But this time, it didn’t. This time, Carter’s name didn’t show up on the scrolls. For a reason.

Nobody believed in Carter. Nobody believed Carter could do all that was prophesied by the scrolls. Carter? That screw up kid who couldn’t even decide what gender they were? How were they suppose to bring peace to the humans. Not to mention that even in the mage’s world, islamophobia was present and worked against Carter. This skepticism made Carter not believe in themself. They fell into a depression, wishing they weren’t the chosen one. But part of the prophecy was true, the part that said Carter was powerful. They were very powerful! So much so that power like their’s, and a wish like that, Carter single handedly threw the world into a sort of time lock. Amazing right? But how would you feel if you had to relive the months till the end of the world? At first Carter didn’t care. Why should they? They didn’t try to fix their mistake. But there are so many times you can die before you get sick of it. The screams of panic, the crying in fear. Not to mention the experience of feeling the ground beneath you explode and the pain of the pavement slamming into you.

The end hurt.

But, in a sense, Carter still didn’t care. They didn’t care if they were the one to save the world. So they changed the prophecy.

The chosen one was now the person they disliked the most:

Periwinkle Winters.

But that didn’t stop the cycles of pain and ends.

Because Peri didn’t know what she was suppose to do.

That is where Carter came into the picture. They were suppose to show what to do. They knew what to do. Just lacked the motivation or skill to do it. But Periwinkle…

“Let’s do this.” Looking at her now Carter could see her magic more clearly, pulsing through veins. They had to take a step away from her. And another step. Allow me to explain why this is, you see when one performs magic, it is possibly that it’s too much for one person, so their magic could, for lack of a better word, spill out of their body and contaminate other beings. It is preferable that one learns how to contain their magic before performing magic in front of actually living beings. Carter had a feeling they were going have to be quite a way away from her when she performs her spell.

“Ready?” She asked, turning to them. Seeing them so far away she frown and scrunched her eyebrows. “Hey, you okay? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing Princess.” They gave a lopsided grin. “You concerned for my feelings now? My my Princess, if I didn’t know any better I’d think your falling for me.” Perfect. Just the right amount of attitude and playfulness that Periwinkle wouldn’t be affected by their behavior.

“Don’t flatter yourself, I like girls.” she said. Than almost immediately regretted it. “Not that I’m not saying you are a girl! I know you are sometimes!” She immediately started bowing. “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to offend you.”

“Your fine Princess, you didn’t offend me.” They grinned. She snapped back up.

“And stop calling me that.”

“Calling you what?”

“Princess.”

“Oh, my apologizes Queen.” They did a regal bow, right hand up in the air and left hand curved around their stomach. They took a peek at the time. 4 hours and 53 minutes until doomsday. When Carter stood straight back up they saw Periwinkle grin.

“Thats better.” She started conjuring her magic again and turned to face away from CArter.

“Ready? You know what to do?” They asked. Looking at Periwinkle, they came to a realization. She was no longer the most disliked person on their list. She was actually pretty cool.

“Ready.” She confirmed.

“You have a little less than 4 hours.” They confirmed. Than giving a thumbs up they said two words, words that in past time lines Peri has said to them, despite not being their friend. She was just like that.

“Good luck.” They said.