It was four in the morning. Floating above the river was a light mist, but other than that the air was clear. The western sky was a deep blue, gradually lightening towards the east. Cold and distant, Mercury sat above the horizon. A few birds sang in the long grass, flitting about like shadows in the dusty light before dawn. A wispy cloud moved across the silent sky.
On the outskirts of the forest there stood an old cabin, its front door facing the faraway mountains. Through a small garden a gravel path ran up to the door. In the flower bed sat a small black cat, licking her paws. A few feet away there was an old man, bending over an easel. He set his paintbrush down and tilted his head, studying the colors of the picture. Blue sky. Grey Mountains. Slightly purplish clouds. He was painting the sunrise.
The cat mewed softly and jumped up onto the man’s lap. He gently brushed her aside. Leaning forward and selecting a peachy hue, he thinned it down and dabbed it on the paper. Glancing up, he guessed the sun would appear in a few minutes. He checked the yellow paint he had previously mixed. It would be too garish against the pale colors of the sky. He blended a crimson color with it, and then looked back up. The rays of the sun were just beginning to show golden over the central mountain. He smiled and touched the brush to the paper.
There was a blinding flash of light. The man jumped up, spilling his red paint on his sweater. He could see nothing. A few seconds passed while his sight returned. He blinked rapidly. Behind the mountain, where a peaceful sunrise had been moments before, the sky was filled with great streaks of angry flame. The granite mountains gleamed maliciously in the infernal light.
The man stood in awe as the fire spread across the sky. As he watched, he began to feel a faint tremor running through the earth. Alarmed, he grabbed his painting and headed towards the house. His cat stood on the pathway, fur bristling. He tried to pick her up, but she hissed at him and ran into the woods. He started to call out to her, but his voice was drowned by a deep rumble as the hill began to shake and rocks tumbled down the slope. With a last regretful look in the direction she had gone, he stumbled into his house.
He hurried to the side of the room and opened the trapdoor leading down to his cellar. He was taking a flashlight from the closet when the shaking increased and trees began to fall. He flicked the switch on and took a step down the stairs. With a horrific crunching, groaning sound, a great pine crashed onto the house. He was knocked off his feet and thrown down the stairs. As the quaking shook the walls, the strain grew too great for the cabin, and it collapsed, blocking the entrance to the cellar.
The old man groaned and rolled over. His head throbbed and his vision was blurry. Leaning against a wall, he blinked and rubbed his eyes. His hands felt wet and sticky. He looked down to see them covered with red liquid. His shirt and sweater were soaked with it. He recalled vaguely the incident of the spilt paint. Fire and confusion as the sun fell apart. He wondered why there was so much paint on his clothes. He hadn’t prepared much of the red kind, since it took days to find the proper plant pigments to mix for that color. Suddenly afraid, he put his hands to his head and side to discover the gaping wounds there.
Outside, a strong solar wind whipped over the desolate valley. There were no signs of animal life, and fallen wreckage marked the remains of the great oak forest. It took only a few hours for the streams to freeze and the earth to become hard and cold. The distant stars pierced the darkness more sharply than ever before. The sun shone no more, and the land was locked in deathly silence under the shadow of eternal night.
In the cellar beneath the ruins of the old house, the flashlight flickered and slowly went out. The old man sat, holding his painting against his reddened sweater. In the chilling darkness, which was more than an absence of light, his final gaze rested on the image of the last sunrise on Earth.
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