Fei Hong stood watching the line where heaven touched earth. The rain had long ago stopped; sparks lit the sky and blood poured, as the glory of paradise descended further behind the seam of the world. She pressed her palm to the cool glass of her small apartment window, her eyes tracing the unfamiliar buildings that pierced high into the heavens. The apartment was silent. Grateful for the small moment of comfortable silence, she let her thoughts wander.

Erisua couldn't have been more different from Earth. With its gargantuan obsidian black towers that loomed further than the eye could see, the pinpricks of lights that had become constant like the stars, and the roads sprawled like a spiderweb below her feet...

At least the people here were happy—there was no doubt about that. Erisua brimmed with life, even at nighttimes. It was such a stark difference from the silent, empty nights on Earth where not a soul stirred. Here, the people's smiles were untouched by the stain of constant worry; children's laughs echoed long into the night, replacing the horrible wails and screams that Fei Hong had grown used to on earth.

Her eyes widened as a gleaming black rail chariot raced past below her, its engines scream sharp and strange in her ears. Large and bulky, yet aerodynamically curved, it seemed like some predatory beast resenting its confinement to the rails. She shivered, her eyes instinctively seeking the sky. Already, the streaks of vibrant oranges and soft pink were fading, seeping away as indigo and black came to take its place.

She stayed by the window, watching until there were no traces of the sun left in the opaque sky. 

And finally, she turned away, her steps light against the wooden floor. Fei Hong was about to turn into her bedroom when the glint of ivory under the moonlight caught her attention.

She paused. There, shrouded in the shadows in the corner of the living room, was an ancient piano. It was hidden away, tucked in the corners of her home for so long that she'd forgotten about it. The owner of the apartment had left it there; it was apparently too much of a nuisance to move. And why move an antique piano when you could download a hologram version?

 Fei Hong eyed the piano, pausing before taking a small step forward.

Oh, how she had loved to play. She'd loved the ivory and ebony keys, the way the music seemed to unravel something deep inside her when her fingers danced over the keys. When she played, the music would fill the room to the brim, until everything around her became a blur of black and white. Right and wrong. Until everything in between-

She exhaled softly, not realizing she'd been holding her breath. After a moment of indecision, Fei Hong finally sat down on the wobbly piano bench, her shoulders bent towards the piano. 

Gingerly, she touched a higher note. It was severely off tune, but the note echoed, frail and soft as its music filled the silent apartment. Her other hand paired it with a lower note-one that echoed with sorrow and longing. The notes hung in the air for a moment, reverberating before it faded away.

The notes burst from her fingertips, overflowing the small dusty room.

The melody she remembered from her childhood was a sad one, slow and quiet but beautiful. Her hands were cold, unfamiliar as she stumbled through the notes. But the tune was still there; she could feel the rich undertones of the song and the--

Her hands suddenly stopped. Her hands hit the piano with an ugly clank.

The notes drifted away, and she lowered her head. Shards of memories drifted to her, and she squeezed her eyes shut, standing abruptly and closing the piano lid. 

But it was too late. A memory, vibrant and crisp, swept her off her feet. 

Closing her eyes, Fei Hong remembered. 

~

Clean boots and a white dress. Dew-covered grass and the smell of woodsmoke hanging in the spring air. Golden hues of sunlight that kissed her skin as she sat underneath the willow tree, his presence comforting beside her. He was writing in that black notepad he always carried around; his mess of curly black hair and bright blue eyes narrowed in concentration. Her, she was trying to capture the sweeping branches of the willow tree and the ethereal feeling that lingered in the air.

"I have to show you something," he said softly, paired with a soft smile, breaking the comfortable silence that had stretched between them.

She smiled. How simple it was to smile back then. And she'd taken his hand, their steps light as he led her to the back of the willow tree. Carved on the white bark, for no one but their eyes to see, she saw a date. "Forever, 2139." And she'd believed in their forever.
~
A day before she left Earth, she'd raced to the same willow tree. Alone, her footsteps sounded sharp, booming across the barren land. The once majestic willow tree with its branches that had cut into the sky was now drooping, its limbs scraping the ground as yellow leaves swirled to kiss the dusty soil.

She closed her eyes for a second, remembering the comm she had received from her grandmother that morning. It came from a planet far away—one that sat on the distant edges of the galaxy. Her heart clenched as she remembered the way her grandmother had looked. Distant. Fragile. Only a shell of her former self. 

The doctors said it was Dementia. But they also said that if Fei Hong hurried, she could still spend a few years with her.

And so she scratched three words onto the tree bark, her hands trembling.

"Nothing lasts forever."